and, and, just present you with a list of names of
people, figures, in the history of The Beatles that it will
would be good for you to know.
Of course the first four names are, are the names of the Beatles as
we know them: John Lennon, Paul McCartney,
George Harrison and Ringo Starr, a.k.a, Richard Starkey.
I think what's important to note about The Beatles is the date of birth.
John Lennon born in 1940, Ringo also born in 1940, Paul McCartney
in 1942 and George Harrison in 1943.
I think by noting their date of birth and thinking about what was going on in the
UK musically and culturally at the time they were teenagers or young musicians.
They're beginning to sort of learn music and be exposed to these kinds of things.
It tells us an awful lot about the kinds of influences that might
be in their music and as we look later into some of their
original music and some of the other kinds of things we are doing, we're going to
wonder where did they think about, where did they get the idea to do this.
Where did they get the idea to do something else?
And so we'll come back to that a lot.
And always knowing the, the time which one of
these musical figures was born is a very help thing.
And so I ask you to keep that in mind.
The other thing, I suppose, to keep in mind, and it's always worth
reminding ourselves of, is that, you know, when the Beatles started to hit In
1963 in the UK, in 1964 in the US, John Lennon was only 23 years old.
Paul McCartney was only 21. George Harrison was only 20 years old.
It's good for us to remember how really young these guys
were when this first, when this first blush of success hit them.
So other important names that we need to keep in mind, especially early in
the story, are Pete Best, who was the
original drummer in the group before Ringo joined.
Ringo actually joined just before the first the first recordings were released.
And Stuart Sutcliffe and Astrid Kirchherr, Stuart Sutcliffe was the original bass
player in the group, although by all accounts he didn't play bass
very well and sometimes that was such a problem that they didn't
even, they sort have made him turn around, so that he wasn't
facing the audience, so the other musicians couldn't
tell he was playing notes on the wrong place.
They'd already sort of turned the bass down.
Anyway, Stuart Sutcliffe was, was one of John's
art school friends and was in many ways,
sort of before Paul McCartney, his kind of
partner in crime when it came to this group.
We'll talk in a, a, a, in a, one of these
videos to come this week, about the Beatles trip to Hamburg.
And in the Beatles trip to Hamburg when
they they went there to play Stuart Sutcliffe
began a relationship with Astrid Kircherr and and they ended up getting married.
And so Astrid is a very interesting person in the sense that Astrid was a
photographer who really, in many ways has a
lot of responsibility for the early Beatles look
and that, that early With the Beatles,
Meet the Beatles album cover where they're, they're,
they've got the Beatle haircuts and they're sort
of half, half in light, half in shade.
All that
comes from the pictures that Astrid took.
So that whole Hamburg scene Astrid
Kirchherr Clause Foreman, others who were part
of that Hamburg millieu of art students that were hanging out with the Beatles.
That's all very, very important on their early development.
Two people that we really are going to keep an eye on as we go through the entire
history are George Martin, the Beatles producer, and
we'll talk a bit about George Martin a little
bit later in one of the videos this week.
George Martin is there from the very beginning.
And with the exception of one album is there to the very
end and plays a crucial role in helping the Beatles shape their sound.
George Martin is many years older than the Beatles, so
he's more like a kind of a a senior figure,
sort of a school master or the teacher, the adult
in the room when these young Beatles are working their craft.
And then their manager, their first manager anyway, Brian Epstein.
Brian Epstein also plays an incredibly important role
in bringing the Beatles music to the public and
in helping them refine their image and, and, and
break through in the UK and in the US.
So we're going to want to keep an idea on the, keep an
eye on George Martin, the producer, and Brian Epstein, the manager.
A couple other names that will come up in the course of our discussion.
Allen Klein, who was the manager that took over at the end of
the 60s, sort the end of the Beatles run, after Brian Epstein passed away.
And some controversy around Allen Klein And Paul McCartney not wanting him to
be the manager, and leading to the breakup of the group and all that.
But Allen Klein, if we're talking about Brian Epstein
as manager, we should probably also mention Allen Klein.
And two other people who are in the story
from the very beginning, but very much behind the scenes:
Mal Evans and Neil Aspinall.
Mal Evans was kind of the both of them were kind of
roadies for the group, you know, helping him you know, load their gear.
I mean, imagine, back in 1963 when they were touring around the UK.
There was just the four Beatles and Mal and Neil, you know.
They would go to a gig, and they'd basically carry on their own stuff
in, not unlike a lot of bands that play clubs you know, locally and regionally.
Anyway, Mal and Neil.
Neil went on, to, to run, Apple Records for
them and became kind of a business important sort of
man on the business side of things after Allen Klein
and and, and Brian Epstein were out of the picture.
And one last name, Dick James, this is
the guy who was responsible for the early publishing
deal that John and Paul struck for their for
their music at the very beginning of their career.
In addition to important names, there are import, couple of
important places and companies we're going to need to keep straight.
