Richard Dilello is someone that I have always found to be an interesting person in the Beatles history. Besides his book (which I have always had a difficult time reading) and his mid-1970s Beatles convention appearances, Richard has basically disappeared from The Beatles world. This interview was conducted in 1976.
A House Hippie On Tour
And Interview by Evert Vermeer/Erik M. Bakker
(Beatles) Unlimited
September / October 1976
During the Seattle FWCBF Convention, we made acquaintance
with Richard Dilello, writer of the book The Longest Cocktail Party, on
the cover of which he is referred to as “Former house hippie” of Apple.
BU: The burning question
arises, what is a house hippie?
RD: My function with
Apple was in the press – and publication office. I was originally hired to take care of the
press-cuttings on the Beatles and the other Apple recording artists. Then my function extended to other things, to
keep the tea-cups filled, to keep the drink cabinet filled and to roll marijuana
cigarettes and more of those tasks.
BU: How did you come
to Apple? Did you know anyone in the
Beatles business before?
RD: Yes, I did. I knew The Beatles publicity officer, Derek
Taylor. And I went to him in the summer
of 1968, saying “Derek, I need a job and I would like to stay in England very
much and can you help me? So Derek said “I will try” and he did. He went ahead and he got me working. He gave me a salary job.
BU: Did you like The
Beatles music at that time?
RD: Yes, I love The
Beatles very much and I was a very big fan of theirs and I still am.
BU: Yesterday you
mentioned Jimmie Nichol in your lecture.
What do you know about him?
RD: What I mentioned
about him was that the Beatles always asked him how he was and how things were
going and his reply was “It’s getting better, yes, I’ve got to admit, it’s
getting better, yes, it’s getting better all the time.” And that line became a very famous song. I don’t know what became of Jimmie, though.
BU: Whenever The
Beatles were in their offices, what did they do?
RD: They would have
conferences, John and Yoko mostly did a lot of talking with the press. They would review their financial status and
take care of their social life and see about paying bills and that kid of
things.
BU: Did all The Beatles
have their own officers?
RD: Yes, each Beatle
had his own office for a while.
BU: What was your opinion
about Allen Klein?
RD: I did not like
Allen Klein very much. I didn’t think he
would make a good business manager for them. I thought he was a dishonest
person and it would seem to be that a lot of people agreed with that. I remember George Harrison saying to me once
that he thought Klein was the greatest and was really going to open things up
for the Beatles and the terrible things people said about him was just not true.
BU: some of the wives
of The Beatles used to pop around.
RD: Very
infrequently, at least Maureen Starr and Patti Harrison stayed out of the
limelight. We know about Yoko and Linda,
they loved to be photographed and loved to be seen and they were not at all shy
and retiring.
BU: What about
Badfinger?
RD: They have broken
up. Joey Molland has a group called
Natural Gas and Tom Evans also has his own group. As you know, Pete Ham died. He was in a depressed state of mind, not really
because of the last unsuccessful tour of the States, as you say here. IT was more due to the fact that they had made
so much money and were ripped off by their managers.
BU: How was your
reaction on Mal Evans’ death?
RD: I was only
momentarily shocked. It just seemed a
very bizarre and sad kind of thing to happen, and totally unnecessary. I could not understand how a 40-year-old man could
become so depressed over circumstances which I would consider to be
inconsequential and too unimportant to allow your life to be ruined I mean, it
was nice to work for The Beatles but to have your whole life affected by that
afterward, have your whole vision so limited of what the world is. There is more to like than The Beatles and
that whole scene. I remember somebody
asking Mal Evans about Pete Ham’s death at a Beatles Convention last year in
New York and Mal said “I can’t understand why anybody should want to kill
himself.” I wanted to ask him how he
could say something to unfeeling, as it was Mal who took Badfinger to Apple and
had so much influence on them. Two months
later Mal was dead, more or less by a sort of suicide as well.
BU: Did you know any
of The Beatles reactions?
RD: No one attended
the memorial services and I didn’t see anybody’s reaction in any paper. They probably just said, “That’s too bad.”
This interview was made on Sunday, July 18, 1976. Seeing that we “borrowed” some of his
photographs for the Apple Story in our last issue, Richard had not given us
permission to use them as yet. We will
hear from his attorney as soon as he has found one.
After Richard “left” Apple, he wrote his book which took him
4 months from December 26, 1970, to April 1971.
At the moment he lives in L.A. and he is a photographer, especially for
record sleeves.
BU would like to thank Richard very much for the opportunity
to write and publish this interview.
"The Longest Cocktail Party" was one of the first Beatles books I had ever read, and I remember reading and re-reading it over and over again back in the day. It was like a whole new world and as I was just a kid, everything in it seemed magical and slightly unreal. It's a fantastic tale and to this day probably one of the top three Beatles books.
ReplyDeleteSame for me!
DeleteI've always wondered about this guy. Thanks Sara for posting this interview. Like you, I had a tough time reading his book, but i chalked it up to being 15 yo when I read it. This interview is an interesting read on his side of the story. Can't imagine the lads were too happy about his book.
ReplyDeleteExcellent article.
ReplyDeletevery interesting
ReplyDeleteJackie Lomax told me his book was one of the best!
ReplyDeleteI still have my copy and have read it several times.
ReplyDelete