Author: liddypool

The Apple Films’ 1968 release of Yellow Submarine was an event that at the time seemed at first not to be of any relevant importance. It was another Beatles film, and the fact seemed to diminish, when it was hailed as a cartoon film and not even using their own voices !!

It seemed to reflect the Beatles’ attitude towards the film was that it was a cheap way to go along with the contract to supply another cinema release, all be it without putting too much time and effort into the project. Again, to back this up, further reports and news articles surfaced where musicians and orchestras were left waiting, while various group members went into a back room and knocked off another song composition to fill a required spot, and hey presto, after about half an hour a song was done.

It is very true, that The Beatles were not too enamoured with the project, and Al Brodax, the creator of the cartoon Popeye was entrusted to do the film, and apparently was left largely alone with his team to do just that. In 1968, cartoons were labelled as Disney and mere fillers in a kiddies cinema programme, and there that concept seemed to have ended any proper work or studio input. The group thought that it would only be moderately successful at that, and the newly submitted songs were also seen as largely second-rate.

Time has proved  the exact opposite in fact and somewhat different, as the film was the first full length cartoon pop film, and one envied by so called experts as being absolutely brilliant!! Even the staff at Disney doffed their caps in respect at this cartoon from little England. It is now seen as a brilliant concept of ‘The Trip’ using colour and images as a harmless and a beautiful effect of being under the influence of a trip, yet retaining the image and concept of being a children’s cartoon story and film. It is now seen as groundbreaking and innovative, something that the group have always been. Many of the tricks used then have been imitated and used by others, and it can clearly be seen as being the cornerstone and catalyst of the world respected British cartoon and animation industry.

But what of the music?

Well that’s a completely different story, and one that needs telling. The Beatles themselves submitted finally just 4 new songs for the film, leaving George Martin to score the picture, too which he did a brilliant job! The group added the now familiar title track again to give Ringo a spot, and adapted “All You Need Is Love”, into this cartoon fairly tale of good overcoming and reforming the bad. 

The issued formula was indeed a soundtrack album issued in January 1969, containing those 4 new songs and the other two tracks on side 1, with side 2 given over to the soundtrack in nearly full timing. This concept was slated as being cheap and dismissive of Beatle quality to the fans, and gained so much traction in certain parts that critics virtually dismissed the entire project at the time.

Nowadays we know, feel and understand so much more, and it can be seen again as a brave and innovative step, that other artists now follow in the same vein. However, that was not the way that the group wanted the music offering to be. The original concept was to be an EP, recorded at first 45 rpm, then altered to 33-1/3rd rpm for better fidelity. Also they had at the time the recording of “Across The Universe” completed at Abbey Road in 1968, and considered at one time to be the new single. This was then discussed to be added to the package to fill the recording quotas from their contract with EMI.

So one can see that actually Yellow Submarine took up quite a large chunk of the group’s time and effort, not withstanding the many other things that were swirling around at that time, A Clockwork Orange, The Get Back Sessions, John and Yoko Peace trips and associated legal quandaries that the couple were embroiled in.

Again the idea of a film soundtrack double album was discussed, but having just asked fans to fork out for the double “White Album”, it was considered to be too much to ask fans to pay for another. So many factors were at play, so that hopefully even after 60+  years, the process and play has come to be explained in a lot clearer fashion.

The enclosed photographs are concept copies, of the EP concept in full, and again they sit very comfortably in my Apple collection, so please enjoy.

By the way, the film is brilliant and deserves to be lauded as such, and even Her late and much missed Majesty Queen Elizabeth has often being quoted as saying that Yellow Submarine was one of her all time favourite films showing how good can overcome huge odds. 

Thank you ma’am,. . .  you always had a grasp on things!!

Nigel Pearce

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 1^st 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.

Nigel Pearce

Author of Inside No 3

Radio Broadcaster, and Host Future Radio – Norwich 107.8FM – Swindon 105.5FM – Poppyland Radio FM

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So What have A Clockwork Orange and The Beatles got in common?

As you see this Blog you may well ask what is this doing here, well please read on and all will become so very clear, as clear as mud it seems in parts,…… but the question and story is so very real.

The original book of A Clockwork Orange was first published by Anthony Burgess in 1962 and immediately opened several lines of questioning as regards morality and scope of the book and its contents. Interest however was very rich and the film rights were sold by the author for a then good sum of $500 US Dollars almost immediately, (today that would be worth around $5,200 Dollars).

As strength and wind got behind the movie project, The Rolling Stones were first in line for the film, with Mick Jagger very keen to play the role of Alex, (finally  done with reverence by Malcolm Mcdowell). Ken Russell was to be the director of the said movie.

During the early 1970s records were made that The Beatles were also considered for roles within the film. The two bands were rotated in many peoples heads throughout the 1960s. All this occurred before Stanley Kubrick got involved with  the project.

Enter at an early stage, writer Terry Southern who had written a script with the Beatles as the main cast, apparently building on their acting success in A Hard Day’s Night. This seemed to be the agreed approach until, the film’s executive producer Si Litvinoff passed a letter to prospective director John Schlesinger in February 1968, and with it a petition signed and fully supported by The Beatles and Mick Jagger, that the role of Alex was to be played by Mick, and the other Stones to play his gang mates in the movie.

The Beatles were then slated to write the film’s soundtrack and the resultant album was to be issued on Apple Records, their new Record Company. This, however. was never to be done due to the pressure brought to bear by The British Board of Film Classification, who stated that they would not grant any viewing certificates for the film, so the rights for the movie reverted finally to Stanley Kubrick.

The project rumbled on without any strong movement until the film IF was released starring Malcolm Mc Dowell, who played his role superbly exuding his violent nature, but also expounded intelligence on the screen. Some time later, Terry Southern gave a copy of his plot (still wrapped around The Beatles), and script to Stanley Kubrick, who apparently, after completing another project, liked everything about the film project so took it on.

By the time filming had begun in September 1970 and finished in April 1971, The Beatles had split as a group, so the avenue to having them write and record the soundtrack was lost completely.

However, filming was slated to begin on several occasions during late 1968 and 1969, and it was also planned to use mainly London locations. Thamesmead and other nearby areas were earmarked, so could one could ask the question, That could it be that the studios used to start rehearsals for the Get Back Project, in January 1969, could they have originally been booked for A Clockwork Orange soundtrack sessions? It certainly does bear thinking about, does it not?

Yes, we can now speculate with a lot more concrete timings, but it still remains conjecture until further information is added to this pot. 

However strange this story must appear to many fans, I am 100% assured that it is not wishful thinking, or 100% conjecture, but a huge amount of fact that sadly never came to fruition. I add another caveat to this whole scenario in the fact that Lennon’s solo music really explored vastly different areas to mainstream music that The Beatles so richly dominated worldwide at the time. Some of the tracks on the White Album could have easily been used as background music to some of the explicit and disturbing scenes in the film. Along with Two Virgins as a candidate, the barriers and differences were at times not to far apart.

Finally, some of the film projects undertaken by John and Yoko via Apple films are so very surrealistic, avant garde in concept, that they indeed would have fitted very well in A Clockwork Orange. So although we did not get A Clockwork Apple, what we ended up with was a film that provoked at the time, and still does this very thing today.

Nigel Pearce

Author of Inside No 3 a picture History of Apple.

www.insideandoutsideno3.com

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In their new book, David Bedford and Andrew Phillips discuss 70 key moments in Beatles history on which history could have changed.

Ivan Vaughan

The key What If moment that started this whole process was the whole coincidence of how John Lennon was introduced to Paul McCartney. Ivan Vaughan, John’s childhood friend from the age of 5, was one of John’s best friends, but Ivan’s parents weren’t keen on their son attending the same High School as “That Lennon”, so instead of him attending Quarry Bank with his friends, Ivan was sent to the Liverpool Institute. He ends up in the same class as Paul McCartney, and they become friends. They were even born on the same day!

It was this coincidence that meant that Ivan brought his new friend Paul McCartney to meet his childhood friend, John Lennon. Without Ivan, John and Paul would not have met and we would not have The Beatles.

But what about these “What If?’ scenarios?

There are 4 possible outcomes discussed in the book:

1. If the outcome would have ended up finishing The Beatles career – “The End”
2. If The Beatles would have continued, but it would have made a huge change in the outcome, it is “Tomorrow Never Knows”
3. If they did something, but managed to get away with it, it is “You Can’t Do That”.
4. If events would have meant a change, yet the outcome was the same, it is “Let It Be”.

The Beatles: What If?

1. What if they didn’t meet Allan Williams and Lord Woodbine?
2. What if they don’t go to Hamburg?
3. What if The Beatles don’t record “My Bonnie”, the record that brings them to the attention of Brian Epstein?
4. What if they don’t meet Brian Epstein?
5. What if they passed The Decca Audition?

These are just a few of the many scenarios discussed in the book, and you also have the chance to disagree with us! That is fine!

What if there was No Beatles? Not worth thinking about, is it?

But what if the history of The Beatles had changed in any of these 70 scenarios?

Get your copy of the book here. The Beatles: What If?