Another Bear's Opinion -- Book Review

A Cellarful of Noise by Brian Epstein
 
One of my housemates is just about the biggest Beatles fan you can imagine. He has almost every record any of them has made, and some of them several times over. He insists there are good reasons for the duplicates. My other housemate, although accepting of his enthusiasm, appears unconvinced.

Although a voracious Beatles record collector, my housemate does not have the same obsession with Beatles books. He said that you could probably build a house out of Beatles books without ever doubling up on one. So I was a little surprised that he bought this one as an e-book when he saw an email promotion for it.

His reason was that unlike so many Beatles books, this one was written by someone who was really there and it’s contemporary to the time rather than being built on decades of received wisdom. That makes it stand out from the rest.

This memoir of The Beatles’ manager was written in 1964 – a time when anyone would have said that The Beatles had peaked, little knowing they were still on the ascendancy. Brian Epstein writes in an entertaining, conversational manner, avoiding all trace of self-indulgence. Although the book is not merely about his association with The Beatles, he is enough of a professional to know that there’s really only one reason anybody would be interested in reading it. The book therefore opens with The Beatles’ triumphant first tour of the US, before a couple of short chapters on the author’s childhood and upbringing, but he quickly comes back to the topic he knows his audience is most interested in.

Epstein was probably the last honest man in the music business, if not the first. There is hardly a trace of cynicism and one comes away completely convinced that he only had any association with his clients because he completely believed in them as artistes. He also writes with wit and charm. If you told someone that certain passages were written by Stephen Fry, they would probably believe you.

Another bear’s opinion: Four scotch-and-cokes.
 
Sláinte,
Spencer