Brian Epstein

Brian Epstein was an unlikely candidate for the role of manager of the world's most successful rock & roll band. Born on 19 September 1934 in a private nursing home at 4 Rodney Street, Liverpool, he was the first of two children of Harry and Malka (Queenie) Epstein a wealthy Jewish couple whose assets included a thriving furniture shop and the recently acquired North End Road Music Stores. Brian attended Southport College, Croxton preparatory school, the first of a series of schools where his academic progress was mediocre. In the summer of 1950 he began work in the prospering family business before being conscripted for national service. He was, however, discharged after ten months, deemed mentally and emotionally unfit for service.

Upon returning to the family business he was placed in charge of a subsidiary branch, Clarendon Furnishing, in Hoylake, Wirral, where he proved to be a highly successful retailer and manage. After three short terms at London’s Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, where he vainly persuaded his intention to become an actor, Epstein returned to Liverpool to take over the record department of the family’s new NEMS store. He worked hard and before long NEMS was established as one of the most important record departments in the North. Interested in the local music was stimulated by he publication in July 1961 of Mersey Beat, Epstein became absorbed by the local rock 'n' roll scene and, in particular, by a group which featured prominently in the paper, the Beatles. At lunchtime on 9 December 1961 Brian arranged to see the Beatles play at the Cavern cellar club, only a short walk away from his office in Whitechapel. He became their manager the next day.

The Beatles were already good musically, but Epstein further reconstructed them into a thoroughly professional outfit. Paul McCartney was later to admit: 'we were getting good. But we needed someone to push us … it became obvious that Brian was that person. He had a theatrical flair, having gone to RADA … It is always helpful having someone theatrical out front … It's a director, that's really what he was.'

After numerous disappointments, Epstein finally secured The Beatles a record contract with the smallest EMI imprint Parlophone and the group's first disc, ‘Love Me Do’, was issued on 5 October 1962. One anecdote persisted in Liverpool that Epstein had purchased 100,000 copies of the disc to ‘hype’ this first Parlophone single into the charts. Whatever truth lies behind this rumour (and it was ceaselessly denied by Epstein), its minor chart success signalled the group's emergence on the national scene.

In the mean time, and taking his cue from that other famous pop entrepreneur Larry Parnes, Epstein built up his own stable of ‘personally managed’ artists. Following the signing of the Beatles he signed Gerry and the Pacemakers, Billy J. Kramer, Cilla Black, the Fourmost, the Big Three, the Remo Four, and Tommy Quickley—all popular artists in Liverpool. During 1963 (the year of ‘Beatlemania’) and 1964 most of these ‘Merseybeat’ artists achieved some degree of success.

Epstein's NEMS Enterprises outgrew Liverpool and moved to a prestigious suite of offices in London. He also signed more (non-Liverpudlian) artists such as Sounds Incorporated and the Silkie as well as promoting his own shows. In 1964, after the Beatles had conquered the United States, he published his autobiography, A Cellarful of Noise. His business dealings with the American music industry, however, were criticized as rather naïve and, despite considerable personal financial backing, his later signings did not prove successful. Furthermore, his venture to establish the Savile Theatre in London's West End as a major rock and theatre venue was an expensive failure. His personal life also remained precarious and he had developed a passion for gambling. He made a suicide attempt in the autumn of 1966.

Certainly by 1967 Epstein appeared to be losing confidence. He was heavily dependent on a combination of narcotics (some of which were prescription drugs that he had been taking since the late 1950s) and he expressed fears that the Beatles would not re-sign with him when their contract lapsed. On Sunday 27 August 1967 Brian Epstein was found dead at his home, 24 Chapel Street, Belgravia, London. The coroner's verdict was that he had died, probably on 25 August, of an accidental overdose of Carbitol. In 1998 Paul McCartney commented: ‘If anyone was the fifth Beatle, it was Brian’.