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Post by pothos on Aug 2, 2015 21:50:40 GMT
I was wondering if I can ask after Epstein's passing did the band ever seriously think of managing themselves.
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Post by mrmustard on Aug 2, 2015 22:01:01 GMT
Well they effectively did until Apple got too far out of control and they needed a business manager in the shape of Allen Klein.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 3, 2015 10:29:41 GMT
Well they effectively did until Apple got too far out of control and they needed a business manager in the shape of Allen Klein. ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ This ^ ^ ^ ^ ^
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Post by mrmustard on Aug 3, 2015 11:27:58 GMT
^ ^ ^ ^ ^ This ^ ^ ^ ^ ^[/quote] What does that mean?
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Post by Deleted on Aug 3, 2015 12:07:51 GMT
It means I agree with what you said Mr M., hence little arrows (no not Leapy Lee) pointing up towards your quoted post saying 'this' as in, 'aforesaid, mentioned, as indicated'.
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Post by mrmustard on Aug 3, 2015 12:22:11 GMT
I can't keep up with this trendy text speak Lol!!!
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Post by Deleted on Aug 3, 2015 14:41:19 GMT
Never mind. H2CUS!
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Post by mrmustard on Aug 3, 2015 15:47:51 GMT
Of course, I will see you at the end of August!
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Post by Bongo on Aug 4, 2015 0:09:59 GMT
I was wondering if I can ask after Epstein's passing did the band ever seriously think of managing themselves. Macca did get the boys together to do the Magical Mystery Tour Movie!
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Post by pothos on Aug 4, 2015 10:52:59 GMT
Was anyone else seriously in line to take over other than Klein.
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Post by mrmustard on Aug 4, 2015 12:07:23 GMT
Certainly John and Lee Eastman (Linda's brother and father) but Paul was outvoted by the other three. Robert Stigwood thought he was going to get his hands on The Boys because Epstein had sold NEMS to him. However that did not include The Beatles or Cilla Black (RIP).
There was also some high ranking QC who's name escapes me. John or Paul approached him but he was too much of a snob to be associated with a rock band.
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Post by Bongo on Aug 4, 2015 13:10:02 GMT
Also Eiptsein's brother took over for a short period before they decided what to do.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 4, 2015 17:14:37 GMT
Certainly John and Lee Eastman (Linda's brother and father) but Paul was outvoted by the other three. Robert Stigwood thought he was going to get his hands on The Boys because Epstein had sold NEMS to him. However that did not include The Beatles or Cilla Black (RIP). There was also some high ranking QC who's name escapes me. John or Paul approached him but he was too much of a snob to be associated with a rock band. It was Lord Beeching Mr M.
The following is a (rather lengthy) extract from a web page which tracks the post Epstein era. It's a fascinating read, at times touching on the subject of corporate greed. Anyway, sorry for the long post but at least it gives people an idea of how The Beatles and Apple were (mis) managed.
To have the Beatles as his clients was Allen Klein's greatest career goal. After their original manager, Brian Epstein, died in 1967, the group decided to form Apple Corps Ltd.. They hoped it would provide the means for correcting Epstein's unfortunate business decisions, which had both limited their incomes and ensured high tax burdens. Although Hey Jude, the Beatles' first Apple release, was an enormous success, the label itself was a money pit, with rampant pilfering by its employees only one of many reasons it hemorrhaged cash. Several managers were considered, including Lord Beeching and Lee Eastman, McCartney's father-in-law. Klein contacted Lennon after reading his press comment that the Beatles would be "broke in six months" if things continued as they were.[12] Klein pressed for an audience, and overcame various obstacles, including the fact that Lennon had instructed Peter Brown, Apple's director, not to put Klein's calls through. But the financial marvels Klein had accomplished for the Rolling Stones and numerous others whom the Beatles knew soon won Klein an introduction. On the morning of January 26, 1969, Klein welcomed Lennon and Yoko Ono to his penthouse suite at London's The Dorchester, a five-star luxury hotel. Lennon was impressed that Klein had come to great success despite a poor and tumultuous childhood – just as Lennon himself had done. He also admired that Klein was in no way a typical businessman, and that his insights into Lennon's songwriting partnership with Paul McCartney were surprisingly sharp. Before the meeting concluded, Lennon and Ono typed a letter acknowledging that Klein now handled their business affairs.[13]
By the next evening, Klein met with all four Beatles. McCartney favored Lee Eastman and John Eastman as managers. New York attorneys, they were, respectively, the father and brother of Linda Eastman, McCartney's sweetheart and soon to become Linda McCartney. George Harrison and Ringo Starr were won over by Klein's track record and in-depth understanding of both music and the music business. Following rancorous London meetings with both Eastmans, Klein emerged as the Beatles' manager while the Eastmans were named the group's attorneys. [12] When Clive Epstein, brother of Brian Epstein and chief heir to NEMS, the management company his brother had founded, defaulted on his promise and sold NEMS to a British investment group. NEMS held a 25% stake in the Beatles' earnings, which Klein as well as the Beatles themselves desperately wanted to buy out. This lead to tough negotiations with the investment group. Klein ultimately secured the Beatles' rights in their previous work for just four annual payments amounting to 5% of their earnings. However, in the lead-up to those negotiations the head of the investment group commissioned an investigative report on Klein, which he handed to The Sunday Times to feed a journalistic hatchet job which ran under the headline “The Toughest Wheeler-Dealer in the Pop Jungle.” [14]
An even more important battle to secure the Beatles a financial situation commensurate with their worldwide popular acclaim was with Northern Songs Ltd., the publishing company. Northern Songs, a legacy of Brian Epstein's lack of business acumen, belonged to Dick James, whom Epstein had rewarded with the Beatles' publishing rights in return for his helping them get placed on a TV show, “Thank Your Lucky Stars”, early in their career. But James had constructed a contract that gave him an outsized share, and Epstein hadn't understood its implications. He knew that Klein would soon eliminate his perks, so he quickly offered to sell Northern Songs to entertainment mogul Lew Grade, rather than allow Lennon and McCartney an opportunity to buy back publishing rights to their own songs. Klein worked feverishly to pull together a consortium which would beat Grade's offer, but ultimately his efforts were derailed by infighting between McCartney and Lennon themselves. In the Fall of 1969, while Klein was in the midst of renegotiating the Beatles' substandard recording agreements with EMI, Lennon told him of his plans to quit the group. It was agreed that this was the wrong time to either make or announce such a move. EMI was loath to re-negotiate, but their American subsidiary, Capitol Records, was so impressed by “Abbey Road” that they agreed to vastly improved royalty terms. McCartney joined his band mates in endorsing the deal Klein had secured.[15]
“Abbey Road” proved to be the Beatles' last true collaboration, but Klein saw in an unfinished and all-but-discarded previous album and related documentary project, both titled “Get Back”, a means of getting another record out of the splintered group while also fulfilling their obligation to provide one more film to United Artists, the studio which had previously released both A Hard Day's Night and Help! Phil Spector, the producer famous for his “wall of sound” recordings with The Ronettes, The Righteous Brothers, and many others, was eager to sign on as producer for the record, which was eventually titled Let It Be. McCartney didn't approve of Spector, but the other Beatles did. This proved to be McCartney and Klein's last face-to-face meeting. However, Apple made $6 million in the first month following the May 1970 release of the record and the film.[16]
Subsequently, Spector in 1988 tapped Klein to manage his business affairs. A quick result was an out-of-court settlement that not only secured payment to Spector of funds being unfairly withheld, but also won for the producer an administrative victory that canceled the offending party's involvement in Spector's future royalty income.[17]
Unhappy with production decisions on the “Let It Be” album, McCartney went public with his plans to exit the Beatles. He wanted to be released from his partnership with Lennon, Starr, and Harrison, who had in recent months proved a steady three-to-one majority against McCartney's proposals. The Eastmans convinced McCartney to file suit against his former band mates for dissolution of the Beatles' partnership, which he did in the final days of 1969.[18]
It was clearly proven in the resulting 11-day trial that Klein's management had rescued the Beatles financially, but McCartney's claims of mismanagement were given credibility by the then recently-delivered conviction of Klein in the United States for failing to file tax forms “in a timely manner.” The taxes in question had been paid; it was only a question of late paperwork. However, the judge ruled in McCartney's favor. He decided that the combined financial affairs of the former Beatles should be placed in the care of a receiver until mutually acceptable terms for their break-up could be found. With that stroke, Klein retained a position in the post-breakup, solo careers of Harrison, Starr, and Lennon, but was no longer in charge of their affairs as a partnership.[19]
Despite their initial enthusiasm to have him appointed to handle the Beatles' affairs, both Harrison and Lennon subsequently became disenchanted with Klein. Harrison's "Beware Of The Darkness" from his "All Things Must Pass" album contains the lyric "beware of ABKCO"; while Lennon's "Steel And Glass" from the 1974 "Walls And Bridges" album is also a thinly-veiled dig at Klein - similar to his critique of McCartney in "How Do You Sleep?" from the "Imagine" album several years earlier.[citation needed]
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Post by pothos on Aug 4, 2015 21:52:25 GMT
Its a staggeringly complex set of circumstances. Thank you for posting.
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Post by mrmustard on Aug 5, 2015 9:50:47 GMT
Pothos - if you want a really good account of this period, I strongly recommend Peter Doggets You Never Give Me Your Money.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 5, 2015 11:52:56 GMT
Pothos, I totally agree with Mr M. It's an eye opening read - and absorbing too. You can buy the paperback version at a reasonable price here.
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Post by pothos on Aug 5, 2015 21:49:06 GMT
Thank you for the information.
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