•Click here for: THE BEATLES LEGACY LISTINGS (BLL) (FRAGMENT ON) THE BEATLES/ NEMS RECORDING CONTRACTS' HISTORY

•The Beatles actually signed the contract with Brian Epstein across 5 sixpenny stamps.

•Each week Alistair issued a work schedule to The Beatles, Brian, and roadie Neil Aspinall. It included dates, venues, appearance times, fees, number of sets, timings and anything else that might be useful such as the nearest late-night restaurant (Gunby, G. Hello Goodbye, p. 6).

•Brian did not know what a contract looked like and sent away for a sample after his first meeting with the Beatles. He had a contract ready for their next meeting.

•Brian claims he didn't sign the management contract because he wasn't sure he could help them

•In the Beatles second meeting with Brian it was decided that Brian would get a 25% share of the groups' earnings. This was high for a manger's fee, but Brian stated that he'd 'break his back to help them' (Naha).

•Brian set the ball rolling for George Martin to contract them for two singles with an option on further releases if these gave cause for hope (Clayson, p. 61).

•The Beatles sign a binding five-year management deal with Brian just three days before the release of Love Me Do.

•The deal he signed on behalf of the Beatles was pathetic and George Martin was later to describe it as 'pretty awful'. There were no advance payments and they would receive only one penny per single-and half that on overseas sales. A 12-track album would only be counted as six cuts. There were three one-year options with an increase of a quarter of a penny at the end of the first year and an increase of a halfpenny at the end of the second year (Harry. Encyclopedia, p. 118).

•Brian waited nine months (October '62) to sign the contract because he wanted to prove himself to the group first (Lewisohn. Chronicle p.36).

•For 1963 they received 1 farthing per double-sided disc. Millions of records were sold under this original Parlophone contract.

•Schultheiss reports that George Martin had no intention of signing the Beatles to a contract until he learned, through an EMI salesman, that Brian was going to cancel all his business with EMI unless a single was released (p. 32).

•On October 1 the Beatles signed a five-year contract with Brian (Schultheiss 37).

•The one [contract] that Brian had been given by a friend in the business-a typical management/artist document of the time-had so disgusted him with its meanness and exploitation, and enslavement of the artist, that he steadfastly refused to utilise it. Instead, using it as a guide, he modified and adapted the terms to draw up a much fairer agreement (Lewisohn. Chronicle p. 37).

•In late '63 EMI raised the royalty rate from one to two pennies owing to the large number of sales being made (Schultheiss 71).

•Brown p. 79: Brian negotiated-or rather gracefully accepted- a substandard contract, even for an unknown group. Under the terms, Parlophone was indebted to record only four sides, or two double-sided singles, in a one-year period. The royalty rate was a laughable one penny for each single sold, both sides, and the increment would only be a farthing-an amount that only came to about a half a penny. It was just about the lowest possible offer a record company could make them, without being accused of usury. Considering how many times they had been turned down, Brian felt lucky at that.

•Alistair Taylor: Brian's never seen a contract for a group before, so he's arranging for Rex Makin, his family solicitor, to draw up contracts. When that's all ready, we're going to have another meeting at NEMS to go through all the paperwork and sign the mighty document (Taylor, A. p. 16).

•They (The Beatles) had been turned down by other British companies including British Decca, who picked up a group called Brian Poole and the Tremoloes in their place. Their first contract with EMI gave them all of 1 cent per single, 6 cents per album (Chapple and Garofalo. Rock and Roll is here to Pay, p. 70).

•When 'Love Me Do' was issued the Beatles signed a new (revised) contract with Brian Epstein (Lewisohn. Chronicle p. 61).

•The Beatles auditioned for Peter Pilbeam, a producer of teen radio programs. The audition was successful and the Beatles were scheduled to play 'Teenager's Turn' on March 7 '62. A contract was issued for this by the BBC on Tues Feb 20 '62 (Lewisohn. Chronicle p. 66).

•PAUL: "Well, it's John and I. We write the songs between us. It's, you know... We've sort of signed contracts and things to say, that now if we..."
JOHN: "It's equal shares."
PAUL: "Yeah, equal shares and royalties and things, so that really we just both write most of the stuff. George did write this instrumental, as we say. But mainly it's John and I. We've written over about a hundred songs but we don't use half of them, you know. We just happened to sort of rearrange 'Love Me Do' and played it to the recording people, and 'P.S. I Love You,' and uhh, they seemed to quite like it. So that's what we recorded."
MONTY: "Paul, tell us. How do you get in on the act in Germany?"
PAUL: "Well, it was all through an old agent."
PAUL: (chuckles) "We first went there for a fella who used to manage us, and Mr. Allan Williams of the Jacaranda Club in Liverpool. And he found the engagements so we sort of went there, and then went under our own..."
JOHN: "Steam."
PAUL: "Steam... (laughs)
JOHN: "...as they say."
PAUL: "As they say, afterwards, you know. And we've just been going backwards and forwards and backwards and forwards."

•The Beatles, as well as other major bands of the day, signed exclusive use contracts with VOX. This contract precluded The Beatles from utilizing any other amplifier on stage, although they were free to use other manufactures' amplifiers while in the recording studio (fabfour.net)

EMI, history:

•EMI was founded in 1931 and was famous for the manufacture of televisions and electronic equipment. The company was revitalized by Joseph Lockwood who purchased several record companies and their presses for EMI in the early to mid 50’s. The principal labels were Columbia and HMV. Parlophone, a small German company, was purchased before WWII (Brown, p. 76).

•It was estimated that during the first year the Beatles would sell about 6 million pounds worth of records in the UK. This would increase EMI’s profits by 80% (Brown, p. 110).

Miscellaneous Contracts:

•The Beatles played all of the previously scheduled £25, £50, and £60 bookings even though they had reached a much higher bracket by the time of some of these performances were scheduled (Epstein).

•Some of the Beatles' early gigs barely covered expenses because they played for the fee that was agreed upon months earlier (Norman, P. 195).

•John: So no contract would hold us. So Brian was never overbearing, and if Brian and Paul and everybody said, "Well, look, why don't we just trim our hair a bit and look like this", you're going to say alright in the end, you know, or f*** it (McCabe/Schonfeld p.100. For the Record).

Germany, Contracts:

•Bruno Koschmider required them to play from 8:30-2:00 with 30 minute breaks. £150 per week for the two month contract.

•Signed a contract with Bert Kaempfert Productions on July 1, 1961. Renewable for periods of one year. Four songs per year. Exclusive rights for company for 10 years from date of recording. 25dm per day living expenses while in Hamburg. First class rail. 5% of wholesale price (which was much lower than getting 5% of the retail price) (Coleman).

•Kaempfert let them cancel the above contract when EMI is offered. He just wanted the Beatles to record for Polydor when they were in Hamburg for April '62.

•Jan '62 Roy Young and Horst Fascher came to Liverpool. They were working for Manfred Weissleder, who was planning to open the Star Club. He offered 500Dm per man and a one-off payment of 1000DM under the table. The contract was from April 13 to May 31 '62 (Lewisohn. Chronicle p. 56).

•The Beatles were to be paid a flat fee of three hundred DM (about 26 pounds) and would not be eligible to receive any royalties from the Tony Sheridan sessions (Flippo, p. 134).