The Beatles Entourage: Neil Aspinall (1941 - 2008)

Nell: Aspinall was with the Beatles from 1960 till their split in 1970 and was CEO of Apple until he retired due to ill health in 2007.

Neil Aspinall was an integral part of the Beatles' ever growing entourage. He met them through their original drummer Pete Best as he was renting a room in his mother's house which, in the cellar was the Casbah Coffee club. Initially since Aspinall had transport, The Beatles took advantage of this and he drove them to their various gigs. As time wore on and the band got bigger and bigger his job description would include; Road Manager, Personal Assistant, Bodyguard, and finally, Chief Executive of Apple Corps. Neil is also responsible for bringing us the wonderful Beatles Anthology which he started work on in 1970 as soon as the band called it a day. Back then it was titled 'The Long and Winding Road' and rough cuts were shown in the 1970's to all four Beatles but it kept going on the back burner until it eventually saw a worldwide release in 1994 along with 3 albums of unheard recordings, early takes and demo's from their very first recording as the Quarrymen in 1958 to their last in 1970. Neil is sadly no longer with us, he died from lung cancer in 2008.

Aspinall in the early 2000's