Dick James, their music publisher, has no such ambivalent position. His relationship with them is purely business, though they are very fond of him.
Dick James is, on paper, a millionaire, thanks not simply to the Beatles, but also to the fact that he built up his firm so well and attracted many other artists.
Today, his one-room office days are far behind. He has his own posh block of offices in New Oxford Street — Dick James House, no less. The ground floor also contains a branch of the Midland Bank. Very handy. From this building Northern Songs, Dick James Music and many other companies operate. He now has a staff of 32 people and 6,000 square feet of office space on four floors.
Dick James still has a lot to do for the Beatles, plugging and selling their records. He says no one is so good that the release and promotion of their work doesn’t need to be properly worked out. But his main job is collecting their royalties. It’s up to him to fight for good terms, even though many percentages are laid down by agreements in the trade.
When they brought out their Magical Mystery Tour records, in a unique package, of two extended players inside a book, he had to do a lot of haggling with EMI over what their royalties would be for that. This entailed endless discussions over fractions of a farthing. Multiplied by millions, fractions of a farthing matter.
Dick James has also branched out, as most of the old sheet music people have had to. He now does every aspect of record work, even hiring recording studios and producing his own records, then leasing them to the big companies to sell. Like George Martin, he was enormously affected by the Beatles and then went on to make his mark in his own part of the show-business industry.
The Beatles’ personal buddies are all Liverpool lads like themselves. Many people have appeared or been connected with them at different stages of their lives, but only one or two have retained links. Alex Marda, the electronics expert, Robert Fraser, the art gallery owner, and Victor Spinetti, the actor who was in their film Help!, are still friends, but most people are dropped completely once any contract is finished, such as the making of a film or a record. Even when they’re looking for someone new to do something, they tend to dig out an even older mate from the past, such as Pete Shotton.
Pete Shotton was John’s best friend from the age of about three. They were the bad lads at Quarry Bank together. But Pete went into the police force from school and lost contact with John. He gave up the police after three years, realizing that it was completely against his nature, and drifted into a series of dead-end jobs, such as looking after a café that went bust.
In 1965, when Pete had no job and no money, he met John again by chance in Liverpool. John said he would back Pete in any enterprise he wanted to start. ‘I was on holiday in Hampshire when I noticed this supermarket on Hayling Island. I liked the look of it. So John bought it for me to run. It cost £20,000.’
On the face of it, John was taking a big chance, investing so much money in Pete, with no proof of his competence, more the opposite if anything. But Pete managed the supermarket for almost two years, very successfully, making good profits. He increased its value and expanded it to include a menswear department.
‘If John hadn’t come along then, I might have ended up a crook. This is what John says he might have ended up himself. I had no money at all. I was getting into lots of shady deals and meeting bad people through the cafés.’
In the autumn of 1967, John asked Pete to leave the supermarket in Hayling Island — Pete’s mother took it over as manager — and come up to London to work for Apple. He opened the first Apple Boutique, in Baker Street, and became the manager.
Terry Doran, another Liverpool friend, is also employed by Apple. He runs their music publishing department. Terry was originally in Brian’s Liverpool circle, but got to know the others from the earliest days. When their success started, Brian set Terry up with his own car firm — he’d originally been a car salesman in Liverpool. This was called Brydor Cars (after Brian and Doran). It sold cars to the Beatles, among others, but eventually closed.
Alistair Taylor, who was with NEMS (the shop) in Liverpool and then with NEMS Enterprises (the show-business agency) and witnessed the original Beatles’ contract, is now also working for Apple as office manager.
John’s other childhood friend, Ivan Vaughan, is not employed by the Beatles in any way, but is still a close friend. He went to school with Paul, and it was he who introduced Paul to John and his Quarrymen skiffle group. He is now training to be an educational psychiatrist.
The Beatles’ two closest, ever-present and most important helpers and buddies are Neil and Mal. Neil (or Nell) Aspinall was their first road manager. Mal Evans joined them later, after a spot of bouncing at the Cavern club. Both, alone, were their road managers during all their big tours round the world.
Even in those days, they didn’t like the term road manager. They did anything and everything. Now that they don’t tour, it is even less applicable. Their relationship with the Beatles is very subtle, almost medieval. They are paid retainers, they do humble fetching and carrying, yet there is no master-servant relationship. They’re just mates, who happen to get paid for being mates, whenever or wherever any Beatle decides he wants a mate.
Mal is big and well built, very bland and good natured, solid and sensible. Neil is smaller, slender, clever and outspoken. He would obviously be prepared to give it all up any time and just leave, if there was ever a serious disagreement. He does say no if he doesn’t want to do something, though he could only think of one time when he said he didn’t want to go anywhere. This was when John said he would be coming with him to Spain for the filming of How I Won The War. In the end, Neil gave in and went, hanging around the set for days, so that John would have someone to talk to afterwards, apart from the actors, with whom they didn’t have much in common.
Mal, on the other hand, with his years of doing a regular job, sees everything as part of his job and has no complaints about anything he has to do.
‘In America we were constantly being asked, “What will you do when the bubble bursts?”’ says Neil. ‘It never worried me then and still doesn’t. I’ll be doing something else, that’s all. I’ve no idea what I’m going to do for the rest of my life. It never worries me.’
When the touring came to an end in 1966, they had a less strenuous life. But during recordings or TV or film work, Mal and Neil still go back to the old routine, getting them to and from the studios and making sure the instruments and equipment are ready.
They both follow Beatle fashion, growing moustaches and long sideboards when the others did, or wearing long neckerchiefs. They are completely part of the group. They look and talk the same.
When the Beatles are not recording, then Mal and Neil’s life is much more irregular with long periods of doing nothing, but they are always expected to be on call. ‘We’re supposed to take alternate weeks, but we just both always seem to be around.’
When any of the Beatles individually has to go somewhere on his own, Mal or Neil accompanies him. Neil went with John on his film. Mal went with Paul to the USA to see Jane and with Ringo to Rome for his film. In February 1968 he was the one who went with them to India to see Maharishi.
They also do a lot of work liaising between the Beatles and people like Dick James, especially Neil. It’s his job to make sure the words of a song are written down correctly and get sent to Dick James. They also help out sometimes by actually playing maraccas, triangles or anything else. John often asks Neil for ideas for the last lines of songs. They both appeared in Magical Mystery Tour. Mal was one of the five magicians. They write regular Beatle chat for Beatles Monthly. Mal is also a good photographer.