All language subtitles for It.Was.Fifty.Years.Ago.Today.The.Beatles.Sgt..Pepper.Beyond.2017.1080p.WEBRip.x264.AAC-[YTS.MX]

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(orchestra tuning)

(people chattering)

(baton taps, orchestra
stops tuning)

(upbeat music)

(crowd clamoring)

- It's easy to forget

London was only like 22
years away from the war.

So you've got this Britain

that we recognize through
black and white photographs

and black and white
news footage,

and then you've got this
kind of new era

which is in multicolor.

And the Beatles were at the
front of that, pioneering.

(upbeat music)

(people chattering)

- Hello, John. Are you
looking forward to the tour?

- Yes.
- Now, this religious

controversy, I know you don't
want to say too much about it,

but does it worry you
that it's going to boil up

when you get to the States?
- Well, it worries me, yes.

But I hope everything will be
alright in the end of the day.

- Do you think this is going
to be a controversial tour

like the Philippines was?

- Oh, no, no.
No, it's going to be fine.

- What makes you say that, Paul?

- Oh, it'll be fine. You watch.

(upbeat music)

- The Klan are going to
demonstrate with different ways

to stop this performance.

- Outside the Coliseum,

this small band of
small demonstrators

was the only sign of
protest visible.

- You have to remember,
the Beatles were

the biggest thing in the world.

- The Beatles were as big

as putting together the
presidents or heads of state

of seven major
countries in one room.

- How you feeling? Alright?

- Hey, you can say hello,
can't you?

- Hello.

- Big, loud hello, fellas.

- Hello!
- Hello!

- And, John, are you
sorry about what you said?

- Yes, yes, I am.

- I think it's true.

I think the band were
massively more popular,

I'm not going to use the
two words, J.C.,

but they were more popular
than the Church of England

and religion.

I don't think there's any
doubt about that at all.

- This is where the
trouble all began,

here in the tiny, top-floor
studio of Station WAQY,

Wacky Radio to the 3 quarters
of a million citizens

of Birmingham, Alabama.

Disc jockey and station
manager Tommy Charles

read in Datebook magazine

John Lennon's reported
remarks on Christianity,

remarks that had gone almost
unnoticed in the five months

since they were first
published in Britain.

- If you think back how
big Jesus must have been

in the days he was big,
maybe about 300 people

would have heard him,
wouldn't they, you know?

So, many times, it was bigger.

And even if you thought
of it in terms of today,

what he means to society
in general terms,

certainly in Europe, the
Beatles would have been bigger.

But, you know, America in
those days was Jesus-obsessed,

not really Beatles-obsessed.

- Concerning the purpose
of this rally,

I thank God Jesus Christ
is popular with me,

because he saved me
31 years ago.

And everybody here tonight,
he's popular with you,

say amen, huh?

- Amen.
- Amen.

- They weren't qualified
to even talk about

what the price of milk was,

let alone what the state
of the world was.

- They were like sponges.

They absorbed so much feeling,

so much emotion in a way that,
you know, they used to think

they were aging at twice
the normal rate.

- I do know that Brian
was really worried

about the whole thing before
they left for the States.

But it was such an innocent
thing for John to do,

because they were bigger.

You know, more people
wanted the Beatles

than they wanted to
go to church.

- Brian, are you
worried in any way

what might happen to the Beatles
when they arrive this time?

- Yes, I am concerned.

- On what account?
- Security.

- What do you propose to
try and do to protect them?

- There's very little
that you can do,

because they've always enjoyed

in this country
maximum security,

and the tours have always been
exceptionally well arranged.

And one just hopes for the best.

- They're burning
records in Memphis.

And then the guys went onstage

and thought they might get
shot and all these things.

You sort of think there's
something really weird

going on here that we
don't quite get.

- Most of the criticism has come

from the Southern Bible Belt,

and we're wondering whether
you're going to change

the itinerary of the
Beatles to avoid areas

where radio stations are
now burning their records

and their pictures.

- This is highly unlikely.

I've spoken to many of the
promoters this morning,

and when I leave here, I
have a meeting

with several of the
promoters who are not anxious

that any of the concerts
should be canceled at all.

Actually, if any of the
promoters were so concerned,

and it was their wish that a
concert should be canceled,

I wouldn't in fact
stand in their way.

As a matter of fact, the
Memphis concert,

which is nearest to the
place where this broke out,

apparently sold more
tickets yesterday

than they had done up
until that day.

- Tony Barrow was the
one that alerted Datebook

to the existence of
these interviews.

He contacted Art Unger,
the publisher and editor,

and said, "You'll love
these interviews.

They're just up your street."

But Art Unger had the idea
of sending them to, like,

you'd call them shock
jocks today,

but he knew that it would
wind some deejays up.

So he sent them to these
deejays in Birmingham, Alabama,

and they appropriately
got wound up.

And that's where it
really started.

(women shrieking)

- They've banned you from
stations. Have you seen it?

- I've seen a, I've seen a
similar version

of what you're talking
about in the paper.

Well, if it makes other
people feel better,

it'll make me feel better.

But there weren't as
many people upset

as I was led to believe,
or not so seriously upset.

- Brian Epstein was
going to cancel the tour,

but they decided to go
ahead if John apologized,

and he did rather reluctantly,

and it was like a
secondhand apology.

- Well, originally, I was,
I was pointing out that fact

in reference to England,

that we meant more to
kids than Jesus did

or religion at that time.

I wasn't knocking it or
putting it down.

I was just saying it.
It was a fact.

And it sort of, it is truth,
but more for England than here.

You know, but I'm not saying
that we're better or greater

or comparing us with
Jesus Christ as a person

or God as a thing or
whatever it is.

You know, I just said
what I said,

and it was wrong or
was taken wrong.

- And George said,
"I don't care.

They'll only buy more records

to replace the ones they burnt,
so..."

- What do you feel
about this business

of the group speaking their
mind and saying what they think?

Do you think it's
possible to do that

when you're in their position?

- Absolutely, I've
never suggested

that they should do otherwise.

- Did you suggest that
John apologized?

- We talked about it, and
this was our mutual feeling.

I've never directed that
the boys should do anything,

either sort of song-wise,
artistically wise,

or speech-wise.

They, we all make up our minds,

and I contribute, I suppose,
a fifth.

- That also happened to be

at the end of a very
extended world tour

where other horrible things
had happened to the Beatles.

So, having death
threats in Japan,

then being roughed up in
the Philippines

for supposedly snubbing the
first lady, Imelda Marcos,

by not turning up at a
reception that she was holding.

This was just sort of
the last straw,

and they were thinking that
they might be assassinated.

I mean, this is how
early this kind of thing

was cropping up in
people's minds.

- John, what exactly
happened at Manila Airport?

- We got kicked and and
pushed around by some monkeys

and were very frightened.

- Well, how frightened were you,
George?

- Um, terrified, I'd say.

Yeah, it was, You know,
it was very bad.

There was about five
sort of real big,

sort of funny-looking fellas

with guns and all the
rest of the gear.

- Who did all the kicking.

- Yeah, and they just
had arranged...

You know, it was so
obvious they'd arranged

to give us the worst
time possible,

you know, before we
arrived at the airport.

So we just start hustling
about and just...

You know, personally, I just
kept dodging these people,

because they were the ones
trying to cause the trouble.

- Yeah, just about the
five of them,

'cause the others
weren't bothering.

- Did you in fact have
to carry your luggage

and make your way
across the airport?

- Only our hand baggage,
you know.

Our road managers take
the big luggage.

But they turned the
escalator off on them.

They had to carry them up
the escalator.

That's how intelligent they are.

- How many people were
involved in this demonstration?

- Well, I thought there was 30.

I've been telling everyone
30, and John says there was 5.

(laughing)
- There was sort of like

a little army to beat us up.

And there was about another
10 at the back of the crowd

of ordinary people going, "Boo,
boo."

And we looked around
to see who was booing,

and just little kids
sort of smiling, about 18

of all these sort of fellas
in the back like Gestapo

going, "Boo, boo," saying it
was a public demonstration.

- It was one of those places
where you sort of knew

they were waiting for a fight,

you know, and they
were pushing us.

And if you you'd done anything,
they would have (sniffs)-

- Enough of that.
- Yeah.

- And apart from the
Philippines,

did you enjoy the trip?

- Yeah.
- Yeah.

- It was a great tour except
for that one morning, in fact.

Yeah, everything was great.
- Japan's fantastic very nice.

Great people.
- And Delhi was good.

- Yeah. Great people in Japan.

You know, just nearly
everybody we met was-

- Because they know
Manila in the war.

(women giggling)

- So, would you play
the Philippines again?

- No.

- No, wouldn't even land there.

No plane's going to go
through there with me on it.

Don't want to even fly over it.

- When they came
back from Manila

and they stopped off in Delhi,

that's when they first
started to talk about

possibly giving up
being on the road.

And Brian was very
distraught about that,

because he could obviously see
he would not be as necessary

if all the commitments
are in the studio.

Like, where would he fit in?

'Cause he really came
alive booking tours

and doing all that stuff and
accompanying the Beatles.

And he was a guy that loved
showbiz. He loved theater.

He'd been to RADA.

So he liked that
theatrical side of it.

- From their dressing room in
the immediate security area,

the Beatles emerge to
play their second show,

each step of the way
closely watched

by Captain Barney Hicks' police,

82 men all on overtime
at 30 shillings an hour.

- There was total craziness,

and there had been for
years around the Beatles.

What is amazing is that
they put up with it.

They simply did what was
expected of them.

And you think of the temperament

and the ego mania amongst the
smallest rock bands today,

what the Beatles would endure
for the sort of common good,

and because they were told
that's the way they ought to be,

including John, was
extraordinary.

- As the Beatles' charter
plane arrived,

it taxied away from the
hundreds of fans

waiting at the terminal to a
deserted part of the runway

used only by the National Guard.

A mere half dozen teenagers

evaded the stringent
security arrangements.

(people chattering)

Concerned about their
visit to the South,

the Beatles could at
least take comfort

from the success of
the tour so far.

With only half their
concerts over,

they had already grossed
over half a million dollars,

and their latest single
"Yellow Submarine,"

had sold a million.

- Is this your first trip south?

- No, no.
We've been to Texas before.

- Uh-huh. Where are you
going when you leave here?

- Um, um, uh, Cincinnati.
That's it, yeah.

- Cincinnati.

And then how long are you
gonna be in the States?

- About two more weeks.

- Two more weeks, huh?
- Yes.

- What did you have for lunch?

- Oh, I didn't, I
didn't eat much.

I didn't eat much.
Anyway, I must go.

It's getting boiling. Excuse me.

- Alright. Thank you very much.

- 1, 2, 3, 4.

(upbeat music)

- When we came off in the
dressing room,

they were all sitting with long
faces, and John was saying,

"We should never have done
this. Never have done this."

- Yeah, well, they'd had
two #1s in the meantime.

And to come back a little,
tiny club like this?

But they'd promised they'd
do another gig.

And, you know, good luck
to them, they-

- And there was only one
dressing room.

The dressing room was
like a telephone box.

So we were in it, the
Beatles were in it,

and somebody else was in
it, and all that, so...

They weren't very
pleased at all, you know?

And they all came on. John
was laughing his head off.

The other piano onstage,
was a great, big cover on.

They said, "What are
you laughing at, John?"

He said "King Size
Taylor's left his mark."

- The Beatles went on. The
girls are screaming like hell.

And all the power went off
except for one little bulb,

one little bulb on the
stage. Do you remember?

- Yeah.
- No P.A. Nothing at all.

And everyone's going,
"What's going on?"

So, Paul being Paul, he
jumps on the piano

and goes into this little song.

I think John was
playing his acoustic,

so at least you could still
hear a bit of acoustic guitar,

you know, and for years and
years, we just thought Paul

had gone into one of his
dad's old songs,

you know, from 1920s,

'cause that's what it
sounded like to us.

And then when we got
the "Sgt. Pepper" album,

you know...

* When I get older *

It was unbelievable.

We'd heard the song in 1963.

- It doesn't matter about
people not liking our records

or not liking the way
we look or what we say.

You know, they're entitled
to not like us.

And we're entitled not to
have anything to do with them

if we don't want to or not
to regard them.

You know, we've all got our
rights, you know, Harold.

(women screaming)

(gentle music)

- Towards the end, it
was madness, wasn't it?

You know, they could
be anywhere.

They were just in a room,

and that room could have
been in Wales or Tokyo.

They didn't know. You know,
it was just a hotel room.

- It's hard to imagine now,
but the songs on "Revolver,"

which would be easily
duplicated onstage now,

they couldn't see a
way of doing it,

and they played very little
from "Rubber Soul" onstage.

They didn't play anything
from "Revolver"

even though it was
their latest album

when they did their final tours.

- Apart from rock 'n'
roll songs,

they developed more as
this melodic Beatles,

as well, you know, and I think

you needed to hear the
intricacies of the songs.

And as they was
developing musically,

they couldn't hear anything.

- I was in New York doing some
business for the Yardbirds

when the Beatles'
major stadium tour

was being set up in New York.

And Brian was there, I
wasn't dealing with Brian,

but I heard from the
promoters what was going on.

And Brian and the group
had wanted to keep it down

to 10,000 or 15,000 seaters
because of the sound problem.

They wanted to be able
to play and be heard

and not be completely
overwhelmed by screaming.

But the police said they
wouldn't have it.

They knew there were going to
be 100,000 or 200,000 people

turning up, even if they were
in a 10,000-seater theater.

Very, very dangerous to
have 10,000 people inside

and 90,000 outside.

So it really wasn't a greedy
promoter or greedy Beatles

or greedy Brian Epstein,
it was the police,

and that's how they
got the license.

- Well, they were imprisoned.

They were imprisoned by touring.

And it wasn't till they got home

they could get out of prison.

And they went 'round the
world in an airplane,

and, you know, people
screamed at them,

and they couldn't
hear themselves.

And it was, you know,

"This isn't why we began
doing this, fellas, you know?

We began doing this 'cause it
was good fun to do and fun.

Not fun anymore."

- John talked about it
to me in some detail

over dinner in 1980 in New York.

He told me famously that when
they played "Twist and Shout,"

he had changed the words
to "I'm Pissed with Gout,"

which he thought was
absolutely hilarious,

"A," because it was
quite a funny line,

but, "B," because
absolutely nobody heard it.

- The front rows of the audience

would be little children
in wheelchairs.

John in particular was
completely freaked out.

He had a terrible,
terrible phobia

about physical disability.

But then these poor children

would be wheeled into their
dressing room after the show

as if they were some
kind of shrine,

and they could heal people.

And even worse than that,

some people would grab
a wheelchair,

who weren't the carers,
and push these children

into the dressing room.

It was just a horrendous,
hideous scene,

and they put up with it.

That's the amazing thing.
They were compliant.

- George talked a lot
about the fact

that they were not
progressing musically,

because they'd always progressed

by playing to audiences
they could see

and getting that kind
of intimate feedback.

And now they couldn't see
their audiences.

I mean, it's very sad,
Candlestick Park,

they're in a cage, literally
in a cage on a stage.

You know, how far from
The Cavern could you go?

- We used to work a machines
to set volume, tone, bass.

Yeah, three knobs.

We didn't have all those
(growls) faders

and computer things diddling
away, no flashing lights.

Yeah.

The Beatles' contract only said,
you know,

the promoter shall supply
two, maybe three microphones

and an adequate lighting system.

- I mean, songs like
"Eleanor Rigby,"

even if they could have
done them onstage,

you know, they're not
the sort of songs

that that audience
would respond to,

I mean, "A," because it
wasn't a song

you could jump around
to or dance to and, "B,"

reviewers were saying "It's
a bit of a gloomy subject,

you know, churches and
lonely women and death

and all this sort of thing.

It didn't sound very
Beatle-like."

- The Beatles for a long
time have been able to,

because of their tremendous
popularity throughout the world,

especially with the younger set,

have been able to say
whatever they wanted to

without any regard for judgment

or maturity or the wisdom of it.

- Wasn't he just being honest?

- His answers are so flippant

and his attitude is so
bizarre many instance.

You never know whether
he's honest or not.

- What difference has all
this row made to this tour,

do you think, any at all?

Paul.

- I don't think it's made
much, it's made it more hectic.

It's made all the press
conferences mean a bit more.

People said to us, you
know, last time we came,

all our answers were a
bit flippant,

and they said, "Why isn't
it this time?"

The thing is, the
questions are a bit

more serious this time.

It hasn't affected any
of the bookings.

The bookings have been,

I mean the people coming to the
concerts have been the same,

except for the first
show in Memphis,

which was a bit down,
you know, but so what?

- It was a very interesting
change in the music industry

in England in 1966, '67.

It was the beginning of
the use of the word "rock,"

which had never been
heard before.

In 1967, the biggest
event of the year

was the Monterey Pop Festival.

Pop was a trendy word.

And who was at the pop festival?

All the people we would
now call rock stars.

But bit by bit,
during that year,

the press began more and
more to use the word rock,

and they applied that to
groups who were not puppets,

who were not written for
by Tin Pan Alley writers

and groups who definitely
played their own music

and didn't have
session musicians.

And most of the groups
that were like that

wanted to establish their
anti-establishment credentials

by growing their hair
long and looking rough.

And The Stones was the
archetype first one,

and The Who then adapted
themselves from pop

and moved into rock.

- Are you ever going to
play Beatles records again?

- I was asked this by
the Capitol Record people

who released their
records in this country.

Brian Epstein wanted to know

when we were going to
take the ban off,

because it seemed that
everybody was waiting for us

to make the move, and they want
to know what it would take.

And I say, well, I
don't have a price.

It's not something that I'm
waiting for the Beatles to do.

I just don't know. I want to...

I want them to make me
change my mind about them.

I want to, I want to see
a, well, I don't know.

I want to see them grow
up a little bit, I guess.

- The disc jockey, Tommy
Charles,

who started this row off,

has said that he won't
play your records

until you've grown up a little.

How do you feel about that?

- Well, I don't mind if
he never plays them again.

- Now, see, this is the thing.

You know, everyone seems to
think when they hear us say

things like this that
we're so childish.

I mean, you can't say
things like that

unless you're a surly,
little child.

- Do you feel that Americans
are out to get you,

that this is all developing
into something of a witch hunt?

Do you mind being
asked questions,

for example, in America
about Vietnam?

Does this seem useful?
- Well, I don't know.

You know, if you can
say that war's no good

and a few people believe you,

then it may be good,
I don't know.

You can't say too much,
though. That's the trouble.

- Seems a bit silly to
be in America

and for none of them to
mention Vietnam

as if nothing was happening.
- But why should they

ask you about it, you're
successful entertainers.

- That is the thing, yeah.
- Because Americans always ask

showbiz people what
they think about things.

So, the British, you know,
showbiz. You know how it is.

But, I mean, you've just got to.

You can't just keep quiet
about anything

that's going on in the
world unless you're a monk.

Sorry, monks. I didn't
mean it. I meant actually-

- They were out there leading
what was already going on,

the revolution into the teenager

as a fully fledged human being.

- Swinging London was an
immense movement.

There was the
counterculture in it

in which everyone was
doing the long hair

and beards and mustaches
and all the rest of it

and going the UFO Club
and places like that,

all the psychedelic stuff and
the Pink Floyd and everyone.

There was all the
miniskirts, the new fashions,

the boutiques, and
everything like that,

and it was change all the time.

- I was the house model
for Foale and Tuffin,

but we also had a shop,

and sometimes when I wasn't
actually showing clothes,

I'd go and work in the shop.

And the boys from the shops
in Carnaby Street come,

and we'd check out and
share records.

And it was all about
music and how we looked.

- It started when Paul
had his motorbike accident

and broke his front
tooth and split his lip.

The day before, he'd made

the "Rain" and "Paperback
Writer" videos.

And he started
growing a mustache

just to hide the
embarrassment of going,

"Oh, I got a broken tooth."

Didn't think to go to a dentist
and get the tooth fixed.

He just used to stick chewing
gum in it for a spell and...

But then he grew a mustache
to cover his, his war wound.

And the others thought,
"Hey, that's cool."

And they all grew mustaches.

- Suddenly, you know, the
mustaches and stuff like that

and the drugs and looking at
the world in a different way.

Whatever you do in your
life as a musician

somehow does get on the tape
and in a song somewhere.

There's always something
to do with your experience.

- We were smoking pot
at that time,

and it does change
your perception,

and I think it sort of
breaks down a lot of walls.

It was very much more
against the establishment

and getting in touch
with one's creativity.

- I think they were trying to
constantly sort of push back

this image of the cuddly,
four mop-tops.

And I think that was one
of the reasons behind it.

You know, just look
different, dress different,

look like adults.

- Are the Beatles
breaking up as a group?

- Absolutely not.

- Is there any truth in the
story that was published

that they may be breaking
up in the near future?

- None whatsoever.

- Can you tell me why they
have no tours arranged

for Christmas or for
America next year?

- They've been involved in
several different commitments.

John Lennon's been making film,

Paul's been writing some music

for a new Hayley Mills picture.

They should all be in this
country by the end of November.

They'll be making some
more records.

They're then working on
plans for the next film.

- Is there going to be any
change in the sort of work

that they do, will there
be less tours next year?

- Possibly.

As I've said before, there's
no dynamic or important change,

but the Beatles have
always progressed,

and to progress you
have to change.

- They had great antennae,
the Beatles.

They could pick up on
things very quickly

and think, "That's
the way to go."

And, you know, that was
part of their

upbringing and everything.

And they were, they
were in a way,

"Penny Lane," and
"Strawberry Fields,"

they weren't being American.

They weren't being
pseudo-Americans anymore.

They didn't have
American accents,

which, early on, you
know, Paul's dad said,

"Why's it always got to
be 'Yeah, yeah, yeah'?

You know, why not 'Yes, yes,
yes'?"

And so they were,
they were taking,

they were using their
own culture,

which is really interesting.

And "Penny Lane's" a
fantastic...

Well, they're both
fantastic songs.

In fact, I think the great
tragedy of "Sgt. Pepper"

was that those two sons
weren't on it,

'cause that would have
been a fantastic help.

And I've often thought
they should have,

you know, put them on later on

and said, "Well, actually,
these are two we did earlier.

You know, here we are,
and they're the best."

- "Penny Lane" and
"Strawberry Fields Forever,"

one very, very specific,
Paul McCartney's

very clear imagery of the 1950s

in a part of Liverpool
they all knew very well,

one much more surreal by
John, surrealistic, at least.

But still, you get a feeling
that this is a real place,

and it's kind of John's
surreal vision

of a place he knew as a child.

- When they gave up
touring forever,

they were totally in
charge of themselves.

They did their own thing
with "Sgt. Pepper,"

and they started ignoring
Brian Epstein,

who had no more
control over them,

and they started bossing
around George Martin.

George would just do the
technical stuff.

He'd give his input, but
they would say,

"We'll have one more take."

In the early days, it was
George Martin that said that.

- I would say that once
touring finished,

Brian felt left out.

Now, when they were touring,
he wasn't really doing much.

He was just with them
and traveling 'round,

because things are done
by the local promoter,

by the local tour manager.

But at least Brian was with
them. He traveled with them.

He felt a part of what
they were doing.

Once touring had stopped,
he didn't ever feel a part

of what they were doing
in the studio.

He never had. He'd never
helped create songs.

He'd never been in the studio.
He wasn't a George Martin.

And so he did suddenly feel
left out with not much to do.

And it definitely wore on him.
He started taking more drugs.

He started spending more
time gambling.

And definitely, he felt that he,

his relationships were
being severed somewhat.

- Brian's role, like their
roles, was just changing.

But I think he would
have always been

the real fifth Beatle,
if you like.

He did take them from The
Cavern to the world stage.

- In early 1967, 'cause
they did this...

They did some music
that was used

at this all-night rave at
the Roundhouse.

And, I mean, I think,
far as I know,

only Mark Lewisohn's ever
heard it outside the Beatles.

But apparently, it's them just
sort of whacking, you know,

any kind of percussive tin,
tray, table,

whatever, around the studio
and doing it for 7 minutes.

And I think there was that
idea that almost anything

they did, and the less
constrained, the better,

and it would all be sort
of artistic gold dust.

But it wasn't always, you know?

- There was this problem
the Beatles felt,

"Where do we go next?"

They had been the
ultimate touring group.

They're the ultimate pop group.

They'd written the biggest
songs, they'd done #1 to 5

consecutively in the
American charts.

Where do you go next?

And the only way you really
go next is to make great art.

"We've got to go
somewhere better.

We've got to get to a
higher plane.

If we can't become
rock musicians,

we could kind of put pop
on a level with great art,

with great music and
great painting."

So I think that's what
they were thinking.

"There's no point doing
anything else.

There's no point putting out

another 'Revolver' full
of pop songs.

We got to do something, which
is absolutely stunning,"

and they certainly did.

- I listened to
"Strawberry Fields,"

and I was absolutely amazed,

'cause one of the
things I said to

my publisher is that the
Beatles are still progressing.

And I thought this
was incredible.

This was such a huge jump
from "Love Me Do" or whatever.

- Nobody seems to be able to
clearly say that "Penny Lane"

was written to top
"Strawberry Fields."

But it seems like, as
John had taken a leap

and done a specific
Liverpool song that Paul...

'Cause there was a
beautiful competitive spirit

between John and Paul

that each pushed the
other higher and higher,

because, in a very
friendly way, they thought,

"Right, you know, I'm
getting the A-side

on the next single,"

and, "Oh, he's done that?
I'm going to do that."

It was fantastic, I mean,
without any kind of venom,

they both tried to
top each other.

- That was the plan,
to start off

and to write a whole
album about Liverpool.

- It was kicked around,
you know, doing something,

maybe an album
connected to Liverpool.

And of course they had
"Penny Lane" in the can

and "Strawberry Fields"
and "A Day in the Life."

And then of course,
George Martin said,

"You've been too quiet
for too long," you know?

So they gave him that.

But they insisted that
it was a double A-side.

- As a double A-side, it
split the sales,

so they only got to #2.

Meanwhile in Liverpool,
there was a group called

the Hillsiders, and the manager,

Spencer Lloyd Mason, noticed
that one of the members

had found this fantastic
country record

that they wanted to record.

So they took it to their A&R
man at Decca, Noel Walker,

who also came from Merseyside,
and said,

"We want to do this, and can
we do it with an orchestra?"

It was a number called
"Release Me."

And instead of recording
it with The Hillsiders,

he passed it on to the
people who thought it'd be

an ideal record for
Engelbert Humperdinck.

And that went to #1.

And it kept the Beatles
off the #1 spot

for the first time in
several records.

It's all the fault of a
Liverpool group.

- The Liverpool theme album,
in a way,

you have enough in "Strawberry
Fields" and "Penny Lane"

for more than an album,
you know?

They did it in a single.

They did it in a magnificent,
double A-side single.

- Hey, can I have a word?
- Hey.

- Are the Beatles going to
go their own ways in 1967?

- It could be, you know,
on our own or together.

We're always involved with each
other, whatever we're doing.

- Could you ever see a
time when, in fact,

you weren't working together?

- I could see us working
not together for a period,

but we'd always get together
for one reason or another.

I mean, if you need other
people for ideas, as well.

But, you know, we all
get along fine.

- Will you be doing films
on your own next year?

- No, I don't want to make
a career of it.

I did it just 'cause I
felt like doing it.

And Dick Lester asked me,
and I said yes,

and I wouldn't have done it
if the others hadn't liked it,

you know.

But they said fine 'cause
we were on holiday anyway.

- Do the others have film
ambitions on their own?

- No, nobody's particularly
interested in it.

And I'm not all that mad on it.

- What do you really want to
do? I mean, just write songs?

- I don't know. I just want
to do a few things, you know.

- You haven't really
decided exactly what?

- No, I'll try a few things,
you know,

but I just found out a bit
more about films, doing that.

- What's, the
songwriting team thing

will keep going on,
whatever happens, would it?

- Yeah, we'll probably carry
on writing music forever,

you know, whatever
else we're doing,

'cause you just can't stop.

You know, you find
yourself doing it

whether you want to or not.

- But you think the tours,
like the American tours

and the English one, you
know, the stands in England-

- You know, there
must be a point

where they don't work anymore,

because they're not to
do with what we're doing

record-wise or film-wise.

- They knew they were taking
big risks in '66 and '67.

They didn't know that the
people would follow them,

would go along with them.

And they kind of calculated,
like,

"We might lose a huge
chunk of our market.

You know, we're being
too daring."

(upbeat music)

(people chattering)

(upbeat music continues)

- Then they decided
that it should be

what really came to be
called a concept album,

because Frank Zappa had
made one called "Freak Out!"

and McCartney was very keen
that it should be like that.

But then, as Ringo said later,

they did a couple of tracks,
and then they thought,

"Oh, let's forget the concept
album. Let's do more tracks."

But of course, it was knit
together in a strange way.

It was all the Beatles being
sort of very adventurous

but very sentimental at
the same time.

All these different
strands are in this album.

And John actually,
funnily enough,

is the one who ties it together

with not only his wonderful,

his masterpiece "A Day
in the Life,"

but he also provides
little sound bits, as well,

that seem to be part
of "A Day in the Life"

and part of Paul's
"Lovely Rita."

So it does seem like it's
a whole concept,

even though they didn't think

they were making a
concept album.

- Paul? Good evening.
- Hello.

- How are you?

- Can I just have a brief
word with you?

- Yeah.
- If you never toured again,

would it worry you?

- Uh, I don't know.
No, I don't think so.

- Wouldn't worry you?
- Because the only thing

about that is that
performance for us...

See, it's gone downhill,
performance,

'cause we can't develop
when no one can hear us,

you know what I mean, so for us,

to perform is, it's difficult.

Gets difficult each time,
more difficult.

- You mean they don't
listen to you,

and, therefore, you don't
want to do that?

- Oh, yeah, we want to do it.

But if we're not listened
to, and we can't even

hear ourselves then we
can't improve in that.

We can't get any better.

So we're trying to get better
with things like recording.

- It took months and months and
took a huge amount of money.

And again, it was part of,
it wasn't only "Sgt. Pepper,"

but, you know, other
great albums of that time

reversed the market, which
had always said

that you make, the
single is what mattered.

And then the album kind of
cashes in on the single.

So it has the single and
a few other things on it,

usually with the name
of the single,

like "Please Please Me."

But then the album
started to be,

you know, the absolute
focus of what bands did

and what pop acts did.

They made albums, and then
singles came off the album.

- How are you?
- Merry Christmas.

- How are you?
- Fine, fine.

- Can I ask you a few questions?

- Yes, yes.

- Then I'll turn you
around this way.

- Which way?
- This way.

You're looking very
smart anyway.

- Yes, well, I had a bath.
- What's all this about

that The Beatles are
going to do less together

in the new year?

- Um, yeah, we won't be doing...

The thing is, you see,
to do things together,

the four of us,

it's going to be the old things
all over again, you know.

- You don't want to do that?
- No, we don't want to do,

you know, what we've
done already.

So the thing is, because
of the film, you know,

we can't get a decent script,
or we're still trying for one.

If we don't do that, somebody
will do something else

different, you know,
for next year.

- On your own.
- Yes, but, I mean,

it's not like breaking up.

We'll still be coming back
together at the end of it.

- Thank you very much, Ringo.
- That's alright. Thank you.

- Are you going to work now?

- Well, I'll see what
they're up to.

I think it may be tea time,
with any luck.

Bye.
- Paul had started working

on the idea of the phantom band.

"Let's invent a band,

and we can be the band
and not be the Beatles."

- How are you?

Can I stop you and have
a brief word with you?

I just want to ask you, do you
think that in the new year,

that you're going to
be going your own ways

instead of being in a group?
- No. No.

- No?
- No. Definitely not.

- What about another word?

- There aren't any more words.

- They were sort of tired
of being The Beatles.

Oh, they weren't tired of
existing as the Beatles.

The name The Beatles had started

to sort of oppress them a bit.

And they had an idea of,
you know,

making a kind of alter ego,

which would be called Sgt.
Pepper.

And it was in line with a big
fashion for military tunics

and all, you know, that
was in the mid-'60s.

But if you look, there's a
picture of Paul's father,

Jim McCartney, who had a
little dance band

in the 1920s and '30s
in Liverpool.

He played the piano by
ear, the Jim Mac Jazz Band.

There was a picture of
them in the late '20s,

and they're standing
around a bass drum

and looking just like
the Sgt. Pepper concept.

No marijuana.

- They became the forerunners

of what has almost become
a rock 'n' roll joke.

How long can you spend in
the studio on one project,

and how much is it
going to cost you?

The Beatles were in studio
making "Sgt. Pepper,"

which everyone will say,

"Wow, that must have
been exciting."

It was the most boring time
you've ever had in your life.

We were used to recording
albums in two, three days,

maybe a week.

"Revolver" took a few weeks.

But "Sgt.
Pepper" just dragged on and,

because they hadn't
written together.

The only one who had prepared

to go into the studio, really,
was Paul.

- When they went into the
studio, no women were allowed

in.

No wives, nothing.

No, they, and even touring.

It was always, you know,
"The boys were going off."

And I think it was
only Chris O'Dell

that had the cheek to say,
"Can I go to a session?"

'Cause none of us would
have dreamt of thinking

we could go and watch
them record.

- Everybody asks why, as
things go along,

groups are allowed more
time to record.

Firstly, it's not the
record company's money.

It's an advance of the
group's royalties,

so the record company
really doesn't care.

At the beginning, the
record company worries.

"We give them all the
studio time.

If they don't get a hit, we're
going to be paying for it."

Once the group have had
some hits, you can give them

all the time they want,
'cause they're paying for it.

it's going to come out of
their royalties.

This isn't well explained to
the groups, so the groups think

they're using the record
company's money.

And by this time, also, they
have enough money left over

that they can buy some
drugs and smoke

and do things in the studio

which are not conducive
to working fast.

And recordings took
longer and longer.

- Paul was mainly in charge.

Obviously, George and
John were in charge of

when it was their tune
that they composed,

but it was mainly Paul
was the bossy Betty.

And he would say, "Just let's."

And they would do, it
seemed to me,

dozens and dozens of
takes of the same thing.

And I would think, "Well, it
was brilliant the first time.

I wish they'd pack up.
I wish we could go home.

I'm so exhausted."

- Even, you know, the
trained engineers were amazed

with what the Beatles
were asking them to do.

You know, nobody had done that,
really.

So, in that way,

you know, Abbey Road was a
blessing for them, you know?

- They were just full of
enthusiasm and full of ideas.

And often, these are the best
periods of anyone's life,

in your 20s, when...

And also, they could do
what they wanted now.

They had the muscle to
go to Abbey Road

and say, "We want to do things,"
which is wonderful, really,

'cause when they
first went there,

they were sent in the side
entrance, not in the front door.

And, "Whatever you want to
do, Paul, we're with you."

- The thing the Beatles did
is they set up lots of things

which we take for granted now,

like spending three
months in the studio.

We think nothing of U2
taking a year off

or two years off to
make an album.

The Beatles were the
first people to do it.

The Beatles were the
first people

to do ambitious albums like this

that tried to do far more
than pop albums,

that weren't just kind
of soundtracks

for dancing or
playing in your car.

- I think personally
that John was a genius.

I don't think there's
any question about that.

And how many geniuses would
you get in a group of four?

But without Paul, I don't think

John would have done what
he did with his life.

As I said, I call them
the Dream Team.

Paul had lost his mother
when he was 14,

spent a lot of time with
us in our house.

My mother, ironically, used
to say, "That poor boy,

he lost his mother, you know."

(gentle music)

And then, of course, when
our mother died,

that was a bond, a real,
real bond

instantly between them.

And I think that relationship
was the basis of the Beatles.

- John had this reputation.

He was the one that
people are drawn to,

because he had this acerbic wit,

and, you know, he was a bit
of a rebellious type person

who didn't seem to care
about things.

Paul was very, very,
very polite, you know?

And, so, people are
always drawn to the rebel,

like I was initially when
I first met him.

That's what drew me to him.

- Paul was also exploring
the avant garde,

That was very important.
He was, you know,

no idea was kind of too
wacky for Paul to explore.

And he was reading a lot,
going to art exhibitions,

listening to avant
garde composers,

listening to jazz, and
really developing in that way

and in a very significant way.

John, John did a lot of reading

and a lot of sort of
songwriting,

but most of it at home, 'cause
he had family commitments.

And Paul was ahead of him
in that sort of,

"Let's explore London. Let's
explore the avant garde.

Let's get into the
underground movement."

John was, He kind of liked that,

but he didn't really have,
he wasn't bold enough

at that stage to
pursue it himself.

But in November, he
meets Yoko Ono

at a pre-Indica Gallery
opening of Yoko's work.

And, well, we all know
what that led to.

- One of the great myths

which still upsets Paul
McCartney to this day,

because it still sort
of tends to cling on,

is that John was the
great experimenter,

the avant garde one, Paul
was the cuddly, safe,

middle of the road, smiley one.

It's just not true.

As Tony Bramwell said, you know,

John was a lazy bastard who
stayed at home in suburbia.

Paul lived in the
middle of London.

Paul always had this
wanting to improve himself.

He bought books on modern art

when he was a
schoolboy of 12 or 13,

and he was very much into
all the avant garde in London

and, I mean, in really
sort of difficult,

very, very contemporary music,
nothing to do with pop music,

people like John Cage, Luciano
Berio, people like that.

He knew all about that.
Tape loops, all of that.

Paul was the leader.

There was a bookshop and
a gallery called Indica,

and Paul had a standing
order in that shop

for anything new that came in.

And then he would tell
John about it.

So Paul told John all
about, you know, "Relax,

turn off your mind, and
float downstream."

John read the book,

and then John wrote
"Tomorrow Never Knows,"

and John was the one who
was the avant garde one.

- They were actually more
involved in modern art

and modern classical music

and modern designers
than they let on.

Don't forget, they'd
gone to grammar schools.

Dun, dun, dun, dun, and
they'd gone to,

in John's case, to art school.

They were, as opposed to some
of the rock 'n' roll stars...

Must choose my names carefully,

who'd left school at 15 and
could hardly read and write.

The Beatles were,

apart from Ringo, who
never went to school,

The Beatles were
grammar school boys

who'd read
Shakespeare at school,

had read novels and read poetry.

- John and George were
living out in the country,

and Paul was living in
the middle of London.

They weren't spending all
that time together anymore.

You know, up until '66,

they were completely
in each other's pocket.

They were this four-headed
hydra monster, you know?

None was seen without the other.

- Paul was also the more
musical one by a long way

and taught John a lot.

So it was more, It was much
more nuanced than that.

So the idea that Paul was
sort of the straight guy

and the P.R. for the thing,

well, that's partly true.
He was.

But he was also, you
know, extremely gifted.

- There's been lots of rumblings

of a different type of music

coming from way back,
coming from "Revolver."

- Course there was
an expectation

for "Rubber Soul" and
for "Revolver,"

but I can't remember as
much anticipation

as there was for "Sgt. Pepper",
that was partly because

of the amount of time they
were spending in the studio,

and this was constantly
brought up in news reports,

you know, how much money
would have been spent

and how long they were taking.

So you thought, here are
these four genius guys

with George Martin, and
they spent this much time?

Must be, it's going to
be, like, incredible,

because it just can't be
anything less than incredible.

(inquisitive music)

- We must go back to the
time it was released.

People don't realize
the difficulties.

I mean, it was done on
a four-track machine.

Now, George Martin said

very difficult working
on a four-track.

Nowadays, you see what
they can do in the studios

and all the rest of it.

And yet this album,

done on a four-track, is
still sort of magical.

- I remember them deciding to
put the words on the cover,

because, as you know,

all those albums that
had come out before then,

we argued about the wording.

We didn't often know,

'cause one of the joys
with the Beatles,

they still sang in a
Liverpool accent.

- Great story for me was

when I was at Stafford Street,

George came in one day,
and he said,

"I've got these lyrics, and
could you type them out?

'Cause they're
difficult to read."

So he said, "I'll sit
next to you,

and I'll read them out to you,

and then you can type."

So, I did.

And every time he'd
finished with the lyrics,

he'd hand them to me,

and I throw them in the bin.

For every single track of "Sgt.
Pepper,"

went in the bin.

If only I'd known.

- EMI were very, very shocked
at how much they had to spend

on the, on the record cover

and then also wanting the
lyrics in full.

And of course, the Beatles were

making a rod for
their own backs,

because once people could
read the lyrics,

then there was all hell,

you know,
interpreting the lyrics

and, you know, imputing meaning

that was probably, most of
the time, was never there.

- They had had a design done
by a group called The Fool,

and it was a psychedelic design.

And Robert Fraser, who was
brought in to advise them,

he was a gallery owner, and
he said, "That'll be no good,

'cause that'll date
very quickly."

So they decided to go
ahead with the concept,

which Paul says,

"We'll write a list of
all our heroes,

and this will be the cover.

All the heroes and the
people we admire

are going to be on this album."

Now, Brian Epstein was
in New York at the time,

and he was horrified
when he heard it.

He thought, "All these people,

it's the Beatles who matter,"
you know?

So he decided to fly
back to London,

but he had the vision that
he'd die in a plane crash.

So he left a message to Nat
Weiss, his lawyer there,

"Brown paper covers for
the 'Sgt. Pepper' album."

- People expected them
to be absolutely

in the vanguard of everything.

People thought, "No, the
Beatles do this first,

and then everyone else follows."

And of course, there was the
military sort of tunic era

which "Sgt. Pepper" completely
sort of picked up on.

Then it was the hippie era.

- Of course, you'll understand,
John Lennon, typical,

he wanted Jesus Christ, Hitler.

Hitler is actually on
the tableau,

but it's hidden
behind something.

And also, when Sir
Joseph Lockwood from EMI

walked in and saw the
cutout of Gandhi,

he was aghast, "We
can't do that.

We have big sales in India,"
so that was taken out.

And Peter Blake managed
to get nine waxworks

from Madame Tussauds
for the Beatles

and then other people like
Sonny Liston and Diana Dors,

so they're there.

- And I said to them,
early doors,

"You've got all your heroes,
film stars and musicians.

Why haven't you got a
footballer?"

And the answer was really

none of the four was
interested in football.

Despite growing up in Liverpool
in their teenage years,

they didn't go to
football matches.

There weren't fans really,

'cause they were so
busy playing the guitar,

playing in the Quarrymen.

I see that Paul has later said

that he was from an
Everton family,

but at the time, he never
mentioned that

when I was with him,
and his parents,

his dad never mentioned that.

So, they said, "Yeah,
that's a good idea."

And they had one footballer
in the whole of the lineup,

Albert Stubbins.

And John chose Albert Stubbins
because the name amused him.

- If it would have been
another year,

there would have been Ravi
Shankar and the Maharishi there.

- A lot of them were
American, so you had to.

And in those days, you know,
you didn't have the e-mails,

so you had to write to
them and get permission.

And if they were dead,

you still needed permission
from the families.

So I had a file that thick

of all the correspondence
with "Sgt. Pepper."

- [Announcer] Chertsey,
ready to roll to Weybridge,

a gypsy-type caravan,

a present for a 4-year-old
who probably has everything.

The name, Julian Lennon,
son of John Lennon,

who else but the Beatles?

It's about £4,000 worth
of gaily painted,

renovated rolling stock, a
big toy for a little boy.

It even needed a police escort.

But then, it's not every dad

that spends that sort of
money on his young son.

This might be one occasion
when money can buy love.

If he ever decides
to leave home,

and it seems hardly likely,

he'll be the best-equipped
gypsy on the road.

(upbeat music)

- I'd visit a friend of mine
just off the King's Road.

And there were a few
of us, and we'd all sit

'round the table and listen
to great music and smoke pot,

and nobody really
said very much.

And I remember there were
some books on this table.

They were always very
interesting

sort of spiritual books.

I remember picking one up
called "Karma and Rebirth,"

and it was by somebody
called Christmas Humphreys.

And I was just flicking
through the book,

and I saw this line that said,

"Life goes on within you
and without you."

And I thought, "Wow,
that's very special."

And so I immediately
called Pattie and George,

and George answered the phone,
and I said, "Listen to this.

Life goes on within you
and without you."

He loved it, and of course,

that became the song
"Within You Without You."

- George Martin told
me years later,

after George Harrison had died,
he said,

"Well, the reason it's
the first track

on the second side of 'Sgt.
Pepper'

is so people could go
straight to the second track

and not play it."

And I never thought it worked.

- The sitar being in songs,

in rock or psychedelic music,

I mean, that was a massive thing

on that "Sgt. Pepper" album.

It's like nobody was, you know,

you'd sort of seen Elvis
and Little Richard,

but you never imagined somebody
coming along with a sitar

in a current, popular
band at that time.

- Paul, I think quite
rightly said,

like when he was growing up,

that the album sleeves
were very important,

the colors of labels and even,
like, the smell of an album.

He was very aware of the tactile

and visual aspects of an album

and all the details that
as a kid you really absorb,

and even the, you know,
Garrod and Lofthouse,

you know, printers' thing
at the bottom.

So he wanted it full of
kind of goodies, and it had

you know, good illustrations,
freebies inside.

The Fool had done the,
like, a splash of color

on the actual inner sleeve.

- It did what it said on the
tin. It was mind-blowing.

You're going, there they are,

dressed in this Sgt.
Pepper gear.

And then you pull the
sleeve, and you think, wow.

You can cut out the
Pepper mustache, you know.

And there's Sgt. Pepper there.

You can cut him out and
stand him up.

I think the dilemma was,
do I leave it all flat

and not disturb it, which
I did, 'cause I thought,

you're not going to
get much mileage

wearing the cardboard mustache,
really.

Especially 10 years old.

But I've still got it as
it is, flat in the thing.

But that was a kind of thing

where you got more
involved with the sleeve.

- The whole thing was
Paul's idea.

I could see sketches
he was doing.

I could hear the discussions.

I could hear the
discussions about the title.

I could hear how they
were going to arrange it.

And then I went 'round
one day, and he said,

"We're doing the
photograph this evening."

So I jumped in his Mini Minor,

and we went to Michael Cooper's
studio in Flood Street.

And as we're leaving
Paul's house,

which he still has 'round
the corner, he said,

"Oh, we'll need some stuff
to decorate the front of it."

I'd seen drawings,

and they were still messing
around and changing their minds.

I'd seen costumes
coming to the house,

and they'd try them on
and say, "No, that's not,

a different one."

Anyway, he said, "Take
something to put

in the beginning of the,
front of the photograph."

So I looked 'round, and from
his shelf, I took a statue.

I think actually I
didn't know what it was.

It was like this,
like a spaceship,

which each of them were
given some years earlier.

John gave his away to a
fan who came to the door,

just gave it to them.

So I picked it off the
mantelpiece beside his Magritte.

- He loved Magritte,
and he'd bought

the painting of
Magritte's as an apple,

with an apple, which was
used for the Apple company.

And also, Linda bought him

Magritte's original painting
palettes and an easel.

And he wanted Magritte
on, but no, Magritte told

Robert Fraser's artwork people
that he was an agent for.

So, to me, that was a bit
of a disaster.

That could have been,

this wonderful concept of
all their heroes

and all the people who
had influenced them,

which would have been a
great insight

into the Beatles, was rejected.

So don't for a minute think
that this is the genuine,

the authentic "Sgt. Pepper"
cover, because it ain't.

- It was like the deductive
logic of thinking,

who have they left out, you
know? Why is it all these?

But it was all people
of the day, you know,

all the greats, you know.

And you never know whether
they was sending them up

or going, "These are
our heroes," you know?

Didn't quite know, but it...

There was a lot of irony, to me,
as well.

I just thought, you know what?

They're having a
laugh with this.

You know, they put all
these people on

more than themselves in a sense,
you know,

even though they're, these
were all our friends.

And of course, the lovely,
little thing,

"Welcome the Rolling Stones,"
you know.

(Laughs)

- It was incredibly expensive,

and EMI thought they
were crackers.

Why would you want to do
all this on a pop album

that'll be replaced in six
months' time by another one?

Is that the way you're
going to keep it?

They didn't get it, the
Beatles, they had huge ambition,

huge ambition, and talent,
you know, and ego, too.

They said, "No, we're going
to do something special.

This'll be really good,"
you know.

- There is the sort
of the medals.

And Pete Best's dad

was a boxing promoter in
Liverpool, at Liverpool Stadium.

And he had the, a sort of a cup

granted to him in Liverpool

and which Neil Aspinall

sort of brought down to
use on the sleeve.

- My mother's family were,
even though they were English,

were born, you know,
during the Raj.

Military family out in India.

Her father, my grandfather,

was a major in the Lancers.

And she was very
proud of the fact

that her father had a
string of medals.

And I think on
numerous occasions

while she was regaling them,

she'd show them these medals,
you know, to the four of them.

Around I'd say '67

when they were assimilating all
the stuff for "Sgt. Pepper,"

John remembered, right,
the medals,

and he said, "I think they'd
be great for Sgt. Pepper.

Would you go back and ask
Mona if we could borrow them

And she turned 'round
to me and said,

"Take them with my blessings,
okay,

but tell John I want them back."

So Neil took them back
down to London.

When the decision came,

looking at the medals and all
the other bits and pieces,

John decided the string of
medals he was going to wear

were part of that collection,
right?

And hence you see them on
(pops lips) Sgt. Pepps.

The beauty of it was he was
true to his word, you know,

because he sent the
medals back again

to Mona via Neil,

and that's how the family

became involved with "Sgt.
Pepper."

You know, the album
went on to be

the alleged best seller
in the world, you know,

and there they are, okay?

But for many years, no
one knew about it.

- Chas and Jimi were
great friends of mine.

And I had an acetate of "Sgt.
Pepper,"

and I gave it to Chas,

and he played it to Jimi.

And Jimi immediately
latched onto it

and rehearsed it and
got it together.

And I had him play in the
Saville theater

on the Sunday after the
release of "Pepper."

And he played it.

- McCartney went along
and loved it.

He felt tremendously
complimented,

because this was a very,
very hard rock star,

you know, playing his stuff.

And he wanted, He was
a songwriter.

He loved it when other
people played his stuff.

- When "Sgt. Pepper" came
out, June the 1st, '67,

it had been trailed for so long.

You knew it was coming, and
the anticipation was enormous.

We'd read the NME, the
Melody Maker,

and things, waiting
for this thing.

Wherever you went along
the King's Road, anywhere,

it was playing, every single
boutique you went into,

every shop you went into.

It was an event.

And the album, when I
saw the cover,

the cover itself was an event.

It was sort of saying,

"We're not just mucking around,
fellas.

This is special," you know?
It was a huge presentation.

- When we were making
the little film

for "Strawberry Fields" it was
filmed in Sevenoaks in Kent.

And we had a little hotel
called Bright's Hotel,

and next door, there was
an antique shop.

And the poster was just
there on the wall,

and we bought it for
half a crown

or a quid or something.

And it was basically, you know,

"For the benefit of Mr. Kite,"
and listing all the acts,

Pablo Fanque's fair
and all this.

There's the dancing horse.

And he framed it

and put in his den in Weybridge

and then just wrote the song,

yeah, basically straight
off the poster.

He just turned it into a poetry.

And then George Martin

added all his wonderful
fairground effects to it.

It's a masterpiece.

- 'Cause he got his
inspiration from other ways,

like on the "Sgt. Pepper" album,

also from a Daily Mail article

about his friend Tara Browne

being killed in the car crash,
you know?

And the same with Paul with
getting the Daily Mail idea

about "She's leaving
home," about Melanie Coe,

who left home to go
out with a man.

Paul put, "It was a man
from the motor trade."

He made that up, and everyone
thinks it was Terry Doran.

But Paul said it wasn't,
you know, Terry Doran was

their friend who ran
the car business.

- [Announcer] Chertsey.

That is one of the wheels
of John Lennon's Rolls.

It's a gas. If you're over
80, that means it's fab.

£6,000 worth of 1965 Phantom,

inside almost as
marvelous as out.

Well, perhaps not quite.

Now that the supercar has been
dolled up in a grand manner,

not even a Beatle could
wish for more.

- When Paul went
public about LSD,

which was talking to a
Life magazine reporter

and that got picked up,
Certainly, I can remember

reading it on the front
page of the Daily Mirror.

And then, of course,
the news media,

the, you know, the TV
news got in on the act.

And I think John was
a bit miffed

that he and George had been
the first ones to take LSD.

And here's Paul, the
relative latecomer,

being the first one to say,
"I took LSD."

They thought it was
kind of unfair on them,

because they'd been the
pioneers in that area.

- Paul, how often have
you taken LSD?

- About four times.

- And where did you get it from?

- Oh, you know, I mean, if I
was to say where I got it from,

you know, it's illegal
and everything.

It's silly to say that, so
I'd rather not say that.

- Don't you believe that
this was a matter

which you should have
kept private?

- You know, the thing is,
you know, that I was asked

a question by a newspaper.

And the decision was
whether to tell a lie

or to tell him the truth,
you know?

I decided to tell him the truth.

But I really didn't want
to say anything, you know,

'cause if I had my decision,
you know, if I had it my way,

I wouldn't have told anyone,
you know,

'cause I'm not trying to
spread the word about this.

But the man from the newspaper

is the man from the mass media.

You know, I'll keep it a
personal thing.

If he does, too, you know,
if he keeps it quiet.

But he wanted to spread it.

So it's his responsibility,
you know,

for spreading it, not mine.

- But you're a public figure,

and you said it in
the first place.

You must have known that
it would make,

would have made the newspapers.

- Yes, but to say it, you know,
is only to tell the truth.

I'm telling the truth, you know.

I don't know what
everyone's so angry about.

- Well, do you think
you have now

encouraged your fans
to take drugs?

- I don't think it'll make
any difference.

You know, I don't think my fans

are going to take drugs
just 'cause I did.

You know, but the thing is that
that's not the point anyway.

You know, I was asked
whether I had or not.

And then from then on,

the whole bit about how
far it's going to go

and how many people
it's going to encourage

is up to the newspapers
and up to you,

you know, on television.

I mean, you're spreading
this now at this moment.

This is going into all the
homes, you know, in Britain.

And I'd rather it didn't,
you know,

but you're asking me
the question.

You want me to be honest.
I'll be honest, you know.

- But as a public figure,

surely you've got a
responsibility to-

- No, it's you've got the
responsibility.

You've got the responsibility
not to spread this now.

You know, I'm quite
prepared to keep it

as a very personal
thing, if you will, too.

If you'll shut up about it,
I will.

- The emergence of LSD, of
course, you have to remember,

was, first emergence,
was at a time

when it wasn't illegal
in this country.

And there was a place called

the International
Psychedelic Centre

where you could go in and
try it off the street.

You could have it spread
on a little piece of bread.

It soon was made illegal.

And there were a great many

very, very sort of
plausible arguments

that it was a
wonderful thing to do.

- John always said, "Lucy
in the Sky with Diamonds,"

was actually Julian, his son,
had come home from school

with a painting, and
it was of Lucy,

a little girl at the school,
in the sky with diamonds.

And John always said it
wasn't about LSD.

And he swore it wasn't.

But I think it probably was,
to be honest.

- John would have had
to have been word-blind

not to see that "Lucy in the
Sky with Diamonds" was LSD.

And we know John
wasn't word-blind.

- Even though John says, "Oh,
it was just an accident,"

I think, you know, you could
use a bit of artistic license.

You know, I think
it's a bit more

than a coincidence, really,
you know,

- The LSD initials is
just random.

They, I don't believe there
was any coding anywhere.

But now and again, in things
like "I Am the Walrus,"

and people would say,
"What does that mean, John?

Oh, can we get that clear?"

And he would deliberately
throw in nonsense things.

I've got a quote in
my book about,

"Let them work it out.
Let them work it out.

That will confuse them."

So he wasn't really
sending messages.

He was sending red herrings.

- The Beatles have a
very good story

about why "Lucy in the Sky
with Diamonds" isn't LSD,

but that was probably
written by Brian Epstein,

that story, wasn't it?

I would have thought the
chances are it really was LSD,

and they were told it'd
be better if it wasn't.

And as for being turned on,
well, the BBC were right

that that's what it was, but
completely wrong to ban it,

'cause that's part of
youth culture at the time.

- In "Sgt. Pepper," they
knew what they were doing.

They were putting little jokes.

Well, there were earlier jokes,
you know.

In "Penny Lane," "fish
and finger pie."

They'd put that in on purpose.

A bit vulgar, really, but,
you know, schoolboy smut.

- They banned "A Day in the
Life." They got it wrong.

"Too many holes to fill
the Albert Hall,"

that was based on the
Daily Mail article

about actually holes in the
road in Blackburn, Lancashire.

And they thought it was to
do with needles in the arm,

so they banned it, you know,

and this is the sort of
attitude you had in those days.

- There is no question
that they were,

on that album, they were
taking chances.

They knew they were
taking chances

when they did the long,
drawn-out cry

of "I'd love to turn you on."

They knew what they were doing.

And they had got away
with so much,

and they thought they
could get away with it

and very largely did.

Really, they introduced
the whole world

to psychedelia and
psychedelic drugs.

They had the platform.

There was a lot of
things going in America,

lot of drugs and stuff
and Timothy Leary.

And coming up with
that great line

from The Tibetan Book
of the Dead,

"She said, 'I know what
it's like to be dead,'"

which, that was mind-blowing.
It was suddenly like,

from "She Loves You"
to that was,

that was a dramatic statement.

- It was normally Mick, Keith,
and their band of minstrels

who got it in the neck

for being a terrible influence
and the sort of people

that you wouldn't let
your daughter go out with.

But the Beatles weren't saints.

I'm sure even they collectively
would have admitted that.

- It somehow wasn't
regarded quite like

the drugs that had always
terrified the British,

you know, like cocaine,

which had been around
forever anyway.

And people used to
say in the '20s,

people like Lady Diana Cooper,

a great socialite in the '20s,

later on told when she
met pop stars and said,

"Oh, in the '20s, we used to
sit around at dinner parties,

and there would be silver
salt cellars full of cocaine,"

you know, so it wasn't very new.

- Lennon was reading Lewis
Carroll and stuff like that,

and they was absorbing
all this kind of thing.

So I suppose at the time,
drugs seemed progressive,

like, "Oh, you can find
this inner light

and interpret that in some
ways," 'cause, you know,

music is a spiritual
thing in a lot of ways.

- They used to go off to
the gentlemen's toilet.

You know, they wouldn't
do it in the studio,

or they would duck down
behind a sort of baffle

to take a quick drag of a joint.

But there was a moment when
John had to go up on the roof.

And again, this shows the
closeness that was between them.

Paul took him home to Paul's
house in St John's Wood,

and Neil Aspinall was there,
as well,

and they looked after
John, because you had to be

looked after with LSD.

- The thing with taking acid
is that you always realize

that whatever happens
during your trip,

you knew that was there.

And now it was a matter of just
living with that information

rather than keep taking it.

That's why it was easy
when Maharishi appeared,

because everybody was ready.

- The Maharishi era starts
with actually George's wife,

Pattie Boyd, who hears
about the Maharishi.

The Maharishi had been
coming to London

for years before that.

I can remember seeing his
picture in the underground

long before the Beatles
discovered him.

They are in that position

where wealth and luxury and
fame start to get a bit boring.

They're looking for
something else.

They're looking for
something a bit beyond that,

a bit spiritual.

And the Maharishi had
a fast track

to inner bliss and
enlightenment,

and you only had to do
it for half an hour a day

or something, perfectly tuned in

to a rock star's attention span.

- I got rung up one evening
by Michael McCartney,

and he said, "There's
going to be a happening."

And there was always
happenings in the '60s.

It could just be a sort
of a hamburger

and a Coca-Cola, that
was a happening.

And he said, "They're going
off tomorrow to Bangor."

I said, "Where, Bangor?"

"To see the Maharishi."
"Who's he?"

"They've just met
him last night,

and they'd been to an event of
his at a Hilton, some hotel,

and listened to him."

And they were, George was
already into Indian mysticism

and spiritual awareness
and Indian music.

I got on the train with
the four Beatles,

and I sat in the
compartment, this is 1967.

It was a first-class
compartment.

And, "How are you?" In those
days, you had a corridor

and a closed first-class
compartment they put blinds on.

And I sat there with
the four Beatles

and me and Mick Jagger
and Marianne Faithfull,

and we traveled all the
way to Bangor.

While we're traveling,

we stopped a couple of times
at places like Chester,

and they'd be kids on
the platform,

shouting and screaming and
putting autograph books.

You could open the
windows in those days.

And now and again, a
kid would get

three Beatles but not John.

John would say, "I'm not
fucking signing.

I'm fed up signing,"
and they'd be in tears,

so I would sign "John Lennon."

Anyway, Maharishi was on
the same train.

That was why it was
vital to get that train.

And we all went into
his carriage,

and he gave us a mantra
which I cannot reveal.

(inquisitive music)

- The Beatles seem to be
among your supporters now.

How do you feel about that?

- I feel a great promise
for the younger generation,

because if the Beatles take up

this transcendental meditation,

they are the ideal of
energy and intelligence

in the younger generation.

And that will really
bring up the youth

on a very good level of
understanding and intelligence.

I'm very happy about it,

that they heard my
lecture last evening,

and they talked to me for about
an hour after the lecture.

They seem to be very
intelligent and alert.

- Do you think that if the
Beatles adopt your teaching,

then they can spread it

amongst other young
people in England?

- Much more easily, not
only England,

but throughout the world,

because the word Beatle has
gone in all the continents,

and younger people are
fascinated by that name.

- What do you think
of the Beatles?

- Very good,
intelligent young boys,

and there's a great potential.

- And their music?
- Music, I haven't heard,

but because they are
appreciated all over the world,

they must have something
very graceful in their music.

(people chattering)

- Cynthia was the Candide
of the Beatles story,

always left behind.

When they went to see
the Maharishi in Wales,

she was left on the platform.

She missed the train. They
all went on the train.

She was standing, crying
on the platform.

- I think the Maharishi
was very sharp,

and he knew how to
get publicity.

Mind you, there were people
in previous generations

who'd done the same thing

and had latched onto the
rich and famous,

'cause they knew that
if their ideas

caught on with the smart set,

they would filter down
to the ordinary people.

So this this wasn't
novel in itself,

but the Maharishi did it, and
the Hare Krishna people did it

because they sent stuff
'round to Apple,

and, you know, they ended
up with a record deal.

And if anybody knows about
the Hare Krishna movement,

they would link that, you know,
back to

the popularity that they
got through the Beatles.

(upbeat music)

* Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna *

* Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare *

* Hare Rama, Hare Rama *

* Rama Rama, Hare Hare *

* Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna *

- I think, given what
they've experienced

and knowing what
I've experienced

on a lesser level than
that, but I've experienced

some of the things that
you do in a band

and you want to find more,
you know.

I mean, there's playing
live on the stage.

There's making music,
there's amazing experiences,

amazing input into your life

and how you deal with it and
how you're looking at it.

And then, you know,
they must have thought,

"We'll take this spiritual
thing to another level.

- So, yeah, the Maharishi
is very sharp.

He had, like, an American
socialite lady

who promoted him in America.

And it was her son who
became Bungalow Bill

in the song on the White Album.

So yeah, he did, he knew
the, the publicity value

of having these four, you know,

most famous guys in the world,

probably certainly the most
famous popular singing group.

Even though he probably
wouldn't have known a lot

about their music, I
mean, he would have known

the incredible value of
spreading his message.

So, yeah, Maharishi was
a sharp businessman,

and he had a background
I think in physics.

He studied physics
at university,

so had kind of a
scientific line.

And he had a
publicity side of him,

and he had the spiritual side,
as well.

(lighthearted music)

- We got to Bangor.

And that evening, the roadies
had still not arrived,

and I went into town

with the four Beatles
and me to have a meal.

And we went to a
Chinese restaurant.

The bill came to 10 quid,
and I only had 5 quid on me.

And I said, "I'm very sorry.

These are the Beatles.
I know it's..."

It was Hong Kong Chinese waiters

who'd just arrived
probably the day before,

and all they could hear
was the Liverpool accent.

And it was quite common
on a Saturday evening

for Scousers to come
across from Liverpool,

run up a massive bill,
and do a runner.

And they thought, and they
were closing the door,

and they were
sharpening their knives.

And I said, "Look,
I'm a journalist

on the Sunday Times, I've
written lots of books.

Here's my card, I'll come
tomorrow, I'll get money."

And it was getting really nasty

when George put his
foot on the table.

And he was wearing
handmade Indian sandals.

And he asked for a knife,
and he cut the top.

The trouble was, you see,
the Beatles have been famous

for, oh, God, four years,

and like the royal family,
they'd ceased to carry money.

The roadies carried the money.
They didn't pay for anything.

So George slit open the sandal
and pulled out a £20 note.

And three or four years later,

they'd become the most
famous people in the world

and multimillionaires on
paper and not carrying money.

He thought, "One of these days,
I'm going to need some cash.

Otherwise, there could
be problems."

And that was that evening.

- Brian Epstein set up a party
to celebrate "Sgt. Pepper."

The Beatles actually wanted

originally to do a
special promotional film

or performance to time
with the album,

which didn't happen.

But Brian had gone into gambling

and taking too many tablets
and all the rest of it.

And he was drifting away.

Even Cilla Black and her husband

came to Brian, says, "You know,
Cilla wants a new manager.

You're not taking any
attention anymore."

And he actually cried at that

and pleaded with her to
stay with him.

- Brian was homosexual,

and people in the know
picked that up.

The strange thing about
him was that he...

Everybody, when they heard this,
thought he must fancy Paul,

'cause Paul was the
pretty one of the Beatles.

But he didn't.

He fancied John, because
he preferred macho boys.

When he went gay
hunting in London,

he would always try and pick
up boys who were not gay.

He'd ply them with drink, bring,
only discovered this later,

bring them back to his
lovely house,

try to get them into bed, and
then they would beat him up,

and that was his pleasure.

He was a masochist,
being beaten up.

And then they would steal stuff,

and they'd often steal acetates

and would flog them to
Radio Luxembourg.

And there was just absolute
panic that they would steal

not jewelry or money,

but steal Beatles tapes
that hadn't been released.

- There wasn't a lot
for Brian to do.

You know, you have to remember
that NEMS, Brian's company,

had become the biggest
entertainment agency

in the world, you know,
they represented everybody,

you know, the Beatles, Andy
Williams, the Bee Gees,

Cream, Donovan, Tony Bennett.

And this has all grown in
like three, four years.

If the Beatles had stopped
touring, which they had,

and their recording contract was

signed, sealed, and delivered,

and their music publishing
contract was signed,

there was very little
for a man to do,

you know, to negotiate.

- Now they were going to
somebody else for personal

advice

and how to live and how
to spend their spare time

and how to use their minds.

Brian felt more and
more left out.

He got more and more into
drugs, and he got more and more

into finding new boyfriends
and being promiscuous

and in fact was cutting
himself off from them

as much as they were cutting
themselves off from him.

(somber music)

- They signed up to his
transcendental meditation

movement, and they agreed
to go on this course,

yes, in Bangor, in North Wales.

So it was a huge circus when
they set off on this train

and into this very sort
of unlikely environ

of a teacher training college,
but of course, that was where

the news of Brian Epstein's
death reached them.

- He was found in his
second-floor bedroom

just after 2:00 this
afternoon by his housekeeper.

She said it was his habit
to sleep late at weekends,

especially if he'd had a tiring

or perhaps upsetting
week at work.

She said that all yesterday,
he spent the day at home

and yesterday evening,
which was unusual for him.

Mr. Epstein has been
unwell now for some months

and has been in the
habit of taking tablets

to help him sleep at night.

Only recently, just
over a month ago,

he was further upset by the
sudden death of his father.

Friends have been trying
to persuade him

in the last few days
to take a long holiday,

but only yesterday, he
told one of them,

"I feel on top of the world."

Just over half an hour ago,
a friend...

Friends have been here
all afternoon and evening.

They've been paying
visits to the house

to see his lawyer, Mr.
David Jacobs.

And one of them left
half an hour ago

and said to people around,
"It was an accident."

- He was an unhappy person.

He never had a proper partner.

He had a quite a few partners,

several of whom
worked for Apple,

but it never really became
a proper relationship.

And when these things
happened, he had these boys,

and it all went sour,
he would get depressed.

He would take pills.
He would be suicidal.

When he died, he didn't
commit suicide, but he had...

There had been a suicide
attempt earlier on.

And that would really
depress him.

(people chattering)

- Have you a tribute you'd
like to pay to Mr. Epstein?

- Oh, you know, we don't
know what to say.

We loved him, and he
was one of us,

So you can't, you know-

- You can't pay
tribute in words.

- What are your plans now?

- To return to London
and do whatever we can.

- Did the Maharishi give
any words of comfort?

- Yes, well...
- His meditation gives you

confidence enough to
withstand something like this,

even the short amount we've had.

- And with him, we've
got to know about

there's no real such
thing as death anyway.

I mean, it's death on a
physical level.

But life goes on everywhere,

and you just keep going, really.

But, so the thing is, it's
not as disappointing as,

it is, and it isn't, you know?

And the thing about,
the comfort is to know

that he's okay.

- I understand that
this afternoon,

Maharishi conferred
with you all.

Could I ask you what
advice he had to give?

- He told us

not to get overwhelmed by grief,

and whatever thoughts we have
of Brian, to keep them happy,

because any thoughts we have
of him will travel to him,

wherever he is.
- Had he ever met Mr. Epstein?

- No, but he was looking
forward to meeting him.

- Tomorrow?
- Yes.

Thank you very much.

- And if you look at
that footage,

I mean, John is
completely stunned.

They were very, very
taken with the Maharishi.

It wasn't just, you know, just
another sort of diversion.

They did believe him.

- They'd been plunged
into this chaotic world.

Brian had died, and
it was sort of,

I think there's times
in all our lives

when we turn to some
sort of religious,

as in, way-of-life, philosophy,

looking for answers.

And that's what they were doing.

- I got the phone call from
a friend very early on,

and I just couldn't believe it.

And I remember,

just thinking, like,
where do we go from here?

You know, it was just a
utter shock to everybody.

You know, where did we
go from there?

- But I remember the
Maharishi saying to them,

"Don't worry. He's gone on to
the next stage in his life.

You don't have to be sad.

He's gone, and he'll be turning
into this, he'll be doing...

So, came out with all
that claptrap.

And unfortunately, the
Beatles got interviewed

almost immediately
after Maharishi

had been coming out
with all these cobblers.

And it was, they
appeared callous.

And Brian's mother and
Brian's brother Clive

were upset by that,

by how it was reported,
they didn't mean it.

- Well, the weekend, Brian
thought he might go to Bangor.

In fact, he didn't.
He stayed at home.

And that very same
weekend, Robert Stigwood

invited me 'round for
drinks one afternoon.

And when I got there,
Brian was at his house,

and the three of us
sat and watched,

and watched athletics on
television and had a few drinks.

And then we all went out
to Battersea funfair.

We spent a couple of hours
wandering around, having fun.

We probably smoked a bit of pot

'cause we were all very giggly.

I can't remember the pot,
but I remember the giggles,

and one wouldn't have been
without the other, would it?

And then we went off and
had some supper together.

And at the end of supper,
Brian said,

"I'd like to have dinner
with you. When are you free?"

And we arranged to have
dinner the next night.

And the next night, I met
Brian, I went 'round his house,

and we drove up to
Islington, to Frederick's

and had dinner there and
then came back to his house

for some after-night,
after-dinner drinks.

And it became quite clear to me

over the course of a
few brandies

that Brian's idea was I
was going to stay,

and my idea was definitely
I was not going to stay.

And so I said, "I'm going now,"
and Brian got a bit moody,

and I said, "No, sorry.
I'm going. That's it."

And I went and he said to
me as I was going, he said,

"Please, will you come and
stay the weekend with me?"

And again, what's the point?

I knew why he wanted
me to stay the weekend,

and it wasn't
something I wanted.

So I said, "Well, we'll
talk about it later."

And then the next day,
he phoned me and said,

"Would you come and spend
the weekend in the country?"

And I said, "No, I'm
going to Ireland."

- What do we know about
the end of Brian's life?

- We don't.

And probably never will.

I mean, I spoke to Jo,
obviously,

the next day, and she...

They couldn't get any...

They didn't even know
he was home,

'cause he was supposed to be
down at his country place.

And then she said she'd
got this phone call

from the chauffeur to say,
"Can't open the door."

And she went there and
found him, basically.

And I said at the time,
I just don't get it,

because he was so happy
being down there.

Why would he come home

halfway through the weekend?

But I don't think anyone will
ever know the story, really.

- So, you know the story
about me and Brian.

Do you want me to
tell the story?

- Yes, please.
- Okay.

So, while I was in Ireland, I
got a phone call from a friend

who said Brian Epstein's died.

And I immediately looked
at the papers,

and the papers said he'd
been found that morning

and died of an overdose, and
I had in my house at home

the very, very first
answer phone

which a company had made
for me specially

because they were experimenting

with what could be done
with telephones.

And I had a sixth sense
in the back of my mind

that when I got back
home to London,

and I went in my flat
and pressed the button,

there would be a message
from Brian on there.

And sure enough, I got back,
and I pressed the button,

and there were several
messages from Brian.

And he'd gone to the
country as he planned,

called me at home, when I
wasn't there, I was in Ireland

and said, "Simon, if
you're there,

please come down to
the country."

And then he said, "Well, I'm
coming back from the country.

Could you come over to
the house?" and I didn't

'cause I didn't hear
any of these messages.

I was in Ireland.

And these messages went on,

and they got more and
more blurred.

And it was quite obvious
listening later

that he was taking sleeping
pills or some other stuff

and probably going off
to sleep and waking up,

forgetting you'd taken
one, taking another.

And finally, the last
message was very blurred,

and he'd said,

"Oh, I wish you were here,"
and some other personal things

which are not worth repeating.

And then he died.

So I was a little bit
involved in that thing.

And of course I did the
stupid, British, correct thing,

is I immediately
erased the tape.

(chuckles)

Didn't even listen to it
a second time.

But here we are.

I didn't know the value
of these things.

- Brian Epstein was
part of it all the way.

And it was a massive
shock, because you thought,

well, are they going
to carry on?

What's going to happen now?

Looking back, it's almost like
he'd played his part, really.

You know, he'd gone off into
this other spirit world,

and, you know, they was going
off somewhere else, really.

- What they realized had
gone was a protective shield,

like a parent, a
protective parent.

Brian's deals were not always

the greatest deals
for the Beatles,

because he was only going
on precedent, on deals

that had been made before then.

He didn't realize it was
completely new territory.

But against that,

he was completely dedicated
to protecting them,

as in that, the famous
case of the, you know,

the "more popular than
Jesus" remark from John.

Brian would have canceled
that American tour,

he was so concerned
with their safety.

And in the end, contractually,
of course, he couldn't.

But he wanted to.

That was what had gone,
like a shield,

an impermeable shield that
he'd always provided them

from the moment that
he met them.

- He helped to protect
them in that sense.

And Brian's,

Brian's group,

the Peter Brown and the other
people in the NEMS office,

they serviced the Beatles.

They paid all their bills.

They bought presents
for their girlfriends.

They bought presents
for their wives.

- A lot of people say Brian
wasn't a great manager.

He may not have been great at
running them as a mega group,

looking after money at
the highest level.

But without him, they
wouldn't have happened.

It was his persistent,

his affection for them,
his absolute certainty

that they would happen
and their music was great.

And then he did other things
which managers have to do,

and he did it particularly well,

like keeping all the
hangers-on away from them.

He put a wall between them
and all the hangers-on,

which is strange, 'cause Brian
never managed to put a wall

between himself and
the Epstein hangers-on,

who all hung onto him and
took money off him like mad.

But he was very good at
doing it with the Beatles,

and he kept those people away.

So without him, quite apart
from his rather careful attitude

towards money and finance gone,

all the hangers-on just flocked.

- Being in a group, you do
need a referee sometimes.

Not many groups agree
on everything, you know.

I know we saw in "Help!"

where they all walk to
the same door

and lived in the same house.

But that was only a
moment for the film.

I mean, anybody knows
that's been in a group,

you know, the characters
develop in a group,

and you don't always see
eye to eye, but somewhere,

you do get this thing
that still makes it work,

some consensus when everybody
in the group kind of agrees

on things, and it goes on.

So when Brian went,
there's no referee

to kind of sort that
and oversee, you know.

- They couldn't do
anything by themselves,

and they never had done
anything by themselves.

There'd always been him,
you know?

You know, they...

As a band, he was the thing

that held them together
by this time.

- Well, they dusted
themselves off very quickly,

if you think about it logically,

and started Apple.

- Apple was a financial
measure really

to try and consolidate
their fortune

and try to save them from a
horrendous amount of income tax,

which they could save by
investing in a business.

The thing that it was all
based on, which was a mistake,

was that it wasn't to
protect and consolidate

their musical copyrights.

It was a short-term
financial measure, really.

It was going to be a
record label,

but with other
ancillary businesses,

because the Beatles' influence

extended into all these
other areas like fashion.

They were going to
have a boutique.

They were just going to
do everything, really,

but also be like a
hippie arts council

where deserving, young,
creative people

could find support and sympathy,

because the Beatles remember

when, you know, they didn't get,

the Beatles always had
amazing support!

It was a myth, you know.

They had Brian Epstein.
They had George Martin.

They had Dick James.

They had three
basically honest men

just encouraging them
for all they were worth.

But still, "No, they'd suffered,

so they were going to
help the suffering masses

of the creative community."

- I interviewed Paul, and
he was full of these ideas

about this sort of kind of
communist Marks & Spencer

and all these things, and
I'm thinking, "Oh, God,

you know, this isn't
going to work."

And I was. I was sort of
thinking, "You sure about this,

you know 'cause he
said, "Oh, yeah, really.

Very interesting." But, hmm.

You know, this is Paul,

and they may have been right.

It turned out they
weren't right.

- This was how Alice
Pollock and Ossie Clark

reckoned the girls will
look this summer.

And looking on with approval,
a couple of Beatles,

George Harrison,
wife Pattie Boyd

was modeling at the show,
and John Lennon.

(upbeat music)

From dresses to dresses
or, to be more exact,

a leather suit called
Dazz, 25 guineas' worth.

Pattie Boyd wearing
African Queen.

It's in crepe and costs
9 1/2 guineas.

Less formal, a white satin
jacket and black trousers,

10 guineas the lot.

- I worked at the Apple Boutique
right from the beginning.

I was there for the three months

before we actually went
off to India.

And it was so different to
anything that was around.

For a start, you know, the
beautiful trinkets from India

and posters of Ganesha,
of the gods and goddesses.

And it was very exciting
working there,

and it was so different.

But it also was in keeping

with how we were
feeling at that time

that, you know, it's, the
world can be full of color,

and it doesn't have to
be just black and white.

- Have they seen you yet?
- Mm.

- They have. Last night?
- Yesterday,

yesterday, the moment they came,

they met me for
about 10 minutes.

And then now they
have been with me

from about 10:00, after
their breakfast.

- Uh-huh. How long were
they together with you?

- From 10:00 until now, I
think, about two, three hours.

- And what did you do? Did
you meditate, or did you talk?

- Meditation and some talk
and meditation.

Very intelligent.

- And will they be
graduate meditation guides?

What will be their-
- I hope.

- Ah. What do they have
to do to attain this?

- To attain this,
they have to have

a deep and clear
experience of being.

- I'd been told, although
it wasn't true, by a doctor

that I had tonsillitis,
actually, it was something else.

And I had different people
come and visit.

and John and Cynthia
came in one day,

and John said, "I've
got a drawing for you."

And it was a drawing of
an Indian man

with a turban on his head,
and he's playing a flute.

And there's, he's sitting
down cross-legged,

and there's a basket at his
feet with a snake coming out.

And the inscription was,

"By the power that's in
and the power that's out,

I cast your tonsil
lighthouse out.

Love, John and Cin."

- George talked a lot
about, "Well, taking LSD

gave me a glimpse of
this and that,

but it was just like
climbing the mountain

and looking over the
top and then realizing

there's another range of
mountains beyond that."

So I think he was wanting
to sort of pursue it

in a drug-free way, if you like.

Plus, I mean, it gave a
kind of a natural break

for them all.

You know, it gave an excuse
to be somewhere else together,

relatively quiet.

- I don't know quite how the
Maharishi entered their lives,

but he wasn't the first one,

because I was around that
whole group the whole time.

I used to see them every night
in the Scottish St James.

And we were already aware

they were seeing another
person at that time.

I think the Maharishi
came second, you know,

as they climbed up the
staircase of Indian mysticism,

they realized that
their Maharishi

or whoever it was they were
seeing wasn't quite top-level.

So they went off to India
with this other Maharishi,

who, of course, subsequently,

we all know is a bit of a fraud

and was not really
top-level himself,

but he gave them nice rooms

and five-star hotel
accommodation.

I mean, it's quite good,
isn't it,

to enter Indian mysticism and
all its ascetic necessity,

but still do it on the
five-star-hotel level.

- There is a funny story.

When they decided to go
to the Maharishi in India,

Maureen was, Ringo's wife,
was petrified of insects,

so she went to Harrods
and bought herself

babygrows but adult size

so they couldn't get
anywhere near her.

And Ritchie, who always had
a very squeamish stomach

because he'd been ill as a kid,

said to me, "Can you
get me Dr. Collis Browne

but gallons of it,

and baked beans, and
just fill up a suitcase?"

Baked beans.
Collis Browne.

So I did.

And it was full, this
whole suitcase,

Collis Browne and...

And then two weeks later,
they were home.

And I said to Maureen, "Well,
that was a long stay, then.

You get rid of all the
baked beans, did you?"

- There's no question that
the whole Apple concept

had been thought up
before Brian died.

In fact, that was another
thing he'd worried about

that was going to leave
him out even more,

'cause he wasn't
involved in planning.

They were pushing him out.

They didn't say, "You
can't be involved,"

but it certainly wasn't coming
about at his instigation.

And I'd heard talks of Apple

quite a few weeks
before Brian died,

and I think that was just one
more thing which pushed him

to feel he wasn't a part
of them anymore.

- When they had Apple,

we used to have lunches
in the main office.

And we had a chef and
everything else.

And Paul came in one day.

And they'd been losing money,

'cause, I mean, they were
giving it away.

And he said, "I've got
this guy coming

to tell us where
we're going wrong

with our business plans."

And it was Beeching.

He turned up, invited to lunch,

basically to use his brain

to find out what we
were doing wrong.

Anyway, we had this, they
had this lunch,

and I'm taking the minutes of
the meeting afterwards, and

he looked at Paul, and he said,

"I have to say I don't think

I'm going to be much help here,"

he said, "because I
actually work

for much bigger
organizations than Apple."

And Paul was like, "Oh.
My goodness."

(laughs)

And I looked at Paul, and
I said, "Mm, I think so.

- They had some good ideas,
but they had some crazy ideas.

You know, they wanted
to open schools.

They wanted to publish books.

They wanted to do all sorts
of things, great ambitions.

And they they appealed to
people, "Send in your poems.

Send in your stories.
Send in your novels."

They just found rooms
full of the stuff,

and they couldn't look
through them.

They weren't set up to
deal with that.

And this is another area
where the Beatles pioneered.

You know, they didn't do
it completely,

but they started to,
like, have more control

over the product, control
over their album sleeves,

you know, the way things
looked and, you know,

eventually kind of control
over their material,

although not to the sort of
percentages that you get today.

- Well, the problem with
Apple and Apple Boutique

and everything which happened
in that Baker Street building

was they had a lot of
money, they had freedom.

They'd got ideas from
India, from the Maharishi.

They had a lot of hangers-on,

and the hangers-on were
pretty good at being...

Hangers-on are usually
pretty good at what they do.

- It was like Magic Alex.

Who thought that you could
get a roll of wallpaper

with microphones in there

that would give you the
best sound ever?

Magic Alex.

And I think, of all of them,

John was convinced he was magic.

They were quite,

well, I think we were all naive.

I mean, this was all a
new experience.

But I think it was
nice that they,

you know, they weren't
selfish with their fame.

- Almost anybody who
came in with any idea...

If somebody came in and said,
"I make wonderful custard,"

then John said, "We're
all gonna have custard

with our lunch every day."

I mean, just about anybody
could get a job in there.

So it became very
cluttered with people.

It was second-rate, very
charming to us then,

but really quite second-rate.

And the Apple Boutique
went the same way.

If you designed clothes
and they were interesting,

obviously not commercial, that
was for the Apple Boutique.

So nearly everything
they touched in that time

would seem to be
completely un-commercial.

- Neil was incredibly
conscientious

and such a good man.

And Peter worked hard.

So the office ran very
smoothly and very efficiently.

I had an office between
Neil and Peter's.

Neil and Mal were
doing the start

of basically "The Long
and Winding Road,"

reminiscing to a tape.

And at the time, I was
doing all the

letters to America,

all the news people saying,

"Have you got old footage
of the Beatles?"

And that's how we got all
the stuff back from America.

They were really good.
They did it all.

And anyway, this
particular night,

I'm walking through Neil's side.

And Neil and Mal,

I'll never forget it,
were by the fire,

and I had to climb over,

God, I shouldn't say this,
really,

Derek Taylor, who was
screwing on the floor,

and I couldn't get past.

- The cartoon makes a bit
of fun of the Maharishi.

Does this mean that you've
finished with him now?

- Well, it's not finished with,

you know, but we're
over that phase.

It was a bit of a phase.

But he's still a nice
fella, and everybody's fine.

But we don't go out
with him anymore.

- I thought he was bogus.

From the very first I heard
of him, I thought, "Oh, God."

One of the problems, and
John was the worst for this,

he'd latch onto things.

He would really just
latch onto things.

And he was easily led.

And this may be a problem that,

you know, they'd been
sheltered a bit.

They'd been locked into
being Beatles for so long.

You know.

And I just thought, "This guy,
he's a con man," you know?

And I'm sure there's
something to do,

you know, meditation is
probably a healthy thing.

For those who like it,
fair enough.

But I just didn't believe it,
and I still don't believe it.

- The Beatles believed

in the sort of spiritual
side of things,

and they wanted to spread that.

And Maharishi saw the Beatles
as they were world-known,

and they could spread
his message.

And so originally, the idea
was that they would set up

a T.M. meditation
place in London,

and the Beatles would
be very much part of it.

Pattie'd had a couple of
dreams about Maharishi

that sort of depicted
him in a different light.

And I think there was something
to do with Mia Farrow,

as well, there were a
lot of people.

But I also think that we
were miles from anywhere,

and it was a different
kind of life.

And here we were meditating
sort of 6, 7 hours at a time,

maybe overnight, maybe
couple of days.

And it was so different to what
everybody had been used to,

especially the Beatles.

- In a way, the Maharishi
got very bad press,

but he was quite an offensive,

and he was quite, you know,
he looked a bit strange.

But then, you know, nowadays,

you wouldn't be able
to say that.

You know, there was such sort
of ridiculing of this figure.

And he was really just saying

very, very perfectly
unanswerable things

like, "Love each other," and,
you know, that kind of thing.

It was very much an extension
of the hippie philosophy.

- Poor Maharishi was
sort of alerted

that his prized troop
were leaving,

and he was sitting
watching us walk by

with his man holding an
umbrella over his head,

kept saying, "Why are you
leaving? Why are you leaving?"

So he had no idea.

And I know there's a famous
quote where John had said,

I didn't actually remember
this, but John said,

"Well, if you're so
cosmic, you should know."

And that was it.

- Beatles' brief excursion
into shop-keeping is over.

They say they're now rather
tired of this particular toy.

- Ohh.
- Out!

(people chattering)

- Oh, I'm so shaken up,
don't even know

what I'm doing here now,
I've been here since 7:00,

and I just happened to get
shoved through the door.

- Shaken up, what, because
of the crush outside?

- Oh, I've never seen
anything like this.

I'm from Canada, and I'm amazed.

- What are you looking for now?

- I don't know! Suits, anything.

- Anything you can get.

- Anything that's
groovy looking.

- Would you have come here?

- I don't know.
Anything that's free.

- Would you have come
to buy something here

if it hadn't been free?

- Too expensive for me.

- Anything.
I don't really mind at all.

A dress, I think, or
some trousers.

- Would you have come
here to buy something

if it hadn't been free?
- I have before now.

I've bought several
things in here.

So it's not just
because it's free.

It's because I like the shop.

- You have to ask the question,

how long would the
relationship between the band

and the manager go on?

Then you have to bring
into it Yoko Ono

and her increasing influence,

certainly on John.

Then you start looking at
the Beatles as a business.

Then you're into Allen Klein.

Then you're into the
ever-changing face

of the history of this
brilliant pop group.

(upbeat music)

- To me,

it is the ultimate album,

because it meant so
much and it still does,

and has still continued
after all this time.

It is the world's #1
best rock music album.

- As far as I'm concerned,
there's no bad Beatles album.

They're all brilliant.

I suppose it's my best,
I think it's my best

because it was the one I
saw all the way through,

and it was so revolutionary
in the concept and the cover.

So it's my best album.

- It was enormous
because back then,

they had the ability to
publicize in an amazing way,

and also, they had
everybody in their grip.

We were all totally taken
up with the Beatles.

Almost nobody criticized them.

Everybody thought the
cover was genius.

The songs were genius. The
presentation was genius.

- To me, it was a, it was
a miniature masterpiece.

It was like a pop symphony.

And it had wonderful continuity.

You know, the main theme,

the title track was at
the beginning.

It was at the end.

Everything segued into
everything else.

It was an absolute joy.

- There's something in the
Beatles for every mood,

but the world, posterity says
it's the greatest album ever.

- It is amazing. I mean,
who else have we got

that has gone on for 50 years,

and how many generations are
actually still listening to it?

- Listen to the thing in mono.

Just don't worry
about the stereo,

because the Beatles weren't
there when it was mixed.

They were off in India.

Where they sat, all
four of them,

and listened to everything,
made decisions, was the mono.

That's the most important
thing I can say

about "Sgt. Pepper."

- You know, you get an album.

And there'd be one,
this is years ago.

There'd be one or two or
three maybe on the whole album

that you really, really,
really liked.

And the rest of them, you
just sort of...

They were on the album.

You'd skip it, skip them,

in the days when you
did it yourself.

I think the Beatles records
were the other way 'round.

There might be one you
weren't too fond of

and the rest of them
you're just nuts about it.

- They caught the moment.
They just caught it.

And they were perfect, and they,
you know,

they dragged along everybody
else behind like a locomotive.

They pulled everything
along with them.

And I think that if they'd put

"Penny Lane" and "Strawberry
Fields" onto "Sgt. Pepper,"

it'd had been a whole
different album.

It would have been literally
the best album ever made.

- I contradict myself,
sometimes I think,

"Well, I can't believe
all this is happening."

But then I think, well, yeah,

because I just knew it
would last forever.

You know, the music
would last forever.

- It's also a great window

into an incredible
era of change.

So if you study the
Beatles to any degree,

you're studying the '60s,

and you're studying
the history of the West

to some degree and
how it changed.

- It's just a timeless thing.

It's like people still
study Shakespeare

years and years after.

With the Beatles,

there's always been a feel-good
factor in it, as well.

I always used to tell my
friends, "If you're ever down,

put a Beatles record on.

They'll help you see the
world in a lot better places,"

you know, it's got
healing qualities in it.

- Four guys. It just worked.

And the talent was there.

And I don't think there ever
will be another Beatles.

- It goes back to the
Liverpool Echo,

when there was an article
with Brian Epstein.

And he said, "I
think the Beatles

are going to be
bigger than Elvis."

And everybody laughed
their heads off

and said, "How can a band
from Liverpool,

from this little stage,
the Cavern,

you know, with all the
leather on everything,

become bigger than Elvis?"
'Cause Elvis was over there.

He was in America. He was the
biggest star in the world.

But he was proved right.

It was biggest band
ever of all time.

- I mean, he saw something
that we didn't see.

I mean, I think the
Beatles were embarrassed

by that statement,

'cause I think a lot of the
Liverpool bands were, as well.

"Bigger than Elvis? Bigger
than Elvis? Come on."

But Brian was right.

- Even to this day, the charisma

and the excitement that
the name Beatles creates,

not just in Liverpool,
worldwide,

no matter where you go,

Mexico, South America, Japan,
Germany,

you name it, you know, a little
island in Samoa somewhere.

You know, you mention Beatles,
and it's the euphoria.

That is, I mean, that's the
legacy they've left, you know?

And whether anyone will
ever top that legacy,

nobody knows.

But it's a hell of a legacy,
you know,

and it's wonderful for me to
have been a small part of.

(music building)

(triumphant upbeat music)

(triumphant upbeat
music continues)

- [Announcer] Hey, guys,
where's the dog whistle?