Knowing this information before reading this book, one would assume that Geoffrey Ellis and Peter Brown were friends. However, once you read this book, you will quickly discover that Ellis never cared much for Brown and their only real connection was their friendship with Brian Epstein. Geoffrey had been friends with Brian from way back in Liverpool and eventually Geoffrey left England to work in the United States for an Insurance Company. Through a series of event he was asked by Brian to work at NEMS and he agreed.
His job was to do the paperwork that Brian was overwhelmed with and honestly did not want to do. Ellis makes it very clear that he does NOT like the Beatles' music and is NOT a fan of the group. He highly dislikes Lennon and takes jabs here and there throughout the book at John and his wit. Personally I think Ellis was just too conservative for John.
There were some interesting stories in the book, but overall I found the writing to be dry and a bit boring. At times I felt like Ellis went into too much detail about things that weren't important (like what the inside of the limo was like) and not enough detail about working with the Beatles. However, I did enjoy reading about Brian Epstein because Ellis did not focus on Brian's homosexuality, as so many books seem to do. Obviously, it wasn't ignored in the book, but in regards to Brian, this book showed that he was a person and not just "The Beatles gay Jewish manager."
My favorite part of the book was the reproduction of a manuscript Brian's secretary, Wendy Hanson began writing before she died. Now that is a book that would have been interesting.
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Paul and Geoffrety Ellis in 1989 |
This book wasn't bad, but it wasn't great either. It is one that Beatle book completest will want to have in their collections, but it isn't a must read.
Ellis actually signed some of the performance contracts for the Beatles first full fledged tour of America in 1964. Brian must have given some type of legal authority to do so....
ReplyDeleteIt is always interesting to read something from one who had been around when the lads were really The Beatles and it's always rather a different perspective. The one thing I find is that in general Brian Epstein never actually gets the credit he truly deserved - if it wasn't for him we wouldn't have had the pleasure of those brilliant four. Oh yeah he discovered them at the Cavern but there was so much more all those years ago.
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