Those Were the Days - the Beatles Apple Organization
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Stefan Granados  An unofficial history of the Beatles' Apple Organization 1967-2001
This is the first complete telling of the Apple story, culled from exclusive interviews with the recording artists, staff and business associates who helped make Apple a fascinating chapter in the history of both the Beatles and pop music in general. Today, the Apple office is remembered as a place where almost anyone could come in off the street and meet one of the Beatles, get funding for an outlandish art project, or just drop in to the Apple Press Office for a drink and a quick smoke. For less well-intentioned visitors, Apple was where one could go to pinch and electric typewriter, a box of LPs, or quite literally the lead off the roof of the Apple building at 3 Saville Row. But Apple was also the company that the Beatles used to discover and develop many deserving artists, including such stars as Mary Hopkin, James Taylor, Bad Finger, Hot Chocolate, Billy Preston and Mercury-award winning classical composer, John Tavener. Even a teenage Richard Branson figures in the Apple story.. Those Were The Days: An Unofficial History Of The Beatles Apple Organization 1967-2001 details the colourful history of Apple, from its inception to its current incarnation as the sole protector of the Beatles legacy. Stefan Granados has diligently been researching this project now for several years and the book also contains many very rare previously unseen photographs. |
An unofficial history of the Beatles' Aapple organization
1967-2001
1967 - The Nems years
Life in post-war England was relatively simple back in
1962. For aspiring professional entertainers like The Beatles - a four-man rock
and roll band from Liverpool - a career in music promised little more than weekly
engagements at local dances and youth clubs, and if they were lucky, perhaps
a chance to cut a record that might get one or two spins on Radio Luxembourg
or the BBC. Of course, fate held something quite different in store for The Beatles.
Six months after their debut single Love Me Do became a minor hit, The Beatles
sparked off a tidal wave of fan hysteria the intensity of which had never before
been seen in popular music. During the halcyon days of 1963 and 1964, Beatlemania
swept unchecked across the world. Show business, popular music and the world
itself were changed forever.
Guiding The Beatles throughout the turbulent Beatlemania era
was their manager, Brian Epstein. From 1962 to 1967, The Beatles were managed
exclusively by Epstein and his artist management firm, Nems Ltd - an organization
that Epstein himself had set up shortly after meeting The Beatles in 1962. Coming
from an affluent Liverpool family, the mild-mannered Epstein was quite unlike
the typical "pop" managers of the era. Prior to becoming the group's
manager, Epstein's music industry experience had been limited to running the
record department of his parents' Liverpool department store. But given that
he was one of the few people in Liverpool to have actually conducted business
with the London-based record companies, Epstein's decision to venture into artist
management was not as far-fetched as it might have seemed at the outset. The
Beatles were certainly impressed with Epstein's modest music industry connections
and with his genuine enthusiasm for the band, so they signed a five-year management
contract with him in January 1962. From that point onwards, all of the money
generated by The Beatles was funnelled directly through Nems. In exchange, the
four Beatles were each given a salary and had their living expenses paid by the
company.
Initially, Epstein's management duties focused on securing a
record contract for the group, polishing their professional presentation and
overseeing the group's live bookings. But once the full force of Beatlemania
took hold in 1963, The Beatles became increasingly reliant on Epstein and Nems
to take care of almost every aspect of their personal and professional lives.
Receiving a 25% share of The Beatles' gross income, Epstein was
certainly very well compensated for his efforts. But Epstein served the band
with a remarkable sense of care and devotion and it was obvious that he regarded
The Beatles as much more than just a once-in-a-lifetime business opportunity.
In the early days of Beatlemania, Epstein's name was synonymous with The Beatles.
Due in large part to the remarkable success of the group, Epstein was able to
build Nems into a high-powered management company that would become the dominant
force behind the Liverpool music scene.
Having seen what Epstein had done for The Beatles, almost all
of the performers in Liverpool rushed to align themselves with Nems. From 1963
onwards, Nems Enterprises managed the careers of artists such as Cilla Black,
Gerry and The Pacemakers, The Fourmost and Billy J. Kramer, as well as several
lesser-known Liverpool groups.
Under Epstein's skilful direction, Nems developed a diverse and
initially highly successful client roster, but it was clear to all of the other
Nems artists that The Beatles were Epstein's one true passion. Whether charged
with finding a house for one of The Beatles, negotiating television appearances
or quietly settling such personal matters as threatened paternity suits, Epstein
handled his duties in an efficient, dignified manner and all four Beatles considered
him to be not only a manager, but a friend. When it came to The Beatles, no matter
was too trivial to be given Epstein's full attention.
In retrospect, Epstein's only real professional shortcoming was
his marked lack of business acumen. Still, while much of The Beatles' success
can, and should, be attributed to their immense talent, it was Epstein's music
industry contacts and his careful handling of the group's image and presentation
that transformed The Beatles from a rough, leather-clad rock and roll band from "up
North" into a polished, international show business phenomenon.
Today, Epstein's significant contributions to launching The Beatles'
career are often overshadowed by the embarrassingly poor business deals that
he negotiated on behalf of the group. The original recording agreement Epstein
signed with EMI in 1962 was a one-year contract that gave EMI the option of extending
The Beatles' contract for three successive years. In return, the band would get
one penny of recording royalties for each single sold and precious little more
for each album sold in the UK. For any Beatles recordings licensed to record
companies outside of the UK, the group would receive only half of the UK royalty
rate. Epstein would somewhat rectify matters when it was time to renegotiate
The Beatles' EMI contract in January 1967. In exchange for re-signing to EMI
until 1976, The Beatles would receive 10% of the wholesale price of a British
album and 17.5% of the wholesale price of each album sold in America.
In Epstein's defence, the deals he negotiated for the group were
fairly common by music industry standards in 1962. He would fare far worse with
the non-music deals that he set up for the group. Epstein's most celebrated fiasco
was the 10% royalty rate he negotiated for the American rights to manufacture
and sell such seemingly trivial Beatles merchandise as wigs, shampoo, trading
cards and the countless other items that flooded into American discount stores
during 1964 and 1965. When Epstein entered into these deals in 1964, the 30 year-old
ex-furniture and record salesman from Liverpool was no match for the quick-talking
New York City businessmen who appeared to be offering him thousands of dollars
in exchange for the simple use of The Beatles' name on what he perceived to be
insignificant teen-oriented products. Due to the limited scope of his business
experience, Epstein practically gave away the rights to The Beatles' American
merchandising - a move that would ultimately cost The Beatles millions of dollars
of revenue.
To be fair to Epstein, few music industry professionals at that
time - let alone a music industry novice like Epstein - ever imagined just how
much money music merchandising could generate. To Epstein, any revenue from the
sale of such ancillary "Beatles products" was just "found money" to
supplement The Beatles' live and recording income.
Never considered to be a great negotiator, Epstein's true strengths
were his well-developed organizational abilities, his unflinching honesty and
his conservative, reliable stewardship of The Beatles' finances. With Epstein
overseeing the group's affairs, the four Beatles enjoyed a relatively carefree
existence when it came to financial matters. If they wanted any item - be it
a car, a house, or new clothes - they simply charged it to Nems and the bill
would be paid with no questions asked. With Nems so thoroughly involved with
managing their finances, the four Beatles made very few personal investments
during the peak years of Beatlemania. The investment activities of the individual
Beatles were limited to Ringo Starr's interest in a high-end construction company
and Paul McCartney's decision (unbeknownst to the other three Beatles) to buy
additional shares in Northern Songs, the music publishing company that held the
rights to The Beatles' songs. In general, The Beatles seemed content to simply
let Nems take care of business.
In addition to the money earned from live performances and record
and music publishing royalties, The Beatles had several other sources of revenue
prior to 1967. Their most significant collective investment was Subafilms, the
Nems-run film company that controlled the group's share of The Beatles' film
projects, responsible for producing Beatles promotional films (in the days before
video) for television.
As well as owning Subafilms, all four Beatles held shares in
Northern Songs Music Publishing, the company that held the publishing rights
to The Beatles' songs. Although Northern Songs founder Dick James retained a
majority interest in the company, The Beatles and Nems each held significant
portions of Northern Songs. In addition to their Northern Songs stock, Lennon
and McCartney were also co-owners of a company formed on 4 February 1965 named
Maclen Music Ltd. Theoretically, Maclen licensed the rights to publish Lennon
and McCartney songs to Dick James' Northern Songs with Maclen collecting 50%
of the publishing royalties due to Lennon and McCartney from Northern Songs.
The remaining 50% of the publishing revenue went to Northern Songs.
Dick James had been unusually fair to The Beatles (by industry
standards of the day) when he set up Northern Songs in February 1963. Recommended
to Brian Epstein by Beatles producer George Martin, James had a tremendous amount
of respect for The Beatles and their music. Though The Beatles were little more
than a talented group with one minor hit (Love Me Do) to their credit when James
first met them in early 1963, James, a failed pop singer and then struggling
music publisher, knew that the songs of Lennon and McCartney had the potential
to become major hits.
In exchange for the publishing rights to The Beatles' second
single, Please Please Me, James used his music industry connections to secure
The Beatles a coveted spot on the BBC television programme Thank Your Lucky Stars.
Impressed by his ability to get The Beatles on television, Epstein decided that
The Beatles would sign with Dick James Music.
In a highly unusual move in an era in which songwriters would
often sign away their songwriting royalties for an advance of twenty pounds or
less, James set up a subsidiary company, Northern Songs, for the sole purpose
of publishing the songs of Lennon and McCartney. As part of the deal James offered
the group, the two songwriting Beatles and Nems were given shares in Northern
Songs that represented almost 50% of the company's worth. By 1967, Northern Songs
had been re-structured and had gone public, so in addition to having received
significant cash payments between 1964 and 1966 for a portion of their equity
in the company, Lennon and McCartney each still owned roughly 15% of Northern
Songs' stock. George Harrison and Ringo Starr owned 1.6 % of Northern Songs stock
between them.
But outside of investments like Subafilms and Northern Songs,
all four Beatles seemed to be perfectly willing to let their royalties pile up
in their Nems account and draw a weekly wage. It would not be until the mid-sixties
that The Beatles, George Harrison and Paul McCartney in particular, began taking
an increased interest in the group's business affairs.
In the innocent era during which The Beatles had emerged, it
was generally accepted that artists were responsible for creating the music and
that professional managers took care of business. Out of all of the English groups
who sold millions of records during the "British Invasion" only Dave
Clark of the Dave Clark Five had the foresight, and skill, to take full control
of his group's business affairs. (In addition to negotiating a royalty rate with
EMI that far exceeded that of The Beatles, Clark retained the rights to all of
his band's master tapes and music publishing. He would also later buy the rights
to the celebrated British pop music television show Ready Steady Go, giving him
exclusive rights to live TV performances by The Beatles and almost every other
top band of the mid-sixties.)
Even when Harrison and McCartney started to take a greater interest
in the group's financial affairs, there was actually very little that one or
even two Beatles could do to influence matters. Since the earliest days of the
group, the band made all of their decisions by consensus. Given the success of
this democratic system, each of the four Beatles were somewhat reticent to appear
too domineering in the eyes of the others. In the interest of preserving harmony
within the group, it was often simply easier to let Epstein or another outsider
take care of business matters.
Compared to many of their contemporaries, The Beatles were unusually
democratic for a pop group. The way they conducted their business was largely
governed by the strong personal ties between the four members of the band. Having
been bound together through the non-stop recording and touring schedule that
they maintained for close to five years, by 1967 The Beatles enjoyed a near family-like
relationship and were quite accustomed to doing almost everything together.
Each Beatle explored individual pursuits after the group ceased
touring in 1966. These included such non-Beatles projects as John Lennon's acting
role in the film How I Won The War and Paul McCartney composing the music for
the film The Family Way. However, these projects were not regarded as serious
efforts to establish careers outside of the group and none of the side projects
seemed to detract from the band's intense camaraderie. When the group settled
back into Abbey Road Studios in late 1966 to begin work on "Sgt. Pepper" they
were still an incredibly tight-knit unit. In early 1967, the group even looked
into buying a Greek island where they could live and work together. They went
as far as to visit Greece and select a remote Greek island to purchase before
they characteristically lost interest and dropped the whole project.
Curiously, while each Beatle had at one time or another stated
that The Beatles as a group would not go on for ever, none of them appeared to
envisage the possibility that there could ever come a time when they would no
longer be on speaking terms. It was in this spirit that they entered into their
next venture, the jointly owned business that would become Apple.
In late 1966, The Beatles and their financial advisors had started
to explore options for setting up a new Beatles corporation that would consolidate
the groups' business affairs and enable them to lessen the impact of the notoriously
harsh tax system that existed in Britain at that time. (When Apple was formed,
the group's income was being taxed at a rate of around 90%.) Additionally, the
band had been informed by its tax advisors that they would have to collectively
pay three million pounds in tax unless they offset their tax liability by investing
in a business. It is important to note that Apple was not set up to replace Epstein
and Nems. It was created as a tax shelter to complement, rather than replace,
the existing business structure.
The first step towards creating this new business structure was
to form a new partnership called Beatles and Co. in April 1967. To all intents
and purposes, Beatles and Co. was an updated version of The Beatles' original
partnership, Beatles Ltd. Under the new arrangement, however, each Beatle would
own 5% of Beatles and Co. and a new corporation owned collectively by the four
Beatles (which would soon be known as Apple) would be given control of the remaining
80% of Beatles and Co. With the exception of individual songwriting royalties,
which would still be paid directly to the writer or writers of a particular song,
all of the money earned by The Beatles as a group would go directly to Beatles
and Co. and would thus be taxed at a far lower corporate tax rate.
The Beatles appeared to be so anxious to begin reaping the tax
rewards offered by this plan that they entered into their new partnership agreement
having given little thought to the possible future implications of their actions.
John Lennon - who was taking copious amounts of LSD throughout the period that
Apple was being set up - would later claim that he was so high during this time
of his life that he didn't remember signing any new partnership agreement at
all.
Peter Brown, a fellow Liverpudlian who had worked for The Beatles
and Nems since 1962, explains the origins of Apple: "When Apple was formed,
which was before Brian died... it wasn't called Apple, but the structure of the
buyout was there. The reason The Beatles sold 80% of themselves to this entity,
which would become Apple, and to change Beatles Ltd. to Beatles and Co. was to
save taxes. The reason that the 80% sale was triggered was because of the accumulated
royalties at EMI that they were due to receive and the fact that if the royalties
had been paid to them as individuals, it would have been taxed at 85% or something
like that. So this structure was set up by Clive Epstein [Brian Epstein's brother]
as a tax structure. At one point it was suggested that this be a real estate
company: that was the original idea for lack of anything else. They couldn't
figure out what to do with all this capital. All of this was set up while Brian
was alive. After Brian died, my recollection is that they then decided to take
this entity and create what they did, which was Apple."
It was hardly coincidental that the formation of Apple coincided
with a period of marked turmoil within the Nems organization. Due in part to
Epstein's personal problems that sprung from his increasingly complex gay lifestyle
and escalating drug use, there were times when Epstein seemed to be losing control
of Nems. To Epstein's dismay, by 1967 The Beatles had also become aware of how
Nems' handling of the band's American merchandising had cost the group millions
of dollars of income. The Beatles also resented the fact that many lesser groups
had secured far more lucrative record contracts than Epstein had secured for
The Beatles.
Yet despite their displeasure with the deals that Epstein had
negotiated and the deteriorating situation at Nems, The Beatles never publicly
announced any intention to leave Epstein when his management contract expired
in August 1967. None of the band's associates from that time believe that they
would have ever left Epstein and Nems. Rather than take out their financial frustrations
directly on Epstein, the group seemed to simply want to preserve the considerable
sums of money that they were earning.
The new corporation would be the first step in preserving some
of their hard-earned income. By mid-1967, The Beatles had established a basic
corporate structure and now needed to find a business in which to invest their
capital if they were going to receive any tax benefit. Given that they were among
the best-known, most-respected young multi-millionaires in the world, The Beatles
felt the need to invest in a business that would simultaneously complement their
image and provide a good measure of financial security.
Given such an ambiguous mandate, The Beatles were decidedly unsure
about what form Apple should take. By mid-year, Apple had evolved into little
more than a handful of sketchy ideas and what was essentially a holding company
for The Beatles partnership. But as 1967 wore on and The Beatles moved into one
of the most adventurous stages of their development (both personally and musically)
the group began to envisage Apple as becoming something much more ambitious than
a simple tax shelter.
A good deal of the energy and enthusiasm that fuelled Apple's
early development was drawn directly from the flowering youth culture and the
exciting art and music scenes that had enveloped London towards the end of 1966.
By the summer of 1967 - the much heralded "Summer of Love" - London
(along with San Francisco) found itself at the epicentre of a burgeoning youth
movement.
As the warm summer weather and increasingly carefree social climate
infused the youth of Britain with a wonderful sense of energy and optimism, the
BBC and pirate radio stations made sure that the entire nation was awash with
the remarkable sounds of The Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper" album and of new
records by such colourfully named groups as The Pink Floyd and The Jimi Hendrix
Experience. The Beatles were quite taken with swinging London and it was not
unusual to find one or more Beatles checking out "happenings" or performances
by one of the many new bands.
It was not only music that was capturing the imagination of England's
youth and the interest of the world's media. In almost every corner of London,
new boutiques, art galleries and specialist bookshops were springing up and the
best and the brightest young minds in England were attempting to reshape a few
select London neighbourhoods in their own image. Comprising the first generation
of English youth who were too young to feel the full impact of the Second World
War, these fashionable teenagers and twenty-somethings felt free to pursue their
interest in music, art and leisure and they did so with great zest. The introduction
of drugs to the scene only served to bolster the generally giddy spirit of the
time.
Poised at the absolute centre of all this activity was Paul McCartney.
With his upmarket St. Johns Wood home in London, a beautiful sophisticated actress
girlfriend, stylish clothes and immense musical talent, McCartney was among the
best-known exponents of swinging London.
While the other three Beatles languished in the outskirts of
London with their wives and young children, McCartney would attend beat poetry
readings, check out the new bands, go to the theatre, listen to avant-garde composers
such as Karl Stockhausen and even make experimental films. McCartney was fully
consumed by the wave of creativity that had swept over London and he genuinely
felt that The Beatles could - and should - use their wealth and influence to
help nurture this exciting new scene.
One of the early ideas for The Beatles' new corporation was to
set up a chain of record shops across England, the idea being that The Beatles
would be able to amass sizeable property holdings under the pretext of purchasing
shop space. It was an interesting idea, but it never got beyond the initial planning
stages. With little progress having been made on establishing some sort of property-driven
company, The Beatles - at the urging of Paul McCartney - decided that their first
commercial venture would be a music publishing company.
Given the low start-up costs and The Beatles' collective expertise
in songwriting, establishing a music publishing company was certainly a logical
option to pursue. As the driving force behind the formation of a "Beatles
company" it was McCartney who finally came up with an ideal name for the
company - "Apple". As long-serving Apple Managing Director Neil Aspinall
recalled in an Apple press handout: "Paul came up with the idea of calling
it Apple, which he got from René Magritte. I don't know if he was a Belgian
or Dutch artist... he drew a lot of green apples or painted a lot of green apples
[the painting in question was Magritte's Le Jeu de Mourre]. I know Paul bought
some of his paintings in 1966 or early 1967. I think that's where Paul got the
idea for the name from." Even though it was initially not clear what form
Apple would ultimately take, when the "Sgt. Pepper" album was released
in June 1967, The Beatles had already mysteriously thanked "The Apple" on
the back cover of the album.
Whatever tentative plans The Beatles may have had for Apple that
summer, however, were certainly altered when Brian Epstein was found dead in
his London home on Sunday 27 August 1967. Only 32 years old at the time of his
death, Epstein had apparently accidentally overdosed on prescription sleeping
pills. The Beatles, who were all in Bangor, Wales attending a lecture on transcendental
meditation, were naturally devastated by the news. When reached in Bangor, The
Beatles appeared before the news cameras to offer a statement, looking shocked
and confused. John Lennon would later admit that it was at that moment that he
first felt that The Beatles were finished.
Epstein's death was a pivotal event in the development of Apple.
Despite The Beatles' loyalty to Nems and the Epstein family, now that Brian Epstein
was no longer running the company, it was soon apparent that The Beatles' relationship
with Nems would change. In the weeks following Epstein's death, The Beatles appeared
willing to remain with Nems, yet they also indicated that they were now looking
to gain more direct control of their personal business.
One of the most contentious issues between The Beatles and Nems
after Epstein died arose when they learned that a brash Australian named Robert
Stigwood was angling to take control of Nems. It later transpired that Epstein
- unbeknownst to The Beatles - had indeed made plans to sell Nems to Stigwood.
Prior to Epstein's death, The Beatles had assumed that Stigwood was simply another
Nems employee and they were most annoyed that Stigwood felt that he could simply
pick up where Epstein left off as manager of The Beatles.
Epstein had made Stigwood co-managing director of Nems in January
1967, allegedly with the intention of later starting a new management company
for The Beatles and Cilla Black, and then selling the remaining Nems assets to
Stigwood. However, within months of Stigwood joining Nems, considerable tension
had developed between Epstein and Stigwood. Although Stigwood was responsible
for bringing the Bee Gees and Cream to Nems, Epstein and Stigwood apparently
had very different opinions as to how Nems should be run. Epstein was reportedly
very concerned by Stigwood's excessive spending and by the summer of 1967 he
was said to be trying to find a way to ease Stigwood out of Nems.
The problem was that Epstein had extended an offer to Stigwood
and Stigwood's business partner, David Shaw, which would allow them to purchase
a controlling interest in Nems for £500,000. The standing offer was valid
until September 1967, and when Epstein unexpectedly died in August, Stigwood
and Shaw announced their intention to exercise their option. Stigwood's plans
for acquiring Nems were thwarted only after The Beatles, who had previously been
unaware of Epstein's plan to sell Nems to Stigwood, informed Stigwood that there
was absolutely no way that they would accept him as their manager.
Stigwood, who had little interest in Nems if it did not include
The Beatles, abandoned his plans to purchase the company. Instead, he left Nems
altogether, taking with him the Bee Gees and Cream and starting his own company,
RSO.
With Stigwood out of the picture, Brian Epstein's younger brother
Clive assumed control of Nems. For several months after Epstein died, The Beatles'
relationship with Nems changed very little. Despite Brian Epstein's death, Nems
would continue to oversee The Beatles' day-to-day affairs. In fact, it seems
that The Beatles even contemplated taking a more active role in Nems and using
the company as an outlet for discovering and nurturing new artists, which is
exactly what they eventually did with Apple.
Ringo Starr admitted in a 1970 interview with Melody Maker:
"We tried to form Apple with Clive Epstein but he wouldn't have it... he
didn't believe in us I suppose... he didn't think we could do it. He thought
we were four wild men and we were going to spend all his money and make him broke.
But that was the original idea of Apple - to form it with Nems... we thought
now Brian's gone, let's really amalgamate and get this thing going, let's make
records and get people on our label and things like that. So we formed Apple
and they formed Nems, which is doing exactly the same thing as we [Apple] are
doing. It was a family tie and we thought it would be a good idea to keep it
in, and then we saw how the land lay and we tried to get out."
Peter Brown, the Nems employee who inherited the lion's share
of the responsibility for looking after The Beatles after Epstein's death, does
not think that the idea of The Beatles using Nems to discover and develop talent
was a likely proposition. "I don't remember that and I'm sure that if that
was so I would remember because there wouldn't have been anything like that being
discussed without me knowing," recalls Brown, adding, "It would have
been so foreign to Clive Epstein that I don't think that it would have been workable."
Whatever the situation may have been, The Beatles appeared to
be willing to stick with Nems for the time being. At the same time, they were
also anxious to start handling some of their own business and creative affairs.
Only weeks after Epstein's death, the first Apple project was already well under
way. Apple's first venture would be the production of a new Beatles movie called
Magical Mystery Tour which was filmed and edited in various English locations
from September to November 1967. Cooked up by Paul McCartney on a long flight
back from America, Magical Mystery Tour was intended to be a spontaneous, hip,
art movie that would capture the free-spirited vibe of the summer of 1967.
Since Apple had yet to develop any formal staff structure, Beatles
road manager Neil Aspinall and Paul McCartney assumed most of the responsibility
for coordinating the various aspects of the film's production. The resulting
chaos - which ranged from the "Magical Mystery Tour" bus and film crew
venturing down small roads in rural England only to encounter a bridge that was
too low for the bus to pass under, to not having enough hotel rooms for the entire
cast - surely must have made The Beatles miss the brisk efficiency of the Nems
organization.
For the first few months of Apple's existence, it did not even
have an office - most Apple business was conducted from the Nems building. It
was not until the autumn of 1967 that Apple finally opened a London office. Since
The Beatles already owned a four-storey building at 94 Baker Street, that had
been purchased as an investment
property by their accountants, they decided that Baker Street was as good a location
as any for Apple. They set up an office for Apple Music Publishing in the Baker
Street building in September.
Excited by the novelty of being businessmen and anticipating
Apple to develop further business interests, The Beatles appointed their road
manager, Neil Aspinall, to be Managing Director of the budding Apple organization.
Aspinall recalled in an interview with Mojo, "A lot of people were nominated
or put themselves forward to run it... but there didn't seem to be any unanimous
choice. So I said to them, foolishly I guess, 'Look, I'll do it until you find
somebody that you want to do it.'"
Fortunately for The Beatles, Aspinall was not a typical beat
group road manager. He was generally qualified to do far more than book hotels,
load vans and set up musical instruments on a stage. Prior to becoming a full-time
Beatles employee in 1962, Aspinall had contemplated a business career and had
been close to completing a correspondence degree in accounting before his work
with The Beatles took him away from his studies. But it was Aspinall's loyalty
to The Beatles, rather than his innate business sense, that made him the natural
choice to be Managing Director of Apple. After Brian Epstein died in August 1967,
Aspinall and fellow road manager Mal Evans were the only non-Beatles left in
The Beatles' inner circle and the group placed a high premium on trust and loyalty.
The individual Beatles had complete trust in Neil Aspinall and the surviving
members continue to do so to this day.
Unlike Aspinall, loyal Beatles road manager Mal Evans would not
fit as snugly into the Apple concept. Though he would ultimately be given a free
hand to scout talent and dabble in record production for Apple, it was agreed
that Evans would probably be best suited to remain as a road manager for The
Beatles.
With Aspinall's time fully consumed by the combined tasks of
setting up Apple Corps and looking after The Beatles, the responsibility of running
Apple Music Publishing was given to Terry Doran, a fellow Liverpudlian and friend
of the group who had been a business associate of Brian Epstein. Prior to being
named head of Apple Music Publishing, the colourful Doran had run a car dealership
that he co-owned with Epstein. Doran is the first to admit that his experience
in auto sales was not particularly applicable to music publishing. However, to
The Beatles of 1967, enthusiasm and a social familiarity were sometimes worth
far more than practical experience in a given field. To assist Terry Doran at
Apple Publishing, Carol Paddon and Dee Meehan were hired as secretaries and Apple's
first three employees were charged with setting up an office at 94 Baker Street.
Doran may have had absolutely no experience in music publishing,
but he seemed to make the transition we Publishing, Shotton was probably not
the best person to be put in
charge of a new Apple business. Prior to coming to London to run the Apple Boutique,
Shotton had been successfully running a supermarket that John Lennon had bought
for him to manage in 1965. Although Shotton had no experience of running a clothing
boutique, the fact that he had run some sort of store, combined with the fact
that Lennon, Harrison and McCartney had known Shotton since they were teenagers,
made the amiable Shotton the right person for the job as far as The Beatles were
concerned.
The hiring of individuals like Terry Doran and Pete Shotton also
illustrated how The Beatles hoped that the open-minded business structure at
Apple would provide an opportunity for young, not necessarily traditional businessmen
to distinguish themselves in the world of commerce. Still excited by the novelty
of being businessmen, The Beatles wanted to give friends from the same working
class Liverpool background as themselves a chance to show the world that business
was not the exclusive domain of the upper class, private school educated section
of British society.
With great fanfare, Apple announced to the press that the Apple
Boutique would open for business in November 1967. Predictably, due to several
unforeseen delays, it was not until the evening of 7 December 1967 that the Apple
Boutique finally opened its doors. To celebrate, Apple staged a gala grand opening
where George Harrison and John Lennon mingled with invited guests who were feted
with apple juice and green Granny Smith apples.
The Apple Boutique officially opened for business the following
morning and the general public seemed to be genuinely fascinated by The Beatles'
new shop. Even in a relatively progressive city like London, never before had
such a strange collection of merchandise been collected under one roof.
The shop's stock was largely made up of vivid psychedelic outfits
and posters created by The Fool. The boutique was also intended to serve as a
retail outlet for the gadgets created by Apple Electronics. These creations included
a transistor radio that could be used to broadcast music directly from a record
player and a small box with randomly blinking lights that was dubbed "The
Nothing Box". Tellingly, by the time the boutique opened, the only contribution
that Apple Electronics had made to the boutique was to install the lighting in
the shop. Magic Alex had also promised The Beatles a giant artificial sun to
illuminate the opening of the Apple Boutique, although he was apparently unable
to create anything that resembled that description.
The Fool had first come to The Beatles' attention through the
design work they had done for the Savile Theatre, a London performance venue
under the wing of Brian Epstein. Greatly impressed with The Fool's sophisticated
psychedelic style, The Beatles hired the group to work on a variety of projects,
which included painting a piano and a gypsy caravan for John Lennon, decorating
the interior of George Harrison's bungalow and creating the outfit that Ringo
Starr wore in the Our World broadcast performance of All You Need Is Love.
When The Beatles decided to open the Apple Boutique, The Fool
were naturally asked to become the shop's in-house designers. In addition to
conjuring up an unusually garish line of clothes, they were given the task of
decorating both the interior and the exterior of the boutique. With an unrestricted
budget and a brief to make The Beatles' boutique stand out on the relatively
staid street of shops and private homes, The Fool designed a massive three-story
psychedelic mural to grace the side of the building.
The resulting mural - a brightly coloured Indian-styled goddess
that took up the entire side of the building - was nothing if not striking. But
while The Beatles were quite pleased with the painting, other businesses in the
area were less-than-enamoured by The Fool's creation. Bowing to pressure from
the local council and the surrounding business community, Apple was soon forced
to paint the wall white with a simple "Apple" scripted in the middle.
But having to paint over of The Fool's mural was the least of
Apple's problems. Despite the steady flow of curious tourists and students who
made their way to the shop, the Apple Boutique made little money. It seems that
in addition to having to contend with uninhibited staff helping themselves to
cash from the till, the boutique's stock was not as enticing to the public as
The Beatles had anticipated. Outfits like designer Harold Tillman's see-through
chiffon tuxedo that had seemed very hip in the psychedelic summer of 1967 looked
quite out of place on the cold streets of London during the winter of 1967-68,
and, for the most part, remained unsold.
In his fascinating memoir The Love You Make, Peter Brown remembers
the Apple Boutique as a very unusual place of business. "Customers seemed
to be there only to shoplift or to stare at Jenny Boyd [George Harrison's sister-in-law]
who was working there as a salesperson along with a self-styled mystic named
Caleb. Caleb slept underneath a showcase on one of his many breaks. The store
was also sometimes tended by a fat lady who dressed in authentic gypsy costumes."
Reflecting further, Peter Brown admits that, "The Apple
Boutique was a bit of a rip off. It was a case of The Beatles trying to be too
cool for their own good. It was a beautiful shop. The merchandise looked great.
I don't think it was very good quality, but you weren't looking for something
to last forever, you were looking to look great next Saturday. Looking back,
I suppose it's no worse than the rag industry today, where designers do what
they can to take the capital they are given and run with it. But The Fool were
really pretty hypocritical. They were pretending to be these cool, lovely people
when they were in fact a bit less than scrupulous in the way they did things.
The Fool would totally run rings around poor Pete Shotton. There was always this
problem of them saying, 'Don't say that to me because we're too cool for it,'
and he would be confronted with this problem of trying to be a businessman while
trying to be cool at the same time."
Brown also insists that, contrary to popular belief, The Beatles
were quite aware that the Apple Boutique was rapidly getting out of control.
In January 1968, Pete Shotton was replaced by a more experienced retailer named
John Lyndon. Realizing what he was up against, Lyndon immediately instituted
more responsible business practices for the shop and made a valiant attempt to
reign in The Fool's excessive expenditure. Despite Lyndon's efforts, it was estimated
that the shop went on to eventually lose close to $400,000. On top of the money
that was lost at the shop, it is alleged that the Apple organization would also
have to write-off the cost of a Jaguar sports car that Apple had purchased for
Pete Shotton but which it had never reclaimed after Shotton left the company.
To complement the Apple Boutique, Apple Retail set up a second
operation called Apple Tailoring (Civil and Theatrical) in a shop at 161 King's
Road. Established on 2 February 1968 and officially opened on 23 May, the shop
was a partnership with John Crittle, the highly respected designer, who was a
Director of the enterprise along with Apple's Neil Aspinall and Apple accountant
Stephen Maltz.
By the end of 1967 Apple had developed into an interesting little
company. Given that The Beatles had started the year with only a vague concept
for starting a business to minimize their tax exposure, the fact that they managed
to set up two fully functioning companies by the end of the year suggested that
they had big plans for Apple in 1968.
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