#binny lum

BINNY LUM: When did you actually start, were you personally interested in show-business as a younger man?

BRIAN EPSTEIN: I’ve always been interested in show-business, I attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London for 18 months, when I was 21, but subsequently went back into the family business and sold records for five years, and I think I got a bit bored with business. I wasn’t actually looking for anything else to do, but amid my activities, locally, in Liverpool, which is where my home is, I came across the Beatles.

LUM: And of course the story has just absolutely snowballed since then, hasn’t it? 

EPSTEIN: Yes, well I commenced management, with the Beatles, and after a few months I decided that in order to add to their importance, and my importance as a manager, it should be a good thing to be able to offer promoters and people in the business, other acts, and it was with that in view, and also, with the knowledge, and the delight, that I came across another group, called Gerry and the Pacemakers, who I understand have just come back from Australia.

LUM: And what about these two young men, Peter & Gordon?

EPSTEIN: Peter & Gordon are not connected with me.

LUM: Aren’t they?

EPSTEIN: No.

LUM: Oh, I understood that they were!

EPSTEIN: No, well, they have a song which a company of mine has published.

LUM: Oh, is that the connection?

EPSTEIN: By John Lennon and Paul McCartney.

LUM: Now, they’re two of the Beatles, aren’t they?

EPSTEIN: Yes, that’s right.

LUM: Well, I wanted to ask you, how the whole thing got off the ground, because everyone the world over, is talking about the absolutely phenomenal Beatlemania, which has just swept, and it’s not just England, it’s everywhere.

EPSTEIN: Well, it started way back, two-and-a-half years ago, in Liverpool, almost from sort of, nothing. The boys were popular locally, but they hadn’t been seen anywhere outside of Liverpool except in Hamburg where they played very long hours for very little money, for many months, and I think that was probably where their sound was knit together.. and then I started with them in Liverpool, and promoted them in, sort of, every possible way… the whole thing snowballed.

LUM: That is the important thing to me though, the promotion. Now, this was your whole idea, wasn’t it? Did one thing just stem from another?

EPSTEIN: One thing stemmed from another, but you must remember, although I promoted them as only a manager can do, and I left no stone unturned, at the same time, I was handling, what I believed to be, the greatest talent in the world, and you know, I wouldn’t like it ever to be thought, that I could’ve done what has been accomplished with the Beatles, with talent-less people.

LUM: That’s an important point, too.  

EPSTEIN: Hmm.

LUM: The industry now, of course, benefits tremendously, I believe even the Bank of England approves of this whole thing

EPSTEIN: I believe so, yes.

LUM: and with the different tours now, do you organise all this for them?

EPSTEIN: Yes this is all set up, I work with various agents all over the world, but I personally look into each venue, and place that they play at. We have Gerry and the Pacemakers in Australia at the moment, and later in the year we’re hoping to send out another of my artists, Billy J. Kramer with the Dakotas. We also have here in this country, a big success with Cilla Black, who you may have heard of, I think her records are going out there, and a new name, which you won’t have heard of, a young man called Tommy Quickly, whose made a record that I consider to be one of the best records that I’ve put out. I think you’ll be hearing about it soon.

LUM: Well you’re enjoying a marvellous success, and I would say, probably the most sought after person, in the world, at the present time! I’ve enjoyed meeting you very, very much, and I hope that when the Beatles come to Australia, that you might come along with them

EPSTEIN: I’m most certainly coming, we’re very much looking forward to the trip, and many thanks.