Related pages: Timeline of The Beatles main events and creative output
To lift the lid on the music industry, it’s useful to read about a band you like. Any band will do, but The Beatles are particularly useful. Today’s music business was largely invented in the mid-Fifties and early Sixties.
In 1960 there were no record shops—you’d buy mono records at a counter in the furniture shop that sold gramophones. Although there were short-lived pop TV programmes in the late Fifties, there was no pop music radio in the UK and you could only hear chart records on the BBC. Young people endured their parents’ music to hear the occasional pop tracks on Two-Way Family Favourites (a programme for servicemen and their families) or Pick of the Pops. There were no DJs in the UK until the mid-Sixties and the best music was on Radio Luxembourg, a European AM station with very poor reception. Bands had virtually no amplification. Decent instruments were expensive and hard to find, and you couldn’t get guitar strings in most towns. There were no samplers or synthesisers. The venues were theatres, cinemas and ballrooms.
By 1970 we had stereo, Mellotrons, Moogs, Virgin, Radio One (a poor substitute for the outlawed pirate stations), music festivals, stadium rock and a sales chart where easy listening, middle of the road and musicals were rare. The Who, The Kinks, The Small Faces, The Stones, influences from the USA and many others played a part but The Beatles were central. They also covered most areas of the business: gigging and touring, recording, writing and publishing, films, merchandise and even retail.
The Beatles are probably the best documented band of all time. The press logged a huge amount of information, The Beatles and their entourage were great communicators, EMI kept very good records and researchers have spent years on the subject.
There are far too many Beatles books and most of them aren’t worth the money or the effort. The Beatles are still a popular subject and publishers know any book about them will sell. Avoid speculation about whether John had an affair with Brian or funded the IRA, and whether Paul is dead—it’s all sensationalist nonsense. You’ll also find 99% of Beatles books are copied from the originals and each other, and contain nothing new.
Insider books from NEMS and Apple staff should be well-informed, but many of them aren’t. I found these insider books interesting for the first few chapters but very poor when they get to The Beatles story we all know. If you can’t resist reading them I suggest this order:
You’d never know Geoff Emerick was an engineer from his account, and Peter Brown appears to know nothing that didn’t appear in someone else’s book first.
I used to like Shout! Philip Norman (revised 2003) because the first two parts are quite good. It has more information than most general Beatles books and an index, but the mistakes and hyperbole in the remainder are unforgivable. He even gets their lyrics wrong.
There doesn’t seem to be a good biography of Ringo or George yet (the Alan Clayson books are wordy, obvious and very hard going). Derek Taylor wrote a limited edition biography of George I, Me, Mine (now available in paperback) which is thin and mostly lyrics. Derek Taylor has written much, including a hard-to-find autobiography that sounds promising. The only books left to be written would seem to be The Beatles business from Alan Williams to Allen Klein, and the stories of Mal Evans and Neil Aspinall.
Here are the Beatles books I recommend. They’ll tell you almost everything about the people, events, recordings, songs and equipment, and have nothing in common with the weaker books mentioned above.
| Title | Author | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| Many Years From Now | Barry Miles | About Paul McCartney—a brilliant book in its own right with a good feel for the Sixties especially. |
| Lennon | Ray Coleman | Another great (if over-serious) book although the foreword added after John’s death is a bit gushy. |
| All You Need Is Ears | George Martin | Well worth reading. He gets a few minor things wrong and the sequence of events goes haywire in places. Some of those tired old stories appeared here first, but you can’t blame him for that. His story of recording Sgt Pepper, The Summer Of Love, is also worth a look but repeats some of this. |
| A Cellarful Of Noise | Brian Epstein | Written by Derek Taylor, this covers a short period up to the start of Beatlemania and seems to have been shelved then published on Brian’s death. Although not really an autobiography it’s as close as there is and gives Brian’s perspective. More of those old stories appeared here first. |
| Title | Author | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| Northern Songs | Brian Southall | A very useful aggregation of The Beatles publishing and related deals with some new angles on NEMS and Apple. The narrative is jumbled at times and some of the information is open to debate but it’s a very good account to read alongside other reliable studies. |
| I Should Have Known Better | Geoffrey Ellis | Geoffrey Ellis worked for Brian Epstein at NEMS. At last, here is a sober account of the business basics with some interesting insights. This is the book I expected from Alistair Taylor or Peter Brown. |
| The Beatles Are Coming! | Bruce Spizer | Every conceivable detail about The Beatles’ launch in America: people, records, radio, TV, appearances and gigs. Including the story of Capitol’s rejections, the early releases on Vee Jay and Swan, and related legal activity. |
| Title | Author | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions | Mark Lewisohn | A brilliant idea, perfectly done. Use this with the Anthology CDs as a recording tutorial. Revolution In The Head (see below) has some additional information about the sessions (Chronology of Beatles tracks). Occasionally out of print in the UK but available at a premium second-hand or sometimes cheaper from the USA where a paperback Hamlyn re-print was published in 2004 (check online). |
| Recording The Beatles | Kevin Ryan and Brian Kehew | A great (and big) studio book that is the perfect addition to Lewisohn’s Sessions book. This one describes the studios, personnel, equipment and selected sessions in meticulous detail with excellent diagrams and photographs. Currently available in hardback from the USA but worth the rather high price. |
| The Beatles Anthology | The Beatles | The DVD box set is better, but the book’s cheaper, although some of the psychedelic pages are hard to read. Agreed between Paul, George, Ringo and Yoko, so somewhat glossed. |
| The Beatles Diary Volume One | Barry Miles | A well-organised, comprehensive and concise day-by-day record of The Beatles career. It is similar to The Beatles Chronicle (see below) but this is the one to read or refer to first. There’s also a pocket version called The Beatles - a diary. |
| The Beatles Gear | Andy Babuik | Goes over the same old ground biographically, but features information about their instruments and amps. Rather weak on the studio side (Recording The Beatles covers that fully) but there’s nothing else like it. Excellent photos. |
| Revolution In The Head | Ian MacDonald | This is a chronological (recording order) analysis of all The Beatles’ songs. It’s inevitably pretentious here and there but good nonetheless—one of a kind. |
| Title | Author | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| The Beatles Chronicle | Mark Lewisohn | Like the studio diary but with less detail about recording sessions and more of the surrounding events and context. |
| As Time Goes By | Derek Taylor | Episodes from his time with The Beatles and other acts in the Sixties. Well-written, sharply observed and a good bit of rock and roll hype. |
| The Longest Cocktail Party | Richard DiLello | This is not just the chronicle of excess it might appear—some tedious sections and contrived dialogue but a useful insight into Apple and how remote The Beatles were from it all. |
| Those Were The Days | Stephan Granados | A useful recap of the early Apple years, not quite so eccentric as Derek Taylor and Richard DiLello, with post-Beatles events up to the Anthology project. The lists of releases are a bit dry, but useful. |
| The Beatles | Hunter Davies | A good general Beatles book and still worth a read (revised 2002). |
| Inside The Yellow Submarine | Robert Hieronimous | The story of writing, making, releasing and re-releasing the film, with interviews, graphics and script extracts (including drafts). Also some good trivia and a chapter on merchandise. |
| Title | Author | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| The Beatles Diary Volume Two | Keith Badman | Worth reading although lacking the focus of Volume One (it is somewhat overburdened with marginal information - Yoko wasn’t a Beatle). This volume covers the transition from Beatles to solo artists including the managerial and legal events. This book also appears under the title: The Beatles After The Break-Up 1970–2000. |
| Get Back–The Beatles Let It Be Disaster | Doug Sulpy & Ray Schweighardt | A narrative drawn from tapes of The Beatles’ Let It Be sessions at Twickenham film studios in January 1969. It lists the songs played and describes their development (or lack of) and the surrounding discussions about plans for the film and the group. The Let It Be film itself doesn’t tell a full or accurate story of the sessions. |
| The Beatles Album File & Complete Discography | Jeff Russell | Comprehensive details of official UK, international, USA and other releases. Many interesting sections including a comparison of alternative versions of tracks on different releases. |
| The Unreleased Beatles Music & Film | Richie Unterberger | A chronological catalogue with descriptions of officially unreleased studio, live, radio, TV and film recordings, including bootlegs. |
Here are some of the basics of The Beatles business. I strongly recommend reading up on the band and the background. Brian Epstein wasn’t a music manager, George Martin wasn’t a pop producer, Parlophone wasn’t a pop label and Dick James was new to publishing. Some people criticise the deals they made, but experienced managers have made worse mistakes since.
These are the main companies involved in The Beatles business in the Sixties, roughly in the order they occurred. There were many others, including several companies for their films, investments and other territories.
| Management |
|
|---|---|
| Recording |
|
| Publishing |
|
| Songwriting |
|
| Partnership |
|
| Merchandise |
|
This is roughly what The Beatles business looked like in 1965 when Northern Songs was floated on the Stock Exchange.
It’s hard to say exactly how the business was organised without access to financial records and contracts, so this is an informed guess. Various sources give different values, percentages and shares. This is probably down to guesswork, different viewpoints and the fact that circumstances changed over time. Shares in Northern Songs weren’t all the same type, and once trading began their value changed. Paul had more shares than John by April 1969, and it’s likely that George and Ringo had shares for their publishing up to 1968 when their contracts ended. NEMS 25% came off the top and EMI, for example, used to pay Epstein’s management commission direct.
Beatle Money has more detail about various angles but it’s not possible to reconcile all the different papers and memoirs precisely.
Brian’s death left The Beatles business in disarray. He had considered selling 51% of NEMS to Robert Stigwood in March 1967 but the deal fell through and Stigwood later left NEMS (taking the Bee Gees and Cream) to form RSO. Brian had also planned for what would become Apple Corps, but legal and financial disputes resulting from his death and The Beatles’ breakup continued into the late 1980s.
| Losing Northern Songs | Buying NEMS | Apple Corps | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1965 | February 1965 Northern Songs was set up in 1963 and floated on the Stock Exchange in February 1965 with an issue of 5 million shares. | ||
| 1967 | August 1967 Brian Epstein left NEMS (now Nemperor Holdings Ltd) to his family. Death duties were due by the end of the next financial year, 31 March 1969. Clive Epstein put NEMS up for sale, and though Brian’s management contract ran out in October 1967 he still claimed NEMS 25%. | ||
| December 1967 Some Apple companies started in 1967. The Apple Boutique opened on 5 December and Apple Music signed Grapefruit on 11 December. Apple Corps was finally set up in January 1968 and the other companies were re-shuffled. | |||
| 1969 | February 1969 EMI loaned The Beatles enough to buy NEMS but Klein dissuaded them. Clive Epstein sold control of NEMS to Leonard Richenberg (Triumph Investment Trust) on 17 February. The Beatles instructed EMI not to pay any more royalties to NEMS and Triumph sued for NEMS’ 25%. | February 1969 Allen Klein (Abkco) offered to review John, George and Ringo’s finances in January. Paul declined. Abkco acted as financial adviser to the others while Paul used Linda’s father. Eastman and Eastman were appointed as Apple’s General Counsel. | |
| March 1969 Dick James and Charles Silver sold their share of Northern Songs to Lew Grade’s ATV Music without telling The Beatles. ATV immediately made a bid for control of Northern Songs—the offer deadline was May 1969. | |||
| April 1969 The Beatles rejected ATV’s offer on 10 April and made a £2 million counter-bid for Northern Songs. They had enough backing with a City consortium controlling 14% of Northern Songs, but negotiations broke down over conditions demanded by the consortium. | April 1969 Klein made a deal with Richenberg (24 April) which gave The Beatles control of NEMS, Nemperor, Subafilms, and some Triumph and NEMS Northern Songs stock. Triumph’s 25% “management fee” was cut to 5% for the last 5 years of the contract from 1972 to 1976. | ||
| May 1969 ATV gained control on 19 May 1969. | May 1969 John, George and Ringo formally appointed Allen Klein to handle their business interests and Abkco managed Apple from 8 May 1969 to 31 March 1973. |
Paul agreed with winding down Apple, but held back from endorsing Allen Klein and financing the bid for Northern Songs. He didn’t approve the Phil Spector production of Let It Be and after Abbey Road had little to do with Apple until the Anthology project in the 1990s.
Related pages: Timeline of The Beatles main events and creative output