by Barry Miles
Editor: David Cashion
Interior Design: Paul Palmer-Edwards/Grade Design Consultants
Production Manager: Alex Cameron
Library of Congress Control Number: 2016934567
ISBN: 978-1-4197-2221-9
eISBN: 978-1-6131-2318-8
First published in Great Britain 2015 by Peter Owen Publishers by arrangement with Elephant Book Company Limited
Copyright © 2016 Elephant Book Company Limited
Published in 2016 by Abrams Image, an imprint of ABRAMS. All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, mechanical, electronic, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the publisher.
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Contents
An Apple–Zapple Chronology
Prequel: From Apple to Zapple
1: ‘Z’ is for Zapple
2: The Idea
3: Savile Row
4: Blue Meanies
5: Hells Angels
6: East Coast
7: The Big O
8: The Poetry Farm
9: The First Trip: LA – Bukowski
10: The First Trip: SF – Brautigan
11: The First Trip: SF – Ferlinghetti – McClure
12: Back in Blighty
13: Unfinished Music No. 2: Life with the Lions
14: Electronic Sound
15: Apple Crumble
16: The Second Trip: Allen Ginsberg
17: The Second Trip: LA
18: Meanwhile Back in the USA
The Artists
Notes
Bibliography
Picture Credits
An Apple-Zapple Chronology
1967
19 APRIL: The Beatles and Co. Ltd created to bind the group together for ten years, sharing their income equally.
17 NOVEMBER: The Beatles Ltd becomes Apple Music Ltd.
24 NOVEMBER: John and Paul attend the first Grapefruit recording session at IBC Studios, Portland Place; the band were to become Apple’s first signing.
5 DECEMBER: John and George attend party to celebrate forthcoming opening of the Apple Boutique at 94 Baker Street.
7 DECEMBER: Apple Boutique opens to the public.
11 DECEMBER: Grapefruit signed to Apple.
1968
12 JANUARY: Apple Music becomes Apple Corps Ltd, the holding company for all the Apple brands.
20 APRIL: Apple places advertisements in newspapers advertising for talent.
5 MAY: Twiggy sees Mary Hopkin on the Opportunity Knocks television talent show and calls Paul.
11–15 MAY: Paul, John, Ron Kass, ‘Magic’ Alex, Derek Taylor, Denis O’Dell and others in New York to give interviews and for Apple board meeting, held on a Chinese junk in New York Harbor.
15 MAY: Paul and John announce Apple on the Today Show.
JUNE: Internal memo at Apple asks staff to think of a name for a ‘freaky sounds’ subsidiary.
20 JUNE: Paul addresses the Capitol Records sales conference in Los Angeles.
22 JUNE: Apple buys 3 Savile Row for £500,000 as Apple headquarters.
30 JUNE: Paul produced ‘Thingumybob’ by Bradford’s Black Dyke Mills Band in Yorkshire.
17 JULY: Paul attends première of Yellow Submarine – an Apple film.
31 JULY: Apple Boutique closed.
11 AUGUST: Apple Records launched.
16 AUGUST: ‘Those Were the Days’ / ‘Turn! Turn! Turn!’ by Mary Hopkin and ‘Thingumybob’ / ‘Yellow Submarine’ by the Black Dyke Mills Band released.
30 AUGUST: ‘Hey Jude’ / ‘Revolution’ by the Beatles released and ‘Sour Milk Sea’ / ‘The Eagle Laughs at You’ by Jackie Lomax released.
4 SEPTEMBER: ‘Hey Jude’ promotional film recorded at Twickenham Film Studios.
8 SEPTEMBER: ‘Hey Jude’ promotional film first shown on the Frost on Sunday show, London Weekend Television.
18 OCTOBER: John and Yoko busted for drugs at Montagu Square.
NOVEMBER: George Harrison produced Jackie Lomax’s Is This What You Want? album at Sound Recorders studios in Los Angeles.
NOVEMBER: George Harrison records ‘No Time or Space’ on the Moog synthesizer at Sound Recorders as Bernie Kraus demonstrates the machine’s capabilities. It later appears on his Electronic Sound album.
1 NOVEMBER: Wonderwall Music album by George Harrison released.
9 NOVEMBER: Unfinished Music No. 1: Two Virgins album by John and Yoko released. EMI refuse to distribute it so they have to find independent distributors.
15 NOVEMBER: ‘Maybe Tomorrow’ / ‘And Her Daddy’s a Millionaire’ by the Iveys released.
15 NOVEMBER: ‘Back in the USSR’ / ‘Don’t Pass Me By’ by the Beatles released.
30 NOVEMBER: The Beatles (The White Album) released.
6 DECEMBER: James Taylor’s album James Taylor released.
6 DECEMBER: The Modern Jazz Quartet’s Under the Jasmin Tree album released.
1969
17 JANUARY: The Beatles’ Yellow Submarine soundtrack album released.
24 JANUARY: ‘Road to Nowhere’ / ‘Illusions’ by Trash (formerly White Trash) released.
29 JANUARY: The author (Barry Miles) arrives in New York to begin recording sessions with Ken Weaver and Charles Olson.
FEBRUARY: George Harrison records ‘Under the Mersey Wall’ which later appears on Electronic Sound.
3 FEBRUARY: Apple sends out a press release announcing Zapple in the USA.
4 FEBRUARY: Eastman and Eastman appointed as General Council for Apple.
8 FEBRUARY: Allen Klein appointed as business adviser to Apple.
21 FEBRUARY: Mary Hopkin’s album Postcard produced by Paul McCartney, launched at a party at the Post Office Tower. Paul McCartney and Jimi Hendrix in attendance.
21 FEBRUARY: Mary Hopkin’s Postcard released.
MARCH: The author records albums by Richard Brautigan, Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Michael McClure at Golden State Recorders, San Francisco, for Zapple.
1 MARCH: Paul McCartney back in studio with Mary Hopkin.
2 MARCH: John and Yoko appear at Lady Mitchell Hall, Cambridge, as part of a concert of experimental music. Their contribution is later released on Unfinished Music No. 2: Life with the Lions.
7 MARCH: ‘Lontano Dagli Occhi’ / ‘The Game’ by Mary Hopkin released. ‘Prince en Avignon’ / ‘The Game’ by Mary Hopkin released. (The Beatles were doing as they did in the early days and recording foreign-language versions of their records.)
7 MARCH: ‘Carolina on My Mind’ / ‘Taking It In’ by James Taylor released in the USA.
11 MARCH: Paul plays drums on Jackie Lomax’s ‘Thumbin’ a Ride’.
12 MARCH: Paul McCartney and Linda Eastman married at Marylebone Register Office.
12 MARCH: George Harrison and Pattie Boyd busted for drugs at home in Esher.
14 MARCH: Jackie Lomax’s Is This What You Want? album released.
16 MARCH: ‘King of Fuh’ / ‘Nobody Knows’ by Brute Force released (press copies only, then withdrawn).
20 MARCH: John Lennon and Yoko Ono married in Gibraltar.
21 MARCH: Allen Klein appointed business manager of Apple.
28 MARCH: ‘Goodbye’ / ‘Sparrow’ by Mary Hopkin released.
18 APRIL: ‘Get Back’ / ‘Don’t Let Me Down’ by the Beatles rel
eased.
24 APRIL: Paul says he is not dead, but many gullible Americans continue to believe he is.
1 MAY: Zapple label launched in the USA.
5 MAY: Lew Grade’s ATV Ltd gains control of Northern Songs, the publishers of the Beatles’ songs.
8 MAY: Alistair Taylor, Ron Kass, ‘Magic’ Alex and four other executives and their secretaries sacked by Allen Klein.
8 MAY: Jack Oliver appointed head of Apple Records despite having no experience of running a record company.
8 MAY: Paul McCartney refuses to sign a management agreement with Allen Klein; the other three Beatles do.
9 MAY: Zapple label launched in the UK.
9 MAY: Unfinished Music No. 2: Life with the Lions by John and Yoko released on Zapple.
9 MAY: Electronic Sound by George Harrison released on Zapple.
9 MAY: ‘New Day’ / ‘Fall Inside Your Eyes’ by Jackie Lomax released.
30 MAY: ‘Ballad of John and Yoko’ / ‘Old Brown Shoe’ released.
JUNE: Peter Asher, head of A&R at Apple resigns. Denis O’Dell, head of Apple Films, resigns. A quarter of the original staff have now gone.
JUNE: Zapple closed. There was no announcement, the funding was simply cut off.
27 JUNE: ‘That’s the Way God Planned It’ / ‘What About You?’ by Billy Preston released.
4 JULY: ‘Give Peace a Chance’ / ‘Remember Love’ by the Plastic Ono Band released.
8 AUGUST: Iain Macmillan photographs the Beatles on the zebra crossing outside Abbey Road studios to use on their new album, Abbey Road.
26 SEPTEMBER: Abbey Road by the Beatles released.
1970
10 APRIL: Derek Taylor issues the last press release to originate from Apple headquarters; after that Klein hires an outside agency. The original Apple was effectively dead; however, records continued to be released until 6 February 1976, with George Harrison’s ‘This Guitar (Can’t Keep From Crying)’/ ‘Maya Love’, and there have been subsequent reissues under the existing Apple Records.
Prequel: From Apple to Zapple
APPLE WAS CREATED IN 1967 to bring the Beatles’ enterprises together for tax purposes, so that instead of paying nineteen and sixpence in the pound the Beatles paid only sixteen shillings (there were twenty shillings in the pound). The original directors were Clive Epstein, Alistair Taylor, Geoffrey Ellis, a solicitor and an accountant, and the idea was that they would quietly announce to the tax authorities that they would be opening a string of shops. Alistair Taylor told American author Geoffrey Giuliano: ‘That was the original idea and when the boys heard about this they decided this could be boring, they didn’t really want their name above a string of shops. The original idea was greetings cards. Imagine Beatles greetings cards shops! They didn’t like that at all. Gradually they started drifting in on meetings and Apple Corps really evolved from there. Later it turned into this silly philosophy.’1 John Lennon was suitably scathing:
Clive Epstein or some other such business freak came up to us and said you’ve got to spend so much money, or the tax will take you. We were thinking of opening a chain of retail clothes shops or some barmy thing like that . . . and we were all thinking that if we are going to open a shop let’s open something we’re interested in, and we went through all these different ideas about this, that and the other. Paul had a nice idea about opening up white houses, where we would sell white china and things like that, everything white, because you can never get anything white, you know, which was pretty groovy, and it didn’t end up with that, it ended up with Apple and all this junk and The Fool and all those stupid clothes and all that.2
Clive Epstein, Brian’s brother, worked in the financial administration side of the New End Music Stores (NEMS), Epstein’s management company, and set to work. On 19 April 1967 the Beatles became a legal partnership sharing all their income, whether from group, live or solo work (except songwriting) and The Beatles and Co. Ltd was created to bind them together legally for ten years on a goodwill share issue of £1 million. The first anyone in the public would have known of it was on 19 May 1967, with the launch of Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, which had a discreet green apple on the back sleeve. On 17 November The Beatles Ltd changed its name to Apple Music Ltd, and Apple Music Ltd became The Beatles Ltd. With Apple Music up and running, they began signing up artists. Grapefruit was the first, and John and Paul attended their first recording session, held at IBC Studios on Portland Place, on 24 November 1967. The band wasn’t actually signed until 11 December. John named them Grapefruit after the book of the same name given to him by Yoko two months earlier. Most of the group were former members of Tony Rivers and the Castaways, one of Brian Epstein’s groups.
Rather than the proposed chain of card shops, the Beatles instead opted to open a clothes boutique, to be run by The Fool, three Dutch designers and an English publicist, who were anything but fools. Paul was having a fling with one of them. The shop opened on 7 December 1967 and closed seven months later on 31 July; the Beatles having decided that they did not want to be involved with the rag trade. The Beatles and their staff and friends helped themselves to the clothes, then the public were let in to take anything they wanted for free – one item each.
Apple’s first office was above the boutique, then shortly afterwards they moved to more permanent, although still temporary, offices at 95 Wigmore Street on 22 January. The choice of Marylebone as a location was Paul McCartney’s: he knew the area well from living for several years in Wimpole Street in the house of his then girlfriend Jane Asher. Apple’s appointed A&R man, Peter Asher, also lived there in Weymouth Street, so it was convenient for both of them.
On 12 January 1968 Apple Music Ltd, which had been in business since June 1963 as The Beatles Ltd, changed its name yet again, this time to Apple Corps Ltd, and The Beatles Film Productions Ltd changed its name to Apple Films Ltd. Apple Corps in turn controlled dozens of new companies: Apple Records Ltd, Apple Films Ltd, Apple Music Publishing Ltd and Apple Electronics Ltd; soon to be joined by Apple Wholesale Ltd, Apple Retail Ltd, Apple Television Ltd, Apple Publicity Ltd and more. The Apple School never got off the ground; it would have been run by Ivan Vaughan, an old friend who first introduced John and Paul to each other.
Neil Aspinall spent weeks incorporating these companies and registering them as trademarks in every country in the world where it was possible to do so. This paid off in spades when Apple Computers launched the iPad and moved into music distribution. A series of lawsuits netted the Beatles many millions for copyright infringement.
A record company needs a logo, and so Neil Aspinall, now managing director of Apple Corps Ltd, contacted Gene Mahon, a graphic designer from Dublin who had worked on the Sgt Pepper cover, laying out the back sleeve which contains the lyrics – the first time anyone had ever printed the lyrics on an album sleeve; usually you had to buy them from a sheet-music publisher. It also showed Paul McCartney with his back to the viewer. Neil told Gene that he needed a photograph of an apple to use on the centre label of Apple records. Gene immediately had the brilliant idea of using a photograph of an apple on the A-side of the record, with no writing or information, and on the B-side using a photograph of an apple sliced in half, to give a white background to all the relevant label copy for both sides. The left-hand side of the apple would be headed ‘This Side’ with the title of the track, the artist, the running time, the publishing and copyright information; the right-hand side would be headed ‘Other Side’ and would give the same information for the A-side.
Gene commissioned Paul Castell to photograph a series of apples: red apples, green apples and sliced apples against different coloured backgrounds. Two days later they had an assortment of 2¼-inch transparencies of apples against red, blue, black, green and yellow backdrops. Gene selected the two he thought were the best but included the others for consideration. It turned out that it was a legal requirement for copyright to list the contents on both sides of the record, so that idea was out. Meetings were held
and slides of various apples were projected on to office walls. Batches of eight-inch by teninch colour prints were made, six at a time, one for each Beatle and one each for Neil Aspinall and Ron Kass, the head of Apple Records. Eventually they decided upon a nice shiny green Granny Smith on a black background. Alan Aldridge, former chief designer for Penguin Books who was to publish The Beatles Illustrated Lyrics, was brought in to draw the copyright lettering that surrounds the outer perimeter of each record. The finished artwork was sent to New York where the dye transfers were made from which all the labels would be printed. It had taken six months.
Apple had become a fully functioning company. I was not involved in the early days; I joined towards the end of 1968, but the staff stayed more or less the same until Allen Klein came in and fired everyone. John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr were the presidents of the company; Neil Aspinall, their former roadie, became managing director (he had previously trained as an accountant); Alistair Taylor, from NEMS, was the general manager and Mr Fixit; Peter Brown, who had been with Brian Epstein since the early days, was made a director and was the Master Mr Fixit and the Beatles’ personal assistant. Peter Brown’s own personal assistant was Joanne Newfield, who had previously been Brian Epstein’s personal assistant until he died. Harry Pinsker, the head of Bryce Hanmer accountants, became a director; Peter Asher was appointed head of A&R with Chris O’Dell as his personal assistant; Malcolm Evans, the Beatles’ roadie, was made assistant managing director; Derek Taylor was made director of public relations and had a staff of seven, not all of them paid; Alexis Mardas, ‘Magic Alex’, the former television repair man, became head of Apple Electronics; Denis O’Dell was head of Apple Films; Ron Kass left his job as president of Liberty Records to become head of Apple Records, one of the most important figures in the place. There were maybe twenty other directors and staff, running the various Apple divisions. Accountant Harry Pinsker and four of the other directors resigned in protest against John and Yoko appearing nude on the sleeve of Two Virgins, not from prudery – there’s not much of that in the record business – but because they saw it as damaging to the Beatles’ image.