Neil Aspinall Biography

Neil Aspinall (Oct. 23, 1942- March 24, 2008) was a childhood friend of Paul McCartney and George Harrison, first meeting them when they were all students at the Liverpool Institute. He was hired as the road manager for The Beatles, and was also The Beatles' assistant after they stopped touring in 1966. He is now best known as the manager of Apple Corps Ltd. Schooled as an accountant he was appointed director of Apple in it's chaotic early years as The Beatles were in the process of breaking up. He was briefly fired and reinstated by Allen Klein when he was brought in to "clean house." He's spent more time with the band than about anyone else not in the band.

Neil even contributed to a few Beatles recordings, by playing tambura on "Within You Without You", harmonica on "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!", and backup vocals on "Yellow Submarine". Billy Shears may have been a reference to Neil Aspinall.

This quote by Neil Aspinall is about a recent law suit against EMI, and shows how involved Neil still is in The Beatles' affairs:
“We have tried to reach a settlement through good faith negotiations and regret that our efforts have been in vain. Despite very clear provision in our contracts, EMI persist in ignoring their obligations and duty to account fairly and with transparency. Apple and the Beatles are, once again, left with no choice but to sue EMI.”

This was after an audit proved that EMI, which owns the copyright to the Beatles recordings, was not fulfilling its contract and allegedly owed The Beatles over $30 million in royalties.

All this started, in a strange twist of fate, when Pete Best approached Neil to ask him to be their (Beatles) driver, and Neil bought a battered old van for the job. Neil decided in July 1962 to become the group's official road manager (as he was earning more money than he was an as an accountant). He was actually best of friends with Pete Best (living with him and helping to run the Casbah Club), and was quite angry when Pete was fired as the Beatles drummer. He confronted John and Paul demanding to know what happened and was told, "It's got nothing to do with you. You're only the driver."

In anger he told Pete he'd quit, but at the urging of Pete (who told Neil "The Beatles are going places"), he stayed with the band and when Mal Evans was hired as assistant road manager Neil became more of a personal assistance. No one has been closer to The Beatles than Neil Aspinall, being through the most private aspects of their lives, though he has never been anything but discreet and loyal and has kept everything he knows in total confidence. He has joked that if he ever wrote a book he would arrange for it to be released after his death. I hope he's not completely joking, because that would make one hell of a book. He knows it all, if there's anything to the Paul is dead hoax, he knows. Could you imagine such a book?

Following a heart attack he had to restrict his work at Apple to 3 days a week, though you'd never know it by the amount of work he does. He is also sole director of Standup Films Ltd. with his wife, Suzy (who is the daughter of Bud Ornstien, who was responsible for The Beatles film career at United Artists).

The Bealtes Entourage:

• George Martin
• Brian Epstein
• Neil Aspinall
• Mal Evans
• Derek Taylor
• Allen Klein
• Tony Sheridan
• Klaus Voorman
• Peter Brown
• Sid Bernstein
• Allan Williams
• Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
• Freda Kelly
• Geoff Emerick
• Norman Hurricane Smith