This book was provided to me from Netgalley, so I can read and review it before it’s published.
Before I begin my review, let me quickly say that The Beatles are my favorite band. When I was 13 years old, I purchased The Beatles complete collections of CDs. I eventually added a little bit of memorabilia and a lot of posters to my collections. I even collected books because they were about The Beatles. I only ended up reading a few of them. As time passed, and I got married and had a kid, I gave most of the posters to a friend of mine and sold about 95% of the book to a used bookstore. What remains is a small stash of posters that are in my closet, two shelves in a bookcase with memorabilia, and a large bin also in my closet with mostly newspaper clippings from December 9, 1980, and several magazines (Life from 1964 and Playboy from 1965 – I actually have two copies of each). One of the posters I have was a promo for the Beatles Anthology which I got from the local ABC station. I just happened to be working for a computer company and was doing some work there when I saw it in somebody’s office (it could’ve been the General Manager). We got to talking about it and when I finished the job, he gave me one! I also have another Beatles Anthology poster that was autographed by Klauss Voormann (as he designed and drew it) and it’s also a limited edition (mine is number 306 of 555); I call this one my baby.
So, yeah, I was familiar with the namesake of Mal Evans, and was intrigued to read a lot more about him.
The Foreword of the book was written by Gary Evans, Mal’s son. Gary mentions that in addition to this book, another book will be published later that includes his dad’s personal diaries, drawings, and unpublished photographs from both his family and The Beatles. I can’t wait for that.
Mal was a part-time bouncer at the famous Cavern Club in Liverpool. On a cold day in January of 1962, Mal and his wife had just arrived at the club to see The Beatles again. The Beatles road manager and driver, Neil Aspinall, was sick that day and he asked Mal if we could drive them to London. That started his journey with The Beatles, and it lasted through his death in 1976. How awesome is that?
In addition to being a driver, he also helped setup, takedown, and fix all the equipment The Beatles used. How awesome is that?
When crazy fans tried to get close to The Beatles, Mal was front and center and never allowed them to get hurt.
He was in most of the studio sessions for the albums and often provided food, drinks, drugs, or whatever else they needed. He even contributed to some of the songs.
When he wasn’t with the band, he was helping them as solo musicians. After they broke up, he worked for Apple Corps as a producer (and even wrote a few songs that got recorded).
Obviously, he was fully committed to his job and making sure John, Paul, George, and Ringo were good. It did take him away from his wife and two kids quite frequently, which was hard on him and his family.
As you can probably tell, I really enjoyed this book. It did take me a few more days than normal for me to complete it. But it was well worth it.
