Comment Central: The importance of Neil Aspinall

Neil Aspinall, the confidant described as the “Fifth Beatle” who became mastermind of the Fab Four’s business empire, has died, aged 66.

A schoolfriend of Sir Paul McCartney and George Harrison, Aspinall drove the Beatles’ battered blue Commer van. The bespectacled accountant advised the band for 40 years, overseeing the often chaotic finances of their Apple company.

Sir Paul visited Aspinall in a New York hospital days before he died from lung cancer.

In the early days Aspinall’s job was to fend off screaming girls. He took part in many of the Beatles’ pranks and even sang backing vocals on Yellow Submarine. He became guardian of the Beatles’ shambolic business interests at Apple Corps in 1968, on the condition that he would do it “only until they found someone else”. He quit the position last year.

Aspinall reinvented the Beatles brand for new audiences. He persuaded Sir Paul and Ringo Starr to take part in the 1995 Beatles Anthology series. The 2000 singles compilation album One, which sold 30 million copies, was also his idea. In a statement from Apple Corps, Sir Paul and Starr described Aspinall as a great man who would be missed. The Beatle widows Yoko Ono and Olivia Harrison also put their name to the statement. It read: “As a loyal friend, confidant and chief executive, Neil’s trusting stewardship and guidance has left a legacy for generations to come.”

Mrs Harrison and the couple’s son, Dhani, added: “He was our constant and avuncular caretaker for so many years; there is no way to measure how much he will be missed.”

Hunter Davies, the author of a number of books on the Beatles, said: “Neil Aspinall was the most important person in the whole saga of the Beatles. It is extraordinary that he gave up his studies to work with them, and never qualified to be an accountant, and yet he ended up representing them in talks with people from Sony and other companies.

“It was also amazing that, just as the Beatles grew from being this little band at a time when nobody realised what a talent they were, he also developed alongside them into this great figure who ran Apple for 30 years.”

Aspinall struck up a friendship with the young McCartney and Harrison at the Liverpool Institute for Boys. They bonded over cigarettes smoked behind the school’s air-raid shelters. “By the time we were ready to take the GCE exams, we’d added John Lennon to our ‘Mad Lad’ gang,” Aspinall said.

He had an eight-year affair with Mona Best, the mother of the Beatles’s ousted first drummer Pete Best, which produced a son in 1962. As road manager, he drove the van for £1 an hour and was with the band when they conquered America. He stood in for Harrison when the guitarist fell ill during the rehearsals for a television show.

Aspinall also played percussion on Magical Mystery Tour as well as singing on the Yellow Submarine chorus.

John Lennon claimed that they smoked marijuana in the lavatories at Buckingham Palace when they collected their MBEs in 1965. But Aspinall never revealed the band’s secrets, despite numerous “kiss and tell” offers, and sought to find common ground between Ono and the other band representatives in discussions over their legacy.

Aspinall had begun work on remastering the Beatles catalogue with a view to its digital release on iTunes before quitting. He was said to have had disagreements with members of the Apple board over the future exploitation of Beatles material.

Last month Sir Paul said: “Neil was our mate for a long, long time and nobody could replace Neil because he was so special. He’s a great guy.”

Geoff Baker, a former adviser to Sir Paul, said: “Neil was the man who was closer to all of the Beatles than anyone. Although he would deny it, he was long considered to be ‘the real Fifth Beatle’ by the music and entertainment industries which respected him as one of the wisest men in the record business.”

Friends said that Aspinall used to smoke but gave up years ago. He is survived by wife, Suzy, and five children.

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