Just thought he should have his thread in 5th Beatles.

At The Beatles exhibition in Liverpool they show the letter Brian wrote just before his death. It was like a resignation letter. Very sad to read as it goes.

Heres a pic I got of it.

Cool! I vaguely remember something like that 9 years ago unless they recently put in the exhibit.

An article from The Guardian of August 28th, 1967

The Beatles' Diaghilev dies at 32

Stanley Reynolds
Monday August 28, 1967
The Guardian

Mr Brian Epstein, who built up the Beatles, Cilla Black, and others to international fame, was found dead in bed in his home in Belgravia, London, yesterday. He was 32.

Police were called by the housekeeper. A friend of Mr Epstein said: "He has been unwell for some months."

The Beatles were in Bangor where they were initiated into the cult of the Himalayan mystic, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Paul McCartney and his friend Jane Asher, the actress, left for London after hearing the news. Mr McCartney, looking pale and distressed, said: "It is a great shock and I am upset."

John Lennon said: "The Maharishi told us not to be too overwhelmed by grief. I have lost only a few people who were very close to me. This is one of those occasions, but I feel my course of meditation here has helped me overcome my grief more easily than before."

Brian Epstein was considered as the Svengali who, by magic, created the Beatles and the resulting beat music boom. But he always denied [this] and their long-running success has proved him right. He was far more the Diaghilev of pop music than a Svengali.

Indeed, his personal tastes were for the exotic, artistic, and classical. He loved classical music and enjoyed talking about it, which he could do in some depth. He was shy and sensitive.

The sensitive side of his nature was, perhaps, the source of his melancholy. At times he seemed like a character enmeshed in an elaborate ironic Nabokovian plot: the modern artist-business man beset by the thoroughly old-fashioned vulgarities of the Philistine.

Born in 1935, Epstein had a conventional middle-class Jewish background. At 16 he started in his father's furniture shop, and broke this off for a time to study at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, but became very successful in it as the manager of the family business record department.

In October, 1961. Customers, he said, kept asking for a record called "Mr Bonnie," which the Beatles had recorded in Germany for an obscure company. The Beatles were appearing at the Cavern Club, just round the corner from his shop. The rest of this story is well known.

Less well known or appreciated are Epstein's attempts to broaden his own scope as an impresario. In 1965 he bought the Saville Theatre. Unfortunately, he lost money with many of his productions there, particularly James Baldwin's play "The Amen Corner."

All this added to his melancholy; he suffered from poor health, and the death of his father, with whom he was extremely close, was another blow.

I have a question about Brian. In Shout! i read that his "ex-lover broke the $3000 silence bond". But that will mean that everyone will know that the exlover was also homosexual and that was still illegal in Britain. So why would he do that? Just for the money? Also, what happened to someone who was homosexual then?

Quoted from Kaleidoscope_Eyes

Also, what happened to someone who was homosexual then?

They burned in hell.
No really - I'll think you'll find that being homosexual wasn't illegal, but comitting a homosexual act (sodomy, listening to Barbara Streisand) was.
It's like drug laws now - Pete Doherty can't be busted for saying he takes drugs, police need to catch him in the act.

Pete Doherty should be arrested for being Pete Doherty.

A new 'Doherty Court Act' should be created.

All in favour - "Hear, hear!" ...

Cheers for the Photo App - Can anyone find a blow up version of the resignation letter(?)

On another note - how impressive is the level of journalism in regards to the Guardian article!

Pete Doherty is a Freak!!!!!!!!!!!!!     Back to topic, for once. Brian, whatever he was, was Smart enough to listen to the kids about the Beatles and ask for that record.

Quoted from Revolution

Brian, whatever he was, was Smart enough to listen to the kids about the Beatles and ask for that record.

I agree, if it wasn't for him... I love the man!

Thank god Brian was at the cavern that day!!
Brian saw something in the fabs & gave them a chance!
(like the rutles - they had something,  "i think it was the trousers!")

Pete Doherty and Kate Moss are being turned into media martyrs. Why do the papers pick on them when everyone knows that showbusiness is run on celebrity sherbert? They're just scapegoats, loads of other high profile people do all sorts of things, the police know about it, they just don't do a thing about it unless the papes want to pick on them. Then they have to investigate due to public outcry. They have to be seen to be doing the 'right' thing.

I have mixed feelings towards Brian. He made The Beatles big, but maybe he also ruined them. He put them into suits because that would sell better towards the record companies and all that. Also he reduced their show to an almost meaningless half an hour. Just thirty minutes. I'm still amazed that people were happy with that, but maybe I should compare it to modern concerts. Brian turned their concerts into a routine instead of an inspiration. God knows what more could have come out of their talents if it had had the change to go wherever they wanted to go.

It's a strange situation. It many respects they seem like Elvis in that they handed their soles over to their manager. Yet they had the power to say "no more" in 1966. Why didn't they speak up earlier? Should Brian have seen it coming and done something about it? But maybe it's all just hindsight - the world was different then and Brian and the band were learning as they went along. There was no precedent for what they were doing.

Quoted from Bobber

[...] Also he reduced their show to an almost meaningless half an hour. Just thirty minutes. I'm still amazed that people were happy with that, but maybe I should compare it to modern concerts. Brian turned their concerts into a routine instead of an inspiration. [...]

My thoughts too   ... those people were happy with almost nothing but seeing them for a while   ... but I want to believe that that was done by Brian because of their sketchdule: radio, recording sessions and later they were touring through US and Europe and even went to Australia and Japan and somewhere else and starred in films ... by the way, how long their shows at The Cavern used to be by 1962? ...

As Kevin said: "There was no precedent for what they were doing"

Quoted from raxo

by the way, how long their shows at The Cavern used to be by 1962? ...

I think that was more than half an hour, even tho Mr Epstein was in charge then. The Star Club in December 1962 was probably one of the last venues to see them for a real full concert. Maybe early 1963 in some local places round Liverpool.