Living The Beatles Legend
On The Road With The Fab Four – The Mal Evans Story
By Kenneth Womack
Mudlark/HarperCollins - £25.00
It was like him having four mistresses: John, Paul, George, and Ringo.
('The Big Clubbo!').
Neil had let people help him, but I wouldn't. I wanted to do it all by myself for several reasons. One being I knew exactly where I was up to at any time, the other because I was possessive of the Beatles, and didn't want to share them with anyone.
('A Free Man').
What's particularly fascinating about the publication of Living The Beatles Legend: On The Road With The Fab Four – The Mal Evans Story, is the fact that it sheds so much light in what it must have ben like to be a fly on the wall during the very early stages of The Beatles career post Hamburg, along with the initial stages of Beatlemania – as seen through the day to day eyes of one of the band's most trusted associates.
As much is brought to the fore quite early on in the book, in the chapter 'A Free Man,' wherein author Kenneth Womack writes: ''After joining Neil and the Beatles in Manchester, Mal routinely didn't get to bed until 3:30 a.m., only to be awakened by a 9:45 a.m. call. Years later, he reflected in his first few weeks in the Beatles' employ – like Neil, he was truly in their express employment, never working for NEMS or under the jurisdiction of any record company. In those days, his overriding concern was being cut loose for sheer incompetence, Being on call both day and night was one of the band's unstated requirements. ''I was still green at the job of being roadie, and the Beatles had been very tolerant with the mistakes I made while settling in and learning my new trade,'' Mal wrote. ''Mind you, in the first week I worked with them, I was to be fired about seven times, as first one thing then the other went wrong.''''
Compiled by Womack – ''one of the world's most foremost writers and thinkers about the Beatles'' – these 511 pages (excluding a Foreword by Gary Evans, Acknowledgements, Notes, Bibliography, Credits and Index), is readily accessible and easy to read in a semi-memoir, meets diary approach sort of way; as the continuation of the above quotation makes clear: ''First, there was the matter of setting up Ringo's drum set, which Mal had never seen up close before. ''Neil helped me the first couple of days, but the first time I was on my own was terrible,'' he wrote. In desperation, he asked another band's drummer to help out, only to belatedly ''realize each drummer likes his cymbals at a special height.'' On one occasion, during this initial spate of shows, Ringo's cymbals slid down to the stage, while during another, his bass drum simply toppled over mid-performance. In such moments, Mal stood in the wings as the mishaps mounted up, wondering if he'd put in his last night as the Beatles' roadie. At one point, Paul asked him what he would do if they actually fired him. ''I'd cry, Paul. I'd just cry,'' he replied.''
I do have to say that some of the Americanisms which spill through from time to time, do occasionally jar, especially given that The Beatles were renowned for being exceedingly Liverpudlian. If not English.
For instance, in the chapter 'Roadie,' Womack writes: ''Lily fondly remembered the time she pushed the bangs from Harrison's face, saying, ''Let's see what it looks like with your hair back. I like that better.'' But George wasn't having it. He combed his hair forward, telling her, ''That's the way I have to wear it; it's the Beatle cut'' (my italics).
Unsurprisingly,Living The Beatles Legend gleans further insight into Evans' own life within the trajectory of life within the band's inner-circle; which, in an oddly perverse and welcoming manner, destabilizes the mythical account of the so-called clean cut image of The Beatles: ''For Mal, the sudden availability of sex, seemingly free from consequences – the 'free love'' he had been seeking in Northern Europe – represented an irresistible bonanza. After a lifetime of self-doubt over body issues and inveterate shyness, he simply couldn't control himself. ''Big Mal was a demon for sex,'' Tony wrote. ''His stamina would have been remarkable in a harem. In the flat, sooty back streets of Birmingham or Manchester, he was a stud straight from the Kama Sutra. Like sacrificial virgins, a lot of the girls willingly accepted that they would have to do it with Mal to get to John, Paul, George, or Ringo, and Mal knew it'' ('The Big Clubbo!').
As is written within the inside sleeve: ''Serving as their long-time roadie, personal assistant and protector, he was a sometime lyricist, occasional performer and regular fixer at the height of the group's fame and beyond.
But Mal's dedication to his beloved 'boys' and his own desire for stardom took its toll, leading to the dissolution of his marriage and his untimely death in January 1976.
Until now, Mal's extraordinary life has remained shrouded in mystery. Drawing on hundreds of exclusive interviews and with full access to Mal's unpublished archives – including his personal diaries, manuscripts and memorabilia – renowned Beatles scholar Kenneth Womack paints the first complete portrait of this complicated figure at the heart of the Beatles story. Living the Beatles Legend is a fascinating but ultimately tragic tale about life at the edges of superstardom.''
As a result, there is the inevitable under-current of sadness that prevails throughout what is clearly, a totally gripping insight. An insight, into the high-octane, bubble of a life within The Beatles. A life which ultimately accounts for this being both a fascinating and utterly absorbing read.
David Marx
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