FEATURE:
With The Beatles
IN THIS PHOTO: Brian Epstein receiving the Edison Award for The Beatles at Grand Gala du Disque in 1965
The Influence and Impact o Brian Epstein
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WHEN we think about The Beatles…
PHOTO CREDIT: Mirrorpix
we talk about the four lads (John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr) and the impact they made. Of course their producer, George Martin, was hugely important regarding their direction, success and legacy. Not that one can easily say who a fifth Beatle would be, though their manager, Brian Epstein, would come quite high in the mix. Epstein managed The Beatles from 1962 until his death in 1967. I am mentioning Epstein because, last year, a biopic was announced. The Guardian provided more details:
“An award-winning director, who has worked with Paul McCartney on music videos, is to direct a major British film about Brian Epstein, the visionary manager and impresario who took the music industry by storm in discovering stars from the Beatles to Gerry and the Pacemakers.
The film, titled Midas Man, will be directed by Jonas Åkerlund, who has won multiple Grammy awards.
It will tell the story of a Liverpudlian record-shop manager with a talent for forecasting hits and spotting future stars. Epstein signed the biggest band of all time, the Beatles, and discovered Cilla Black and Billy J Kramer, opening his own theatre to promote and launch the likes of Jimi Hendrix and the Who. His impact on popular music and culture resounds to this day.
The film’s producer, Trevor Beattie, told the Guardian: “Epstein’s one of the most extraordinary men of the 20th century. His story hasn’t been told properly. He’s often taken for granted by the wider world, but he was ahead of his time from his vision of music and popular culture through to gender identity. He was gay at a time when homosexuality was illegal. He lived a secret life. He made some risky decisions in handling the business of his stars … Compared with what Brian had to live in his life, [they were] not a risk.”
Epstein’s achievements are all the more extraordinary because he died aged just 32, in 1967, following a barbiturate overdose.
Beattie said: “Epstein first met the Beatles in November 1961, when he was 25, and he was dead in August 1967. It is a tragic story. But it’s also life-affirming, a triumph for the human spirit because, in those few short years, he changed popular culture forever”.
I think the fact that Epstein saw these scruffy guys performing and saw huge potential in them was less a moment of commercial exploitation and more real faith that they had a spark and promise. I wonder whether, were it not for Epstein, The Beatles as we know them would have happened. I think that it was his management and friendship with the band that meant the guys reached incredible heights. It was Epstein who wanted The Beatles to dispense with the jackets and messy hair and adopt matching suits and neat haircuts. This styling and imagery is iconic now! So many other bands followed The Beatles’ looks and imagery. Epstein asking George Martin to produce the band’s records was another masterstroke.
I want to come on to an article that looked at the impact Epstein’s death had on The Beatles and their survival. I am looking forward to the biopic and what it will teach us about a man who was integral to the success of the greatest band ever. Before then, I want to bring in now some biography about a man who is the perfect subject for a biopic:
“Brian Samuel Epstein was born to Harry and Malka Epstein on September 19, 1934 in a private nursing home in Liverpool. His brother Clive was born 22 months later. His father Harry called his mother Queenie because Malka is the Hebrew word for "queen". Next to the furniture store that the Epstein family owned was The North End Road Music Stores. James McCartney Sr.'s family was one of the local families that bought pianos there on extended-purchase plans. The Epsteins later expanded and took over NEMS.
Brian started to work at the family furniture store at Walton Road in 1950 at the age of 16. Two years later he was conscripted for National Service, but he was discharged from his two-year stint after ten months as being emotionally and mentally unfit. (He tells the story about being caught innocently impersonating an officer in A Cellarful of Noise.) Upon his return in 1954 he was put in charge of another branch of the family business, Clarendon Furnishing in Hoylake, and he was very successful, a born salesman.
However, Brian had other plans for his own life, and after some pleading with his parents was allowed to join the Royal Academy for Dramatic Arts to train as an actor. He passed the audition, but soon discovered he wasn't cut out for show business, and returned to the family business.
IN THIS PHOTO: The Beatles and Brian Epstein arrive at London Airport on 22nd September, 1964, after a tour of the United States and Canada/PHOTO CREDIT: Keystone/Getty Images
When his father opened a new NEMS store on Great Charlotte St, Brian was put in charge of the ground floor, where he expanded from pianos and wireless sets to gramophone records. The new record department was so successful that another NEMS branch was opened at 12-14 Whitechapel, with Brian in charge. Meanwhile, Brian, who had been selling the music publication Mersey Beat since its first issue on July 6, 1961, became interested in the local music scene, and asked its editor Bill Harry if he could contribute a record column. His first column appeared in the third issue of Mersey Beat on August 3, 1961.
Brian's new NEMS store on Whitechapel was only down the street and around the corner from a dingy, basement club called The Cavern.
Alistair Taylor, long-time assistant to Brian Epstein, from an interview with Martin Lewis at the re-created Cavern Club in 1995:
"We found this record in Germany by a guy called Tony Sheridan and the Beat Brothers, the boys were just a backing group, and one day Brian came into the shop and he said, 'By the way, do you remember that record that we sold so many of, that band the Beatles?' So I said, yeah. So he said, 'Well, they're playing at the Cavern. Let's go down and see them, and we'll see what they're like.'
"And it was jammed solid, and we just sat at the back feeling rather embarressed, and I suddenly realised my foot was tapping, and I hated pop music, and Brian hated it even more than me, and I looked 'round and so was his."
IN THIS PHOTO: Brian Epstein with The Beatles in 1965 when they received MBEs at Buckingham Palace/PHOTO CREDIT: Cummings Archives/Redferns
"And after a while Brian started talking about it, and he said, 'What did you think?' And I said I thought they were awful, quite honestly, but absolutely incredible. So he said, 'that's exactly my feelings. Do you think I should manage them?' And I said, yeah."
Brian Epstein recalled meeting the Beatles that day:
"I hadn't had anything to do with management of pop artists before that day that I went down to the Cavern Club and heard the Beatles playing, and this was quite a new world, really, for me.
"I was immediately struck by their music, their beat, and their sense of humour on stage. And even afterwards when I met them I was struck again by their personal charm. And it was there that really it all started..."
Queenie Epstein, Brian's mother, remembers Brian talking to his parents after he met the Beatles:
"He asked his father and myself to listen to a record. He said, 'Forget about the singer, just listen to the backing group.' Actually, we were always fairly interested in all the records, because being in the business [NEMS record store].
And he said, 'They are four boys and I'd like to manage them. It wouldn't take any longer than two half days at a time, it's just sort of a part-time occupation.' He said it would never interfere with business.
"But the first time we met the Beatles, Brian was very insistent that we should go ahead with them, and I'd never been to a rock and roll concert before and I asked him what I should wear. And he said he hadn't either..."
It was decided that Brian would be the Beatles' manager at a meeting on December 10, 1961. Their first contract was for a five year period. The contract was formally signed at Pete Best's house on January 24, 1962, with Alistair Taylor as witness, although Brian, himself, didn't sign it. When asked why later, Brian answered "Well, if they ever want to tear it up, they can hold me but I can't hold them."
Brian smartened up the Beatles' stage appearance by putting them in matching suits and he instructed them not to smoke or swear on stage. Brian also encouraged the boys to make a rather theatrical synchronized bow at the conclusion of each song when performing in concert or on television. All of the Beatles went along with their new image although there was some initial very minor grumbling from John and George.
During his 'demythologize the Beatles' phase in 1970, John made references to how these image changes had somehow "tamed the real Beatles" and that he'd been against it at the time. However, most contemporary reports - and indeed recent McCartney comments - note that at the time, all of the Beatles (including John) were happy to follow Epstein's shrewd advice, particularly when it proved to be 100% effective. The reality is that in the climate of the early 60's no British or American TV show would have given the Beatles (or any other pop group) even five seconds of air time looking as they did pre-Brian.
Now that he was signed to be their manager, it was Brian's job to get them a recording contract. He used the clout of his family's record stores in Liverpool to get meetings with all the major British record companies. But the Beatles were rejected by every label including the two biggest companies, EMI and Decca. Brian finally secured a contract for the Beatles in June 1962 when they were signed by George Martin, head of one of EMI's smallest labels, Parlophone.
George Martin commented later that he signed the Beatles in considerable part because of Epstein's enthusiasm. He thought that the Beatles had promise, but he was not entirely convinced by their talent. However, he was very impressed by Epstein's conviction that the Beatles would be world famous.
Shortly after they signed with EMI, John, Paul and George (who had been together as the nucleus of the group since 1958) gave Brian the unpleasant job of telling drummer Pete Best that they wanted him out of the group, to be replaced by Ringo Starr. Brian was uncomfortable but accomplished this difficult task.
In a very real sense Epstein had now passed his 'audition' with the Beatles. In a mere six months he had secured them the record contract that they had desired for so long. And he had proven his ability to handle the most awkward of managerial tasks”.
It is remarkable reading about Brian Epstein and how he came to work with The Beatles and mould them into superstars. One cannot say that Epstein alone was responsible. It was clear his business sense and bond with the boys was hugely important. His savviness, mettle and diplomacy were all key components.
It is tragic that we lost Epstein at such a young age. Not that The Beatles’ lifespan was shortened because of the death. Last year, Far Out Magazine discussed the impact Epstein’s death had on The Beatles:
“Soon the word had spread and The Beatles had been informed that their friend and manager had died in tragic circumstances. At the time, The Beatles were in Bangor, Wales, with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, a guru of Transcendental Meditation whose teachings had begun to infiltrate the Fab Four’s very way of life—but nothing could have prepared them for this shock.
Within hours, news reporters and television cameras had descended on Ringo Starr, George Harrison and John Lennon in Wales while Paul McCartney and his girlfriend Jane Asher made their way directly to London.
It is here that one could argue the first cracks were put in the foundations of The Beatles. Swarmed by media and engulfed by a world so desperate to consume them, suddenly John, Paul, George and Ringo looked out on their own. The footage below from a news report just hours after the news had been shared with the band shows Harrison and Lennon dumbfounded by grief and in complete shock. The sharks began to circle.
But perhaps the real reason that Epstein’s death affected the members of The Beatles so badly was that he was, above all else, a dear, dear friend. “I can’t find words to pay tribute to him. It is just that he was lovable, and it is those lovable things we think about now,” said Lennon at the time. Harrison said of their manager. “He dedicated so much of his life to the Beatles. We liked and loved him. He was one of us,” Starr concurred, “We loved Brian. He was a generous man. We owe so much to him.”
The truth is that we can never be certain whether Epstein’s death did spark off an irreversible chain of events that led to The Beatles break-up. At best, we assume that had he not died the band may have stuck around for a little bit longer, but most of the issues the group were facing had already begun to surface before he passed. What we can be certain of though, is that without Brian Epstein, there would be no such band as The Beatles”.
I think Brian Epstein is one of the most important people in The Beatles’ story. I am not sure exactly when the biopic will be released. I think it will offer long-overdue insight into a man who is such a part of Pop history. From November 1961, when Epstein first encountered the band, to the present day, is almost sixty years. Though The Beatles themselves deserve all the exposure and celebration they have accrued, it is nice to know that, very soon, Brian Epstein will be put…
IN the spotlight.