A Rediscovered Address Book Unlocks the World of The Beatles — With a Little Help From a New Romantic

The singer-songwriter Gary Kemp is crying in his bedroom. His wife, Lauren, walks in. “Oh my God, Gary — what on earth has happened?” Gary points to the Beatles biography he has just been reading. “John Lennon has just met Paul McCartney,” he says, his voice trembling.His wife looks at him in utter amazement. “You have got to be kidding,” she says. But he isn’t. “I can’t help it,”’ Mr. Kemp candidly admits. “Every time I read about that moment in 1957, I think if that hadn’t happened, I wouldn’t be sitting here today.”“Here” is a beautiful house in one of London’s most desirable neighborhoods; film director Guy Ritchie lives opposite. We’re seated in Gary’s kitchen to discuss his remarkable new book about the Beatles’s manager, Brian Epstein, entitled “1967 – The World of Brian Epstein and The Beatles.” Simon Halfon, the book’s designer and creative partner, joins us.It’s fair to say that Mr. Kemp isn’t someone you would immediately associate with the band that changed the world. His band, Spandau Ballet, were pioneers of the New Romantic movement — dubbed “New Wave” in America — which emerged from London clubs such as the Blitz. One suspects that the Fab Four’s music wasn’t exactly a staple of those gatherings.However, the 67-year-old grew up in the Beatles’ era, and their influence has never been far away. ‘For me, there’s never been a time when I haven’t been aware of the Beatles,” he said. “I had the ‘Beatles for Sale’ album, and I just pored over it for years and years. I have a vague memory of their famous appearance on the London Palladium show — something you can sort of relate to. My dad would have been into them because of their suits. But when they split up, that was it. It was all about looking forward in those days.”In 1982, Mr. Kemp watched the band’s “Let It Be” film on BBC television. It was an experience that would change his life. “I was the songwriter for Spandau Ballet at the time,” he said. “We were known, but we weren’t a national name.”That was about to change. Watching the film, Mr. Kemp was struck by Lennon singing the opening of “I Dig a Pony,” repeatedly stretching out the word “I.” He picked up his guitar and began to sing the opening of a song of his own.‘Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah… I know this much to be true…’That song was “True,” the single that would propel Spandau Ballet to worldwide fame. Decades later, it remains one of Kemp’s most enduring creations, continuing to generate him handsome royalties. The Beatles really dd change his life.In the 1990s, thanks to bands such as Oasis and the release of the “Anthology” series on TV and vinyl, the Beatles became hip once again. Gary found himself hooked by their music and their story.“For me, it became archaeological,” Mr. Kemp said. “I’ve got to learn about this. I have to understand it. Then you become moved by it. It’s that push and pull between John and Paul. I can see John always trying to catch Paul up, and then suddenly he leaps ahead and writes ‘Strawberry Fields Forever.’ You become fascinated by the journey, by how quickly they go from ‘Twist and Shout’ to ‘Tomorrow Never Knows.’“That moment when Paul meets John is so important to all of us being here today. The British Invasion, and then the second British Invasion, wouldn’t have happened without that moment. But beyond even that, I don’t think we would know John, Paul, George, and Ringo the way we know them today if it hadn’t been for Brian Epstein. He did so much for them. When you are in a band you have to have a uniformity. You’ve got to look like a gang and they pioneered that. And they sang with an English accent, as opposed to the Rolling Stones who sounded American.”Karwai Tang/WireImageSuch was Gary Kemp’s fascination with pop music history that one night he found himself browsing an online Sotheby’s auction. The item for sale was Brian Epstein’s 1967 address book. “I don’t buy famous guitars or anything like that,” Mr. Kemp said. “In fact, I’ve thrown most of my own stuff away over the years. Unfortunately, I wish I’d kept a lot of it.“So I bought the book for more money than I’d expected to pay. Then it just sat in my safe. I’d shown it to a few people over the years, and then Simon came round last year. I’d forgotten what a Beatles nut he was. As he was about to leave, I suddenly said, ‘Hang on, I’ve got to show you something.’ It was very ‘Columbo.’ ‘Just one more thing…'”Mr. Halfon laughs and nods. “I thought he was going to show me some old Spandau Ballet outfits,” he says. “Then he brought out the address book and I was absolutely amazed.”The book, which is published next January, proved far more than a collection of names, phone numbers and addresses. “On the way home I rang Gary and said, ‘There’s a book in this,'” Mr. Halfon recalled. “Because that address book isn’t just Brian Epstein’s contact list. It’s a roadmap to the sixties. Every name opens a door to another story. Why is this person in here? How did they know Brian? What connected them to the Beatles? It became a mystery we wanted to solve.”So began a remarkable piece of historical detective work. “Gary, God bless him, really rolled up his sleeves and got stuck in,” said Mr. Halfon. “The deeper we dug, the more fascinating it became.”1967, let us not forget, was the year of Brian Epstein’s death from an accidental overdose of pills and alcohol. It was the year of “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” and the Summer of Love. But it was also the year that Epstein began to panic. In August 1966, the Beatles stopped touring and retreated into Abbey Road Studios. At the same time, Brian’s management contract with the band was approaching its end. He worried incessantly that his value to the Beatles had diminished. With no tours to organise, his role as manager had shrunk considerably.The prospect that one day the Beatles might dispense with his services troubled him deeply. It was an anxiety that sat at the centre of his life during his final year and influenced many of his actions. As the band grew increasingly self-sufficient in the studio, the man who had discovered them, shaped their image, and guided their rise to global fame, struggled to define his place within their world.With that as the book’s engine, “1967” becomes a wonderfully comprehensive and unconventional biography of Brian Epstein. Within its pages are names that lead either into the world of the Beatles or the hidden world of Epstein’s private life as a homosexual in a time when it was still illegal.Lovers, friends, celebrities, restaurateurs, recording studios, photographers, writers, actors, music industry executives, promoters, television bookers, presenters, pop stars, and songwriters all appear. By tracing Epstein’s relationships with these people, Messrs. Kemp and Halfon have created a smart and ingenious way of telling his story.To bring that story to life, Gary immersed himself in Beatles scholarship. He read every major Beatles biography and spent countless hours on research sites and music press archives. Some entries required detective work. Through birth and property records, for example, he tracked down a woman who had once owned Brian’s former house. Other names, such as Beatles roadie Mal Evans and filmmaker Orson Welles, required less explanation. “I describe it as an advent calendar,” Mr. Kemp said. “You open it up and it is all heading for August 1967 and Brian’s death in Belgravia.”Mr. Kemp’s research was exhaustive. In a Chicago newspaper, he found references to one of Epstein’s former lovers. “I know it’s him,” Mr. Kemp said. “There’s a tiny report saying that this man, at the same address listed in Brian’s book, was arrested for stealing a car at five o’clock in the morning. He defended himself by claiming he was a repo man. Then there was another man I tracked down through a local newspaper. At one point he was arrested for being ‘abroad in the night’. You can imagine what that meant in those days.”The very reason Kemp was able to purchase Epstein’s 1967 address book points to the manager’s chaotic private life. In 1964, Epstein began a relationship with an actor named John Roy Gillespie. It was a volatile affair fuelled, as Kemp writes, by pills, cognac, sex, and rage.The relationship ended, but during the Beatles’s final American tour in August 1966, Gillespie reappeared in Los Angeles and stole Epstein’s briefcase. It was later returned after Gillespie was reportedly paid £3,000. Among the items believed to be missing was Epstein’s address book.For all the meticulous research, this book contains very human moments exposing a deeply vulnerable man. Under the entry for his mother, Queenie Epstein, he returns to Liverpool in the summer of 1967 to attend his father’s funeral. Mr. Kemp writes: “For one week in Woolton, amid his mother’s grief and the kindness of local people, Brian was simply her son again. Five weeks later, Queenie would be arranging his funeral.”Later, under “K” for Kinn, Kemp uncovers the friendship between Epstein and Berenice Kinn, the wife of NME publisher Maurice Kinn. On one occasion in Los Angeles, both parties were staying at the same hotel. At eleven o’clock one evening Epstein telephoned Berenice and told her he desperately needed someone to talk to. In his hotel room, she held him for four hours while he tried to cope with the pain of yet another failed relationship. Berenice always believed that the burden of being both Jewish and gay weighed heavily on him. It was a conflict, she felt, from which he never fully escaped.The book is beautifully designed and packed with little-known photographs, documents, and artefacts. Mr. Halfon’s talents as a designer are every bit as impressive as Mr. Kemp’s detective work.One question hovered over the entire project. Did Brian Epstein’s address book contain the Beatles’s phone numbers? Throughout the research process, Mr. Kemp wondered the same thing. “Then I found a page with nothing but initials and telephone numbers,” he said. “Sure enough, they all related to the various residences of the band. I was so happy when I solved that particular mystery.”As I prepare to leave, it strikes me that the book’s greatest achievement is its unlikely fusion of two seemingly distant worlds: The New Romantic movement and the one created by four lads from Liverpool. This was the art of the Beatles, and this is how Messrs. Kemp and Halfon have combined to create something genuinely original.I say my goodbyes but, in true Columbo style, pause at the door. “Gary, just one more thing. If the Blitz Club had ever played a Beatles song, which one would it have been?” He doesn’t hesitate. “Tomorrow Never Knows.”

A Rediscovered Address Book Unlocks the World of The Beatles — With a Little Help From a New Romantic

A Rediscovered Address Book Unlocks the World of The Beatles — With a Little Help From a New Romantic

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