•John: What happened after Brian died? Dick James Music Company-a f***in' multi-million music-industry company. Northern Songs not owned by us. And NEMS not owned by us. And that was all Brian and his advisors setting it up. What did we end up with? Paul and I had a hundred thousand or over in the bank, and George and Ringo had about twenty or thirty, something like that (McCabe/Schonfeld, p. 90. 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).

•In meeting with JWT's earnest reps on two separate occasions, Paul and his entourage of five sat and listened to many proposals. JWT variously proposed: "Helicopters and low-flying aircraft over major urban areas"; "Sandwich girls. Girls in mini-skirts with sandwich boards parading up and down the main shopping streets in certain large cities...We could get 150 girls at three pounds ten each"; "Double-decker buses painted white with THE BEATLES BUS and photograph portraits of the Beatles plus such people as Mao Tse Tung, deGaulle, etc., at each window. We would suggest having six of these driving around major urban areas. You could perhaps resell them. 100 pounds per bus for six"; "Boats displaying banners parading up and down the rivers running through main towns. This we rejected because not enough people would see them and they would not generate such tremendous interest as the buses would"; "Special train, rejected for same reasons". Paul said, "Hmm". One of JWT's finest said that if Paul didn't like the buses they had an idea for Paul to do a ninety-second TV commercial reading a fictitious pop critic's review of the album. Paul asked what it would cost. "Fifty-six thousand pounds". Audible gasp from Paul (Flippo, p. 240).

•Since Magic Alex said his father was a highly placed government official in Greece, he had managed to persuade John and Paul that they could establish a little Greek paradise and then pull up the drawbridge after them. Paul and John had both tried to persuade Brian to get the British government to relax the stringent laws regulating money flow out of the country. Paul said he wanted to go somewhere no one can get at us. John said, "It will be amazing". We'll be able to just lie in the sun". It was some indication of the power the Beatles actually possessed that they were able to get a special tax dispensation from Chancellor of the Exchequer James Callaghan. They bought a little cluster of six islands in the Aegean Sea for one hundred thousand pounds. They visited it once, tired of it immediately, and the Beatle paradise was later sold (Flippo, p. 242).

•Paul: "Then the job folded beneath me. Suddenly I didn't have a career anymore. I wasn't earning anything and all my money was in Apple and I couldn't get it out because I'd signed it all away". The last was not quite true. After Apple funds were frozen until the partnership was formally dissolved, none of the Beatles could draw on the money. A major problem was that as the money piled up, a huge tax bill would accompany any withdrawals. All the money Klein said he was bringing in was to lie untouched for years. With the money frozen, of course, the Beatles had no income. And none of them was really that wealthy. Their money had never been managed well and certainly had not been invested wisely. At the time of the breakup they owned houses and cars and Apple and Paul had the farm in Scotland (Flippo. p. 310).

•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).

•When asked if he spent all his money, John replied, "No, the people around us made more money than the Beatles ever did, I'll tell you that. None of the Beatles are millionaires. But there's lots of millionaires who became millionaires around the Beatles, however. You know the story" (Denmark 70).

•FROM BRITAIN'S "THE TIMES"
FRIDAY NOVEMBER 17 2000
After the Beatles - an interest in all things British. BY JULIAN CRITCHLEY
November 21, 1969
What is "pop"? Strictly defined it is popular music of a kind which appeals to people between the ages of five and 20. A wider interpretation would include not only clothes for both sexes, typified by Carnaby Street and King's Road, but also the "whole youth scene", argot for the manifestations of a culture which some have called "secondary modern", and others just "modern". It is a phenomenon about which there can be more than one view: what is not in dispute is the fact that for millions of foreigners Britain is associated not with parliamentary democracy, nor with technology, not even with banking, but with the Beatles. Until the arrival of the Beatles in 1963, popular music in this country was largely American. It had been so before the Second World War, British music having died with the music hall. The middle market (the music trade divides music into three categories, popular with 50 per cent of the market, middle with 30 per cent, and classical with 20 per cent) had a British content thanks to Ivor Novello and Noel Coward, but the popular end was almost all American. There were some native stars - Gracie Fields, George Formby, and Donald Peers - but they were unknown abroad.

•The talking picture made American influence, which had begun with ragtime before 1914, the dominant one. New York in the 1920s and 1930s, the building of Radio City, and the creation of the musical as an American art form, meant that the world took its music from America American culture had a popular base which the British did not acquire until the early 1960s. Should the blame for the Beatles be put on Lord Butler? The 1944 Education Act extended secondary education to all. Lord Keynes can claim credit for full employment: it is the combination of awakened expectations and money to spend (helped by the end of national service) which has given rise to "pop", a multi million pound industry who captains have been made members and officers of the British Empire, and the effect of which on young people is now universal.

•FAME AND FORTUNE
Until the Beatles, popular music consisted mainly of solo performers, usually American. Bing Crosby began singing in the early 1930s, Frank Sinatra in the 1940s and Elvis Presley in the 1950s. The "group" was different: it changed the sound. Its audiences relished the noise, which in the Cavern in Liverpool sounded at times like a Guards band locked in a lavatory, allowing them to immerse themselves in it and to identify completely. The groups were more colourful and more fun. They gave to their members the chance to look and to dress differently, to express themselves The success of the Beatles, who had provided something quite new, encouraged hundreds to follow suit. For those without O levels, and for some with them, a guitar was the means, quite literally, to fame and fortune. In 1964 the Beatles went to America, and took it by storm. In a way it was in return for so much and for so many that had gone the other way. In their wake there grew an interest in all things British, and later the legend of "swinging London" to be discovered by Time magazine. Although there had already been groups in America, the Andrews Sisters and the Mills Bros., everyone began to imitate the Beatles and their music. In a field where success can be ensured by publicity and by noise, the Beatles were good. They have grown; their style which was from the start an individual one, has developed.

•Their ability not simply to perform but also to compose has kept them ahead of their competitors. Paul McCartney is plainly the most talented. With John Lennon he has written simple songs with attractive melodies which have never lost the ability to surprise. The four have emerged as distinct personalities, with Ringo, the clown, seemingly on the threshold of a career in films. They have set their own trends and made their own fashions, and have won a loyalty for themselves which, in spite of drugs, marital upsets, and poor films, they have kept. They sell more records than anyone else in the world.

•Crosby and Sinatra have been in business longer, but a Beatles record is the world's best seller. Only two of their records have failed to go to the top of the pops. Although pop has been copied in other countries, British pop is still the best. It produces a better sound, which may in part be due to excellent production facilities. It is the most sophisticated pop, and the "sound of the moment" is, more often than not, British: in contrast to before the war when a popular song written in this country would be marketed in America, so that it might be presented in its country of origin as "American".

•The songs themselves are now more vital and "gutsy"; compare Hair with Perchance to Dream. They have also a political content which few, save perhaps, for "Buddy can you spare a dime" had before the war. "Give peace a chance" is the title of John Lennon's and Yoko Ono's latest record. Pop can be divided into two categories: "bubble gum music", simple and melodic, written for 13 year olds, and "progressive pop" which takes itself more seriously.

•Memo March 6 '69. Trident Studios billed EMI for 9 hours of recording time at £25 per hour, 9 hours of overtime at £5 per hour, and for 3 reels of 1" tape at £16 each. Total £318 (Lewisohn. Chronicle p. 315).

•Memo. Olympic Studios June 18 '69. Billed for costs: £72 for 8-2 reductions at £ 18 each, £15 for playback at £3 per hour, £2.10 for playback at £5 per hour, £5 for 1 reel of 1" tape, £9.10 for engineers overtime charges, and £7.18s for telephone calls (Lewisohn. Chronicle p. 322).

•Among the middle aged Cole Porter remains the favourite for he never sings about first love, but among the "kids" love is still for keeps. The pop market is still very sentimental. Les Reed who composes waltzes such as "Delilah" and "The Last Waltz" for Engelbert Humperdinck is the most successful British composer.

•Brian Epstein, the former record shop manager who discovered the Beatles, sold their rights to E.M.I., the company with the largest shares in the British gramophone market.

•In 1968, 30 per cent of all singles and 31 per cent of all albums sold were made by E.M.I. Epstein played the first rough tape of the Beatles to George Martin, a producer at E.M.I., who bought it there and then. The contract was renegotiated in 1966, and has another six years to run.

•The Beatles began by bringing out four records a year but more recently because of their other activities, the number has fallen to an album a year. This has had the effect of letting the Americans in. British singers who once monopolized the charts in this country, do so no longer. Only 14 of the top singles last year and only four of the albums were by British performers.

•The Electric and Musical Industries Ltd., owns and operates major record companies in 28 countries. It sells 20 per cent of the thousand million records sold every year throughout the world. In Britain it employs 29,000 people, and presses more than two million records a week.

•It has recently acquired The Grade Organization, and it presses and distributes Apple, the Beatles' own label. It also owns Capitol Records, one of the three biggest companies in the field in America, which with three factories, placed across the continent, supplies 30 per cent of the largest record market in the world. E.M.I. chief property is undoubtedly the Beatles but other artists include Cilla Black, Mary Hopkin (Apple), Cliff Richard, Lulu, and the Dave Clark Five.

•What the record companies fear most is marriage. It is not until the newly wed reach 40 that sales figures begin to pick up again - but then in the middle market of popular music. In the meantime there is an estimated 19 million people below the age of 24 in this country alone, a market with a disposable income greater than any other.

•The rise of "pop" music has been mirrored by the change in clothes. With the cult of youth has gone the end of middle age. Mary Quant has said we can all stay young until 65. Before 1957 young people's clothes looked like scaled down versions of their mothers, but with the slogan "brighter clothes mean brighter people" came the mod look, no waists, good colours and simple fabrics. The onset of pop and the arrival of the mod look were related.

•In the wake of Mary Quant and her bazaars came the boutiques, of which there are now two thousand in London alone, the fashion designers from the Royal College of Art, the fashion journalists, the models and the smart but often proletarian photographers, all of whom combined to build up an industry of 35,000 people making clothes for a mass market, the most publicized members of which were the pop stars who had helped to make it all happen.

•What Mary Quant did for women was done for men by designer/entrepreneurs like Rupert Lycett Green and John Stephen.

•As in all such revolutions the talent has been spread thinly. The Beatles and the Rolling Stones are good of their kind: so too is Quant, and other designers such as Ossie Clark and Tuffin and Foale. The mini skirt has been given to the world and boutiques such as Biba where the £1,000 a year typist goes to shop, has dressed thousands of girls well if not warmly. If the youth of the world does not dance dressed in British "gear", then it would like to.

•Beyond the big names the quality drops. The market is so large, volatile and inexperienced that it will try almost anything. For most of the "swingers" it is soon over, it all ends in marriage, children, mortgages and the Mini. But it has been a flowering, a brief mayfly like existence before the onset of reality.

•Even with the corruption and the second rate, it is hard to escape the conclusion that for millions, pop has been a liberation. Whether the society which gave it birth, and which has taken its tone in part from it, should be called "permissive" or not, I am not certain: what it has done is to increase the amount of human happiness.

•The thrust for social equality has come more from cheap clothes and from cheap music than from the achievements of any political party.

•The charm of the Beatles, and even the brutal visual excitement of the Rolling Stones, have set standards for others to try to imitate If to sell abroad is now a proof of virtue then the pop singers and the pop clothes designers have done well by the British public.

Income figures:

•From March to December 1969 the Beatles earned £1,708,000 (McCabe).

•From December 1969 to December 1970 the Beatles earned £4,350,000 (McCabe).

•The annual earnings for the Beatles in 70-71 were £4-5 million. Tax liabilities for the four were £500,000 (Dilello).

Legal: see also The Beatles' Legal Matters and Negotiations.

•In April 1970 John, George, and Ringo had incurred £100,000 in legal bills.

•George: "We weren't broke, we'd earned alot of money but we didn't actually have the money that we'd earned, you know. It was floating around, because the contracts...The structure of everything, you know, right back--that's really the history--Since 1962 the way everything was structured was just freaky, you know. None of us knew anything about it. We just spent money when we wanted to spend money, but we didn't know where we were spending it from, or if we paid taxes on it, you know We were really in bad shape as far as that was concerned, because none of us really could be bothered. We just felt as though we were rich, because really we were rich by what we sold and what we did. But, uhh, it wasn't really the case because it was so untogether--the business side of it. But now it's very together and we know exactly where everything is, and there's daily reports on where it is and what it is, and how much it is. And it's really good."(The Beatles Ultimate Experience Database: George Harrison Interview. New York City. April 1970).

Negotiations: see also The Beatles' Legal Matters and Negotiations

•Allen Klein renegotiated the Beatles contract with EMI as follows: The royalty rate went from 17 1/2% to 25% on U.S. sales. The Beatles were to do two albums per year as a group or individually. The Beatles would receive $0.58 per album until '72 when it would increase to $0.72. Reissues would be paid at a rate of $0.55 when it would increase to $0.72 (McCabe).
Click here for: THE BEATLES LEGACY LISTINGS (BLL) (FRAGMENT ON) THE BEATLES/ NEMS RECORDING CONTRACTS' HISTORY

•US promoter Mike Belkin offered the group $2.4 million for a 12 city tour plus 65% of the gross which he estimated would earn them $6.4 million. They turned the offer down.

•When John announced that he'd be leaving soon he agreed to not make it public knowledge because it might interfere with Allen Klein's negotiations with Capitol Records for a new royalty deal.

•The Financial Times reported that Dick James couldn't persuade John and Paul to accept £9,000,000 offer from ATV for Northern Songs, Ltd.

•On touring: Ringo was afraid that after taxes and other deductions, "We'd be left with a fiver and a packet of ciggies each (Daily Mirror June 69).

•On behalf of the Beatles and their company, Apple Corps, their business manager Allen Klein of ABKCO Industries, after discussion with the Beatles, announced in New York today that all negotiations between the Beatles, Associated Television, and Northern Songs have been terminated by the Beatles. All of the Beatles and their companies intend to sell their shares in Northern Songs to Associated television at a price in accordance with the terms laid down by the takeover panel. John Lennon and Paul McCartney have no intention of involving themselves in any further relationship with Northern Songs or Associated Television beyond the fulfillment of their songwriting contract to February 1973. The Beatles intend to keep all their rights with their own company, Apple, which has divisions in records, music, publishing, motion pictures and television. After discussions with the Beatles' solicitors and after taking advice of counsel, the writ served upon Northern Songs by the Beatles-owned Maclen Company will not be withdrawn and a statement of claim will be served within the next few days.

Expenses:

•£697 2s (£697.10) was spent on the musicians for 'Golden Lumbers/Carry That Weight, The End, Something, and Here Comes The Sun' (Lewisohn. Chronicle p. 330).