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This programme contains some strong language. | 0:00:05 | 0:00:10 | |
He'd driven back to London. | 0:00:35 | 0:00:37 | |
We don't know what happened after that. He stayed up all night. | 0:00:37 | 0:00:42 | |
Then the next day, the house man called me | 0:00:42 | 0:00:46 | |
and said that he was still in his room and there was no sign of life. | 0:00:46 | 0:00:52 | |
NEW SPEAKER: It was Sunday, August 27th, 1967. | 0:00:54 | 0:00:59 | |
I switched the TV on and it was announced that he was dead. | 0:00:59 | 0:01:03 | |
And I cried, like other people I knew had cried. | 0:01:03 | 0:01:09 | |
-NEW SPEAKER: -I think he woke up in the night and thought, "I haven't had my sleeping pill," | 0:01:17 | 0:01:23 | |
and took a couple more. | 0:01:23 | 0:01:26 | |
Since then, there's been millions of rumours - Suicide? Murder? | 0:01:26 | 0:01:31 | |
NEW SPEAKER: He was certainly in a very positive state of mind. | 0:01:32 | 0:01:38 | |
He'd made a plans for the future, I'd spoken to him two days before. He was anything but suicidal. | 0:01:38 | 0:01:46 | |
He was just a beautiful fella. | 0:01:50 | 0:01:52 | |
-It's terrible. -What are your plans now? -We haven't made any. | 0:01:52 | 0:01:57 | |
We've only just heard. | 0:01:57 | 0:02:00 | |
The two strange expressions he used prior to his death were | 0:02:07 | 0:02:13 | |
"Beware the ides of March," - this was three weeks to a month before he died. | 0:02:13 | 0:02:19 | |
And also, "I feel as thought I am a Svengali who's created a monster." | 0:02:19 | 0:02:25 | |
BELL TOLLS | 0:02:25 | 0:02:29 | |
WOMAN: He had such immense charm. Immense. | 0:02:50 | 0:02:56 | |
And his strongest card... | 0:02:56 | 0:03:00 | |
Say you're measuring him up against someone like Robert Stigwood, | 0:03:00 | 0:03:06 | |
his strongest card is that he cared for the community he served - us, | 0:03:06 | 0:03:12 | |
this group of young artistic free spirits, | 0:03:12 | 0:03:16 | |
ranging from Mick Jagger to John Lennon to Joe Orton | 0:03:16 | 0:03:21 | |
to Edward Bond to Bill Gaskill to everywhere you could possibly go. | 0:03:21 | 0:03:26 | |
Andy Warhol... Everybody, it was all connected. | 0:03:28 | 0:03:33 | |
And somebody like Robert Fraser was doing artwork. | 0:03:33 | 0:03:38 | |
Brian was going to be the synthesising force, with the help of The Beatles, of course. | 0:03:41 | 0:03:48 | |
We totally believed in him, thought he was a great man. | 0:03:58 | 0:04:02 | |
I don't think we ever questioned his judgment. It was very sound. | 0:04:02 | 0:04:07 | |
Brian was the fifth Beatle. | 0:04:07 | 0:04:10 | |
I was pretty close to Brian | 0:04:14 | 0:04:16 | |
because if somebody is going to manage me, I want to know them. | 0:04:16 | 0:04:21 | |
He told me he was a fag and all that. | 0:04:21 | 0:04:24 | |
I introduced him to pills - which gives me a guilt association for his death - | 0:04:24 | 0:04:31 | |
to make him talk and find out what he was like. | 0:04:31 | 0:04:35 | |
"Though I didn't seek it, the fame has overtaken me, and this is not always pleasant. | 0:04:40 | 0:04:47 | |
"I believe in democracy, | 0:04:47 | 0:04:50 | |
"but I like to see one man in charge, answerable for his mistakes. | 0:04:50 | 0:04:55 | |
"There ARE penalties. | 0:04:55 | 0:04:58 | |
"The chief of them is loneliness, for I must bear the strain alone. | 0:04:58 | 0:05:04 | |
"Not only the office or theatre, but at home in the small hours. | 0:05:04 | 0:05:08 | |
"I suffer the most because I hold myself responsible. | 0:05:08 | 0:05:12 | |
"It isn't the money that worries me, it's the failure. | 0:05:12 | 0:05:16 | |
"Partly because of my youth, partly because of my background and partly because of my provincial origins." | 0:05:16 | 0:05:24 | |
ORGAN PLAYS: "I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles" | 0:05:24 | 0:05:29 | |
This was to my parents. | 0:05:37 | 0:05:40 | |
It was written on the 15th of August 1946. | 0:05:40 | 0:05:44 | |
They were on holiday in Grange-over-Sands. | 0:05:44 | 0:05:49 | |
It says, "Dear Gramma and Grampa..." With Ms! | 0:05:49 | 0:05:53 | |
"..I hope you are well. I am having a most enjoyable holiday. | 0:05:53 | 0:05:58 | |
"Yours, Brian." And underneath, "Love to Auntie Stella." | 0:05:58 | 0:06:03 | |
"My father Harry was the eldest of six. There were 18 years between him and Stella. | 0:06:10 | 0:06:16 | |
"He fulfilled his father Isaac's dream of settling in business in England." | 0:06:16 | 0:06:22 | |
My father was born in Lithuania in a village called Hudan. | 0:06:26 | 0:06:31 | |
He came over here when he was probably about 18 or 19. | 0:06:31 | 0:06:36 | |
He had a furniture shop. | 0:06:36 | 0:06:39 | |
He bought another shop which was next to the furniture shop and made a way through | 0:06:39 | 0:06:45 | |
so that you could get from one to the other. | 0:06:45 | 0:06:50 | |
It's a picture of Queenie and Harry on their wedding day. | 0:06:56 | 0:07:01 | |
Two pages, two bridesmaids - I was one of those. | 0:07:01 | 0:07:05 | |
Brian was born on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar. | 0:07:09 | 0:07:14 | |
We're now coming up to my old house. | 0:07:25 | 0:07:27 | |
And, er... | 0:07:27 | 0:07:29 | |
Here it is, with the conifers I planted 20 years ago | 0:07:34 | 0:07:39 | |
which have never been pruned. | 0:07:39 | 0:07:42 | |
Next door to the Epstein house with its overgrown front bushes | 0:07:42 | 0:07:47 | |
which were, I think, holly trees that have never been pruned. | 0:07:47 | 0:07:52 | |
They built their home themselves and it was a very nice house. | 0:07:55 | 0:08:01 | |
It was a detached house with five bedrooms | 0:08:01 | 0:08:05 | |
and plenty of living rooms. It was very nice indeed. | 0:08:05 | 0:08:10 | |
"I am an elder son, a hallowed position in a Jewish family | 0:08:11 | 0:08:17 | |
"and much was to be expected of me. | 0:08:17 | 0:08:19 | |
"My mother was intensely proud that her first-born was a boy. | 0:08:19 | 0:08:25 | |
"When, 21 months later, my brother Clive arrived, | 0:08:25 | 0:08:29 | |
"the Epsteins looked like being a happy family unit." | 0:08:29 | 0:08:33 | |
Queenie was very close to the boys. She really loved them. | 0:08:39 | 0:08:44 | |
They were a very happy family. It looked like a golden family, | 0:08:46 | 0:08:52 | |
quite like a fairy story. | 0:08:52 | 0:08:55 | |
Unfortunately, later on, things would become very, very sad. | 0:08:55 | 0:09:00 | |
MUSIC: "Tomorrow Never Knows" by The Beatles | 0:09:00 | 0:09:04 | |
He had an immense affection for his parents and for his brother. | 0:09:28 | 0:09:34 | |
He didn't want, consciously, to upset them. | 0:09:34 | 0:09:37 | |
He was elegant, fastidiously so, | 0:09:44 | 0:09:48 | |
and he had a very great...presence. | 0:09:48 | 0:09:52 | |
He was good looking, well mannered. | 0:09:52 | 0:09:56 | |
He was temperamental. | 0:09:56 | 0:09:59 | |
Volatile. | 0:09:59 | 0:10:02 | |
He could be very effusive or he could be very taciturn. | 0:10:02 | 0:10:06 | |
He felt himself a square peg in a round hole from a long, long time | 0:10:08 | 0:10:14 | |
and wanted to escape the background which he'd been brought up in. | 0:10:14 | 0:10:19 | |
CANTOR SINGS IN HEBREW, CONGREGATION RESPONDS | 0:10:19 | 0:10:24 | |
HE SINGS IN HEBREW, CONGREGATION RESPONDS | 0:10:44 | 0:10:48 | |
"My parents despaired many times over the years. I don't blame them. | 0:10:52 | 0:10:57 | |
"Throughout my school days, I never quite fit. | 0:10:57 | 0:11:01 | |
"I was nagged and bullied, beloved of neither boys nor masters. | 0:11:01 | 0:11:05 | |
"At the aged of ten, I had already been to three schools and liked none of them. | 0:11:05 | 0:11:12 | |
"My father had been a solid and successful grammar school boy | 0:11:19 | 0:11:24 | |
"and he found it difficult to know why I was so wretched a pupil. | 0:11:24 | 0:11:29 | |
"Recently, referring to a diary I kept then, | 0:11:31 | 0:11:35 | |
"I found I had written in reference to the next term at my ninth school, | 0:11:35 | 0:11:40 | |
"'I go only for my parents' pleasure.' | 0:11:40 | 0:11:44 | |
"But I don't blame my parents for anything concerning my upbringing. | 0:11:45 | 0:11:50 | |
"Their wrongdoings were committed with the best intentions, | 0:11:50 | 0:11:55 | |
"with love and devotion." | 0:11:55 | 0:11:58 | |
The family expected Brian to go into the business, | 0:11:58 | 0:12:03 | |
follow in his father's footsteps, | 0:12:03 | 0:12:07 | |
as Harry had done. | 0:12:07 | 0:12:10 | |
But that wasn't to be because Brian was not interested in that sort of thing. | 0:12:10 | 0:12:16 | |
He would have liked to have been a dress designer. | 0:12:16 | 0:12:20 | |
I didn't even know this at the time. I found this out later. | 0:12:20 | 0:12:25 | |
I think Harry and Queenie must have gone up the pole! | 0:12:25 | 0:12:29 | |
"This caused a great deal of distress. | 0:12:42 | 0:12:46 | |
"For the masters at my last public school, nothing could be less manly than dress designing. | 0:12:46 | 0:12:54 | |
"Although I knew good design from bad, though I could create dresses and draw them, | 0:12:54 | 0:13:00 | |
"though to be a dress designer was all I wanted to be, I dutifully went to work in the family business. | 0:13:00 | 0:13:08 | |
"I began to study all the various aspects of retail furnishing. | 0:13:11 | 0:13:16 | |
"I was, and still am, very interested in the way things should be displayed, | 0:13:16 | 0:13:23 | |
"how things should be designed and presented. | 0:13:23 | 0:13:28 | |
"And I have a self-devouring passion for quality. | 0:13:33 | 0:13:38 | |
"I placed chairs in the windows with their backs to the shoppers. | 0:13:39 | 0:13:44 | |
"Backs on view?! Unheard of! | 0:13:44 | 0:13:47 | |
"Yet in every home, you see the backs of chairs. | 0:13:47 | 0:13:52 | |
"You cannot enter a room without seeing the back of a chair. | 0:13:52 | 0:13:56 | |
"I was very keen on splayed legs. | 0:13:56 | 0:13:59 | |
"Slowly the post-war austerity hangover was diminishing | 0:13:59 | 0:14:05 | |
"and sellers and buyers were reluctant to return to the ugliness of '30s design." | 0:14:05 | 0:14:12 | |
They were like nobility to me. | 0:14:18 | 0:14:20 | |
Brian's father was in the retail furniture business. | 0:14:20 | 0:14:24 | |
My father made furniture for Brian's father's business. | 0:14:24 | 0:14:30 | |
And of course that's how we knew each other. | 0:14:30 | 0:14:34 | |
MUSIC: "The Street Where You Live" | 0:14:34 | 0:14:40 | |
# I have often walked | 0:14:42 | 0:14:45 | |
# Down this street before | 0:14:45 | 0:14:48 | |
# But the pavement always stayed... # | 0:14:48 | 0:14:52 | |
We liked stage shows, musicals. We liked musical films. | 0:14:52 | 0:14:56 | |
Brian and I would discuss how, er, our feelings were different. | 0:14:57 | 0:15:03 | |
First of all, you notice that you don't discuss girls so much. | 0:15:08 | 0:15:13 | |
But you discuss, er... leading players | 0:15:13 | 0:15:20 | |
and shows and cinema. Things like that. | 0:15:20 | 0:15:27 | |
You're more attracted to a star. | 0:15:27 | 0:15:29 | |
And then you gradually realise that you've got to be as honest as possible. | 0:15:29 | 0:15:36 | |
But at the same time, the people that you don't want to hurt | 0:15:36 | 0:15:41 | |
are your parents. | 0:15:41 | 0:15:44 | |
And in those days, you were a queer. | 0:15:44 | 0:15:47 | |
And it wasn't a very nice thing to hear about yourself | 0:15:47 | 0:15:51 | |
because you know that you're NOT queer in your head. | 0:15:51 | 0:15:55 | |
So you do resent that. | 0:15:55 | 0:15:58 | |
So you try and fight what you're being called. | 0:15:58 | 0:16:02 | |
Brian and I realised | 0:16:02 | 0:16:04 | |
that we were breaking the law to be gay. | 0:16:04 | 0:16:09 | |
We knew of people who were taken away to a place called Rainhill | 0:16:09 | 0:16:14 | |
which is ten miles outside Liverpool. | 0:16:14 | 0:16:17 | |
Well, it was a loony bin, a lunatic asylum. | 0:16:17 | 0:16:21 | |
And there was no way I was going to there. | 0:16:21 | 0:16:27 | |
There was no way I wanted Brian to go there. | 0:16:27 | 0:16:31 | |
"The design of the store was becoming my responsibility. | 0:16:33 | 0:16:39 | |
"My mother and father were quite pleased with their Brian. | 0:16:39 | 0:16:43 | |
"The future seemed firm and bright and assured. | 0:16:43 | 0:16:47 | |
"But on December the ninth, 1952, a letter came to tell the young son and heir | 0:16:48 | 0:16:55 | |
"that he was to present himself for a medical exam for the army. | 0:16:55 | 0:17:00 | |
"Several of the public schoolboys who shared my moans at first | 0:17:13 | 0:17:18 | |
"were snatched away to become officer cadets, but I was not included. | 0:17:18 | 0:17:25 | |
"I cannot imagine anything worse for morale, than Lieutenant Epstein in charge under heavy fire! | 0:17:27 | 0:17:35 | |
"I reported to the barracks doctor | 0:17:41 | 0:17:44 | |
"who, after a long, fruitless talk about my problems and the need to pull myself together, | 0:17:44 | 0:17:52 | |
"referred me to a psychiatrist. | 0:17:52 | 0:17:54 | |
"They decided I was a compulsive civilian and unfit for military service. | 0:17:54 | 0:18:00 | |
"I was no use to the army or it to me, with which view I agreed." | 0:18:00 | 0:18:07 | |
I don't think he had a clue who he was or liked being who he was. | 0:18:09 | 0:18:15 | |
Like he created The Beatles, he also had plans for himself. | 0:18:15 | 0:18:22 | |
The sort of people he wanted to mix with, the people at the Playhouse Theatre. | 0:18:22 | 0:18:29 | |
Alas, she hath from France too long been chaste, | 0:18:29 | 0:18:35 | |
and all her husbandry doth lie on heaps, | 0:18:35 | 0:18:40 | |
corrupting in its own fertility. | 0:18:40 | 0:18:43 | |
Her vine, the merry cheerer of the heart, unpruned, dies... | 0:18:43 | 0:18:49 | |
"Even so, our houses and ourselves and children | 0:18:49 | 0:18:55 | |
"have lost the sciences that should become our country. | 0:18:55 | 0:19:00 | |
"But grow like savages, | 0:19:00 | 0:19:03 | |
"as soldiers will that nothing do but meditate on blood. | 0:19:03 | 0:19:09 | |
"To all that seems unnatural." | 0:19:09 | 0:19:12 | |
This is the speech that I chose for Brian for his audition for RADA | 0:19:12 | 0:19:17 | |
because it embodies his maturity which went beyond his years, | 0:19:17 | 0:19:24 | |
his soulful quality | 0:19:24 | 0:19:27 | |
and his air of dignified quiet authority. | 0:19:27 | 0:19:33 | |
"By night I was seeking escape in the cool and cultivated dusk of the front stalls of the Playhouse. | 0:19:34 | 0:19:42 | |
"The Playhouse was a brilliant group of young actors, designers and writers, | 0:19:44 | 0:19:51 | |
"plus a settled, soon to be stolid, furniture salesman from Walton." | 0:19:51 | 0:19:56 | |
There was a sort of wistfulness about him. | 0:19:56 | 0:20:00 | |
He wanted to belong | 0:20:00 | 0:20:03 | |
to what he perceived was a charmed circle. | 0:20:03 | 0:20:09 | |
He thought we inhabited a magic world and he wanted to become a part of it. | 0:20:09 | 0:20:16 | |
He asked me quite out of the blue, | 0:20:19 | 0:20:22 | |
when we first started to work on choosing the audition piece... | 0:20:22 | 0:20:27 | |
It was obviously uppermost in his mind. | 0:20:27 | 0:20:31 | |
He said, "When you first met me, or when I come into a room, | 0:20:31 | 0:20:35 | |
"are you aware that I'm Jewish?" | 0:20:35 | 0:20:39 | |
And I said, er, "No. | 0:20:39 | 0:20:42 | |
"Is it important? Are you worried about the fact that people might think you are Jewish?" | 0:20:42 | 0:20:49 | |
And he said, | 0:20:49 | 0:20:51 | |
"Well, you see, I think I'd like to do possibly Henry V. | 0:20:51 | 0:20:57 | |
"Will they think I should never choose Henry V because I'm Jewish?" | 0:20:57 | 0:21:03 | |
I said, "There are very cogent reasons why you shouldn't choose Henry V. | 0:21:08 | 0:21:14 | |
"I simply don't see you as a man of action, as a soldier." | 0:21:14 | 0:21:19 | |
Once more...unto the breach, dear friends! | 0:21:19 | 0:21:23 | |
Once more, or close them all up with our English dead! | 0:21:23 | 0:21:28 | |
In peace, there's nothing so becomes a man as modest stillness and humility. | 0:21:33 | 0:21:39 | |
But when the blast of war blows in our ears... | 0:21:39 | 0:21:44 | |
"I saw a play at the Arts Theatre Club | 0:21:51 | 0:21:54 | |
"and after a quiet coffee, I took a tube home to Swiss Cottage. | 0:21:54 | 0:22:00 | |
"When leaving the tube, I saw a young man staring hard at me who I will refer to as X. | 0:22:00 | 0:22:07 | |
"Then I saw X go into the lavatory. I followed him. | 0:22:07 | 0:22:13 | |
"After a minute, I know he turned his face to glance at me | 0:22:13 | 0:22:17 | |
"and then walked out and waited outside. I followed. | 0:22:17 | 0:22:21 | |
"He loitered, I loitered. | 0:22:21 | 0:22:24 | |
"After several minutes passed, I decided it was dangerous and stupid. | 0:22:24 | 0:22:30 | |
"I walked away towards home. | 0:22:30 | 0:22:32 | |
"I turned to look back and see that he was not following me. He nodded. | 0:22:32 | 0:22:39 | |
"He stood, looking pathetic. I crossed to him. 'Hi,' I said. | 0:22:39 | 0:22:44 | |
"'Hello,' he said. 'What are you doing out so late?' I said. 'Nothing.' | 0:22:44 | 0:22:50 | |
"Long silence. 'Know anywhere to go?' I asked. 'No, do you?' | 0:22:50 | 0:22:56 | |
"'There's an open field along the way. | 0:22:56 | 0:23:00 | |
"'I have to be home early,'" I said. 'All right,' he said. | 0:23:00 | 0:23:05 | |
"I left him and walked hurriedly away. My mind was in great fear and turmoil. | 0:23:05 | 0:23:13 | |
"I looked back and saw X with another man, following me. | 0:23:13 | 0:23:17 | |
"I walked on quickly, forgetting where I was going. | 0:23:17 | 0:23:21 | |
"After a few minutes, they arrested me for 'persistently importuning'. | 0:23:21 | 0:23:26 | |
"When he gave evidence, he included, | 0:23:26 | 0:23:29 | |
"'persistently importuning seven men.' | 0:23:29 | 0:23:33 | |
"I believed that my own willpower | 0:23:33 | 0:23:36 | |
"was the best thing with which to overcome my homosexuality. | 0:23:36 | 0:23:41 | |
"The criminal methods of the police | 0:23:41 | 0:23:44 | |
"and the subsequent capture leaves me finished. | 0:23:44 | 0:23:48 | |
"If I am remanded or given a prison sentence, | 0:23:49 | 0:23:53 | |
"please telephone my father, Harry Epstein, at Liverpool North 3221. | 0:23:53 | 0:23:58 | |
"I apologise for my writing which I realise is difficult to read. | 0:23:58 | 0:24:04 | |
"I was unable to procure a typewriter and my hand is nervous." | 0:24:04 | 0:24:09 | |
Originally, when he lived at home, | 0:24:09 | 0:24:12 | |
he had wanted to present the image of a normal person. | 0:24:12 | 0:24:17 | |
It didn't really work because he always knew | 0:24:17 | 0:24:20 | |
and I believe that his family knew | 0:24:20 | 0:24:23 | |
that he was homosexual. When he lived in London | 0:24:23 | 0:24:29 | |
and when he visited America - he was fascinated with the American homosexual scene - | 0:24:29 | 0:24:37 | |
he behaved sometimes in a way which was very dangerous. | 0:24:37 | 0:24:41 | |
And he was conscious of this. | 0:24:41 | 0:24:44 | |
In some ways, he sought out danger. | 0:24:44 | 0:24:47 | |
It gave him a thrill but, of course, led him into many very awkward situations. | 0:24:47 | 0:24:54 | |
I think, deep down, he didn't want to be homosexual, | 0:24:54 | 0:24:59 | |
but paradoxically, he enjoyed his homosexual experiences. | 0:24:59 | 0:25:04 | |
"So, after the end of my third term at RADA, | 0:25:11 | 0:25:16 | |
"I returned home, nursing a decision never to leave home again | 0:25:16 | 0:25:20 | |
"and hiding a sense of inadequacy which was almost complete." | 0:25:20 | 0:25:26 | |
I'm afraid that his time at RADA | 0:25:34 | 0:25:37 | |
was quite short and he didn't really enjoy it in the end. | 0:25:37 | 0:25:42 | |
So he decided to come back and go into the business. | 0:25:42 | 0:25:47 | |
"The family business went from strength to strength. | 0:25:49 | 0:25:53 | |
"In 1959, we opened another store. | 0:25:53 | 0:25:57 | |
"It had a small record department and I was put in charge of that." | 0:25:57 | 0:26:02 | |
# If I say I love you, do you mind? | 0:26:02 | 0:26:05 | |
# Make an idol of you, do you mind...? # | 0:26:08 | 0:26:13 | |
My offices in the centre of the city occupy the space that used to be used by Brian Epstein for his office. | 0:26:13 | 0:26:21 | |
# Honey, this is how I think of heaven, do you mind? # | 0:26:21 | 0:26:27 | |
This was the beginning of Brian's entrepreneurial skill. | 0:26:27 | 0:26:33 | |
"It was opened by Anthony Newley | 0:26:34 | 0:26:37 | |
"and I persuaded a Decca representative to introduce us. | 0:26:37 | 0:26:42 | |
"Newley was an exceedingly friendly, diffident young man, very modest, and we got on well." | 0:26:42 | 0:26:50 | |
Lights? Give me some light. | 0:26:50 | 0:26:52 | |
"He spent a day with me and my family | 0:26:52 | 0:26:56 | |
"and I recall thinking this was how a real star should behave. | 0:26:56 | 0:27:01 | |
"That is how MY artists behave when they're permitted." | 0:27:01 | 0:27:05 | |
Right, two up, two down and a Wyatt Earp. Hit it! | 0:27:05 | 0:27:12 | |
-# Johnnie is a joker -He's a bird! | 0:27:15 | 0:27:18 | |
-# A very funny joker -He's a bird... # | 0:27:18 | 0:27:22 | |
"I wanted to be known as the record dealer who had everything - | 0:27:22 | 0:27:28 | |
"hit songs, small sellers, specialist records, the lot! | 0:27:28 | 0:27:32 | |
"I established a system for showing when a record pile needed renewing so we never ran out out anything. | 0:27:32 | 0:27:39 | |
"I turned no-one away with a 'Sorry, we don't have it.'" | 0:27:39 | 0:27:43 | |
# When the mists are rising and the rain is falling | 0:27:54 | 0:27:58 | |
# And the wind is blowing cold across the moor | 0:27:58 | 0:28:02 | |
# I hear the voice of my darling | 0:28:05 | 0:28:09 | |
# The girl I love and lost... # | 0:28:09 | 0:28:11 | |
Brian said, "Do you ever watch a programme called Compact? | 0:28:11 | 0:28:16 | |
"I've got this press blurb. There's a guy called John Leighton who's going to be singing this song." | 0:28:16 | 0:28:24 | |
So, I heard it and I thought it was diabolical. I said, "One copy in each shop." | 0:28:24 | 0:28:31 | |
He said, "Put it on." He just stood there. | 0:28:31 | 0:28:35 | |
# Johnny | 0:28:35 | 0:28:38 | |
# Remember me... # | 0:28:38 | 0:28:41 | |
And he said, "Right, we'll have 250, 300." | 0:28:41 | 0:28:44 | |
And I just looked at him and said, "Brian, you're joking!" | 0:28:44 | 0:28:49 | |
And, of course, it roared away, | 0:28:49 | 0:28:52 | |
and we were the only shop in the North-West to have copies. | 0:28:52 | 0:28:57 | |
# Remember me... # | 0:28:57 | 0:29:01 | |
My initial impression was that it was just a shop we went into | 0:29:01 | 0:29:06 | |
to admire all the beautiful record covers | 0:29:06 | 0:29:11 | |
and, occasionally, to buy a record. | 0:29:11 | 0:29:14 | |
NEMS stood for North End Music Stores. | 0:29:14 | 0:29:18 | |
Brian's dad, Harry, had once sold a piano to my dad. | 0:29:18 | 0:29:23 | |
So there was a family connection before I even knew him. | 0:29:23 | 0:29:27 | |
So for people who like to think things are fated, | 0:29:27 | 0:29:31 | |
it was even before I knew him. | 0:29:31 | 0:29:34 | |
# Johnny | 0:29:34 | 0:29:37 | |
# Remember me | 0:29:37 | 0:29:39 | |
# Yes, I'll always remember... # | 0:29:39 | 0:29:46 | |
The ceiling was lined with LP covers. | 0:29:46 | 0:29:49 | |
And it was like, "Wow, how did you think that one up?" | 0:29:49 | 0:29:53 | |
No other shop had it. | 0:29:53 | 0:29:55 | |
# Johnny, remember me... # | 0:29:55 | 0:30:00 | |
Saturday, it'd be packed and we had turntables behind the counter. | 0:30:00 | 0:30:05 | |
We would play records and there was a row of booths. | 0:30:05 | 0:30:10 | |
All the kids came in and a lot of them never bought anything. | 0:30:10 | 0:30:15 | |
WOMAN: We just wanted to listen to music. | 0:30:15 | 0:30:20 | |
You'd ask for a certain record to come on. | 0:30:20 | 0:30:23 | |
There'd always be a couple of friends there. | 0:30:23 | 0:30:27 | |
# Walking, talking, living doll... # | 0:30:27 | 0:30:31 | |
We didn't have any money. | 0:30:31 | 0:30:34 | |
If one person bought a record, | 0:30:34 | 0:30:37 | |
out of about 10 of us, | 0:30:37 | 0:30:40 | |
they were lucky. | 0:30:40 | 0:30:42 | |
Other people bought records, but people I was with didn't. | 0:30:42 | 0:30:46 | |
This is where all the classical stock was kept. | 0:30:51 | 0:30:55 | |
And downstairs? > | 0:30:57 | 0:31:00 | |
Downstairs here, which we can't go down to, | 0:31:00 | 0:31:05 | |
but it's down there, in Brian's old office - | 0:31:05 | 0:31:11 | |
he had his own office for running the shop - | 0:31:11 | 0:31:15 | |
that we actually signed the first contract with The Beatles. | 0:31:15 | 0:31:22 | |
And we had two windows of course. | 0:31:22 | 0:31:26 | |
Brian's great secret was that he didn't just put new records in, | 0:31:26 | 0:31:31 | |
he made displays - there'd be cocktail glasses and a chair... | 0:31:31 | 0:31:36 | |
He created a picture. He'd make it like a theatrical set. | 0:31:36 | 0:31:43 | |
"To write at all, I found it necessary to consume five whiskies | 0:31:52 | 0:31:57 | |
"before putting pen to paper. | 0:31:57 | 0:32:00 | |
"Of course, I'd planned writing for a long time. | 0:32:00 | 0:32:03 | |
"This was the only way to rid myself | 0:32:03 | 0:32:07 | |
"of humdrum, dreary, god-forsaken suburbia. | 0:32:07 | 0:32:11 | |
"The thing is to get away from it all. I fancy Rome. | 0:32:11 | 0:32:15 | |
"That's why I'm writing. If I plant Rome in a text, you'll know why. | 0:32:15 | 0:32:21 | |
"I should add that I want to live there in great luxury for a long time. | 0:32:21 | 0:32:27 | |
"To live Italian, | 0:32:27 | 0:32:29 | |
to add myself to that attractive, ridiculous little group | 0:32:29 | 0:32:34 | |
"that newspaper hickeys call 'the international set'." | 0:32:34 | 0:32:39 | |
I thought I should get to know him as he was rich, attractive. | 0:32:45 | 0:32:50 | |
He intended going places. | 0:32:50 | 0:32:53 | |
He wore monogrammed shirts and went to La Plage for his holidays, mixing with "the better people". | 0:32:53 | 0:32:59 | |
He was not a happy person. | 0:33:11 | 0:33:13 | |
But it would take an unhappy person who was sure of themselves, | 0:33:13 | 0:33:18 | |
with all those illusions of grandeur - maybe they weren't illusions - | 0:33:18 | 0:33:22 | |
it would take someone as mad as that to have the dreams that he had, and accomplish what he did. | 0:33:22 | 0:33:31 | |
It did have to be someone as strange as him. | 0:33:31 | 0:33:35 | |
This is my club - at least all that's left of it. | 0:33:55 | 0:34:00 | |
Behind that door there's a dark passage. | 0:34:00 | 0:34:03 | |
We kept it dark so no-one knew it was here. | 0:34:03 | 0:34:07 | |
Brian came once a week. | 0:34:07 | 0:34:09 | |
I had some attractive young men coming in - waiters from the Adelphi. | 0:34:09 | 0:34:15 | |
I bought most of the music from Brian. | 0:34:15 | 0:34:19 | |
The music was good, | 0:34:19 | 0:34:21 | |
so, naturally, he would come, and he was presentable and he mixed in very well. | 0:34:21 | 0:34:28 | |
Wherever homosexuals were, they had to be secretive. | 0:34:33 | 0:34:37 | |
There's lots of, um, beliefs, sort of amongst tough men | 0:34:38 | 0:34:43 | |
that so called "poofs and pansies" have a harder time, but it isn't so. | 0:34:43 | 0:34:49 | |
Lots of poofs and pansies are as tough as...uh | 0:34:49 | 0:34:55 | |
people can be in a tough city like Liverpool. | 0:34:55 | 0:35:00 | |
He'd left my house about 10.00pm and by quarter to midnight he was back on my doorstep. | 0:35:04 | 0:35:13 | |
And he left my house in a beautiful white shirt, | 0:35:13 | 0:35:18 | |
but when he came back on my doorstep, it was a brilliant red. | 0:35:18 | 0:35:23 | |
He'd been knocked about so much, and he didn't even come back in his car that night. | 0:35:23 | 0:35:29 | |
I bathed him, I got him right. | 0:35:29 | 0:35:32 | |
He did stay the night. | 0:35:32 | 0:35:35 | |
He went back home, or wherever he went the next morning, looking reasonably, reasonably good. | 0:35:35 | 0:35:43 | |
NEW SPEAKER: The whole blackmail situation happened before I knew him and I didn't know about it | 0:35:49 | 0:35:57 | |
until he felt comfortable enough to let me into this embarrassing secret, | 0:35:57 | 0:36:02 | |
which, actually, was pretty well contained within Liverpool, though obviously some people knew about it. | 0:36:02 | 0:36:10 | |
He explained it to me - it had been a devastating experience, | 0:36:10 | 0:36:14 | |
not only the being beaten up and the blackmail, but the embarrassment to the family, | 0:36:14 | 0:36:21 | |
to himself with the family and the family's embarrassment. | 0:36:21 | 0:36:26 | |
RABBI CHANTS IN HEBREW | 0:36:27 | 0:36:32 | |
He had everything going for him, he was successful at what he was doing. | 0:36:51 | 0:36:56 | |
The record shops would have got bigger, | 0:36:56 | 0:37:00 | |
it would have become a small chain. It would have been an achievement but it had already lost its interest. | 0:37:00 | 0:37:06 | |
There was an element of danger seeker. | 0:37:06 | 0:37:09 | |
There was an element of the gambling instinct - he had a gambling trait. | 0:37:09 | 0:37:15 | |
# Mashed potato, yeah | 0:37:15 | 0:37:17 | |
# Oh, yeah | 0:37:17 | 0:37:19 | |
# Oh, yeah | 0:37:19 | 0:37:21 | |
# Oh, shake it | 0:37:21 | 0:37:22 | |
# Hey, baby | 0:37:22 | 0:37:24 | |
# Yeah, oh, yeah | 0:37:24 | 0:37:26 | |
# Yeah | 0:37:26 | 0:37:28 | |
# Hey, baby | 0:37:28 | 0:37:30 | |
# Come on, baby | 0:37:30 | 0:37:31 | |
# Mashed potato, yeah | 0:37:34 | 0:37:35 | |
# Woh, right | 0:37:36 | 0:37:38 | |
# Whaah right... # | 0:37:38 | 0:37:41 | |
NEW SPEAKER: In Liverpool, there would have been 40 skiffle bands, skiffle groups... | 0:37:42 | 0:37:48 | |
Rock 'n' roll blossomed in Liverpool - we had a million groups. | 0:37:48 | 0:37:53 | |
The nice thing was there were also a lot of venues to play. | 0:37:53 | 0:37:57 | |
We could play every night for six months at a different venue. | 0:37:57 | 0:38:02 | |
All I wanted to do was to continue playing. | 0:38:02 | 0:38:07 | |
I worked on the railways, and finished there to go to Hamburg. | 0:38:07 | 0:38:12 | |
If I could make a living as a musician, that's what I want. That's all I wanted to do. | 0:38:12 | 0:38:19 | |
MUSIC: "Violin Concerto No. 1" by Max Bruch | 0:38:20 | 0:38:24 | |
"Although I now ran the biggest record store in the North-West with many teenage clients, | 0:38:30 | 0:38:37 | |
"and although I had an ear for a Top Twenty hit | 0:38:37 | 0:38:41 | |
"I wasn't interested in pop music and had little idea of the burgeoning Liverpool pop scene. | 0:38:41 | 0:38:47 | |
"I'd come back from a holiday in Spain during which I'd wondered how I could expand my interests." | 0:38:47 | 0:38:56 | |
MUSIC: "Violin Concerto No. 1" by Max Bruch | 0:38:59 | 0:39:04 | |
"By autumn 1961, the store was running like an 18-jewelled watch. | 0:39:30 | 0:39:35 | |
"It was showing good returns and the systems were so automatic that I was again becoming bored. | 0:39:35 | 0:39:42 | |
"Life was getting too easy. | 0:39:42 | 0:39:44 | |
"Then, suddenly, an 18-year-old boy in jeans and black leather jacket came into the store and said, | 0:39:44 | 0:39:52 | |
"'Have you got a disc by The Beatles?' His name was Raymond Jones." | 0:39:52 | 0:39:58 | |
This is one of those myths. | 0:40:00 | 0:40:04 | |
What happened was I got fed up with youngsters coming and asking for The Beatles' record. | 0:40:04 | 0:40:10 | |
It was called "My Bonnie" by Tony Sheridan and the Beat Brothers. | 0:40:10 | 0:40:15 | |
So I put the name Raymond Jones in the order book. | 0:40:15 | 0:40:20 | |
We had to order a minimum of 25, on import from Germany. | 0:40:20 | 0:40:24 | |
I bought one, to cover Raymond Jones. | 0:40:26 | 0:40:30 | |
Brian did a hand-written notice in the window, "Beatles record available here." | 0:40:30 | 0:40:36 | |
In an hour or so, it was sold out. The other 24 had gone. | 0:40:36 | 0:40:41 | |
Brian said, "Let's have lunch and we'll drop in the Cavern and see this band." | 0:40:41 | 0:40:47 | |
We've been accused that we must have known they were from Liverpool, but we weren't interested in pop music. | 0:40:47 | 0:40:54 | |
It was only later we thought, "We know them. We've seen them in the shop!" | 0:40:54 | 0:41:00 | |
# I'm gonna Kansas City | 0:41:04 | 0:41:07 | |
# Gonna get my baby one time, Yeah, yeah | 0:41:07 | 0:41:11 | |
# It's just a one, two, three, four | 0:41:11 | 0:41:14 | |
# Five, six, seven, eight, nine | 0:41:14 | 0:41:16 | |
# Ahhhh, Woooh...# | 0:41:16 | 0:41:20 | |
This is Matthew Street. | 0:41:22 | 0:41:25 | |
It's amazing. It's full of Beatles - a John Lennon bar, a Beatles shop, Cavern pub... | 0:41:25 | 0:41:32 | |
The one thing that isn't here, ironically, is the original Cavern. | 0:41:32 | 0:41:37 | |
It's gone. This is where it was, | 0:41:37 | 0:41:42 | |
where Brian and I walked down the steps on that fateful day, November 9th, 1961. | 0:41:42 | 0:41:49 | |
"Never had I thought of managing an artist or representing one. | 0:42:00 | 0:42:04 | |
"I'll never know what made me say to them that I thought a further meeting might be helpful. | 0:42:04 | 0:42:10 | |
"But something must have sparked between us, | 0:42:10 | 0:42:14 | |
"because I arranged a meeting at the Whitechapel store at 4.30pm on December 3rd, 1961, | 0:42:14 | 0:42:20 | |
"just for a chat." | 0:42:20 | 0:42:22 | |
"On that cold, grey afternoon in December in my office, | 0:42:22 | 0:42:26 | |
"I entered a whole new world." | 0:42:26 | 0:42:30 | |
NEW SPEAKER: Now they're The Beatles and all very rich, | 0:42:38 | 0:42:42 | |
but if you saw them at my mother's they were just scruffy boys. | 0:42:42 | 0:42:47 | |
Who'd look at them? | 0:42:47 | 0:42:49 | |
George sulking cos he fancied our Joan and she was marrying Sam. | 0:42:49 | 0:42:54 | |
You know, you've got John breaking eggs on beehives. | 0:42:54 | 0:42:59 | |
But they were a scruffy bunch of boys - I wouldn't bother with them. | 0:42:59 | 0:43:05 | |
But then, Brian stood out, he looked like the real thing. | 0:43:05 | 0:43:11 | |
He was handsome, tall, immaculate. | 0:43:11 | 0:43:14 | |
Then my mum in the background was saying, "He's different". | 0:43:14 | 0:43:19 | |
I hadn't had anything to do with pop management | 0:43:21 | 0:43:26 | |
or management of pop artists before that day I went to the Cavern and heard The Beatles play. | 0:43:26 | 0:43:33 | |
This was quite a new world for me. | 0:43:33 | 0:43:36 | |
I was amazed by this sort of dark, smoky, dank atmosphere with this beat music playing away. | 0:43:36 | 0:43:45 | |
And, um... | 0:43:45 | 0:43:47 | |
The Beatles were then just four lads on that rather dimly lit stage, | 0:43:47 | 0:43:54 | |
somewhat ill-clad and the presentation left a little to be desired as far as I was concerned, | 0:43:54 | 0:44:02 | |
cos I've been interested in the theatre for a long time. | 0:44:02 | 0:44:06 | |
But amongst all that, something tremendous came over. | 0:44:06 | 0:44:11 | |
I was immediately struck by their music, their beat, | 0:44:11 | 0:44:16 | |
and their sense of humour on stage. | 0:44:16 | 0:44:19 | |
When I met them after, I was struck by their personal charm. | 0:44:19 | 0:44:24 | |
My Dad said, "This could be a really good thing". | 0:44:25 | 0:44:29 | |
He thought Jewish people were good with money. This was the common wisdom. | 0:44:29 | 0:44:35 | |
So he thought Brian would be very good for us - very sensible, very charming | 0:44:35 | 0:44:41 | |
and he was right. | 0:44:41 | 0:44:43 | |
Having gone to RADA, he was different from everyone else. | 0:44:43 | 0:44:49 | |
He was quite different from anybody else. | 0:44:49 | 0:44:52 | |
"I went to see a lawyer friend, Rex Makin, to discuss management | 0:44:53 | 0:44:58 | |
"and to try and share some of my excitement about The Beatles. | 0:44:58 | 0:45:03 | |
"Makin, who'd known me for years, said, 'Oh, another Epstein idea. | 0:45:03 | 0:45:08 | |
"'How long before you lose interest?' | 0:45:08 | 0:45:11 | |
"It was justifiable but offended me because I felt I would permanently be involved with The Beatles. | 0:45:11 | 0:45:18 | |
REX MAKIN: He had enthusiasms. | 0:45:20 | 0:45:24 | |
And he had sudden bursts of flights of fancy, | 0:45:24 | 0:45:27 | |
but he wasn't really very stable. | 0:45:27 | 0:45:29 | |
So he was rather like a butterfly. | 0:45:31 | 0:45:35 | |
And, of course, butterflies are very colourful and don't settle for very long with any one object. | 0:45:35 | 0:45:43 | |
# How do you do what you do to me | 0:45:46 | 0:45:50 | |
# I wish I knew | 0:45:50 | 0:45:53 | |
# If I knew how you do it to me I'd do it to you... # | 0:45:53 | 0:45:57 | |
Brian was the last person I would have said would make a good manager. | 0:45:59 | 0:46:05 | |
He was just selling records in his Dad's shop - nice guy, | 0:46:05 | 0:46:09 | |
well brought up, great family, his mum and dad and his brother. | 0:46:09 | 0:46:14 | |
I never thought he would have the strength. Although he wasn't strong, he had the strength to manage. | 0:46:14 | 0:46:21 | |
It took a lot to manage The Beatles - Lennon was no push-over, nor was Paul. | 0:46:21 | 0:46:26 | |
We were no push-over either, so, yes, it did surprise me. | 0:46:26 | 0:46:32 | |
# ..You do what you do to me, if I only knew | 0:46:32 | 0:46:36 | |
# Then perhaps you'd fall for me like I fell for you... # | 0:46:36 | 0:46:40 | |
NEW SPEAKER: We'd been to the Knotty Ash club, | 0:46:49 | 0:46:53 | |
for my sister's engagement, and The Beatles played there, | 0:46:53 | 0:46:59 | |
and Rory and a few other groups. | 0:46:59 | 0:47:02 | |
Afterwards, as usual, we all went back to the house. | 0:47:02 | 0:47:06 | |
Brian came along - quite a lot of people, you know, from the night. | 0:47:06 | 0:47:13 | |
And Brian came over for the drinks - you know, Brian liked to drink. | 0:47:13 | 0:47:19 | |
He stuck by the bar talking to me most of the night. | 0:47:19 | 0:47:24 | |
He asked me to dance and I said, "I can't leave the bar." | 0:47:24 | 0:47:29 | |
So I didn't want to dance. | 0:47:29 | 0:47:32 | |
Then, he said, | 0:47:32 | 0:47:34 | |
"OK, if you won't come over this side, I'll come over there." And he ducked into the cloakroom with me. | 0:47:34 | 0:47:42 | |
And he stayed there all night. | 0:47:42 | 0:47:45 | |
To me, Brian was just an ordinary... Not just ordinary, he was one of the sexiest fellas I'd ever met. | 0:47:45 | 0:47:54 | |
But then, people say, "Oh, well, Brian was gay," but he wasn't very gay with me. | 0:47:54 | 0:48:00 | |
He was just like any other man, and more. | 0:48:01 | 0:48:06 | |
When I first saw him, I thought he was very stiff, standoffish, superior. | 0:48:06 | 0:48:11 | |
You see, in the shop, Brian seemed like a man, like your Dad, shouting at you and superior, | 0:48:11 | 0:48:20 | |
an attitude of superiority. | 0:48:20 | 0:48:23 | |
And then, in the house... | 0:48:23 | 0:48:26 | |
I thought he was a very passionate, loving person, but he was like two different people. | 0:48:26 | 0:48:32 | |
If there's a third person involved - this gay person - I just say he's a helluva man, | 0:48:32 | 0:48:39 | |
to be able to please everybody. | 0:48:39 | 0:48:42 | |
MUSIC: "Some Other Guy" by The Beatles | 0:48:48 | 0:48:52 | |
We went back to Germany and we bought leather pants | 0:49:06 | 0:49:10 | |
and looked like four Gene Vincents, only a bit younger. | 0:49:10 | 0:49:15 | |
That was it, we kept the leather gear until Brian came along. | 0:49:15 | 0:49:20 | |
It was a bit old hat - all wearing leather gear. | 0:49:20 | 0:49:24 | |
And we decided we didn't want to look ridiculous going on, | 0:49:24 | 0:49:28 | |
because, more often than not, most people would laugh. | 0:49:28 | 0:49:33 | |
We didn't want to appear as a gang of idiots and Brian suggested we wore ordinary suits. | 0:49:33 | 0:49:40 | |
So we got what we thought were good suits and got rid of the leathers. | 0:49:40 | 0:49:45 | |
# Some other guy, now | 0:49:45 | 0:49:47 | |
# Has taken my love away from me, oh now | 0:49:47 | 0:49:50 | |
# Some other guy, now | 0:49:50 | 0:49:52 | |
# Has taken away my sweet desire, oh now | 0:49:52 | 0:49:55 | |
# Some other guy, now | 0:49:55 | 0:49:57 | |
# I just don't wanna hold my hand, oh now | 0:49:57 | 0:50:00 | |
# I'm the lonely one, as lonely as I can feel | 0:50:00 | 0:50:03 | |
# All right, some other guy | 0:50:03 | 0:50:06 | |
# Is sippin' up the honey like a yellow dog, oh no | 0:50:06 | 0:50:09 | |
# Some other guy, now... # | 0:50:09 | 0:50:11 | |
Brian's father, Harry, would come in to the shop and I daren't tell him cos sometimes Brian would say, | 0:50:13 | 0:50:22 | |
"Don't tell Daddy. | 0:50:22 | 0:50:25 | |
"Don't tell him where I've gone." And he'd be down in London. | 0:50:25 | 0:50:30 | |
I used to think of all sorts of excuses of where Brian was - he was late back from lunch, | 0:50:30 | 0:50:37 | |
or at another meeting, and Harry wasn't silly, he began to cotton on that Brian was away too often. | 0:50:37 | 0:50:44 | |
John and I used to wait at Lime Street Station, | 0:50:46 | 0:50:51 | |
in a coffee bar called Punch And Judy. | 0:50:51 | 0:50:54 | |
We'd wait for Brian coming back from London. | 0:50:54 | 0:50:59 | |
We'd look at his face to see if it was good news or bad - it was always bad. | 0:50:59 | 0:51:05 | |
We'd have a coffee and discuss what happened. | 0:51:05 | 0:51:08 | |
He'd say, "People aren't interested. It's gonna be a hard sell." | 0:51:08 | 0:51:14 | |
"Dear Mr White, as I haven't heard from you with regard to the matter we discussed last week, | 0:51:14 | 0:51:22 | |
"I thought I'd try to impress you with my enthusiasm for the potential success of The Beatles. | 0:51:22 | 0:51:30 | |
"If I didn't mention they are so much better in reality, | 0:51:30 | 0:51:34 | |
"it was because I assumed you'd heard it all before. | 0:51:34 | 0:51:37 | |
"Next week, they'll be heard by Decca's A&R men. | 0:51:37 | 0:51:41 | |
"I mention this because, if we could choose, it would be EMI. | 0:51:41 | 0:51:46 | |
"They play mostly their own songs. One of them is the hottest material since 'Living Doll'." | 0:51:46 | 0:51:54 | |
GEORGE MARTIN: He'd been rejected by everybody. Absolutely everybody had turned it down. | 0:51:54 | 0:52:01 | |
They did rock 'n' roll standards and some of their own stuff which wasn't very good. | 0:52:01 | 0:52:07 | |
"Love Me Do" was the best and things like | 0:52:07 | 0:52:11 | |
"Your Feet's Too Big" by Fats Waller. They had an enormous repertoire. | 0:52:11 | 0:52:15 | |
I was quite impressed with his devotion and zeal, | 0:52:17 | 0:52:21 | |
which made me want to see them. | 0:52:21 | 0:52:24 | |
I hadn't got a great deal to lose, and when I met them and worked with them, | 0:52:24 | 0:52:31 | |
I got the same feeling he'd got - it was a kind of falling in love. | 0:52:31 | 0:52:37 | |
They had tremendous charisma which no-one else had recognised. | 0:52:37 | 0:52:42 | |
# Love, love me do | 0:52:56 | 0:52:59 | |
# You know I love you | 0:52:59 | 0:53:02 | |
# I'll always be true | 0:53:02 | 0:53:06 | |
# So ple-e-e-e-ase | 0:53:06 | 0:53:10 | |
# Love me do | 0:53:10 | 0:53:13 | |
# Woh-oh, love me do... # | 0:53:13 | 0:53:16 | |
He was living at home. | 0:53:16 | 0:53:18 | |
There was a point, I think just before the Beatle explosion, where he got himself | 0:53:18 | 0:53:26 | |
a small apartment in the centre of Liverpool not far from me. | 0:53:26 | 0:53:32 | |
I know it was never a place where he was thinking of living - it wasn't furnished - | 0:53:32 | 0:53:38 | |
if Brian was gonna live there he'd have done a whole job on it, which he never did. | 0:53:38 | 0:53:45 | |
Very soon, I think, after he got it, then, of course, John Lennon married Cynthia | 0:53:45 | 0:53:53 | |
and she was pregnant and had Julian, and he gave it to them to live in. | 0:53:53 | 0:53:58 | |
Cyn was having a baby and the holiday was planned. | 0:53:58 | 0:54:04 | |
I wasn't gonna break the holiday for a baby - that's what a bastard I was. | 0:54:04 | 0:54:10 | |
I just went on holiday and I watched Brian picking up the boys. | 0:54:10 | 0:54:16 | |
We were just Liverpool guys, so the word was "queer" not "gay". | 0:54:18 | 0:54:24 | |
We didn't have a problem, we just made fun of it. | 0:54:24 | 0:54:28 | |
We didn't actually know any, well, we probably did, | 0:54:28 | 0:54:33 | |
but you did talk about it. The word was out that Brian was gay. | 0:54:33 | 0:54:38 | |
Um, the great thing for us was that it didn't really affect us in any way. | 0:54:38 | 0:54:45 | |
I think we suspected he might hit on one of us, | 0:54:45 | 0:54:50 | |
so in the early days, | 0:54:50 | 0:54:54 | |
we were slightly wondering if that was his interest in us. | 0:54:54 | 0:54:59 | |
But in my personal knowledge, he didn't. | 0:54:59 | 0:55:03 | |
I don't know the truth of the John rumour. | 0:55:03 | 0:55:07 | |
All I can say is I slept with John a lot, cos you had to sleep and there was no more than one bed, | 0:55:07 | 0:55:15 | |
and to my knowledge, John was never gay. | 0:55:15 | 0:55:19 | |
I suspected that the John thing and Brian was a power play - cos John was a political animal. | 0:55:19 | 0:55:26 | |
I suspect John went away on that Spanish holiday | 0:55:26 | 0:55:30 | |
one, cos no-one went on holiday, anyone would have gone - a free holiday, yes, I'm there! | 0:55:30 | 0:55:37 | |
Two, I'm sure John took Brian aside, and said, "You wanna deal with this group, I'm the guy you deal with." | 0:55:37 | 0:55:45 | |
John was like that - very sensible, very pragmatic. | 0:55:45 | 0:55:48 | |
I'm sure that was the reason John went. | 0:55:48 | 0:55:52 | |
As to whether there was any gay dalliance, I don't know, I can't tell you that. | 0:55:52 | 0:55:59 | |
But Brian was very straightforward with me about it. | 0:55:59 | 0:56:03 | |
We could talk very openly about it. | 0:56:03 | 0:56:07 | |
Um, and I say, he never hit on me, there was never any question of it at all. | 0:56:07 | 0:56:13 | |
We lived so intimately together that there would have been one day, if it was in his character to do it. | 0:56:13 | 0:56:20 | |
JOHN LENNON: We didn't have an affair, not an affair. | 0:56:24 | 0:56:29 | |
I liked playing a bit faggy, you know, it was enjoyable... | 0:56:32 | 0:56:38 | |
But there were big rumours in Liverpool. It was terrible, very embarrassing. | 0:56:40 | 0:56:47 | |
PETER BROWN: The amphetamines started around that time. | 0:56:52 | 0:56:57 | |
He was introduced to these by The Beatles and other groups. | 0:56:57 | 0:57:02 | |
I'm sure some of Brian's initial reasons for the amphetamines | 0:57:06 | 0:57:12 | |
was to be part of the group, part of The Beatles - | 0:57:12 | 0:57:16 | |
to be cool, to show that he was cool, and, you know, hip, | 0:57:16 | 0:57:21 | |
and it did help - he was under pressure and these stimulants do work. | 0:57:21 | 0:57:28 | |
The amphetamines would keep you up and then you'd take sleeping pills and then you wake up feeling rotten | 0:57:28 | 0:57:35 | |
as a result of the sleeping pills and that would start the cycle off - it was a horrendous cycle. | 0:57:35 | 0:57:42 | |
"Many other things happened in that first, extraordinary year. | 0:57:45 | 0:57:50 | |
"I'd become the manager of several first-class artists. | 0:57:50 | 0:57:55 | |
"After The Beatles, I signed Gerry And The Pacemakers, | 0:57:55 | 0:57:58 | |
"Billy J Kramer and the Dakotas and a group called The Big Three. | 0:57:58 | 0:58:05 | |
"I was interested in a slim thing called Priscilla White and a freckled lad called Quigley. | 0:58:05 | 0:58:12 | |
"It was, in fact, all happening." | 0:58:12 | 0:58:15 | |
Artists credit him with a unique judgment of what will be a hit. | 0:58:15 | 0:58:20 | |
Nearly all of them earn more than the Prime Minister. | 0:58:20 | 0:58:25 | |
-May we talk to you about Brian Epstein? -Certainly. | 0:58:25 | 0:58:29 | |
-What does he mean to you? -Brian? Money! | 0:58:29 | 0:58:33 | |
No, seriously, he's done a lot for us. | 0:58:33 | 0:58:37 | |
He tells us what to do, made us wear suits and everything. | 0:58:37 | 0:58:44 | |
-Even in our private lives, he does a lot. -What other things, | 0:58:44 | 0:58:48 | |
-apart from telling you what suits to wear? -Well, sort of little things. | 0:58:48 | 0:58:55 | |
If you have any money troubles, you can always go to Brian | 0:58:55 | 0:59:00 | |
and ask him what to do. He'll always tell you as a pal. | 0:59:00 | 0:59:04 | |
NEW SPEAKER: When Brian said, "Maybe I can get a record deal for you," we thought he was crazy. | 0:59:04 | 0:59:12 | |
"OK, let's make a record. We can tell our kids about it and maybe get a few more quid." | 0:59:12 | 0:59:19 | |
Never thinking for one second that we would become famous, if that's the word, | 0:59:19 | 0:59:25 | |
or that The Beatles would become the biggest thing since sliced bread. | 0:59:25 | 0:59:30 | |
It was just Brian's great foresight that saw what would happen. | 0:59:30 | 0:59:35 | |
The Beatles didn't know. London didn't know about The Beatles. | 0:59:35 | 0:59:40 | |
# Say the words I long to hear | 0:59:40 | 0:59:43 | |
# I'm in love with you Ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh! | 0:59:43 | 0:59:48 | |
# Oh, I've known a secret for a week or two | 0:59:48 | 0:59:51 | |
# Nobody knows, just we two... # | 0:59:51 | 0:59:56 | |
They arranged all our travel for us., | 0:59:56 | 0:59:58 | |
They arranged our hotels. | 0:59:58 | 1:00:02 | |
You know, just about everything. | 1:00:02 | 1:00:05 | |
No matter where we were in the world, | 1:00:05 | 1:00:08 | |
Brian always made sure that we were taken care of financially. | 1:00:08 | 1:00:13 | |
This envelope arrived every Saturday | 1:00:13 | 1:00:16 | |
with a cash float. | 1:00:16 | 1:00:19 | |
And we would all each have a cheque... | 1:00:19 | 1:00:24 | |
for the balance of what we'd earned to be sent to our accounts. | 1:00:24 | 1:00:29 | |
Billy J Kramer is another from the stable who gets a frenzied welcome from his public. | 1:00:29 | 1:00:36 | |
Epstein says Kramer's good looks will take him to the top. | 1:00:36 | 1:00:41 | |
As no-one listened to the song, this is important. | 1:00:41 | 1:00:45 | |
SCREAMS DROWN OUT SONG | 1:00:45 | 1:00:51 | |
SCREAMS INCREASE | 1:00:56 | 1:00:59 | |
He'd come and see a show and critique it. | 1:00:59 | 1:01:03 | |
He'd really rip it apart. | 1:01:03 | 1:01:06 | |
You know, I used to see | 1:01:06 | 1:01:08 | |
different members of his stable on Jukebox Jury - | 1:01:08 | 1:01:14 | |
The Beatles, Cilla Black, Gerry Marsden. | 1:01:14 | 1:01:18 | |
And I'd ask Brian, "Why can't I do Jukebox Jury?" | 1:01:18 | 1:01:22 | |
And he says, "Because you don't speak well enough." | 1:01:22 | 1:01:27 | |
You know, he says, "Your diction and the way you speak is terrible. | 1:01:27 | 1:01:32 | |
"You need elocution lessons." | 1:01:32 | 1:01:34 | |
STRONG LIVERPUDLIAN ACCENT: He tried to stop us talking like that. | 1:01:34 | 1:01:40 | |
SOFTER ACCENT: So we had to change and try to be a bit more metropolitan in our accent. | 1:01:40 | 1:01:47 | |
# We've got a dance in Liverpool | 1:01:52 | 1:01:56 | |
# The cats and chicks think it's cool | 1:01:57 | 1:02:02 | |
# It started off with just a romp | 1:02:02 | 1:02:05 | |
# Now they call it the Cavern Stomp | 1:02:06 | 1:02:09 | |
# Let's stomp, let's stomp... # | 1:02:09 | 1:02:12 | |
The Big Three was really a rhythm and blues band. | 1:02:12 | 1:02:17 | |
We tried our best to be true to what we all liked. | 1:02:17 | 1:02:23 | |
We just wanted to be rough and ready. You know, down-home rockers. | 1:02:23 | 1:02:29 | |
But Brian tried to single me out, to be a front man | 1:02:31 | 1:02:35 | |
with the tight trousers and you know. | 1:02:35 | 1:02:38 | |
But I couldn't be a Jess Conrad type and sing Little Richard songs. | 1:02:38 | 1:02:44 | |
# Do the Cavern Stomp... # | 1:02:44 | 1:02:48 | |
"When I took on The Big Three, the group had a very good sound. | 1:02:58 | 1:03:03 | |
"But there was a lack of discipline. | 1:03:03 | 1:03:06 | |
"This cannot be tolerated because it's bad for business and extremely bad for morale. | 1:03:06 | 1:03:13 | |
"I was sorry to lose them because Johnny Gustafson, now with the Merseybeats, is a fine property - | 1:03:13 | 1:03:20 | |
"strong musically and physically and very good looking." | 1:03:20 | 1:03:25 | |
We were different from The Beatles. We were more working class. | 1:03:25 | 1:03:29 | |
They were more middle class, I think. | 1:03:29 | 1:03:32 | |
They had a different train of thought. They thought further ahead than we did. | 1:03:32 | 1:03:38 | |
We didn't wear the suits he provided. | 1:03:38 | 1:03:42 | |
If we went away on tour, the suits stayed in the van. We wore jeans | 1:03:42 | 1:03:47 | |
and scruffy shoes. | 1:03:47 | 1:03:49 | |
We'd forget our gear, leave it on the pavement and borrow stuff when we got there. | 1:03:49 | 1:03:55 | |
We'd never had a PA. He used to give us money for hotels. We'd sleep in the van and spend it in the pub. | 1:03:55 | 1:04:03 | |
Just things like that he didn't take too kindly to! | 1:04:03 | 1:04:08 | |
So he just fired us! | 1:04:08 | 1:04:10 | |
AMERICAN ACCENT: I was sitting in my office one day | 1:04:14 | 1:04:18 | |
and I got a call from a Brian Epstein. I didn't know who he was. | 1:04:18 | 1:04:23 | |
I picked up the phone and he said, "Why won't you put out The Beatles? | 1:04:23 | 1:04:30 | |
"Have you heard them?" I said no. "Please listen and call me back." So I said sure. | 1:04:30 | 1:04:36 | |
Columbia Records, RCA - then RCA Victor records - | 1:04:36 | 1:04:41 | |
Decca Records, a very big company, A&M Records. | 1:04:41 | 1:04:46 | |
Everyone turned them down. They finally got Swan Records who put out two records. | 1:04:46 | 1:04:53 | |
And nothing happened and Swan gave them up, didn't want them any more. | 1:04:53 | 1:04:59 | |
And that could have been the end of The Beatles in America. | 1:04:59 | 1:05:03 | |
"By early 1963, my acts were the most successful in the country. | 1:05:03 | 1:05:09 | |
"But no-one had heard of us in America. | 1:05:09 | 1:05:13 | |
"All of my boys idolised America's rock and roll stars. | 1:05:13 | 1:05:17 | |
"But there seemed little chance of the compliment being returned. | 1:05:17 | 1:05:22 | |
"Then one evening, the phone rang." | 1:05:22 | 1:05:25 | |
MAN: Brian was still working out of his home, so I called him in Liverpool. | 1:05:25 | 1:05:32 | |
His mother answered - Queenie. | 1:05:32 | 1:05:35 | |
We talked about the book review of the New York Times. | 1:05:35 | 1:05:40 | |
Finally she said, "Let me get my son, Mr Bernstein." | 1:05:40 | 1:05:45 | |
I heard footsteps. He was coming down from his workshop. | 1:05:45 | 1:05:49 | |
And he said, "Mr Bernstein, can I help you?" | 1:05:49 | 1:05:54 | |
And I said, "I'm interested in your group." | 1:05:54 | 1:05:58 | |
He said, "Why would you want to commit suicide? We can't get any airplay in New York." | 1:05:58 | 1:06:05 | |
I had not at this time heard a note of their music, but I was obsessed with the idea of presenting them. | 1:06:05 | 1:06:13 | |
He said, "Do you know how much money we get?" I said, "I've no idea." | 1:06:13 | 1:06:19 | |
He said, "We get 2,000 a night for one show." | 1:06:19 | 1:06:23 | |
I said, "I will give you 6,500 for one day for two shows." | 1:06:23 | 1:06:29 | |
And he said, "Wait till I tell the boys that some crazy American | 1:06:29 | 1:06:34 | |
"wants to give me 6,500 for two shows in one day." | 1:06:34 | 1:06:38 | |
He says, "You've got a deal!" | 1:06:38 | 1:06:42 | |
MUSIC: "Someone To Love" | 1:06:42 | 1:06:45 | |
I'm so happy to be here tonight. | 1:06:45 | 1:06:48 | |
So glad to be in your wonderful city. | 1:06:48 | 1:06:51 | |
And I have a little message for you. | 1:06:51 | 1:06:54 | |
And I want to tell every woman and every man tonight | 1:06:54 | 1:06:58 | |
that's every needed someone to love, | 1:06:58 | 1:07:01 | |
that's ever had somebody to love, | 1:07:01 | 1:07:05 | |
that's ever had somebody to understand them, | 1:07:05 | 1:07:08 | |
that's ever had someone that needs their love all the time, | 1:07:08 | 1:07:12 | |
someone that's with them when they're up and they're down. | 1:07:12 | 1:07:17 | |
If you ever had somebody like this, you better hold onto them. | 1:07:17 | 1:07:21 | |
Let me tell you something, sometimes you get what you want | 1:07:21 | 1:07:26 | |
and you lose what you had... | 1:07:26 | 1:07:28 | |
"Operation USA started in November 1963. I went to New York and took Billy J Kramer with me. | 1:07:28 | 1:07:35 | |
"The trip cost me £2,000 because we stayed in an extremely good hotel | 1:07:35 | 1:07:40 | |
"and we lived demonstrably to impress the Americans that we were important. | 1:07:40 | 1:07:46 | |
"Actually, we were of no great importance to the Americans. | 1:07:46 | 1:07:51 | |
"We were two ordinary travellers. I only had the names of three contacts." | 1:07:51 | 1:07:58 | |
I was walking with Brian and Billy J Kramer through Times Square | 1:08:02 | 1:08:08 | |
and Billy caught sight in one of the shop windows of a Western style fringed shirt. | 1:08:08 | 1:08:16 | |
"Oooh," he said, "I like that!" | 1:08:16 | 1:08:18 | |
And Brian said, "No, Billy, not your style at all!" And Billy didn't buy it. | 1:08:18 | 1:08:25 | |
Brian was always very conscious of how his artists ought to look | 1:08:25 | 1:08:30 | |
and Billy's style was clean cut. | 1:08:30 | 1:08:33 | |
That's the image Brian wanted him to retain. No country and western! | 1:08:33 | 1:08:39 | |
KRAMER: Then he went on to give me a big lecture in a restaurant. | 1:08:39 | 1:08:44 | |
"If you lost some weight, we could make some fantastic movies and you could have a different career." | 1:08:44 | 1:08:51 | |
I said, "I have a hard time miming to records, never mind acting." | 1:08:51 | 1:08:57 | |
I was smart and had the boy-next-door image | 1:08:57 | 1:09:01 | |
and he thought maybe I was the one that was gonna do it. | 1:09:01 | 1:09:05 | |
GERRY MARSDEN: Brian used to say, there's no bad publicity. | 1:09:05 | 1:09:10 | |
Once we made the records, Brian realised we needed it worldwide. | 1:09:10 | 1:09:15 | |
He was trying to get us abroad, | 1:09:15 | 1:09:17 | |
to get on TV. Brian was the first to realise how important that was. | 1:09:19 | 1:09:25 | |
"Ed Sullivan had the number-one show on American TV. | 1:09:25 | 1:09:29 | |
"I heard that he'd witnessed Beatlemania at London Airport. | 1:09:29 | 1:09:34 | |
"He agreed to see me and I found him a most genial fellow. | 1:09:34 | 1:09:40 | |
"I demanded that The Beatles had top billing. | 1:09:40 | 1:09:44 | |
"After a lot of resistance | 1:09:44 | 1:09:47 | |
"Sullivan relented and we got our top billing. | 1:09:47 | 1:09:51 | |
"The show attracted the highest audience in the history of US TV." | 1:09:51 | 1:09:57 | |
GEORGE MARTIN: That year, 1963, I had 37 weeks in the number-one spot. | 1:09:57 | 1:10:03 | |
All these acts were Epstein acts. | 1:10:03 | 1:10:06 | |
And he then realised that he had the makings of a a latterday Diaghilev. | 1:10:06 | 1:10:12 | |
He saw himself as an impresario with a stable of great stars. | 1:10:12 | 1:10:17 | |
Brian wanted to be a star. That's the essential part of Brian. | 1:10:17 | 1:10:22 | |
And he couldn't do it as an actor. | 1:10:22 | 1:10:24 | |
And now he could do it as a man who was a manipulator, a puppeteer, if you like. | 1:10:24 | 1:10:30 | |
It's a pretty heady wine when everything you do becomes successful. | 1:10:30 | 1:10:35 | |
"For years, The Beatles had watched the American charts with remote envy. | 1:10:35 | 1:10:43 | |
"The US charts were unattainable. | 1:10:43 | 1:10:45 | |
"Only Stateside artists ever made any imprint. | 1:10:45 | 1:10:49 | |
"Always America seemed too big, too vast, too remote and too American. | 1:10:49 | 1:10:55 | |
"I remember the night we heard about the number one. | 1:10:55 | 1:10:59 | |
"I said to John, 'There can be nothing more important.' | 1:10:59 | 1:11:04 | |
"Adding a tentative, 'Can there?'" | 1:11:04 | 1:11:06 | |
# Oh, yeah, I'll tell you something | 1:11:15 | 1:11:19 | |
# I think you'll understand | 1:11:19 | 1:11:22 | |
# When I say that something | 1:11:22 | 1:11:26 | |
# I wanna hold your hand | 1:11:26 | 1:11:30 | |
# I wanna hold your hand | 1:11:30 | 1:11:34 | |
# I wanna hold your hand | 1:11:34 | 1:11:37 | |
# And when I touch you... # | 1:11:37 | 1:11:40 | |
"Whatever happens tomorrow, one thing is certain. | 1:11:40 | 1:11:45 | |
"It must not be allowed to look after itself. | 1:11:45 | 1:11:50 | |
"Tomorrow must be under my control. | 1:11:50 | 1:11:53 | |
"Yesterday was a wonderful day. | 1:11:53 | 1:11:56 | |
"It was warm and the sun shone and The Beatles were brilliant. Today is nice too. | 1:11:56 | 1:12:03 | |
"There's still no change in the weather, but we must be on our guard. | 1:12:03 | 1:12:09 | |
"It might be as well to carry our raincoats. Then it won't rain. | 1:12:09 | 1:12:13 | |
"It's a great privilege being the weatherman, keeping The Beatles dry. | 1:12:13 | 1:12:18 | |
"I enjoy it far too much to relax. | 1:12:18 | 1:12:21 | |
"However much I socialise with the famous, | 1:12:21 | 1:12:25 | |
"best of all and far beyond anything that money can buy, | 1:12:25 | 1:12:29 | |
"I love to lean on my elbows and watch the curtain rise on | 1:12:29 | 1:12:34 | |
"John, Paul, George, Ringo, Billy, Tommy, Cilla. They've stunned the world. | 1:12:34 | 1:12:40 | |
"I think the sun WILL shine tomorrow." | 1:12:40 | 1:12:44 | |
# ..I think you'll understand | 1:12:44 | 1:12:47 | |
# When I feel that something | 1:12:47 | 1:12:51 | |
# I wanna hold your hand | 1:12:51 | 1:12:55 | |
# I wanna hold your hand | 1:12:55 | 1:12:59 | |
# I wanna hold your hand | 1:12:59 | 1:13:02 | |
# I wanna hold your ha-a-a-a-and! # | 1:13:02 | 1:13:08 | |
Subtitles by BBC Subtitling, 1998 | 1:13:55 | 1:13:58 |