Life of Brian: Brian Epstein Bio

http://www.brianepstein.com/brian.html

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Brian Samuel Epstein was born to Harry and Malka Epstein on

September 19, 1934 in a private nursing home in Liverpool.
His brother Clive was born 22 months later. His father Harry
called his mother Queenie because Malka is the Hebrew word
for "queen". Next to the furniture store that the Epstein family
owned was The North End Road Music Stores. James
McCartney Sr.'s family was one of the local families that
bought pianos there on extended-purchase plans. The
Epsteins later expanded and took over NEMS.

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Brian started to work at the family furniture store at Walton

Road in 1950 at the age of 16. Two years later he was
conscripted for National Service, but he was discharged from
his two-year stint after ten months as being emotionally and
mentally unfit. (He tells the story about being caught innocently
impersonating an officer in A Cellarful of Noise.) Upon his
return in 1954 he was put in charge of another branch of the
family business, Clarendon Furnishing in Hoylake, and he was
very successful, a born salesman.
However, Brian had other plans for his own life, and after some pleading with his parents was
allowed to join the Royal Academy for Dramatic Arts to train as an actor. He passed the
audition, but soon discovered he wasn't cut out for show business, and returned to the family
business.

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When his father opened a new NEMS store on Great Charlotte St, Brian was put in charge of
the ground floor, where he expanded from pianos and wireless sets to gramophone records.
The new record department was so successful that another NEMS branch was opened at
12-14 Whitechapel, with Brian in charge. Meanwhile, Brian, who had been selling the music
publication Mersey Beat since its first issue on July 6, 1961, became interested in the local
music scene, and asked its editor Bill Harry if he could contribute a record column. His first
column appeared in the third issue of Mersey Beat on August 3, 1961.
Brian's new NEMS store on Whitechapel was only down the street and around the corner from
a dingy, basement club called The Cavern.

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Alistair Taylor, long-time assistant to Brian Epstein, from an interview with Martin Lewis at the
re-created Cavern Club in 1995:
"We found this record in Germany by a
guy called Tony Sheridan and the Beat
Brothers, the boys were just a backing
group, and one day Brian came into
the shop and he said, 'By the way, do
you remember that record that we sold
so many of, that band the Beatles?' So
I said, yeah. So he said, 'Well, they're
playing at the Cavern. Let's go down
and see them, and we'll see what
they're like.'
"And it was jammed solid, and we just
sat at the back feeling rather
embarressed, and I suddenly realised
my foot was tapping, and I hated pop music, and Brian hated it even more than me, and I
looked 'round and so was his."
"And after a while Brian started talking about it, and he said, 'What did you think?' And I said I
thought they were awful, quite honestly, but absolutely incredible. So he said, 'that's exactly my
feelings. Do you think I should manage them?' And I said, yeah."
Alistair talks about the day Brian met the Beatles

Brian Epstein recalled meeting the Beatles that day:

"I hadn't had anything to do with management of pop artists before that day that I went down to
the Cavern Club and heard the Beatles playing, and this was quite a new world, really, for me.

"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..."
Brian remembering the day he met the Beatles

Queenie Epstein, Brian's mother, remembers Brian talking to his parents after he met the
Beatles:

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Life of Brian: Brian Epstein Bio

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"He asked his father and myself to listen to a

record. He said, 'Forget about the singer, just
listen to the backing group.' Actually, we were
always fairly interested in all the records,
because being in the business [NEMS record
store].
And he said, 'They are four boys and I'd like to
manage them. It wouldn't take any longer than
two half days at a time, it's just sort of a
part-time occupation.' He said it would never
interfere with business.
"But the first time we met the Beatles, Brian was very insistent that we should go ahead with
them, and I'd never been to a rock and roll concert before and I asked him what I should wear.
And he said he hadn't either..."
Queenie Epstein remembering Brian talking about the Beatles

It was decided that Brian would be the Beatles' manager at a meeting on December 10, 1961.
Their first contract was for a five year period. The contract was formally signed at Pete Best's
house on January 24, 1962, with Alistair Taylor as witness, although Brian, himself, didn't sign
it. When asked why later, Brian answered "Well, if they ever want to tear it up, they can hold me
but I can't hold them."

Brian smartened up the Beatles' stage appearance by putting them in matching suits and he
instructed them not to smoke or swear on stage. Brian also encouraged the boys to make a
rather theatrical synchronized bow at the conclusion of each song when performing in concert
or on television. All of the Beatles went along with their new image although there was some
initial very minor grumbling from John and George.
During his 'demythologize the Beatles' phase in 1970, John made references to how these
image changes had somehow "tamed the real Beatles" and that he'd been against it at the
time. However, most contemporary reports - and indeed recent McCartney comments - note
that at the time, all of the Beatles (including John) were happy to follow Epstein's shrewd

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advice, particularly when it proved to be 100% effective. The reality is that in the climate of the
early 60's no British or American TV show would have given the Beatles (or any other pop
group) even five seconds of air time looking as they did pre-Brian.
Now that he was signed to be their manager, it was Brian's job to get them a recording contract.
He used the clout of his family's record stores in Liverpool to get meetings with all the major
British record companies. But the Beatles were rejected by every label including the two
biggest companies, EMI and Decca. Brian finally secured a contract for the Beatles in June
1962 when they were signed by George Martin, head of one of EMI's smallest labels,
Parlophone.
George Martin commented later that he signed the Beatles in considerable part because of
Epstein's enthusiasm. He thought that the Beatles had promise, but he was not entirely
convinced by their talent. However, he was very impressed by Epstein's conviction that the
Beatles would be world famous.
Shortly after they signed with EMI, John, Paul and George
(who had been together as the nucleus of the group since
1958) gave Brian the unpleasant job of telling drummer
Pete Best that they wanted him out of the group, to be
replaced by Ringo Starr. Brian was uncomfortable but
accomplished this difficult task.
In a very real sense Epstein had now passed his 'audition'
with the Beatles. In a mere six months he had secured
them the record contract that they had desired for so long.
And he had proven his ability to handle the most awkward
of managerial tasks.
In addition to managing the Beatles, Brian managed other
artists. Brian also appeared on several TV shows in
Britain, and hosted a regular segment of the US TV show
Hullabaloo.
But Brian's first love was always the Beatles. His joy in life
was seeing their ever-burgeoning success and ensuring
their happiness. This devotion to work was often at the
expense of his personal life.
In April 1964, at the age of 29, he hired Derek Taylor (who
Brian on Hullabuloo
subsequently became the Beatles' legendary publicist) to
co-write his autobiography A Cellarful of Noise which was published in October of that year.
Together with writer Ray Coleman's Brian Epstein (the only biography of him) - published in
1989 - these two books constitute the most authoritive sources for information about the man
who guided the Beatles to becoming the most successful popular artists of all time.
During the time Brian managed the Beatles, they enjoyed the greatest success that any
popular artists had ever achieved. Their career trajectory was meteoric. There was not a single
reversal of fortune in the entire 5 3/4 years. Once he died the Beatles became embroiled in a
tangle of conflicts, money squabbles and personal jealousies. They had lost the one man who
united them and who was capable of resolving their differences.
From the first Beatles success until his tragic death in August 1967, Brian took care of every
aspect of the Beatles' career. When he died the difference was immediately felt. While the
Beatles continued to make magnificent music, their business affairs rapidly crumbled. Within
two years of Brian's death the end of the Beatles was clearly in sight. By 1970 it was all over.

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Life of Brian: Brian Epstein Bio

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