Neil Aspinall
Neil Aspinall | |
---|---|
née Ornstein) | |
Children | Vincent "Roag" Best (with Mona Best), daughters Gayla, Dhara and Mandy and son Julian (with Suzy Aspinall) |
Neil Stanley Aspinall (13 October 1941 – 24 March 2008) was a British music industry executive. A school friend of Paul McCartney and George Harrison, he went on to head the Beatles' company Apple Corps.
The Beatles employed Aspinall first as their road manager, which included driving his old Commer van to and from shows, both day and night. After Mal Evans started work for the Beatles, Aspinall was promoted to become their personal assistant, later becoming chief executive of their company, Apple Corps. He was one of several Beatles associates to earn the nickname "the fifth Beatle".[1][2][3]
On behalf of Apple, Aspinall was involved in court cases against
Early life
Aspinall was born in
Aspinall later commented about his first meeting with George Harrison, who also attended the Liverpool Institute: "My first encounter with George was behind the school's
The Beatles
The Beatles played at the opening of
The Beatles were driven down to London by Aspinall on New Year's Eve in 1961, for their
Best was sacked from the Beatles on 16 August 1962, by manager Brian Epstein acting on behalf of Lennon, McCartney and Harrison. Accounts vary of Aspinall during this event. According to MerseyBeat editor Bill Harry, Aspinall was waiting downstairs in Epstein's NEMS record shop, and was the first one to talk to the by then ex-Beatle in the Grapes pub, across from the Cavern.[19] Aspinall was furious and said that he would stop working for the band as well, but Best strongly advised him not to.[5] Aspinall asked McCartney and Lennon at the next concert why they had fired Best and was told, "It's got nothing to do with you. You're only the driver."[20] However, in a 2007 interview, Aspinall provided Beatles historian Mark Lewisohn with a distinctly different version of events, saying that he was physically present when Epstein sacked Best, that he told Best unprompted that he planned to continue working for the band, and that on his first subsequent encounter with the other band members, their first question to him was how Best had taken being sacked.[21] Aspinall stayed with the band, ending his affair with Best's mother, a relationship that had led to the birth of baby Vincent "Roag" Best. Aspinall denied the story for years before publicly acknowledging that he was indeed Roag's father.[22]
Aspinall worked closely with Epstein, who provided weekly notes for Aspinall to give to the group members detailing their concert appearances and the fees they would receive.[23] The Beatles had to travel in Aspinall's van along with their equipment, but British roads in the early 1960s were notoriously pot-holed and slow to navigate.[24] Ringo Starr remembered that the travelling never seemed to stop during the early tours of Britain in Aspinall's van, as they would be driven up and down Great Britain with one of the group in the passenger seat, but with the other three on a hard bench seat in the back.[25]
Personal assistant
Aspinall's job as personal assistant consisted of driving to concerts and meetings, but mostly meant just being there whenever someone needed something.
After recording sessions, Lennon, Harrison and Starr would be chauffeured back to their houses in the '
Musical contributions
Although not a musician, Aspinall made minor contributions to a handful of the Beatles' recordings. He played a
Manager
Following the death of Epstein in August 1967, there was a vacuum in the management of the Beatles' affairs. The Beatles asked Aspinall to take over the management of Apple Corps in 1968, which had been founded in April of the same year.[35] Aspinall later said that he only accepted the position after being asked, but did not want to do it full-time, and would only do it "until they found somebody else."[36] George Martin (The Beatles' record producer) was against the idea, as he thought that Aspinall did not have the necessary social qualifications to be able to speak to the upper class executives at EMI.[37] Aspinall accompanied McCartney and Lennon to New York on 11 May 1968, to announce the formation of Apple to the American Media.[38] Apple Corps had five divisions: electronics, film, publishing, records and retailing. Aspinall later spoke of the Beatles' business arrangements:
"We did not have one single piece of paper. No contracts. The lawyer, the accountants and Brian, whoever, had that. The Beatles had been given copies of various contracts, maybe, I don't know. I didn't know what the [recording] contract was with EMI, or with the film people or the
publishers or anything at all. So it was a case of building up a filing system, find out what was going on while we were trying to continue doing something."[39]
Apple Corps executive
In 1978, Aspinall instigated the first of
In September 2003, Apple Computer, Inc. was again sued by Apple Corps, this time for the introduction of the iTunes Music Store and the iPod, which Aspinall and Apple Corps believed was a violation of the previous agreement for Apple Computer to not distribute music. The trial began on 27 March 2006 in the UK, and ended on 8 May 2006 in a victory for Apple Computer; the judge ruled the company's iTunes Music Store did not infringe on the trademark of Apple Corps.[45] Aspinall was also involved in several court cases in which Apple Corps took action against EMI:[46]
We have tried to reach a settlement through good faith negotiations and regret that our efforts have been in vain. Despite very clear provisions in our contracts, EMI persist in ignoring their obligations and duty to account fairly and with transparency. The Beatles and Apple are, once again, left with no choice but to sue EMI.[47][48]
In the early 1990s, Aspinall became the executive producer for One of Aspinall's final tasks at Apple was to oversee the remastering of The Beatles' back-catalogue for an anticipated 2008 release.
Personal life and death
In 1961 and 1962, Aspinall had become good friends with Pete Best and subsequently rented a room in the house where Best lived with his parents. During one of the extended business trips of Best's stepfather, the 19-year-old[51] Aspinall became romantically involved with Best's mother, Mona Best, who was 17 years his senior. As a result, during this period, Aspinall fathered a child by Mona: Vincent "Roag" Best.[10][52] Roag Best was born in late July 1962, and just three weeks later, on 16 August 1962, Best was dismissed from the Beatles.[5][19]
On 30 August 1968, Aspinall married Suzy Ornstein at the
Aspinall died of lung cancer in New York City in 2008.
References
- ^ Kozinn, Allan (24 March 2008). "Neil Aspinall, Beatles Aide, Dies at 66". The New York Times.
- ^ Lister, David (24 March 2008). "Neil Aspinall - a story worth telling". The Independent.
- ^ "Beatles Manager and Mentor Neil Aspinall Passes Away". Rolling Stone. 24 March 2008.
- ^ The Beatles Anthology DVD 2003 (Episode 1 – 0:19:07) Aspinall talking about being at school with McCartney.
- ^ a b c Neil Aspinall Biography – Mersey Beat triumphpc.com – Retrieved 11 February 2007
- ^ a b c First meeting with George Harrison – Merseybeat triumphpc.com – Retrieved 11 February 2007
- ^ The Beatles Book No.3, October 1963 – Retrieved 3 May 2024
- ^ a b Unterberger, R., "Neil Aspinall biography" Allmusic link allmusic.com – Retrieved 8 October 2006
- ^ Photo of The Casbah Club samleach.com – Retrieved 8 October 2006
- ^ a b Lennon 2005, p. 44.
- ^ The Beatles Anthology DVD 2003 (Episode 1 – 0:55:54) Aspinall talking his early days with The Beatles.
- ^ Miles 1997, p. 73.
- ^ photo of Aspinall’s van being loaded on the ferry to Hamburg beatlesource.com – Retrieved 4 November 2007
- ^ Spitz 2005, p. 285.
- ^ Miles 1997, p. 89.
- ^ Lennon 2005, p. 108.
- ^ Miles 1997, pp. 92–93.
- ^ "Photo of Aspinall and Mal Evans". Archived from the original on 4 August 2009. Retrieved 10 October 2010.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) geocities.com – Retrieved 12 February 2007 - ^ a b Spitz 2005, p. 331.
- ^ a b Aspinall, The Beatles and money – Mersey Beat triumphpc.com – Retrieved 11 February 2007
- ^ Lewisohn 2013.
- ^ "Faces of the week". BBC News. 13 April 2007. Retrieved 22 August 2015.
- ^ Spitz 2005, p. 280.
- ^ Spitz 2005, pp. 376–379.
- ^ The Beatles Anthology DVD 2003 (Episode 2 – 0:13:46) Ringo Starr talking about touring in Aspinall's van
- ^ Spitz 2005, p. 736.
- ^ Spitz 2005, p. 464.
- ^ Miles 1997, p. 336.
- ^ The Beatles Anthology DVD 2003 (Episode 6 – 0:43:21) Aspinall talking about Sgt. Pepper being the compere.
- ^ Miles 1997, pp. 166–167.
- ^ Location of The Bag o’Nails revolverbook.co.uk – Retrieved 11 February 2007
- ^ Miles 1997, p. 141.
- ^ "15 February 1965: John Lennon passes his driving test". The Beatles Bible. 15 February 1965. Retrieved 22 August 2015.
- ^ "1 July 1969: John Lennon crashes his car in Scotland". The Beatles Bible. July 1969. Retrieved 22 August 2015.
- ^ Miles 1997, p. 440.
- ^ Granados 2004, p. 12.
- ^ Spitz 2005, p. 735.
- ^ Spitz 2005, p. 716.
- ^ Granados 2004, p. 19.
- ^ DiLello 2005, p. 54.
- ^ Miles 1997, p. 546.
- ^ The Sunday Times: The Culture: Section 10: 12 November 1995, pages 4–5
- ^ History of Apple v Apple: bbc.co.uk 8 May 2006 news.bbc.co.uk – Retrieved 3 February 2007
- ^ a b Miles 1997, pp. 581–582.
- ^ Beatles lose court case against Apple Inc., bbc.co.uk: 11 May 2006 bbc.co.uk/worldservice – Retrieved 29 January 2007
- ^ Apple V EMI – Times Online 31 August 2006 timesonline.co.uk – Retrieved 11 February 2007
- ^ EMI court case, bbc.co.uk: 31 August 2006 timesonline.co.uk – Retrieved 29 January 2007
- ^ The Beatles and EMI’s court cases: bbc.co.uk 16 December 2005 news.bbc.co.uk – Retrieved 3 February 2007
- ^ "Beatles' friend quits top job at Apple Corps". NME. 10 April 2007. Retrieved 10 April 2007.
- New York Times, 12 April 2007, passim. (link)
- ^ Williams, Richard. "Obituary – Neil Aspinall", The Guardian, 25 March 2008
- ^ "Review of "Drummed Out" – The sacking of Pete Best". Archived from the original on 17 December 2007. Retrieved 11 February 2007.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) iol.ie/~beatlesireland – Retrieved 17 July 2009. - ^ Beatles People – Photo of Neil Aspinall Archived 2 February 2007 at the Wayback Machine beatles.ws/bpeople – Retrieved 12 February 2007
- ^ Murashev, Dmitry (12 April 2008). "1968 year in Beatles history". DM Beatles. Retrieved 6 August 2008.
- ^ Neil Aspinall, Beatles’ Aide, Dies at 66 by Allan Kozinn; The New York Times – 25 March 2008 nytimes.com – Retrieved 25 March 2008
- OCLC 42585927. MCADV-12008.)
{{cite AV media notes}}
: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link - ^ "Neil Aspinall, 'the fifth Beatle', dies aged 66". The Daily Telegraph. 25 March 2008. Archived from the original on 12 January 2022. Retrieved 23 September 2012.
Neil Aspinall, who has died aged 66, was the Beatles' original road manager and went on to run the group's business empire for 40 years; he became their chief confidant and, although not the only contender for the title of the fifth Beatle, perhaps deserved the accolade more than most. ...
- ^ "McCartney Visits Aspinall as he Fights". Archived from the original on 29 March 2008. Retrieved 24 March 2008.
- ^ "Obituary: Neil Aspinall". BBC. 24 March 2008. Retrieved 25 March 2008.
- ^ Singh, Anita (9 April 2008). "Yoko Ono and Stella McCartney attend 'fifth Beatle' Neil Aspinall's funeral". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 12 April 2008. Retrieved 27 April 2008.
- ^ Weston, Alan (28 July 2008). "Beatles' aide left £7m in will". Liverpool Daily Post. Retrieved 30 July 2008.
Sources
- ISBN 978-1-901680-65-2.
- DiLello, Richard (2005). ISBN 978-1-84195-602-2.
- Granados, Stefan (2004). Those Were the Days. Cherry Red Books. ISBN 978-1-901447-12-5.
- Lennon, Cynthia (2005). John. Hodder & Stoughton. ISBN 978-0-340-89512-2.
- Lewisohn, Mark (2013). The Beatles – All These Years – Extended Special Edition: Part Two: Volume One: Tune In. Little, Brown. ISBN 978-1-4087-0545-2.
- ISBN 0-7493-8658-4.
- ISBN 978-0-316-80352-6.
- ISBN 0-304-35605-0.
- Apple records. ASIN: B00008GKEG.
External links