August 27: On This Day in World History … briefly

Brian Samuel Epstein (19 September 1934 – 27 August 1967) was an English music entrepreneur who managed the Beatles. Epstein first discovered the Beatles in November 1961 during a lunchtime performance at The Cavern Club. He was instantly impressed and saw great potential in the group. Epstein was rejected by nearly all major recording companies in London, until he secured a meeting with George Martin, head of EMI’s Parlophone label.

He first noticed the Beatles in issues of ‘Mersey Beat’ and on numerous posters around Liverpool created by his commercial artist associate Tony Booth, before he asked the editor of ‘Mersey Beat’ Bill Harry who they were. Harry had previously convinced Epstein to sell the magazine at the family-owned North End Music Store (NEMS), with the Beatles featured on the front page of its second issue. The Beatles had recorded the ‘My Bonnie’ single with Tony Sheridan in Germany, and some months after its release Epstein asked his personal assistant Alistair Taylor about it in NEMS. Epstein’s version of the story was that customer Raymond Jones walked into the NEMS shop and asked him for the ‘My Bonnie’ single, which made Epstein curious about the group. Taylor later claimed that he had used the name of Jones (a regular customer) to order the single and paid the deposit, knowing that Epstein would notice it and order further copies.

Harry and McCartney later repudiated Epstein’s story, as Harry had been talking to Epstein for a long time about the Beatles – the group that he promoted the most in Mersey Beat—with McCartney saying, ‘Brian (Epstein) knew perfectly well who the Beatles were; they were on the front page of the second issue of ‘Mersey Beat’. On August 3, 1961, Epstein started a regular music column in the Mersey Beat called ‘Stop the World – And Listen To Everything In It: Brian Epstein of NEMS’.

The Beatles were due to perform a lunchtime concert in The Cavern Club on November 9, 1961. According to club owner Alan Sytner, Epstein had visited the club quite a few times previously on Saturday nights, once asking Sytner to book a group for his twenty-first birthday party. Epstein asked Harry to arrange for Epstein and his assistant Taylor to watch the Beatles perform. The club allowed Epstein and Taylor to enter without queuing. They bypassed the line of fans at the door and heard Bob Wooler, the resident DJ, announce a welcome message over the club’s public address system: “We have someone rather famous in the audience today. Mr Brian Epstein, the owner of NEMS …”

Epstein later talked about the performance: “I was immediately struck by their music, their beat and their sense of humour on stage—and, even afterwards, when I met them, I was struck again by their personal charm. And it was there that, really, it all started”.

 

After the performance, Epstein and Taylor went into the dressing room (which he later described as being “as big as a broom cupboard”) to talk to the group. The Beatles, all regular NEMS customers, immediately recognised Epstein, but before he could congratulate them on their performance, George Harrison said, “And what brings Mr Epstein here?” Epstein replied with, “We just popped in to say hello. I enjoyed your performance.” He introduced Taylor, who merely nodded a greeting, said, “Well done, then, goodbye.” and left.

Epstein and Taylor went to Peacock’s restaurant in Hackins Hey for lunch and during the meal Epstein asked Taylor what he thought about the group. Taylor replied that he honestly thought they were ‘absolutely awful’, but there was something ‘remarkable’ about them. Epstein sat there smiling for a long time before exclaiming, “I think they’re tremendous!” Later, when Epstein was paying the bill, he grabbed Taylor’s arm and said, “Do you think I should manage them?”

The Beatles played at The Cavern Club over the next three weeks, and Epstein was always there to watch them. He contacted Allan Williams (their previous promoter/manager) to confirm that Williams no longer had any ties to the group, but Williams advised Epstein ‘not to touch them with a bloody barge pole’ because of a Hamburg concert percentage that the group had refused to pay.

In May 1962, Martin agreed to sign the Beatles, partly because of Epstein’s conviction that the group would become internationally famous.

The Beatles’ early success has been attributed to Epstein’s management style, and the band trusted him without hesitation. In addition to handling the Beatles’ business affairs, Epstein often stepped in to mediate personal disputes within the group. The Beatles’ unquestioning loyalty to Epstein later proved detrimental, as the band rarely read contracts before signing them.

Shortly after the song ‘Please Please Me’ rose to the top of the charts in 1963, Epstein advised the creation of Northern Songs, a publishing company that would control the copyrights of all Lennon/McCartney compositions recorded between 1963 and 1973. Music publisher Dick James and his partner Charles Silver owned 51 percent of the company, Lennon and McCartney each owned 20, and Epstein owned 9 percent. By 1969, Lennon and McCartney had lost control of all publishing rights to ATV Music Publishing.

Epstein’s death in 1967 marked the beginning of the group’s dissolution and had a profound effect on each Beatle. In 1997 Paul McCartney said “If anyone was the Fifth Beatle, it was Brian.”

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