Brian Epstein

brian epstein

Birth: 19th September 1934
Place of Birth: Liverpool, UK
Nationality: British
Job Title: Furniture Salesman, Record Shop Manager, Pop Music Manager, TV Presenter
Partners: Various unknown
Died: 27th August 1967, London, UK

Not all of our Gay Greats have been celebrated for their work whilst they were alive. For some, admiration didn’t even come until years after their death. On the whole though, some recognition for their life’s work did arrive eventually, albeit a little delayed. This month’s Gay Great however, still lacks much of the respect he deserves. For many, his achievements were all due to the talents of other people and that as the manager of the most celebrated pop band the world has ever seen, he couldn’t have failed to reach the top. But is this fair?

Brian Samuel Epstein was the first son of Harry and Malka Epstein, a hardworking, middle class Jewish family from Liverpool. The Epsteins had made their name in the furniture business and by the 1930’s, very few homes across Liverpool didn’t have a chair or sofa that was bought on credit from their packed store. When Brian arrived, Harry Epstein had already claimed his place as the ‘local boy made good’.

From his very infancy, it was obvious that Epstien was far more gentle than the other boys. At school, he was the subject of taunts and teases. Few of his classmates understood the neat, passive lad who seemed to have more in common with girls than boys. As he gradually became aware of his homosexuality, the situation started to become intolerable. The constant intimidation from his peers caused him to feel down at heel with himself for most of his teenage years, Epstein finally decided to leave school at the age of 16, despite having more than enough ability to take his education all the way to university level. His parents were naturally upset at his swift departure from the education system. However, the prospect of an early induction into the family business was appealing.

The young man started work at Epstein’s for £3 a week. On his first day, he managed to persuade a lady to buy a whole dresser instead of just the mirror she had come in for, a talent for sales instantly coming to the fore. But his burgeoning career was cut short by the inevitable call-up for National Service. Like many young men of the time, he desperately didn’t want to leave his life for a year, especially to become a soldier! Having no way out of the situation though, he decided to get his head down and get on with it.

National Service turned out to be intolerable. Epstein was once again subjected to the taunts of his peers and the work was backbreaking, not suited to a moderate gay man. For ten months he stuck it out before being dismissed by staff doctors, citing him as ‘mentally and emotionally unfit to serve’. Whilst some close associates claim he was caught cottaging in his British Army uniform, others claim that the doctor’s diagnosis was just a common byword for ‘homosexual’.

Epstein returned to Liverpool, back to a job in the family business he didn’t want and still unsure what he was aiming for in life. He did have the same strong-minded determination that his father had possessed; he just didn’t know where to channel it. He had some ideas, but most were systematically ruled out. The most promising of all came to an end when a year spent at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts fizzled out. Still unsure of his chosen path, he headed back to the family business again. His father was frustrated. To him, it seemed an easy path for his son. The business was growing at a huge rate and some day, Brian and his younger brother would inherit the lot. Any work experience he could get inside the retail company would stand him in good stead for the day when he was controlling it all. Why he wanted to waste his time on unobtainable whims was beyond him.

But it wasn’t just Epstein’s working life that dismayed his. Soon after returning from National Service, his eldest son had revealed he was homosexual. Whilst his mother was supportive of her son’s life-choice (even though homosexuality was still illegal in the UK), his father was less enthusiastic. He feared that his son was laying himself open to arrest, a fear that was realised in 1956 when Epstein was caught cottaging in a Liverpool subway toilet. His case came to court and luckily he was only fined.

It looked as though things couldn’t get much worse for him. No career, no stability and in the midst of an illegal lifestyle. Harry Epstein found an unlikely saviour for his son in the form of a new business opportunity. When the music shop next door came up for sale, the family snapped it up and made it part of the Epstein empire. Epstein sent his troubled son to run the ground floor, which specialised in pianos and gramophones. Epstein loved the job and began to expand the business, devoting a corner of the shop to record sales. Before long, the business was doing so well he was able to open and manage a separate store in the Whitechapel area of the city that specialised in record sales. His store soon became an essential Saturday visiting place for local teenagers and young adults.

Epstein had at last found his niche in music. At around the same time, Liverpool was also beginning to find its place as a world leader in modern music. Just around the corner from his record store, a club called the Cavern was showcasing some of the latent musical genius from the city. Liverpool’s teenagers were coming alive with the music on show there. Epstein could feel that there was something big in Liverpool waiting to be introduced to the world. He began to pen a few articles for the local music rag, Merseybeat, which he found a good way of keeping his ear to the ground.

For many months, Epstein noticed that Merseybeat had continuously reported on a band called the Beatles, a local leather-clad rocker band who seemed to be gathering quite a following. There must have been something to this band other than just long hair and leather trousers. Although it was not his sort of music, Epstein took himself along to the Cavern to hear them on a cold November night in 1961. Amazed by the roar of the crowd as well as his own foot tapping uncontrollably, he decided to approach them after the gig. He was immediately struck by their charm, especially that of the lanky, spectacle-wearing, sarcastic guitarist. Epstein’s desire for the band, especially John, inspired him to offer his services as their manager.

On 24th January, the band officially signed a five-year contract. Epstein, however, did not sign anything. Epstein lined up some auditions straight away with some big name record labels. He also sorted the band with suits and ties instead of their hard-rock leather look. Although impressed, none of the label bosses wanted to sign them. Epstein persisted and kept in constant contact with as many record labels as possible. He knew it was only a matter of time before the ‘fab four’ were discovered.

But not all was ‘fab’ amongst the four. None of the band was happy with the drummer, Pete Best. When Best suffered from flu and was forced to miss a few live gigs, a young drummer called Ringo Starr was borrowed from another band. He slipped well into the line-up and the band knew they had found their new drummer. Whilst the group did their best to ‘phase out’ Best, the final task of sacking him was left to Epstein. Proving to the band he also had a ruthless business streak behind the caring manager façade, he completed the task without batting an eyelid.

Not long after the line-up change, interest from a record label at last started to materialise. After some discussion, Parlophone agreed to a modest recording contract with the Beatles. The deal was not a good one. The band would only receive 1p from each record sale. Other deals set up by Epstein at around this time have been cited as bad business sense too; Lennon and McCartney’s music became property of a separate company, merchandising deals left only a small percentage of profit to the band and there were no advance payments on anything. However, their first single –Love Me Do- rushed to no 17 in the hit parade and soon they found themselves on tour with one of the biggest female singers of the decade; Helen Shapiro. Their next single -Please Please Me- hit the No 1 spot and stayed there for an amazing 7 weeks.

Although he was enjoying the bands gradual rise to fame, Epstein was still haunted by his unfulfilled desires for Lennon. Despite Lennon’s recent marriage, he agreed to take a holiday with Epstein. The holiday was later to be fictionalised into a gay love story for the 1991 film The Hours and Times, although there is scant evidence of a sexual encounter during the trip. Lennon did find the time with Epstein gave him a rare insight into the life of a homosexual man. The result was that when Lennon returned, he penned one of his most memorable and haunting tunes in his portfolio. Hide Your Love Away spoke directly and frankly to the underground gay community of the day and is still a marching cry for LGB’s today across the world.

Brian Epstien2

For the whole of 1963, the Beatles could do no wrong. By the end of the year they had racked up a staggering 20 weeks at the top of the hit parade. At home and abroad, an odd thing was happening to their teenage, female fans. At public appearances and gigs, they seemed to scream uncontrollably, many of them cried, some even passed out. No other band had ever had this effect before. Beatlemania was born!

The UK and Europe now in the grip of Beatlemania, Epstein set his sights on where the big money was; the USA. He managed to get the Beatles a spot on the most popular variety broadcast of the day, The Ed Sullivan Show. A huge 45% of the American population tuned in to see what all the fuss was about. Today, their 1964 broadcast is still the second most watched show in American TV history. The tour which followed the band’s Ed Sullivan Show broadcast was so big, Epstein had to book baseball stadiums to fit everyone in, something that had never been done before.

As the sixties wore on, Epstein started to expand his music management business. He began to look around for new Liverpool talent, spotting Cilla Black’s talent instantly and managing to get her both a glittering music career and prepare the way for a television career too. He also took on several other all-male bands, such as Gerry and the Pacemakers and The Dakotas.

As the Beatles slowly started to take the path to radicalism, spiritual enlightenment and experimental drug taking, so Epstein began to find his own solace in a potent mix of drink and strong prescription drugs. On one night in 1967 after sitting at home completing some paperwork, he took his usual nightly cocktail. The next day, he missed all of his meetings and appointments, something very out of character for Epstein. His housekeeper arrived at his London flat and rang the doorbell, but got no response. She called a few of his friends who arrived immediately. After some considerable time knocking at the door, they decided to break in. Epstein was found lying dead in his bed.His death was recorded as an accidental overdose. After his death, the Beatles decided to manage themselves. But without the calming and guiding force of Epstein, the band succumbed to infighting and began to pursue their own solo projects. By the end of the sixties, the Beatles were no more.

In the aftermath of his death, Epstein’s work was criticised. His image became that of an inexperienced, dodgy-dealing, second-hand car salesman. His memory was very much tarnished, passed-over or forgotten altogether. In recent times, the public have started to look more kindly on his influence upon British life in the sixties. Some have acknowledged that Epstein didn’t take bad deals by choice; he took the only deals available to a band that nobody in the industry had heard of. The fledgling deals done, he then guided that band to become the biggest pop music group the world has ever seen. In the wake of Brian Epstein, managers across the world learned to push their band to fame, whatever it took and to ultimately sacrifice their own career, reputations and lives to the talent of those they represented. Brian Epstein will long be considered as the father of modern music the sixties would rather forget.