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General statements: •Brian: "I have no musical knowledge nor do I know very much about show business or the record business". The Beatles thought, however, that he could pull a few strings for them, and they also thought he had a reputation as a good businessman (Giuliano). •The Epstein style was revolutionary. Apart from the detailed worksheets handed out each week, Brian also mad sure that monies due to his artists were dealt with quickly and efficiently. When his groups were on tour they would arrive at hotels prior to concerts and find their weekly 'wages' waiting for them, in cash. Unlike many other managers he took care of all tax matters. If an artist hadn't earned much in any week Epstein would subsidize the payment to them and 'square up' during a very good week (Gunby, G. Hello Goodbye, p, 79). •He also believed that fans expected to see you at your best and that entertainers had a duty to their fans. "They pay your wages", he would say to any artist who complained (Gunby, G. Hello Goodbye, p, 79). •Brian could be generous. If he [Brian] worked late with Alistair he'd take him to dinner and send an apology to Leslie [his wife], along with a bouquet, but it was easier to stitch sawdust than to get a pay raise (Gunby, G. Hello Goodbye, p. 2). •Brian did not have the luxury of consulting experts in entertainment law and accounting in 1963, 64... as rock was not the business that it was in the 70's, 80's 90's...(Coleman). •The first big rock manager who was really different from the fifties all too true stereotype as Brian Epstein the extraordinary interior decorator, actor, record salesman, Beatles manager. Epstein was new in the sense of understanding and identifying with his clients, relating to them as human beings as well as lucrative properties, and giving attention to the career development of the group, rather than making a fast buck (Chapple and Garofalo. Rock and Roll is here to Pay, p. 131). •Sid Bernstein: "Allen Klein has called Brian a bad businessman because he says he made more money for the Beatles than Brian did. But by bad businessman do you mean that you don't get every dollar that you can seize? Does a bad businessman mean that you have some humanity for the other guy's feelings? Brian did. I studied his style and approaches and I find them admirable" (McCabe). •Dezo Hoffman: "But let's just say he [Brian] didn't know how much to charge for a gig and sometimes they worked for nothing. They already had a #1 single and they worked for £100 a week". •Alistair Taylor: NEMS Enterprises has been decisively upstaged
by the Beatles' new company, Apple. Apparently, the government takes
a kindly view of new businesses being set up and there are generous
financial concessions. An operation like this was planned well before
Brian died, but Brian wasn't interested in the workings of it at
all, although he approved of the idea in principal (Talyor, A. p.
108). •Denis O'Del: With a few hits under their belt, most managers would have attempted to constrain their artists' desire to stretch themselves musically and to experiment with their image, merely encouraging them to repeat the same old formula until the well ran dry. Brian was possibly the first modern manager to understand that this was not the way to promote longevity and had an instinctive trust of the Beatles' own understanding of pop culture. Dare I suggest that what he didn't do may have been as significant as what he did do as a manager? You can put a price on what Brian Epstein 'lost' for the Beatles. You can't put a price on what he gave them (O'Dell, Dennis. At the Apple's Core. p. 51). •Dr. Stratch: He {Brian} always worried that he might be taking advantage of them. He came to me once and said he wanted to give them a piece of his company, NEMS Enterprises. He gave them ten percent of it, so they would get back some of the twenty-five percent they paid him. Brian didn't have to, but he wanted to. He was a decent, honest, average, human being. •Denis O'Del: This caused [Brian] some trepidation, as he did not like the idea that the press or other hangers-on would wait around and collect the hair clippings to sell them off to fans (referring to John getting his hair cut in the presence of others for How I Won the War) (O'Dell, Dennis. At the Apple's Core. p. 51). •Denis O'Dell: "...it's easy to be critical retrospectively about these deals and wise after the event, and much of the posthumous criticism of Brian's merchandising mistakes is pretty stupid. At the time that he and his advisors had made these deals pop merchandising was in its infancy...Nobody knew the full potential or full implications of such deals. Sailing in uncharted waters, Brian had nothing to measure his decisions against. Is it fair to criticize him in light of this? I doubt whether those who are so quick to condemn his deals would have been any wiser at the time (O'Dell, Dennis. At the Apple's Core. p. 61). •Q: What about Brian Epstein? •Meanwhile, back at the bank, the deluge of Beatle money
has become almost indecent, and the Beatles and Epstein find themselves
gasping in the rarefied air of international finance. Royalties
from 80 million Beatle records are pouring in from all over the
world. The first Beatle movie, "A Hard Day's Night," has
broken all records in England and grossed $1.6 million in its first
week in the U.S. There are huge percentages from hundreds of by-products,
from bedspreads to bubble gum. The British magazine Queen, assessing
the balance of payments, has concluded that the Beatles are not
only the biggest revenue-earning group in entertainment history
but also "England's most fantastic economy complex." •Brian has a "very simple stock-control system which keeps track of every record sold everyday" (Taylor, A. p. 6). •How I Won the War: I thought it might be worth asking Brian Epstein for some investment. Brian was in great spirits when I arrived, "No problem, Denis. We'll put up the rest of the money...as it turned out we didn't need Brian's money as I managed to make some crucial savings later in the production stage." (O'Del, Dennis. Apple's Core, p. 50.) •Alistair Taylor: No one here apart from Brian has any inkling of what really vast sums are being made--that's one of Brian's immovable principals (Taylor, A. p. 36).
Statements from The Beatles: •Paul: Some of the deals he struck, like the fact that Lennon and McCartney songs aren't our copyright, were very naive. He had some business acumen, it's true, but his real thing was the flair (Giuliano Lost Int. p. 304). •John: Well, he [Brian] was alright. I've found out since, of course, that he wasn't quite as honest to us as he made out (McCabe/Schonfeld, p. 90. For the Record). •Pete Best: The thing with Brian, he made it quite clear when we went to see him. He said, "I have no musical knowledge nor do I know very much about show business or the record business". He laid it on the line, so at least he was genuine (Giuliano Lost Int. p. 204). •John: He [Brian] came to us once in Paris and said he'd had enough, and he wanted to sell us to Delfont or Grade, I've forgotten which one. And we told him-I told him personally-that we would stop. We all said, "Whatever you do, if you do that, we stop now. We don't play anymore, and we disband. We're not going to let anyone else have us, especially them." Because, after all, we all know who they were...they'd been the enemy from the start. It was people like them who Brian came up against who went, "Go back to the provinces, sonny". And all that sh** that he'd been given from all those big-time Londoners who all come from Poland (McCabe/Schonfeld p.98. For the Record). •George said, "Before Brian Epstein saw us working we were earning quite a bit of money". But he rolled his eyes in jest (Dewitt).
•Brian's cousin Raymond started an enterprise with his brother to make and sell Beatle related sweaters (30s) and badges (6d). They sold 15,000 sweaters and 50,000 badges (Coleman). •Sean Mahoney proposed the idea of a weekly Beatles' fan magazine. Brian and the Beatles agreed. Brian wanted 50% of the profits, not a royalty rate on each copy. They agreed on 33% of profits. The first issue sold 111,000, the second 200,000, and the sixth 350,000.
Negotiations: •Brian could have charged a lot more for tickets to the Shea Stadium concert ($10), but he thought it would be too much and be criticized as excessive (McCabe). •None of these ideas [potential scripts to follow Help!] had come to anything, and we were now in a position to renegotiate the contract [with United Artists]. This was wonderful news for the Beatles, since Brian had negotiated a deal for the Beatles that had not reflected their enormous box-office potential. Part of this, I am sure, was at the time Brian did his deal with United Artists he saw the cinema as a means of promoting the Beatles' records and maintaining their high profile rather than an end in itself. Also one has to remember that the made the agreement just before the group had hit their peak of popularity and before A Hard Day's Night had demonstrated the full extent of their bankability (O'Del, Denis. At the Apple's Core, p. 83). •Referring to the Beatles' cartoon series on television: Part of the original agreement between Brodax and Brian was that if the cartoon series proved successful Brodax would have the Beatles' blessing to make a feature film bearing the Beatles' likeness with a handful of original songs. When the series exceeded all expectations Brodax held Brian to his promise, and in 1967 production on the movie began in earnest (O'Del, Denis. At the Apple's Core, p. 83). •It has been reported that the bulk of John and Paul's assets in 1969 was probably the result of the sale of the stock which Brian placed in their hands (McCabe). •Well look what happened. With Northern Songs, we ended up selling half our copyrights forever. We lost 'em all and Sir Lew Grade's got'em. It was bad management. We have no company. That's where Brian Epstein f***ed up. Who got the benefit? Not us. I mean, since you ask, in retrospect he made mistakes (McCabe/Schonfeld, p. 22 For the Record). •Mackenzie: "Brian failed to take advantage of the expiration of the Beatles' original stingy contract with EMI for a full seventeen months, allowing a ridiculous small royalty rate to remain intact until the contract was renegotiated in November '66". •Alistair Taylor was in the US promoting The Silkie and had secured them with a number of television appearances. He was having difficulty in securing work permits and approached Brian for $1000 to "oil the wheels". Brian flatly refused (Gunby, G. Hello Goodbye, p. 42). •John: But on the business end he [Brian] ripped us off on the Seltaeb thing...But Brian had made some deal somewhere, and I know we were ripped off by Brian (McCabe/Schonfeld, p, 91. For the Record). •John: No, no. Brian did a few things that showed he cooked us. We never got anything out of it, and Brian did. But obviously some things are definite. Just the fact that NEMS was a bigger company than the Beatles. We have no company. There's Northern Songs, Dick James, and NEMS. What did we have? A couple quid in the bank. That's where Brian f***ed up. He's the one who would say, "Sign up for another ten years". And who got the benefit? Not us. We were the ones who were tied by the balls. So that's what I think of him. (McCabe/Schonfeld, p, 92. For the Record). •Brian, in a meeting with the producer of A Hard Day's Night, stated that he wouldn't accept less than 7 1/2 % of the income from the movie. United artists had the figure of 25% as a starting point for the deal negotiations. Walter Shenson later volunteered to up the percentage to 20% after the movie was successful. •Brian, in a meeting with the producer of A Hard Day's Night, stated that he wouldn't accept less than 7 1/2 % of the income from the movie. United Artists had the figure of 25% as a starting point for the deal negotiations. Walter Shenson later volunteered to up the percentage to 20% after the movie was successful. •Brian proposed that Decca record the Beatles that would be exclusive to Brian. Brian said that the would buy 5,000 copies (£1,050). The offer is declined by Decca. •In September Brian claimed he was offered £3,500,000 for his interest in the Beatles from an American business group. •Many businessmen booked seats on the same flight as Brian Epstein on a trip to the U.S. Many sent notes with business proposals on them. All propositions were politely denied by Brian (Brown, p. 117). •Never considered to be a great negotiator, Epstein's true strengths were his well-developed organizational abilities, his unflinching honesty, and his conservative, reliable stewardship of the Beatles' finances (Granados, S. Those Were the Days, p. 3).
•Brian ran the Beatles at a loss until they could afford to give up a percentage.
•Brian reportedly earned approximately £5 million
in 1963-64. |
