When Apple Corps lost its battle with Apple Inc. in the High Court in London last year, it was Neil Aspinall who stepped forward and said: “With great respect to the trial judge, we consider he has reached the wrong conclusion. We felt that during the course of the trial we clearly demonstrated just how extensively Apple Computer had broken the agreement.”
In fact, each time Apple Corps made a statement in relation to the court battle, it came from Aspinall. That’s because Apple Corps and Aspinall are synonymous. After 40 years at the helm of the company, it would be surprising if it were any other way. Now Aspinall has announced he is to step-down from the helm at Apple Corps. But who is this man, Neil Aspinall?
Born in England in 1942, Aspinall met Paul McCartney and George Harrison at the Liverpool Institute, where they all studied. When McCartney and Harrison joined John Lennon and Stuart Sutcliffe to form The Beatles, Aspinall hung around, helping out the band and eventually becoming road manager. According to Wikipedia, he also played tambura on ‘Within You, Without You’, harmonica on ‘Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite’, and backing vocals on ‘Yellow Submarine’. But it was with the formation of Apple Corps., and its subsidiary, Apple Records, that Aspinall really found his role.
Apple Corps. which, as well as Apple Records, also included Apple Electronics, the Apple Boutique, Apple Films, and Apple Publications, was founded on the basis of advice from the Beatles accountants. John, Paul, George, and Ringo were told that if they didn’t invest a sizeable chunk of their capital in a business venture, they would lose it to the taxman. Despite being essentially an umbrella to look after The Beatles financial and business interests, it was presented to the world’s media by Lennon and McCartney as a form of “Western Communism”, designed to give struggling artists around the world financial help.
Following Brian Epstein’s death, Lennon brought in US lawyer, Allen Klein to manage the band’s affairs, and Klein set about sacking some key Apple Corps. employees in order to bring its finances under control. This brought Klein and Aspinall into conflict and in 1971 Aspinall launched a lawsuit against Klein which wouldn’t be resolved until 1977.
During that time and in the thirty years since, Apple Records has been the only source of revenue for Apple Corps., other than the financial settlements from lawsuits such as the two successful suits it launched against Apple Computer in the Eighties and Nineties.
Apple Records revenue comes from licensing Beatles recordings, something which Aspinall has been notoriously choosy about, which is why so few Beatles tracks turn up on compilation albums.
In 1995 that strategy looked very astute, when Aspinall produced the Beatles Anthology collections and later the Number Ones compilation. The Anthology collections, of which there were three in total, contained two ‘new’ Beatles tracks, ‘Free as a Bird’ and ‘Real Love’ which included archive recordings of Lennon singing. The scarcity of Beatles re-releases, not to mention new material, led to a media frenzy, including an ITV television series, and huge sales. During the publicity surrounding the first release, The Sunday Times published an article in which it described Aspinall as ‘the shadowy figure who was working in the background even before Ringo joined the band’
Shadowy figure or not, Aspinall kept Apple Corps going, and himself at the helm for nearly forty years. He was astute enough to recognize the potential for Beatles back-catalogue material to be released as downloads and would certainly have been involved in the negotiations to make that happen. Whether it was disagreements during those negotiations that led him to quit or whether he just felt the time was right to go is speculation for another day.
Edit: removed reference to quote from Sunday Times 1995 article describing Apple Records and bankruptcy as I now believe it was a misquote.
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10 responses so far ↓
1 James // May 21, 2007 at 1:19 pm
How can you write blogs about subjects which you try to sound knowledgable only to then preface your quotes and facts with the line ‘According to Wikipedia’… Before writing you should prove that youre capable of at least some considered research to back up your judging of a man; not use a tone of obvious ignorance. You’re hardly impartial with your choice of information you decide to include concerning Neil Aspinall. Why would you write about something you know nothing about??
2 Kenny // May 21, 2007 at 1:38 pm
@ James
I used Wikipedia for one piece of trivia that had no material bearing on the rest of the piece. All of the research for the key facts and quotes was carried out using mainstream media publications such as The Sunday Times. And if you think that only those who can write on a subject using information sourced from the top of their head should put pen to paper, then I’m afraid your deluded about the way all media works. Using past interviews and articles as research is a legitimate and common practice.
If you feel that the article is biased, please supply the information you would like to have seen included as a comment. And obviously if there are factual inaccuracies, I’ll be happy to correct them.
As for my judging the man, I didn’t. I may have selected quotes from one article that weren’y particularly complimentary. However, they were representative of much of what has been written about him in the past. My only comment was, if anything, favourable.
3 Randy FX // Jun 1, 2007 at 4:48 am
The Sunday Times article above is WRONG to say Aspinall “led” The Beatles to the brink of chaos and bankruptcy. In the 1960’s Aspinall was NOT a leader at Apple. The Beatles hired friends to supervise such projects as Apple Electronics, Studios and the Boutique. Ron Kass was president of Apple Records (a successful label). Someone else ran Apple Publishing, which successfully signed Badfinger. (So the “bankruptcy” claim is exxaggerated.)
Yes, Apple lost money due to excess catering, bad studios and poor deals. But Aspinall was regarded as a friend-advisor-confidant-driver, he did not lead Apple.
Because he avoids the media, there is a mystique around Neil Aspinall. Sir Paul McCartney calls him “Mr. X.” His wife was born in the USA and is the daughter of the film producer who produced “Hard Day’s Night”. Neil began compiling the Beatles documentary that became “Anthology” all the back in 1970.
4 Another 5th Beatle passes | MetaFilter // Mar 26, 2008 at 7:01 pm
[…] of lung cancer. He was the head of the Beatles’ Apple Corporation until about a year ago, when he resigned after the settlement of a long running dispute with Apple Computer. Aspinall was a friend and […]
5 News » Another 5th Beatle passes // Mar 27, 2008 at 11:04 am
[…] of lung cancer. He was the head of the Beatles’ Apple Corporation until about a year ago, when he resigned after the settlement of a long running dispute with Apple Computer. Aspinall was a friend and […]
6 Richard // Mar 31, 2008 at 3:56 pm
Your quote:
Apple Corps. was woefully mis-managed from the start and in 1995, The Sunday Times described Aspinall as ‘merrily leading them (The Beatles) to the brink of chaos and bankruptcy.’
This was a poorly researched piece of journalism when first published.
All evidence is to the contrary yet you choose to quote this.
Real journalists are acknowledged for telling the truth not perpetuating wild fiction.
7 Kenny // Mar 31, 2008 at 10:48 pm
@Richard
If you care to qualify your assertion by giving examples of evidence to the contrary, I’ll be happy to publish them.
8 Richard // Apr 1, 2008 at 6:15 pm
My assertion is based on fact through loosely knowing the people involved and reading up on the subject in question beforehand (as you should have done before typing).
I’m not interested in doing your job for you by supplying you with information already in the public domain.
You have failed to show any original evidence to substantiate your article (which you acknowledge was written over ten years ago ).
I sincerely hope that one day I have a colourful friend/ accountant who makes me a fortune in excess of £20 Billion through shrewd careful negotiation.
Did somebody mention bankruptcy… Oh yeah… You did !
Neil didn’t suffer journalist fools gladly and he wouldn’t waste his time arguing with them or defending himself because he didn’t have a huge ego.
In the light of your piece above and your defence of it … is it any wonder he rarely gave interviews.
9 Kenny // Apr 1, 2008 at 10:51 pm
@Richard
Having further researched that Sunday Times article, it appears that there are at least two versions of that quote published online. I now believe that the quote I published was inaccurate and have removed it. For the record, I accept that the Sunday Times described Apple and not Aspinall as leading the band to the brink of bankruptcy (although I’m sure his long expensive lunches with Peter Brown didn’t help [source:Alistair Taylor]).
I don’t have an axe to grind and believe that the rest of the post was well balanced.
10 h // Apr 16, 2008 at 6:34 pm
I think Neil Aspinall quit because he was tired. I think he had had a few heart attacks behind him and he finally realized that he needed a break. Like other workaholics that I know, he never did get much of a retirement before his health caught up with him.
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