One particular roadie,in which Olivia Harrison had once said that would give his own life to the band is Neil Aspinall--without any doubt shared the spot of being called the fifth Beatle with both Brian Epstein and George Martin.
Neil Aspinall had been the Beatles' roadie as far back as 1961 when the band was still trying to make it to the rock music scene.The time when the Beatles was still a pub band,actually the Beatles had been around since the late fifties trying out various names like Johnny And The Moondogs and the Silver Beatles.Aspinall was first recruited to be the band's roadie by former Beatles drummer Pete Best when they first met at the Casbah Coffee Club owned by Best's mother Mona.
When Pete Best was fired from the band,it was Neil Aspinall who tried to comfort him and even questioned the reason of his dismissal.With Lennon answering back "Stay out of this Neil..." Aspinall tried to comfort his friend as much as possible and even threatening Epstein of quitting his job if Best wasn't brought back to the group.Considering the fact that Aspinall had an affair with Pete's mother Mona at the time,their union produced a son and incredibly enough, didn't affect his friendship with Pete.
With a new drummer in the name of Richard Starkey aka Ringo Starr,the Beatles once again faced trouble when they opened their show at the Cavern to introduce Ringo to the audience.Fans of Pete Best started shouting curses and continued to heckle the band on their performances.Others supported the Beatles' change of personnel and the audience was divided into two factions-- between Ringo and Pete supporters.At one moment,George Harrison got pissed over the heckling and told two fans of Pete Best to shut their yaps.When the band had finished playing and went off the stage,somebody from the audience reportedly stood up and punched George that gave him a black eye.Brian Epstein was said to be hysterical and ordered Aspinall to escort the band to safety.It was always a decent job of roadies to guide and protect the band and most of the time get into most trouble themselves.
Talk about danger,when the Beatles went to the Philippines in the summer of 1966--it was Neil Aspinall who got beaten up the most by the angry mob of Marcos who was then the president of that country.Trying to protect the band from further harm[though Ringo got punched and Lennon got kicked],he and Mal Evans who was the band's personal assistant didn't even think of going out of Manila alive.With the two of them and the band's whole entourage getting almost killed in the hands of the crowd sent by the would-be Filipino dictator.The Beatles never returned to the Philippines even as solo artists.With George even making a comment as a sympathy over his friend and band roadie,"Anyone who got beaten up by Marcos' thugs is a friend of mine."
(photo right:Neil Aspinall and Mal Evans)
The disastrous Philippine tour opted the band to having thoughts of quitting touring.Band members themselves can be heard saying "Never again" and "This is it" marking the last straw on how each of them will view touring as a dangerous move instead of enjoyment.They eventually suggested manager Brian Epstein to cut the 1966 World Tour after returning from the Philippines,but Brian already committed to touring the States and they had scheduled gigs at the Shea Stadium in New York City after the ill-fated Philippine tour.
About a month later,the Beatles performed their last concert at Candlestick Park in San Francisco and Lennon was heard to be saying "Ok ok no more touring". With the band off the road,they ended up concentrating on the studio where they recorded their finest albums that marked the second phase of the Beatles' sound.As for Neil Aspinall,with the band no longer as touring artists,its back behind the desk to do paperwork at the Beatles' offices.After Brian Epstein died of drug overdose in the latter half of 1967,there was a vacancy on the Beatles' management but the group decided to manage themselves though the other three seems to be finding Paul McCartney making a vociferous application as he drove the band into making Magical Mystery Tour and other projects post-Epstein.Perhaps,McCartney noticed the other band members losing their interest in the group particularly Lennon after Epstein died in which most of them view as their father figure.It was always said that it was Paul who was eager to keep the Beatles together as they were looking for a new manager to replace Epstein.
As for Neil Aspinall,he made little contributions to the band's songs as they recorded them in the studio.Playing percussion and harmonica on albums like Magical Mystery Tour,Sgt Pepper and singing along with the chorus line on Yellow Submarine.
In 1968,the Beatles had founded their own company and therefore their own record label.Apple Corps was founded in April of that same year and had appointed Aspinall to be the manager of the company.Though the Beatles proved to be great musicians and songwriters,it was said that the band members themselves didn't fare well with the business deals and all of that regarding the handling of Apple,thus it ignited what was to be the beginning of the end for the band.
In a lighter mood,also in 1968,Aspinall married Suzie Ornstein,their union produced four children.Though Neil didn't end up marrying Pete Best's mom Mona it was said that he remained friendly with both mother and son.
In 1969,with the suggestion made by Mick Jagger,John and Yoko got in touch with Allen Klein after hearing from Jagger that the Stones had better recording deals than the Beatles had.Allen Klein was brought in as the Beatles' new manager and had taken over as chief executive of the Apple Corps,though John,George and Ringo signed and was at the beginning contented with having Klein,it was Paul McCartney who strongly opposes the idea coz he wanted Eastman And Eastman--his father-in-law's office to take over as financial adviser and head of Apple Corps.But Paul was outvoted when Klein had taken the manager's seat and tried to fire Neil Aspinall off the company.McCartney had no other choice but to break up the band to be able to sue,thus started the court war between McCartney,the Eastmans and Neil Aspinall on one side versus Allen Klein,John,George and Ringo on the other side.
After being appointed as executive to the Apple Corps by the Beatles,the seventies kept Aspinall busy over lawsuits concerning Allen Klein and Apple Computers,with lawsuits over the latter continuing until the early 2000s.Aspinall won a lawsuit over Klein in 1971 concerning the late Brian Epstein's documents.The seventies have been a busy and stressful decade for Aspinall as he continues to face lawsuits regarding Klein and Apple Corps.Paul McCartney later stated in the early seventies with Wings that he wanted to be far away from Apple as much as he could.
Apple Records,however,had decades long battle with guess who--Apple Computers.First with the logo and trademark infingement and the second one for Apple Computer violating the settlement they had in 1981 that its ok for Apple Computer to use the logo as long as it doesn't enter the music business,in which they later did,by manufacturing a synthesizer.The case,however,was settled out of court.
On a lighter part of his life,Neil Aspinall was the executive producer of The Beatles Anthology project in the mid nineties along with Jeff Lynne who was actually the record's main producer.George Martin was said to having hearing problems as far back as the early nineties in which prompted him to retire from the music business in 1998.
The last remaining years of Neil Aspinall kept him busy by remastering all the Beatles' back catalogue for a supposed to be 2008 release.However,it wasn't released until a year later in 2009 where all the band's original albums were re-issued and even won a grammy for best historical album.
Neil Aspinall died of lung cancer on March 24,2008 in New York City,among the projects he left unfinished was the remastering of the Let It Be movie for a supposed to be DVD release.The film was originally intended to be released as a two disc deluxe edition as proposed by Neil himself during one of his last interviews,with the second disc containing unseen footages of the band rehearsing and recording at Twickenham Studios during that chilly January of 1969.However,there had been reports that both Paul and Ringo themselves had nixed the idea of having that second disc released and thus putting the entire DVD on hold.According to some news,the two surviving Beatles opposed the idea of releasing that second disc as controversies and some old issues may arise as those unseen footages were described by those who have seen it were filled with arguments and misunderstanding within the group and Paul had once said in an interview that he doesn't want the public especially the young Beatles fans see the band in such a way.Well it wasn't a secret that the Beatles were in shambles even before the film was made,and one bitter moment was captured and was included on the film with George Harrison and Paul McCartney arguing heavily over song arrangements.
The Beatles has indeed revolutionized everything concerning modern rock music,and Neil Aspinall I would say is the most famous roadie in this genre.The fabs were indeed lucky to have him.
(c) Keith Vernon Adagio
This is a great topic to explore. Neil, the most famous roadie in music history! As you write, he became so very much more. This was a very nice profile of Neil and his decades long dedication to the Beatles as people and to their music.
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