Those Were The Days 2.0: The Beatles and Apple (2)

We proudly present a new and updated edition of the critically acclaimed 2002 title Those Were The Days—the definitive chronicle of The Beatles’ Apple organization. Much has changed within the music industry since the original publication, and the music and business of The Beatles and Apple has not been exempt from those changes. Since 2002, the organization has learned to function in a digital world, The Beatles have become a Las Vegas attraction and accompanying brand, and have taken tentative steps into a marketplace that now demands a steady supply of archival reissues and creative repackaging. Perhaps most notably, and ironically, Apple also undertook a lengthy legal battle with one of the most powerful organizations on the planet, the omnipresent Apple Inc., whose technology largely enabled those wholesale changes to an industry whose model was cemented by The Beatles’ unprecedented multi-media popularity during the 1960s and beyond. Nevertheless, Apple and its extended stable of artists (Mary Hopkin, James Taylor, Badfinger, Billy Preston, Hot Chocolate, and many more), has endured into the 21st Century. In fact, Apple never really went away. Having long been regarded as the Beatles’ great folly, the reality of the company tells a different tale—through its careful cultivation of the Beatles’ brand and the interests of many other artists, it continues to turn over millions of pounds a year and, in many ways, has evolved into the business The Beatles envisioned all those years ago. This new and expanded edition brings the still-evolving Apple saga up to date, adding a significant amount of new information and images to the original work. Having conducted countless interviews with key players within the organization over a twenty five year period, the author here brings an unrivaled wealth of knowledge and insight to one of the most revolutionary organizations the entertainment industry has ever known. DIY before there was DIY, and proudly anti-establishment in ethos, Apple remains both a fascinating subject for Beatles fans, musicologists, and students of the 20th Century, and a treasure trove of do’s and don’ts for the aspiring musical impresario. Read more