Mike Winter
From:
Portland, OR
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Posted 24 Mar 2008 2:10 pm |
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Neil Aspinall, a lifelong pal of the Beatles from their scuffling days in Liverpool, England, who became their road manager and then spent 40 years as the chief protector of the group's recorded legacy as head of Apple Corps, has died of lung cancer. He was 66.
Aspinall died at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. He had stepped down last year after four decades of running Apple Corps, where he led the company's trademark-infringement lawsuit against Steve Jobs' Apple Inc. At the time, a source in the Beatles camp said Aspinall retired at least partly because of his health.
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FOR THE RECORD:
An earlier version of this article stated that Neil Aspinall fired the Beatles' original drummer, Pete Best. It was Brian Epstein, then the Beatles' manager, who fired Best.
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"Neil's trusting stewardship and guidance has left a far-reaching legacy for generations to come," said a statement released today by Apple Corps on behalf of surviving Beatles bandmates Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, and the widows of John Lennon and George Harrison: Yoko Ono and Olivia Harrison. The statement did not specify when Aspinall died. "All his friends and loved ones will greatly miss him, but will always retain the fondest memories of a great man."
Aspinall, whose early role for the Beatles was driving them from gig to gig in a cramped van, conceived the "Anthology" TV series that ignited a new wave of Beatlemania in the 1990s and sold nearly 8 million copies of the accompanying three volumes of CDs. He also was executive producer of the "1" hits collection, which jolted many in the music industry when it debuted at No. 1 on the national sales chart in 2000 and went on to spend eight weeks at the top of the chart, trumping the latest offerings from latter-day hit-makers such as the Backstreet Boys, Rage Against the Machine and rapper Xzibit. The "1" album has sold more than 11 million copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan, and an estimated 30 million worldwide.
Aspinall helped make George Harrison's dying wish for a final collaboration among the surviving Beatles not just a reality, but a critical hit as well, by facilitating the participation of longtime Beatles producer George Martin and his son, Giles, to oversee the musical mash-up soundtrack for Cirque du Soleil's show "Love" in Las Vegas.
Yet while those projects introduced the Fab Four's music to new generations of fans, Aspinall also was seen as the man who largely resisted licensing their recordings for downloading over the Internet, downplaying fan and retailer requests for sonically upgraded CDs and even squelching attempts for a "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" box set in conjunction with last year's 40th anniversary of the landmark album's release.
"While fans complained that Apple was slow to move into the digital age and that the core Beatles catalog went more than 20 years without being updated and remastered, Neil was responsible for bringing Apple back to life in the '90s with several key releases," Beatles historian and author Bruce Spizer said today. " 'Live at the BBC' contains several Beatles recordings of songs not on their EMI/Capitol albums. The 'Anthology' video and albums, which evolved from a film project started by Neil in late 1969 or early 1970, have numerous [previously] unreleased live and studio recordings. . . . Although fans wished Neil had authorized more music and video projects while at Apple, one must be impressed with the high quality of what was issued under his direction."
Aspinall also went down in Beatles history as the associate who stayed with the group even after manager Brian Epstein fired drummer Pete Best, when Lennon, McCartney and Harrison decided they'd rather have a crosstown rival drummer -- Ringo Starr -- in the group. It was a particularly difficult choice for Aspinall because he had been renting a room from Best's family and had become romantically involved with Best's mother, Mona, a long-term affair that produced a child, Roag Best.
After siding with the band majority, Aspinall stayed on as their road manager during the height of worldwide Beatlemania and when Epstein died in 1967, they turned to Aspinall to take the reins of their business affairs. His lack of business experience led to financial disasters that prompted Lennon, Harrison and Starr to hire New York lawyer Allen Klein, who promptly fired Aspinall. But the Beatles re-hired him in a lesser role, until the group's falling-out with Klein in the early-1970s, at which point Aspinall resumed leadership of Apple Corps
He is survived by his wife of 40 years, Suzy, and five children. No plans for services have been announced.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/music/la-me-aspinall25mar25,1,2750549.story |
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