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Memories of The Fifth Beatle, by Sir Paul McCartney

Tuesday 16 November 1999 00:02 GMT
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He came to see us famously at the Cavern. It was announced that Mr Brian Epstein of NEMS record store was in the audience. He came to say hello and that was basically it.

He was completely different from anyone in the Liverpool music scene. Having gone to RADA, which we found out later, that's quite unusual in Liverpool. You don't get that.

The impressive thing about Brian was his car. He had a bigger car than anyone we knew. He had a big Zephyr Zodiac and we were really impressed. We knew people in Ford Populars. I had a Ford Classic, but Brian had a big Zodiac so that was obvious wealth there.

We had been playing together a little while and we were starting to feel that we were getting good, but there comes a point in everybody's career when you think you need a little bit more than just being good. We needed someone to manage that goodness and push and give us a few clues as to how we might go a bit further.

Brian was that person. He had a theatrical flair. He knew a lot of people. So it became clear that he would be very good for us. We really just had to argue about how much we would give him. Do managers take 10 per cent or 15 or what? We had no idea.

We were just Liverpool guys so the word was `queer' not `gay'. We didn't really have a problem with it. It was just something you made fun of. That's just the way it was.

We actually didn't know anybody gay. Well, we probably did, but we didn't even talk about it. So it was, `Oh, he's queer,' just like, `Oh, she's a prostitute.' It was just sort of a strange term you used then. The word was out that Brian was gay.

It didn't really affect us in any way. I think we suspected that he might hit on one of us. I think in the early days we wondered whether that was his interest in us. But that wasn't his interest.

Brian suggested we get into suits. We'd come back from Hamburg and we'd bought leather jackets, being guys on the loose in Hamburg, with leather trousers, leather boots and hats and stuff. We were four little Gene Vincents really. I think Brian was actually attracted to that image, as it turned out later, but he said, `It might get in the way of you getting jobs.' A different image would open the door for the good-paying jobs, which was what we were trying to get: fame and fortune. There was no philanthropic edge to it at all, then. A lot of the good-paying jobs were cabaret-type things.

There was a place in Liverpool called the Cabaret Club, and they obviously wouldn't take us with leather. So when Brian suggested that we get suits - and even though the myth is that we all hated it and said we would rather stay with the leather - in actual fact we didn't mind at all.

It was just a change of image and, because none of us had suits before, it was quite cool.

We went over to Birkenhead, `over the water' as we say in Liverpool, to a place that had been recommended to us.

We picked out some very groovy mohair suits, which were OK. If we wanted to go leather, we could go leather. If we wanted to do the mohair thing, we could do that. It was a good thing. It did open doors. He was right. It meant people who wouldn't accept the leather look could have us looking more seemly.

John and I used to wait at Lime Street Station in a little coffee bar called Punch and Judy. We used to wait for Brian arriving back from London, and when he'd come off the train we'd take a look at his face to see if it was good news or bad, and it was bad. It was always bad. He'd be, like, `Sorry'. We'd go, `Oh,' and we'd have a cup of coffee and discuss what had happened. He would just say, `You know people aren't generally interested. You know it's going to be a hard sell.' If anyone was the fifth Beatle it was Brian. People talked about George Martin as being the fifth Beatle because of his musical involvement but, particularly in the early days, Brian was very much part of the group.

We generally wouldn't listen to him musically unless it was down to choosing a single. We would offer him some songs and he'd say, `I like that one best,' and we'd usually go with it. But it was theatrical management that we'd listen to Brian about.

One of the biggest things he ever told us to do was bow, this sort of Beatle bow from the waist. He said this would be very good. It is always helpful having someone theatrical out front.

The only way you can tell if you're good is to have someone out there who says, `That was good. When you moved over, they lost you. Don't do that next time.' He was a director. That's really what he was.

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