English guitarist Eric Clapton performing on stage at The Prince’s Trust all-star Rock Gala at Wembley Arena, London, 5th June 1987. (Photo by Michael Putland/Getty Images)

It was 36 years ago tonight (June 5th, 1987) that George Harrison and Ringo Starr joined forces at London’s famed Wembley Arena for a three-song set to close out the Prince’s Trust Gala charity concert. The previous year, on June 20th, 1986 — also backed by Eric Clapton, Phil Collins, Level 42‘s bassist Mark King, Elton John, and others — Paul McCartney was the surprise guest playing his own three-song set. The next year, Harrison, who was prepping his fall ’87 comeback album Cloud Nine with ELO‘s Jeff Lynne, who also performed, had been out of the public eye for several years, having not released a new album since 1982’s chart failure Gone Troppo. Apart from filming a Carl Perkins TV special in 1985 and sitting in at gigs by Bob Dylan, Taj Mahal, and Deep Purple, Harrison was better known to some as being the movie producer of Madonna and Sean Penn‘s then-recent Shanghai Surprise box office dud.

The event, which played nearly identical set over June 5th and 6th, 1987, was filmed for later broadcast on HBO, with the clips of the semi-Beatles reunion — “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” “Here Comes The Sun,” and “With A Little Help From My Friends” — being featured in heavy rotation on both MTV and VH1.

Filed under: Elton John, Eric Clapton, the-beatles