A statement from the family of Neil Aspinall sent by Geoff Baker:

Neil Aspinall, The Beatles' friend, guide and Apple mastermind, has died.
One of the great legends of the music business, Neil Aspinall, has died in New York after a brief illness and a glorious life.

He was 66. His wife Suzy and his five children were with him as he passed over.

Neil Aspinall was the man who was closer to all of The Beatles than anyone. Under his creative and caring direction, The Beatles business phenomenon and its trademark Apple transcended far beyond the Sixties.

He was the Beatles' friend who became their roadie who became the chief of their empire and the unassuming, modernising mastermind behind the band's enduring appeal and influence for four generations.

Although he would deny it, he was long considered to be "the real Fifth Beatle" by the music and entertainment industries which for 40 years revered and respected him as one of the wisest men in the record business.

Today Sir Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr paid tribute to "a loyal friend and a great man".

In a statement on behalf of Paul, Ringo, Yoko Ono and Olivia Harrison, Apple Corps said today: "The Beatles and the entire Apple Corps family, both past and present, wish to extend their greatest sympathy to the family of Neil Aspinall. As a loyal friend, confidant and chief executive, Neil's trusting stewardship and guidance has left a far-reaching legacy for generations to come. All his friends and loved ones will greatly miss him but will always retain the fondest memories of a great man".

Neil was born in October 1941 to Liverpool parents evacuated to Prestatyn, North Wales. He was the Liverpool schoolboy who became pals with Paul McCartney and George Harrison at the Liverpool Institute for Boys, where together they formed the 'Mad Lad' gang, sharing cigarettes behind the sheds, "doing ridiculous things together" and, as teenagers, adding John Lennon to the Mad Lads.

Although he studied for and briefly became an accountant, when his friends later formed The Beatles with Pete Best and then Ringo Starr, Neil joined the gang that was to change the world. Always he was right at their side; as their first road manager and driver of their old Commer van, then as The Beatles' minder, spotlight operator, confidante, fixer, personal assistant and their mate.

In a rare interview, Neil once said "People used to say to me then 'What do you do?' I'd stopped being an accountant or pretending to be one by this time and I said 'I drive the band around' and they'd say 'Yeah - I know that, but what do you do for a living?' Two years later, the same people were saying 'You lucky git, Neil'".

In 1964 during the making of The Beatles movie 'A Hard Day's Night', Neil met his future wife Suzy. They were married in 1968. Neil was a very proud father and grandfather. ,

Following the death of The Beatles manager Brian Epstein in 1967, Neil was asked by the band to take over the management of their company Apple Corps when it was founded in 1968. Typically, he agreed on condition that he would manage the corporation "only until they found somebody else". He remained the chief of Apple Corps until last year.

Shrewd, innovative and totally-trusted, Neil was the unseen architect of the reinvention of the post-Sixties Beatles, first with The Beatles At The BBC cd in the mid-90s, followed by the record-breaking Beatles Anthology and Beatles 1 albums.

As the keeper of The Beatles flame and protector of their legend, it was Neil who quietly acquired for Apple the Beatles rights back to countless photographs and film footage that enabled the making of the Grammy-winning Beatles Anthology TV and video series and the band's celebrated autobiography.

It was also Neil who masterminded the modern merchandising of The Beatles, notably with the relaunch of The Beatles Yellow Submarine film and CD, making it a bigger success in the 90s than it had originally been in the Sixties. From Let It Be Naked to The Beatles' recent Cirque du Soleil show hit Love, to every Beatles business success since the band broke up in 1970, Neil Aspinall steered the ship - and the submarine - always ensuring the Beatles' strong bond with Liverpool in every venture.

It has been reported that during the last 20 years of Neil's time at the helm of Apple Corps, The Beatles sold in excess of 70 million albums.

Although modest in any claim of his achievements, his quick and dry wit was amused by a comment made in The Observer newspaper during the hugely-successful 1995-96 Beatles Anthology project. The multi-media project, of which Neil was executive producer, once again cemented the Sixties band's dominance of the music scene around the world - "the only band to have become bigger than The Beatles is The Beatles", commented The Observer on the Anthology-led resurgence of Fab.

His friend, Apple aide and ABC TV producer David Saltz said today: "Neil was the most brilliant and inspirational guy that everybody just gravitated around; he had an amazing mind and he was a very groovy guy".

Neil Aspinall's wise, commonsense approach to what he dubbed "not the music business but the Beatles business" commanded great affection and respect in all who had the privilege of working with him but he was an intensely-private and naturally modest man in both his professional and personal lives, never taking a bow himself. Neil avoided all personal publicity and always refused requests for interviews, pointing the credit to the band who made the records.

In The Beatles Anthology Neil said: "My happiest memories of being with the band were some of the laughs that we had backstage and in dressing rooms when nobody else was around and we were swapping jokes together. No big deal, really. It was those little personal things that are my favourite moments. We always had a laugh."

Besides running Apple Corps, Neil created Standby Films with Suzy - makers of the acclaimed 1999 Jimi Hendrix movie, Hendrix: Band Of Gypsys. Neil was also one of the co-founders of Paul McCartney's performing arts university LIPA, now housed in the building of their old school.

Few outside Neil's circle knew of his own talent as a wry artist with coloured inks - but now an exhibition of his previously-never-before-seen work is to be held on a date to be announced.

Neil Aspinall fell ill to lung cancer two months ago. He has been under care at the Sloan-Kettering hospital in New York.







From billboard.com


Ex-Apple Corps Head Neil Aspinall Dies

March 24, 2008, 1:00 PM ET

Neil Aspinall, a longtime friend and business associate of the Beatles, has died in New York. He was 66. Aspinall died at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, where he had been receiving treatment.

His death was announced in a statement released by Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, the widows of John Lennon and George Harrison, and the band's Apple Corps Ltd. company, of which Aspinall had been the head.

"All his friends and loved ones will greatly miss him, but will always retain the fondest memories of a great man," the statement said. Aspinall stepped down last year as chief executive of Apple Corps, the guardian of the Beatles' commercial interests.

A Liverpool school friend of McCartney and Harrison, Aspinall was the Beatles' first road manager and would drive them to gigs in his van. He later became their personal assistant, and in 1968 was given a management role at Apple Records, the band's own record label.

As head of Apple Corps, Aspinall was the executive producer of the hugely successful "Beatles Anthology" album and was behind other successes, including the "Beatles 1" album.


"As a loyal friend, confidant and chief executive, Neil's trusting stewardship and guidance has left a far-reaching legacy for generations to come," the band's statement said.


From rollingstone.com:

Neil Aspinall Passes Away

Neil Aspinall, the Beatles’ first road manager and head of the band’s Apple Corps for four decades, passed away in New York at age 66. Considered by many to be “the real fifth Beatle,” Aspinall was a childhood friend of George Harrison and Paul McCartney who left his job as an accountant to become the band’s first roadie, driver, spotlight operator and confidante. Later, after Brian Epstein’s passing in 1967, Aspinall became the head of Apple Corps, spearheading the marketing of the Beatles for forty years. Aspinall was most notably responsible for the wildly successful Anthology project and the recent Cirque du Soleil tribute show LOVE. In a statement today, McCartney, Starr, Yoko Ono and Olivia Harrison said, “Neil’s trusting stewardship and guidance has left a far-reaching legacy for generations to come. All his friends and loved ones will greatly miss him but will always retain the fondest memories of a great man.”

From The New York Times:

Neil Aspinall, Beatles Aide, Dies at 66


Neil Aspinall, who left an accounting job to become the Beatles’ road manager when the group was still a local dance band and who went on to manage the band’s production and management company, Apple, died Sunday night in Manhattan. He was 66 and lived in Twickenham, England.

Geoff Baker, a spokesman for the family, said the cause was lung cancer. Mr. Aspinall had been undergoing treatment at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. He retired from Apple last year.

Of all the people in the Beatles’ orbit, Mr. Aspinall had the most durable relationship with the group; in fact, he had already been a crucial member of the Beatles' entourage for about 18 months when Ringo Starr became the Beatles' drummer. When the Beatles were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988, George Harrison made a point of saying that Mr. Aspinall should be considered the fifth Beatle.

In November 1967, when the Beatles formed Apple to oversee their creative and business interests, they asked Mr. Aspinall, by then a trusted assistant of longstanding, to manage it. He never took a formal title, but he ran a company that, in its first years, included a record label, a film production company and electronics, publishing and retailing divisions. He also quickly put the Beatles’ own complicated contractual commitments in order.

Nevertheless, expenses at Apple spun out of control as the open kitchen and bar at the company’s Savile Row office began feeding and watering a parade of journalists, would-be Apple artists and hangers-on. When the American manager Allen Klein was brought in to sort out the Beatles’ finances, Mr. Klein fired much of the staff but was told by John Lennon, “Don’t touch Neil and Mal, they’re ours,” referring to Mr. Aspinall and his assistant, Mal Evans, who had also been with the group since its Liverpool days.

During the first 25 years at the head of Apple, Mr. Aspinall oversaw a succession of lawsuits. In one, not settled until 1974, Paul McCartney sued the other Beatles to dissolve their partnership. At the same time, the Beatles as a group sued EMI Records in a royalties dispute that took 20 years to settle. Apple also sued the Broadway show “Beatlemania” for unauthorized use of the Beatles’ name and logo, and it fought several court battles against Apple Computer for trademark infringement. The last was settled in 2006, in favor of the computer company.

Mr. Aspinall was often blamed for the slow pace at which Beatles archival projects were released as several projects have languished on Apple's shelves for years, including a home-video production of the Beatles' 1965 concert at Shea Stadium, remastered versions of the film "Let It Be" and digital download versions of all the Beatles' studio recordings.

What the complaints did not take into account is that Mr. Aspinall could release only what Apple’s principals — Mr. McCartney, Mr. Starr, Olivia Harrison and Yoko Ono (the widows of George Harrison and John Lennon) — unanimously agree should be released. And the interpersonal politics at Apple are such that unanimity is hard to come by.

Even so, Mr. Aspinall did oversee several important releases since 1993. These include “Live at the BBC,” a two-disc compilation of the group’s radio performances; “Yellow Submarine Songtrack,” a remixed version of the music from the “Yellow Submarine” animated film, which Apple also restored and reissued; “1,” a single-disc hits compilation; “Let It Be ... Naked,” a remixed and reconfigured version of “Let It Be,” without the string and choral overdubs that fans have long complained about; two installments of “The Capitol Albums,” which brought together mono and stereo versions of eight Beatles albums in their American (rather than British) configurations; and “Love,” a multi-media collaboration with Cirque du Soleil (and a matching recording).

His biggest achievement was “The Beatles Anthology.” The idea was to use performance film and interview clips to let the Beatles tell their own story. Originally meant to be a theatrical film, the project was begun in 1970 but shelved until the final EMI lawsuits were settled in 1989. By then, Mr. Aspinall had proposed that instead of making a film, the Beatles should contribute new interviews (with archival interviews with John Lennon, who was murdered in 1980) to a six-hour television series and a nearly 13-hour home video edition.

When the Beatles agreed, he assembled an extraordinary archive of television and concert film, photograph collections and other materials, for use both in “The Beatles Anthology” and other potential Apple projects. He was one of the few non-Beatles interviewed in “The Beatles Anthology” and credited as executive producer. He retired from Apple in 2007.

Mr. Aspinall’s history with the Beatles reached back to their earliest days as a band, when he hung flyers around Liverpool advertising their performances. In February 1961, with the group’s popularity in Liverpool soaring, Mr. Aspinall gave up his job as an apprentice accountant and began driving the group from job to job, often three performances a day.

On international tours, Mr. Aspinall left the business of equipment setup to Mr. Evans and became the Beatles’ principal aide. One of Mr. Aspinall’s later jobs was to round up the pictures of the celebrities and other influential crowd members for the cover of the 1967 album “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.” He also accompanied Lennon and Mr. McCartney to New York in May 1968 for a series of interviews announcing Apple.

On occasion, he was drafted as a performer. He was among the singers in the celebratory chorus of “Yellow Submarine,” and he played tambura (an Indian drone instrument) on “Within You Without You,” harmonica on “Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite” and percussion on “Magical Mystery Tour.”

Mr. Aspinall was born in Prestatyn, Wales, on Oct. 13, 1941, and grew up in Liverpool, where he attended the Liverpool Institute with Mr. McCartney and Mr. Harrison. He became friendly with the Beatles through Pete Best, their drummer from 1960 to 1962.

Mr. Aspinall, originally a boarder in Mr. Best’s house, had started a romantic relationship with Mona Best, Mr. Best’s mother. Their son, Roag Best, was born in 1962.

Mr. Aspinall accompanied Pete Best to the meeting with the Beatles manager Brian Epstein at which the drummer was fired. Mr. Aspinall decided to continue working for the group and also maintained his relationship with Mrs. Best for several years. He eventually had an opportunity to help Mr. Best make up for his missed fortune as a member of the Beatles: because several of the group’s previously unissued recordings with Mr. Best were used on “The Beatles Anthology,” Mr. Aspinall negotiated a generous royalty arrangement for the drummer.

In 1968, Mr. Aspinall married Suzy Ornstein, whose father, George “Bud” Ornstein, was head of European production for United Artists, the company for which the Beatles made the films “A Hard Day’s Night,” “Help!” and “Let It Be.” She survives him, as do their daughters Gayla, Dhara and Mandy; their son Julian, and Mr. Aspinall’s first son, Roag Best.

Mr. Aspinall made several films for the Beatles individually and collectively during his years as their principal aide. One accompanied the group’s 1969 single “Something” for which Mr. Aspinall filmed the Beatles and their wives walking placidly through an English garden (or, in Mr. McCartney’s case, the grounds of his farm in Scotland). What Mr. Aspinall’s idyllic film avoided showing was that the Beatles were at that point barely on speaking terms. In the film, no two Beatles are seen together.

During they group’s heyday, Mr. Aspinall wrote articles about their recording sessions for “The Beatles Monthly Book,” an officially sanctioned fan magazine. Virtually alone among Beatles insiders, he resisted the temptation to publish his memoirs, but joked that if he did write them, he would arrange to have them published only after his death. He is not known to have undertaken the project.

ALLAN KOZINN
March 24, 2008