Becoming The Beatles: Alistair Taylor

Alistair Taylor, also known to the band as ‘Mr. Fix It’ was the personal assistant to The Beatles’ manager Brian Epstein, and later the general manager of Apple Corps.

He accompanied Brian to the Cavern Club when he met The Beatles for the first time on 9th November 1961. After watching The Beatles perform, Brian and Alistair went for lunch afterwards to discuss what they thought of the band. “I thought they were bloody awful but absolutely incredible” proclaimed Alistair.

Brian explained he wanted to go on to manage them, and to entice the support of Alistair, Brian offered two and a half per cent of the Beatles’ earnings. He declined, instead asking for a better salary and that’s all.

It is said that one day in 1961, a young man called Raymond Jones brought The Beatles’ existence to the attention of Brian Epstein, when he asked for their single ‘My Bonnie’ at his NEMS record store in Liverpool.

However in an interview with David Bedford, Alistair makes a bold claim, that he was in fact Raymond Jones.

“Kids were coming into the shop and asking for this record ‘My Bonnie’ by The Beatles. We didn’t have it and, until somebody put in an actual order, Brian wouldn’t do anything. You see, Brian had this claim that if you ordered a record by anyone, anywhere, he would find it. However, no matter how many people asked for it, nobody had ordered it by paying a deposit. Particularly as this was a German import, this was even more important.” He continued: “I knew we would sell lots of copies, so I made out the order form and paid the deposit from my own pocket in the name of Raymond Jones, one of our regular customers.”

Alistair also became the face of Apple Corps at the request of Paul McCartney. An advert ran in national music press which featured a picture of Alistair Taylor with the words underneath ‘This man has talent…This man now owns a Bentley!’ It was to encourage musicians to send their tapes in to Apple. Unfortunately, it was not a success and not one artist was signed on the back of the campaign.

In 1990, Alistair and Paul briefly reconvened at Paul’s Let It Be Liverpool concert before Alistair passed away in 2004.