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Death Of The Fifth Beatle
Neil Aspinall, manager of the Beatles, died last month, aged 66. He was the man whom the Fab Four trusted most. From the start of thier work until the end of the career of Aspinall, the four musicians from Liverpool dubbed him 'The fifth Beatle'. And many others came to refer to him in exactly the same way.
He started as a trainee accountant. Then he became a 'roadie', driving his friends in a battered Commer van from gig to gig. After many decades, and until last year, he was chief executive of the the multi-million-pound Apple Corps.
As head of Apple, a job he accepted in 1968 because the group asked him, to be their guardian, he sorted out bank accounts, established the legality of contracts and performed many other tedious chores.
His finest hour was when he defended the British Apple record label against the American Apple computer brand. It was an acrimonious dispute but he managed to achieve an honorable and profitable settlement for what he considered to be the best rock 'n' roll band in the world.
He was essentially a modest man. He could have written a best-seller 'tell-tale' book. But that was not his style.
His main professional aim was that no one should do the Beatles no harm; making sure their money and prestige was secure.
However, once, un-credited, he did help with the backing chorus for "Yellow Submarine".
