Look What Has Happened in Just a Year (1963)

 

Look What Has Happened in Just a Year

By Neil Aspinall

Record Mirror

October 19, 1963

    They call me the fifth Beatle, but the official title is road manager-- the bloke who has to get the Beatles out of bed, who has to see they get something to eat, who acts as a sort of buffer between the four of them and the people they may not have time to meet. 

    I've known Paul and George since we were at school together. That must be about 10 years now. John, I've known for at least five years, and Ringo since he joined the group. They're a marvelous bunch of characters. People keep asking if there's anything special about them, but of course, most things have been already written.

     I'll tell you this, though: they can't stand anybody smoking near them when they've just woken up. They all smoke themselves, but the smell of a fag early in the morning is just too much for them. Really, though they are pretty easy to handle.

     A fantastic change has come over their status since I first became the road manager. That was in the days before Brian Epstein became their manager; they could move about anywhere easily in the early days. Now, more often than not, they have to stay in their hotel. Outside, there is usually a crowd of fans, and even if they found a fairly secret hiding place, they just can't walk around the town anywhere because they'd be mobbed.

     So they stay in bed until the very latest possible time; there's nowhere else to go. I have to wake them up and get their food organized. They all go for things like steak, though Ringo can't stand the sight of onions.

     About the only thing they can't face is ham or tongue. That's because of many late nights at hotels, when that's been the only choice for sandwiches. They got fed up to the teeth with them. Nowadays, I try to lay on some chicken or cheese and put the order in as early as possible.

     Another of my jobs is answering the phone on their behalf. Often, it goes nonstop. But now people don't get through to the boys unless they say who they are, what they're calling about, and that sort of thing. Otherwise, each Beatle would do nothing but talk on the phone. 

    I also have to get them out of their hotel. This is usually a problem. Now it's a bigger one. You see, I'm recognized by the fans as being with the Beatles. Before, I could go out unnoticed and get the car, and the boys would just drop in. Now I have to keep in the background, and the new road manager, Mal Evans, goes out for the car. It all has to be planned like a military operation.

     But don't get the idea that the boys try to avoid the fans. They'd love to meet them all. The trouble is that it so often leads to riot scenes. Whilst for traveling by road is done in a car, with the equipment going in the van. This is the tidiest way, because the journeys are really too complicated for The Beatles to use their own cars. 

    No, it's all a good life if you don't weaken my duties, which vary a lot from day to day. I certainly wouldn't change my life or anything. But the big, biggest problem, no matter where we are, is simply to get John, Paul, George, and Ringo out of their beds.