General:

•Derek Taylor thought there were two things in common among people who lasted in a close relationship with the Beatles: #1 You didn't want to be a Beatle. #2 You didn't care about their money (Taylor, D.).

•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.

•Billy Preston was paid £500 for his work on the Get Back Sessions and signed to Apple on January 31 '69 (Lewisohn. Chronicle p. 310).

•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.

•Sir Joseph Lockwood, EMI Records managing director: I knew there was some possible connection with cannabis in the studios'-smells' were noted-but I never pursued it. I had a pretty close relationship with the Beatles, largely because they were so successful (Taylor , It was 20 Years Ago).

•Press release by Yoko to UPI, AP, Reuters: Every cent John earns goes into Apple at the moment. All that he means by saying that he would like to free his money is that he would like to have some pocket money, some spending money, for some of our joint endeavors. It would be wrong to think that John is going to leave Apple because he, like the other Beatles, is a quarter of Apple, but like everyone else he could do with some loose change which is entirely his own. He needs some freedom.

•Mike McCartney: I did his meditation for two years. But I suddenly realized it was costing me a fortune and taking two hours of my life everyday! So I stopped, because that's the trick...Go get the answers for your self...

•Billy Preston: They asked me would I like to be on Apple Records. I was with Capitol at the time. The next day I went to the studio and they said, "You're on Apple". Which was a great as it gave me a chance to produce for the first time and also be able to sing, because most of my albums before that were just instrumental. George Harrison did most of the co-producing with me. Originally, it was supposed to be all four Beatles producing a couple songs for me, but that's when all the disturbances came up. So everybody kind of split up. But me and George hung in there.

•An advertisement in the Record Mirror July 68 offered for sale a 1961 Citroen 2CV for no less than £300. The car was hand-painted by Klaus Voorman and George Harrison.

•Robert Graves said,
"There is no money in poetry
but then there is no poetry in money either."
The Beatles changed all that.

•The Sunday Times: The Culture: Section 10: 12 November, 1995, pages 4-5. The Real Fifth Beatle: With a Little Help From Their Roadie.
Robert Sandall uncovers the man ultimately responsible for the Beatles reunion: Neil Aspinall, the shadowy figure who was working in the background even before Ringo joined the band.
Aspinall's job description changed dramatically after the death of Epstein in 1967. The Beatles were no longer spending any time in vans, having given up live performances the previous year. Meanwhile Apple, the group's self-sacrificial gesture to hippie correctness, set up "to encourage unknown literary, graphic and performing artists," was merrily leading them to the brink of chaos and bankruptcy in the days before Aspinall assumed sole control. In the vacuum left by Epstein, the group claimed to be managing themselves; in fact, day-to-day arrangements of their affairs fell to Aspinall. Lennon once offered him the job of manager, but amid the general confusion he turned it down. "Neil was stuck in the office all through the White Album and Let It Be, and he hated it," says Derek Taylor, Apple's press officer, then and now. "Unlike all the other work he'd done, it was never finished." The first phase of the Apple imbroglio took 10 years to clear up. Allan Klein, the sharp-talking American lawyer brought in by Lennon (much to McCartney's annoyance) to get rid of "the hustlers and spongers" who were buying houses and charging them to Apple's account, left his own troublesome legacy of financial mis-management. Klein was eventually condemned, in the High Court action McCartney instituted in 1971, for "lamentable" book-keeping. Lawsuits between Klein and Apple kept Aspinall busy through until 1977, by which time the individual Beatles were only speaking to each other occasionally, and not always in a friendly spirit. (Internet source for this info is not available to the author at this time. Any info on the source would be appreciated)

.•Dennis: You went with Warner Bros. because Apple was folding at the time?
Mike: Yeah. It had nothing to do with me, I was just the drummer. I wanted
to stay with Apple just "cause we were Apple. I didn't give a fuck who was
managing Apple, as long as it was our statement. I think we should've. Allen
Klein, or ... I didn't give a sh**! The actual figurehead was Apple and The
Beatles. And Warner Bros. was like dangling the big carrot. They really
dangled the big carrot for 3 1/2 million dollars. It was good in those days
(interview with Mike Gibbins of Badfinger by Dennis Dalcin).

• Asher made several attempts to determine [James} Taylor's status at Apple. Unable to get any commitment or definite answer, Asher went ahead and signed James Taylor to Warner Brothers Records. For the time being, no one at Apple seemed to notice or care that Asher and Taylor had simply walked away. Peter Asher: "I consequently heard that Allen really was going to sue us and that The Beatles talked him out of it...I don't know that for a fact, but I think George told me, 'Oh no, Allen was going to do something,' but then he and Paul said, 'Oh no, this is not how we wish to be perceived. If an artist is unhappy and wants to go, let them go.' So in that sense I may indeed owe George and Paul a debt" (Granados, S. Those Were the Days. p. 98).

•Alex Madras overheard the Beatles talking to Alistair Taylor about buying and island as a hideaway. Madras said, "Thousands of them. Dirt cheap." (Gunby, G. Hello Goodbye, p. 108).

•When Alistair was asked to find an island for the Beatles' getaway hideout he found an 80-acre island with four beaches, six houses, and sixteen acres of olive groves. The family who owned it was selling it for £90,000. Four other small islands were to be included with the purchase. Alistair also figured out that profits from the sale of the olives would help pay for the islands in seven years. The Beatles thought that buying the island was going to be "as easy as nipping to the grocers to get a tin of baked beans. But Britain was in a financial crisis and there were severe restrictions on pounds sterling going abroad. The only way to buy property outside of the UK was to use property dollars issued by the government. Alistair filled out many forms only to receive a 'no' from the British government each time. The Beatles, Neil Aspinall, and Alistair sat down with solicitors and accountants and wrote a four-page letter to the government asking for reconsideration. The group took a trip to the island and Greece. Upon returning Alistair received a letter from James Callaghan, Chancellor of the Exchequer, stating that because of the Beatles' service to the country they could but the property for £90,000 but no more. Alistair planned for weeks with accountants trying to find ways to finance the houses, boats, recording studio, and furniture with no help from Callaghan. Neil Aspinall told Alistair soon thereafter that the Beatles had decided not to buy the island. Alistair went around to each Beatle and told them he would put the idea on hold for a week. He also told them that once they refused the deal then there was no going back. Two days later John poked his head from around an office door and said, "Forget the island" (Gunby, G. Hello Goodbye, p. 110-112).

•Alistair Taylor was with Paul and a few other people in a bar in Bean, England. Alistair paid for the drinks, took them to the table, and returned for the change. The lady stood with her outstretched hand holding the coins, just staring at Paul (Gunby, G. Hello Goodbye, p, 59).

•Alistair Taylor: Alex has designed a tiny throwaway radio supposed to sell for a few pence and made out of a few pieces of plastic. I heard a prototype that would fit in your pocket and looked as if it were made out of the leftovers from a child's construction kit, but it worked just fine. Quite an inventor! (Taylor, A. p. 115).

•The costs for extra musicians for Phil Spector's work on Across the Universe, I Me Mine, and The Long and Winding Road was £1126 5s (£1126.25) (Lewisohn. Chronicle p. 349).

•The Black Dwarf, a Marxist newspaper published in London during the 60's wrote, "Although I've liked The Beatles in the past I hope they get so f***ed up with their money-making that they become as obscure as Cliff Richard (Harry, B. Lennon Encyclopedia, p. 123).

•Steve Abrams (American student at Oxford) arranged, through Paul McCartney, for the Beatles to pay for a controversial advertisement in The Times urging a more enlightened attitude towards marijuana (Harry. Encyclopedia, p. 25).

•thebeatlesinrishikesh.com reports that the Maharishi expected The Beatles to deposit 25% of their annual income in a Swiss bank account in the Maharishi's name. John spoke for the group saying that it would not happen.