The start of Apple Corps came about with many different episodes that occurred during 1966.
The group were becoming tired of touring which added so much pressure to their lives as a creative unit, and to them as a whole, that things had to change as they saw it. So the touring was brought to an end with that now famous gig at Candlestick Park in San Francisco.
The next item was the recording technology at EMI in Abbey Road Studios which, in their minds, was inferior to equipment being used in the USA. John was most insistent that the bass sound on Motown Recordings was superior than The Beatles and demanded in a not too friendly fashion, that EMI had better pull their fingers out and the phrasing went something along the lines of ‘If you won’t do it, we will do it ourselves’. This one statement caused much uncertainty within the Boardroom at EMI.
Earlier in the year the group’s activities had come under the exacting scrutiny of the then present Labour Government who were trying extremely hard to obtain more tax revenues from the band and their companies. This came to a head in the studio while putting together the Revolver album to be issued on August 1st of that year.
The discussion again went along these lines, between John and Brian Epstein , ‘John, wasn’t that treble a little too high there?’ John replied with some sarcasm, ‘Brian, let us look after the music, you look after the money’. Exit from the studio, a very chastened Brian.
TAXMAN
The band were paying 95 pence in the pound tax (19 shillings from every 20 shillings or pound earned), by then, and were seriously thinking of moving abroad after speaking to the Chancellor, who stated that The Beatles are this country’s biggest currency earners and the Government wants more from you and that we are looking at your foreign earnings as well. We will get it one way or another was the final remark.
Ever since that conversation, The Beatles have always been a tax issue, and that still resides today in 2025 !!
So quite clearly something had to be done very quickly to offset this completely.
Finally, the last straw was the impending release in November of the Album ‘ A Collection of Beatles Oldies, but Goldies’. The group were incensed by this move and wanted nothing to do with it and even wanted the release curtailed. The EMI Board replied that the Beatles recordings were in fact totally owned by EMI, and they will be issued in that collection.
We know the rest, so the battle lines had been drawn, literally into the concrete!!
So the plan to start Apple was now laid, but things had to take their time to come to fruition, so the introduction of Apple was to be a stage managed affair, taking some nearly two years from August 1966 to August 1968 to become the fully fledged company that was unveiled to the public.
Brian began the process by forming a film company to sell The Beatles performances around the world on video tape and this began in 1966.
The Beatles Ltd.
The Beatles had become so big that their present organisational framework could not effectively manage it, and so an entirely new one now had to be formed, which meant leaving The Beatles Ltd company. Letters had to be drafted and signed and sent to EMI, Themselves, Brian and his management, and all interested parties. It is these letters which are shown here in the Blog.
They have been very well cared for, and they serve as very important documents in the history of Apple. They may have been simple letters, but as a cornerstone to the groups future activities, they are priceless documents.
These are not cheap photocopies of those individual letters, but typewritten copies, so they are a direct copy of those original 1966 letters.
For many of you this is probably the very first time that these have been seen. Enjoy them please, as they are part of my personal archives, and will as said,…. be continued to be kept out of the sun in protective files, and away from public view.
Author of Inside No 3
Radio Broadcaster, and Host Future Radio – Norwich 107.8FM – Swindon 105.5FM – Poppyland Radio FM
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Inside Number Three – The Illustrated History of Apple Records
Inside No3 takes you through that famous door, deep into the minds of all who worked there at Apple Records. This is done also in a very different way. This is not a kiss-and-tell diary, it is through fan adulation and understanding via a personal collection of artifacts and memorabilia that author Nigel Pearce has built up over the last 50 years.
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