‘We’ve had enough of performing for ever. I can’t imagine any reason which would make us do any sort of tour ever again.’
Paul says they would do a live stage show, if they could think of a way of doing a stage show that was completely different. But nobody can think of a new way. It looks as if Sid Bernstein will be keeping his million dollars.
It was a brave step, in some ways, to give up doing what had made their name. Very few people, certainly in show business, have given up at the height of their adulation. People often say they intend to give up the public before the public gives up them, but they usually do it too late.
The Beatles had no hesitation. They saw it as the end of Chapter One. Being naive and simple, they did it without knowing what Chapter Two was going to be. All they knew was that it didn’t include the drag of touring and the discomfort of Beatlemania.
26 the death of brian epstein
It was the end of a chapter when the Beatles stopped touring, as Brian Epstein had realized that time in San Francisco. But Brian was resolved, so he told Nat Weiss, to go on and do something else. Which he did, for a time.
NEMS Enterprises had grown into a huge organization, handling many other artists apart from the Beatles — Cilla Black, Gerry and the Pacemakers and many others. They moved into the agency business, they took on a theatre — the Saville — as well as continuing and expanding as artists’ managers.
Although his staff had grown so much since the Liverpool days, the more important personnel were still old friends and contacts from Liverpool. Alistair Taylor, his assistant on the counter at NEMS, who had signed the original contract with the Beatles, rejoined the firm in 1963, after a spell with Pye records.
More important, Geoffrey Ellis and Peter Brown, his two oldest Liverpool friends, also joined NEMS Enterprises in London.
Geoffrey Ellis, the ex-Oxford insurance man in New York, saw a lot of Brian on his American trips and was eventually persuaded to join NEMS in London. His legal knowledge was invaluable in dealing with all contracts. He joined NEMS in October 1964 as a senior executive, becoming a director the following year.
Peter Brown didn’t leave NEMS in Liverpool until mid-1965. He had nothing to do with the Beatle business up till then, continuing simply to manage the record stores in Liverpool, which Brian had given up. But in June 1964, Harry Epstein, Brian’s father, decided to sell most of his shops, although his other son, Clive, stayed on as managing director.
Peter Brown stayed on as well for a while, but didn’t see eye to eye with the new owners. Brian offered him a job instead in NEMS Enterprises in London. ‘I was a bit worried at first, working so closely with Brian again, that it might lead to rows as it had done before. But it worked very well.’ He became Brian’s personal assistant, taking over from Wendy Hanson.
In early 1967 Brian bought a country home in Sussex, which Peter found for him. This was a large, historic country mansion at Kingsley Hill, near Heathfield. It cost £25,000.
He also took on a personal secretary, Joanne Newfield, a niece of Joe Loss. She worked from an office at the top of his London house in Chapel Street, Belgravia. This was necessary, as he did so much of his work at home.
This was the setting, then, of the life of Brian Epstein in the summer of 1967. He was 32, rich, good-looking, charming, popular and gay. He was a household name, known for spotting talent, associated by everyone with the success of the Beatles. He had many other artists and many other interests, particularly the Saville. His ventures there were getting a lot of attention from the press.
He was completely happy and fulfilled, as far as the public could see. According to the Financial Times in the summer of 1967, he was worth seven million pounds. The true figure turned out to be a great deal less, but Brian Epstein was rich enough not to have any money worries for the rest of his life.
Mrs Queenie Epstein, Brian’s mother, arrived in London on 14 August 1967 to spend ten days with her elder son at his Belgravia home. She returned to Liverpool on Thursday, 24 August.
She was in rather a distressed state when she arrived. Her husband Harry had died the previous month, which had upset Brian a great deal as well. Brian went out of his way to make her stay as happy and pleasant as possible. He was organizing a flat for her in Knightsbridge, as it had been decided she should now move to London from Liverpool. He wanted her to be as near him as possible.
Brian altered his normal daily habits to suit and please his mother. Instead of rising very late and going to bed very late, which had become his habit, he managed to be awake and ready each morning when his mother came into his bedroom to draw his curtains. Round about ten o’clock, he and his mother had breakfast together in his bedroom. She then saw him off bright and early to his office in Mayfair, something else that hadn’t been his normal habit for a long time.
Throughout the ten days of his mother’s stay he went into his office every morning and worked there all day. He came home, at a normal coming-home-from-the-office time, and had a meal with his mother. Then they’d watch colour TV together, have a cup of hot chocolate, and go to bed, always well before midnight.
Both Joanne and Peter Brown say he didn’t dislike doing all this. He obviously preferred his usual habits, but he knew it gave his mother pleasure. He loved her and knew that she loved him, so he wanted her to enjoy her stay.
I went to visit her after she’d been there five days, on Friday, 18 August. We had tea and talked about Brian’s childhood. They were obviously very close and affectionate.
Brian showed me out. He talked about his forthcoming visit to the United States and Canada. He was going to appear on a big TV spectacular, as the compere, which he was obviously looking forward to. We made arrangements for me to spend the weekend with him in Sussex on his return.
His mother left the following Thursday for Liverpool. On Thursday evening he had his first night out for almost two weeks, but this was just a quiet dinner with Simon Napier-Bell at Carrier’s Restaurant in Islington. What he was looking forward to most of all was the long weekend, August Bank Holiday weekend, at his country house. He invited Simon Napier-Bell, but he said no, as he had to go to Ireland.
‘Brian left on Friday about 3.30,’ says Joanne. ‘He was all smiling and happy. He told me to have a lovely weekend and he’d see me on Tuesday. I watched him drive off with the roof of his Bentley down, waving at me.’
She knew that his two oldest and closest friends and colleagues, Peter Brown and Geoffrey Ellis, were also due to go down to Sussex for the weekend with Brian. She heard from Peter, later in the afternoon, that he would be setting off much later than he’d intended. She realized that Brian would therefore be down there for a few hours on his own. She hoped Peter wouldn’t be too late for dinner.
‘I did get there in time for dinner,’ says Peter Brown. ‘We had a very good meal, just the three of us, with a bottle of wine and a couple of ports afterwards.
‘I was supposed to be bringing some other people down with me, but at the last moment they hadn’t turned up. Brian was very disappointed by this. It was his first weekend in the country for a while and he was looking forward to enjoying himself, meeting a few new people. He didn’t really fancy just spending it with his two oldest and very familiar friends.’
Brian rang a few numbers in London, trying to contact people, but it was a Friday night before a long August Bank Holiday weekend and no one was available. Around ten o’clock, Brian decided to go back to London instead.