September 2014

One small step for Word In Your Ear, one giant stride for Monday nights in the pub

September 23, 2014 David Hepworth 0

Last night’s show was our best yet. Thanks to the people at the Islington we managed to get the visuals working and so we we could put on […]

Stevie Nicks biographer Zoe Howe added to our Ben Watt live podcast recording

September 13, 2014 David Hepworth 0

We’re delighted to say that Zoe Howe‘s joining us at our next Word In Your Ear Podcast recording at the Islington on September 22nd. She’ll be […]

A Quiet Word with Ben Watt at the Islington

September 8, 2014 David Hepworth 0

Ben Watt’s worn a variety of hats in the last thirty years: half of Everything But The Girl, solo artist, deejay, producer, club owner and […]

Word In Your Ear

David Hepworth, Mark Ellen and chums cast an occasionally jaundiced eye over the goings-on in the worlds of music and entertainment.

In 1963, Capitol Records considered the Beatles “a band who looked and sounded weird with an odd name and no leader” and refused to release their records in America, despite being owned by EMI. As author Andrew Cook points out, “the truth is stranger than fiction”. New correspondence unearthed in his fascinating Capitol Gains maps out the tortuous wranglings of the deal-makers and “pantomime bad guys” behind the greatest and most successful marketing hype in history, all jockeying to take credit and manage their reputations. Some highlights here …

… the truth behind Epstein’s mythical phone calls

… “the more successful the Beatles were, the more Capitol were proving themselves wrong”

… why 1966 was the band’s “Last Supper”

… “from the Battle of Hastings to World War 2 to the Beatles … it’s the winners who rewrite history”

… the American 12-track rule and how they repackaged product “to give it more grab”

… the Beatles’ commercial fate if they’d never been successful in the States

… the pitiful (standard) original EMI deal – “18.75 of a penny per group member for every album”

… the “Butcher sleeve”: how 750,000 were printed and the fortune lost in “Operation Retrieve”. And the Capitol exec whose kids made $1.5m from copies stashed in his garage

… how Epstein was contracted to make 25 per cent of all Beatles monies ‘til 1975

… Bob Dylan’s tangential role in the signing of the Beatles to Capitol

… and the “cowboy film” that nearly happened.

Order Capitol Gains here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Capitol-Gains-Beatles-Conquered-America/dp/1803997281

Help us to keep The Longest Conversation In Rock going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear

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