Apple Corps’ first annual board meeting

Apple’s first birthday was celebrated on Friday and GEORGE and PAUL dropped in to say hello and drink a glass of champagne. Twelve bottles had been kindly sent to Apple by EMI. Other guests at the party included DORIS TROY, WHITE TRASH and DONOVAN’s father and brother.

From The Beatles Book N°75, October 1969

Apple is one year old this week

They mark the event with the release of “Hare Krishna” — David Skan celebrates with his own personal profit-and-loss account of one year’s Beatle business

ABOUT this time last year, in case the grouse season got a bit boring, The Beatles presented the world with a sitting duck. It was a very — new honours!! — philanthropic gesture. They even called it Apple, which instantly produced a ripening crop of conversational cornies: crumble!! pie!! sauce!! fritters!!

And it gave a lot of people, ugh, the pip. Because they felt that through some magical, mystical, mysterious process The Beatles had people, theirs and yours and mine. Like the Queen.

And they were British, damnit! Out there fighting some social/economic crusade against prudes, pessimists, speculators against the £ and anybody who tried to put Britain down, by bringing it all back home.

Cry The Beatles, for Harry, England and St. George!! It was like the sleeping beauty had been kissed and everybody wanted to at the ball. From the Prime Minister totting his MBE’s to the teeny freakies who sent their fruit gums.

Critics capitulated, countries were conquered and, so long as the machine behind The Beatles was well oiled, nothing seemed able to stop it. Nothing except The Beatles themselves, who by then had become faces without shadows, to be respected and revered in person, like some ringmaster cracking an inaudible whip between acts, and otherwise almost ignored.

Almost ignored!! The Beatles?? For chrissake, when all’s said and done, the chips are down and in the last analysis, it was THEIR thing. And, of course, they knew it. They had been screwed up before by shiny black shoes and they tried to make sure it didn’t happen again. So John Lennon met Lord Beeching secretly. Except it wasn’t secret, because somebody else who told his cousin in the print — who’d just mentioned it in conversation to Arfer Bitter, journalist and all-round creep — and the whole scene was blown open.

MORE CHUCKLES

THEY were trying to get it together! THEY were trying to get CONTROL! The moguls and minions in the clubs and bars chuckled. No, said Lord B, he was sorry but…! The moguls and minions chuckled some more. Next came the give-away clothes bets. More chuckles.

But the people who were laughing then missed the point! Something WAS in the air. The Beatles — “We’re four nice lads,” said Ringo Starr — were attempting to rationalise what they were now calling their business. Said Paul McCartney, “We should never have tried to beat Marks and Spencer at the boutique business.”

Know your markets gentlemen! This is an orderly house! He spoke honestly, sincerely and straightforwardly. And if there was a catalyst for today’s situation that one incident was probably it. There was also a popular rumour floating then that the Beatles wanted to share their — yes, some people were calling their mighty profits — ill-gotten gains. But more important things were happening.

By this time John Lennon had been divorced, Paul McCartney hadn’t married nice Jane Asher and the name Klein began cropping up in conversation.

The dual kickback had begun. Because, by moving into 3, Savile Row, London W.C. The Beatles were not just kicking the clingers within their empire, that came later anyway, they were also setting up a symbol of themselves for — right!! — themselves. They could see it. You could see it. There it all was. All yellow in Savile Row. And they WORKED there.

Worked!! WALKED-INSIDE-SAT-DOWN-AT-THEIR-DESKS-AND-WORKED. The Beatles did. Them!! They — yes, right, them, now hold on — dropped telephones, spilt coffee on letters, banged their knees on the desks, lost memos and sent out for cigarettes … just like you, me, the girl in the typing pool and that sod Smith in accounts.

Only the names had been changed! “John Lennon for Allen Klein … the New York Times for Derek Taylor … Is Pete Brown up there please … could Paul wait for Mary Hopkin …” Everyday the office takes 2,000 telephone calls, half business, half from people who think they have a chance of being mis-routed to one of THEIR phones. And the girls on the front doorstep.

But! The Beatles are in business. In the beginning they hoped to spend much of their time encouraging penniless young people to do their own thing with cashhouts. Somebody estimated that they were giving £20,000 a week away like this! The con syndrome took over and, though The Beatles still WANT TO HELP they do it in a slightly different – more businesslike? – way. Said Paul, “We used to be too generous. But now if a group asks us to buy their amplifiers we’ll tell them to get themselves together as a group first and then come and see us.”

Us is about 25 people who work in the building. It cost £250,000 and has four storeys. In the beginning the company was employing almost twice that number. Some resigned and others were paid off when Mr. Allen Klein, already the Rolling Stones business affairs manager, signed a one year contract to manage the Beatles’ business affairs.

A list of expendable personnel was made. John Lennon agreed to it, provided he didn’t have to do the firing, and the people disappeared. The Beatles had done most of their bit anyway. They had – against all the odds and the predictions – got themselves together.

And more!! In the twelve months since Apple’s inception the company has sold 12 million singles. TWELVE MILLION!!! Of course that includes The Beatles’ own records – they are obviously Apple’s biggest asset – but it also takes into account wildly successful singers like Mary Hopkin and Billy Preston who were nurtured in the basement of the electrified orchard.

Other branches of the company set up in the initial euphoria have been put on ice meantime. But they will undoubtedly be revived because if it is to continue to work Apple must be constantly changing its targets.

Even more important, to The Beatles, than all the success of the company is that, at last, they have discovered a businessman who they trust. And (as George Harrison commented), there are so few people they CAN trust.

And that, perhaps, is a pointer to the reason behind the name Apple. The apple is sweet as a nut, round, red, juicy, wise as a serpent, yellow and spicey. And ever since Adam pushed the boat out and set sail for us all, apples have been here to stay.

And apples are law-abiding. If there were no apples there would be no gravity. The whole world would be in free fall for eternity and nothing would weigh anything.

And where would that leave The Beatles?

From Record Mirror – August 30, 1969