It seems the catalogue of books about the Beatles is limitless. Written as an "insider" view, Magical Mystery Tours is a gossipy and intimate entry in that catalogue.
Tony Bramwell grew up with Paul McCartney, George Harrison and John Lennon in Liverpool. Bramwell was around as the three began playing music and ended up in a band together. As the band cut its teeth in the Liverpool area and when it returned from Hamburg, "Tone" was there, carting George's guitar or doing other roadie-type work so he could watch his friends play, and get into the venue free. As the Beatles grew far beyond Liverpool, Tony went with them, ending up working for their manager, Brian Epstein, and later for Apple, the company the band formed. Bramwell was essentially a jack-of-all trades, doing whatever Epstein and the boys needed for the good of the band, from running errands, to bar-hopping with them, to seeing that the songs of Apple artists were getting radio play, to helping head up Apple Films.
There isn't a great deal new here, and Bramwell's memoir tends to be on the gossipy side and focus a bit on minutiae. There's discussion of various girlfriends, celebrities throwing up in people's shoes at parties, where Jimi Hendrix bought some of the jackets he wore on stage, and the extensive drug and alcohol use. As such, it is a first hand account of life in London in the Swingin' 60s. It is also a glimpse of the early innocence of rock. Here were essentially four working-class kids with no idea about the entertainment business. They hire Epstein as their manager and while Epstein does an excellent job of marketing them, his own naivete would cost the Beatles millions in the sale of today's common items of t-shirts and souvenirs.
Some of Bramwell's historical tidbits are intriguing, though. For example, he helped lay the foundation for the music videos of today. No longer touring, the Beatles still wanted to perform for their fans. Bramwell ended up filming and videotaping performances, and making small films about the band's songs for television broadcast. It didn't take long before Bramwell was helping videotape other English bands to air on U.S. television and elsewhere. Although these tapes would be priceless pop relics today, once aired, they were simply "wiped and reused."
Bramwell also inadvertently plays a role in the whole "Paul is dead" mystique. When the rumors of McCartney's death started circulating, Bramwell called a radio station and pretended to be Paul. Later, voice analysis of recordings of that call in comparison to recordings of McCartney's voice would show it was not McCartney, lending credence to the rumors.
Article comments
1 - Phillip Winn
Time references are unclear? Perhaps the writer was stoned.
2 - Buff Bufferman
I have read many Beatles related books, and really enjoyed this one. Yes, the writing style at times was a little all over the place, but I actually quite liked the Bramwell ramblings - old titbits about various famous people he meets on his travels.
Tony is clearly anti - Yoko. Whilst he seems at times a little too biased, I was left feeling that there was more than a grain of truth in his description of the way Yoko infiltrated her way into the Beatles' lives, how rude and pushy she could be. Tony was there, I wasn't! And there aren't that many 'insiders' left alive to tell their story of the times.
Whilst we wait for Ringo and Neil Aspinall to tell their tales, this is a good one to read in the meantime. I was left thinking what an amazing life Tony Bramwell had, and he certainly didn't take any of it for granted.