I think I will start adding some direct sources for Lewisohn’s footnotes here. We’ll see how it goes.
Chapter 22: “Right then Brian—Manage us”
Footnotes 66 and 67: (67.1, 67.2) Brian Epstein interview with Bill Grundy, aired March 23, 1964 —and— “Cellarful of noise”
THE FOOTNOTES (66, 67.1, 67.2) —expand—
66 – Bill Grundy interview. Brian Epstein referred to this December 3 meeting as the first, when it wasn’t.
67 –
67.1 Bill Grundy interview;
67.2 ”with his slow, lopsided smile” from A Cellarful of Noise, p49.
(mini-text/full text below)
“I was a bit put out,” Brian said two years later, more coolly collected. “I thought, ‘This is the first meeting, they want to do something about management . . .’ “(66)
Full text below
Brian blew … but ended up being charmed and laughing-—the usual Beatle mix. “I shouted about a bit, and I thought “This is very disgraceful indeed!’ and ‘How can he be so late for an important thing?’ and George, with his slow, lopsided smile, just simply replied —it was very typical of them—’Well he may be late but he’s very clean.’“(67)
Full text below
(It’s a quick clip and worth listening to.)
Transcript of audio Grundy interview (66, 67.1)
Actually the first meeting that we had—the first business meeting we had—we held at my store. It got off to a very late start.
It was quite amusing really.
Three of the boys arrived at the appointed time of four o’clock.
I was very busy ordering records for Christmas, and Paul didn’t show at all for at least three quarters of an hour, and I was a bit put out about this.
I thought, “This is the first meeting, they want to do something about management,” and so on, and I asked one of the boys to get on the phone to him.
And he came back and he said, “Well, he’s just got up, he’s in the bath. So I sort of, you know, shouted about a bit, and I thought, “This is very disgraceful indeed, and uh, how can he be so late for an important thing?”
And George just simply replied—it was very typical of them— “Well, he may be late but he’s very clean.”
67.2 – Cellarful of Noise passage (67.2)
December 3rd arrived but at 4.30 p.m. there were only three Beatles. Paul was the missing one and after half an hour of listless conversation—for it was pointless to talk any sort of terms with only three of them—I asked George to ring Paul and find out why he was late.
George returned from the ’phone with a half smile which annoyed me a little and said ‘Paul’s just got up and he is having a bath’. I said ‘This is disgraceful, he’s very late’, and George, with his slow, lop-sided smile said ‘and very clean’. Paul arrived an hour later and we all went to a milk bar. We had a coffee each and I found that they had no management—or guidance beyond their instincts—those uncanny instincts on which I now rely so much.
They were very respectful to me but I didn’t know whether this was because I had money, a car, and a record shop, or whether it was because they liked me. I suspect it was a little of both.
Just for the camera. Brian
and double bass. He plays
not a note, neither reads nor
writes music. But then … neither
do the Beatles.
The five of us discussed, in vague terms, contracts and their futures, but of course none of us knew anything about the right terms or the prices for their sort of act.
Text from “Tune In”
“I was a bit put out,” Brian said two years later, more coolly collected. “I thought, ‘This is the first meeting, they want to do something about management . . .’ “(66) He had every right to wonder what was going on. Paul was patently ambitious, liked to impress, and the Beatles needed a manager, so why was he doing this to the one person trying to help him, probably the only man in Liverpool who stood any chance of getting him everything he wanted?
After three quarters of an hour, Brian suggested George phone Forthlin Road to establish when Paul had left for the bus. He returned saying Paul had only just got out of bed, was now having a bath, and would be along when he was done. Brian blew … but ended up being charmed and laughing-—the usual Beatle mix. “I shouted about a bit, and I thought “This is very disgraceful indeed!’ and ‘How can he be so late for an important thing?’ and George, with his slow, lopsided smile, just simply replied —it was very typical of them—’Well he may be late but he’s very clean.’“(67)
TOP
“[Koschmider’s] logbook recorded antics so outrageous that he suspended their wages for a time…”
The practically impossible to find transcript of Bruno Koschmider’s one very short recorded interview.
I am fascinated by Koschmider’s “logbook” that Lewisohn is so bold as to say “recorded” things, and then, confusingly, also says is “long lost, unfortunately.”
The only mention of a logbook anywhere is this glancing allusion below. You be the judge.
❝
“…but his club manager used to write all the insults down in a big book and told him the next day what they had been doing.”
❞
“[Koschmider’s] logbook recorded antics so outrageous that he suspended their wages for a time…”
Tune In, p376
His logbook did what?
“Deeply unhappy—actually, morally offended—by such antics, Bruno Koschmider started to keep a behavior logbook (long lost, regrettably) that could be used against these Liverpool louts if things got seriously out of hand.”
p367
Here is the one citation for Koschmider in Tune In, followed by the short interview transcript for his only known interview in 1972. It’s one of those “insightful” footnotes, which I’ve learned to resent more than all the rest. (Because most people don’t read the footnotes, and if they do, they are easily distracted by the extra commentary. I’m quite sure now that that is why it’s there, because they usually only accompany the gaping holes. They’re not footnotes, they’re distractions. They’re blinds.)
BRUNO KOSHMIDER – (FN 30) Ch. 17 – “A CELLARFUL OF OIKS”
LEWISOHN: (pp. 375-376)
On the first day of November, Bruno Koschmider handed them thirty days’ written notice to leave. He was aborting their contract a month before its natural New Year’s Eve expiry. “The notice is given by order of the Public Authorities who have discovered that Mr. George Harrison is only 17 (seventeen) years of age,” it read, but the Beatles knew there was more to it, and there was. Koschmider had notified the Fremdenpolizei of their birth dates in August, and for that authority not to have processed the document for eleven weeks would have represented a level of inefficiency unique here. Koschmider obviously wanted shot of them, and wasn’t short of reasons. They’d been getting under his skin (and he theirs) since arrival, and it was just getting worse and worse. He also claimed their reckless flouting of his demands to play quieter at the Indra had caused the authorities to revoke his venue license, at a personal cost of DM100,000. [30]
Citation:
30. DM100,000 was the equivalent of £8550—a strangely large amount in 1960. Koschmider said this in the only recorded interview he’s known to have given about the Beatles (for BBC radio, 1972) and wasn’t asked to substantiate it.
The full Koshmider quote from the BBC Radio Program, Part I – “The Birth of the Liverpool Sound”
BBC narrator:
There were soon problems with the neighbors over the volume of their music which led to their removal from the Indra to the Keiserkeller.
Koshmider’s interpreter:
The next time the police came they played very low and played waltz for one hour, so all the young people left. Well, this scene in the other club, the Indra, where the Beatles went on for awhile, and **then Mr. Koshmider had to close it down, because he thinks he lost about 100,000 Marks on the Beatles because they were so loud, but he had a contract with them and at that time nobody knew anything about the music so nobody put anything about the volume into the contract, so he couldn’t do anything.
After Tony Sheridan’s time was over in the Keiserkeller Rory Storm and his group came, and because he still had the Beatles under contract he put them on as the second group. So they played hour after hour, you know?BBC narrator:
The drummer with Rory Storm was none other than Ringo Starr. It was here that they first worked together.
Koshmider’s interpreter:
Rory Storm was more popular than the Beatles, so his impression was that they tried to impress the audience more, you know? And he says they behaved very bad, they called the audience “Nazi swine” and things like that. You know, they tried everything to be different, and he thinks most people didn’t understand that at that time, what the Beatles were saying to them, but his club manager used to write all the insults down in a big book and told him the next day what they had been doing.
Exact Words 