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Neil Aspinall, 'the fifth Beatle', dies aged 66
Neil Aspinall, who has died aged 66, was the Beatles' original road manager and went on to run the group's business empire for 40 years; he became their chief confidant and, although not the only contender for the title of the fifth Beatle, perhaps deserved the accolade more than most.
For some 20 years following the break-up of the group in 1970, Aspinall applied his astute business acumen to fighting lawsuits on their behalf and unravelling the tangled skein of their financial affairs. His flair for figures helped to transform them into the wealthiest entertainers in the world, with a estimated combined fortune of £2 billion.
A notoriously reclusive accountant, Aspinall made a rare public appearance last year in the course of a lengthy legal dispute involving Apple Corps, the Beatles' business organisation, which he joined during its chaotic launch in the late 1960s.
But a matter of weeks after settling the row with the Apple computer firm over the use of a trademark, Aspinall abruptly resigned as chief executive, reportedly frustrated that the band's musical legacy was being compromised in the quest for profits.
One of his last tasks as their eminence grise had been to remaster the group's back catalogue for legal downloading on the internet. Aspinall's involvement with the Beatles dated from 1960 when the group's original drummer, Pete Best, asked him to become their driver.
Although he protested when Best (his best friend) was replaced by Ringo Starr, he remained with the band, and when a brawny Cavern Club bouncer called Mal Evans was taken on in 1963 to hump their instruments in and out of their battered Commer van, Aspinall found himself in the role of personal assistant.
As such, he became the Beatles' gatekeeper, guardian of their privacy, security, secrets, and eventually the group's fortunes, over which, as managing director of Apple from January 1968, he exercised a shrewd stewardship. A quietly-spoken but tough negotiator, he was credited with having - single-handedly - turned the Beatles into the world's highest-earning band and, by extension, one of its biggest brands.
In the mid-1960s, at the height of Beatlemania, Aspinall's responsibilities as the group's road manager extended far beyond checking their equipment, stage costumes, meals, venues and accommodation: with Mal Evans, he judiciously vetted the groupies, and saw to the day-to-day needs of the Beatles themselves as they were shuttled from plane to limousine to hotel. "It was an unattractive life," he admitted, "and it went on for years. But at least I could go out. They were trapped." He even stood in for George Harrison, when the guitarist was ill, at a camera rehearsal for the band's first appearance on American television.
Aspinall's role changed dramatically with the death of the Beatles' manager, Brian Epstein, in August 1967, and he effectively took the group over, although he apparently turned down a formal offer of the job from John Lennon. According to one account, the Beatles' musical guru George Martin was unhappy at the idea of Aspinall replacing the public-school-educated Epstein because he lacked the social qualifications needed to speak to the executives at their recording company EMI.
As the group disintegrated, and the members eventually went their separate ways, Aspinall remained a trusted father figure to the famous foursome. Even when they were not speaking to each other he - as the honest broker - remained on good terms with all four.
His role post-Beatles became increasingly entrepreneurial: in 1995 he persuaded Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr to collaborate on three Anthology albums and the accompanying television documentary, which took him five years to compile. It was Aspinall's concept that led to the release in 2000 of the Beatles' greatest hits album, Beatles 1, which has since sold 30 million copies.
Neil Stanley Aspinall was born on October 10 1941 at Prestatyn, the seaside town in north Wales to which his mother had been evacuated at the height of the Liverpool Blitz during the Second World War.
When the bombing raids ceased, he was taken back to Merseyside and at the Liverpool Institute was McCartney's classmate in English and art lessons, and - behind the school's air-raid shelters - shared furtive Woodbines with Harrison.
When Aspinall left in 1959 with eight O-levels, he studied with a firm of Liverpool accountants for two years, and lodged at the home of Pete Best, then drumming for the Silver Beetles (the precursor of the Beatles).
Best's mother Mona, estranged from her husband, ran a beat club called the Casbah in her basement. The two young men became friends, and Best persuaded Aspinall to combine his day job as a trainee accountant (for which he was paid £2.50 a week) with driving the group's dilapidated van at night for 10 shillings [50p] a week. Aspinall later cut a deal with the band by which he charged each of them five shillings [25p] per concert.
It was Aspinall who drove the group from Liverpool to London on New Year's Eve 1961 for their audition with the Decca record company. Aspinall lost his way, the trip took 10 hours, and Decca turned them down. When Best was fired as the Beatles' drummer in August 1962, a furious Aspinall offered to quit as well, but Best persuaded him to remain with the band.
At the other end of the group's career, Aspinall came up with the notion of Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band for their 1967 album, and tracked down the photographs of the Beatles' heroes that were used in Peter Blake's album sleeve.
He certainly made minor musical contributions to several Beatles' tracks, contributing to the backing vocals on Yellow Submarine and playing a tamboura on George Harrison's Within You, Without You, harmonica on Being For The Benefit of Mr Kite and miscellaneous percussion on Magical Mystery Tour.
The Beatles' publicist Derek Taylor once characterised the link between the group and Aspinall as "a complementary relationship. They had no O-levels, he had lots. They had big egos, he had none."
In 1995 Aspinall was revealed as having fathered a son in 1962 with the mother of Pete Best, 20 years his senior. He died in hospital in New York, where he had reportedly been receiving treatment for lung cancer.
Neil Aspinall married, in 1968, Suzy Ornstein, daughter of a United Artists executive who oversaw the Beatles' feature films A Hard Day's Night (1964) and Help! (1965).
She and their five children survive him.
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/03/24/db2405.xml
