Alistair Taylor
| Alistair Taylor | |
|---|---|
Alistair Taylor on Visual Radio #81
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | James Alistair Taylor |
| Also known as | Mr. Fixit |
| Born |
21 June 1935 Runcorn, Cheshire, England |
| Died | 9 June 2004 (aged 68) Chesterfield, Derbyshire, England |
| Occupation(s) | Personal assistant, general manager |
| Years active | 1961–1969 |
| Labels | Apple |
James Alistair Taylor (21 June 1935 – 9 June 2004) was the English personal assistant of Brian Epstein, the manager of the Beatles. As an employee at Epstein's company NEMS, Taylor accompanied him when he first saw the Beatles perform, at the Cavern Club in Liverpool on 9 November 1961. Taylor subsequently worked as the group's so-called "Mr. Fixit", devising escape routes from crazed fans and assisting the band members in purchasing property. He later became general manager of Apple Corps but was fired soon after Allen Klein arrived to address the company's financial problems. Taylor published various memoirs of his years in the Beatles' employ, including Yesterday: The Beatles Remembered and With the Beatles.
Born in Runcorn, Cheshire, Taylor served his time in the Royal Air Force before working in a series of jobs as a mover, timber importer, and docker in the Liverpool Docks, He was then successfully interviewed by Brian Epstein for a job as a salesman at North End Music Stores (NEMS). Epstein liked Taylor so much that he decided to offer him a job as his personal assistant in the shop.
Epstein stated in his 1964 autobiography, A Cellarful of Noise, that he first heard about the Beatles through a customer named Raymond Jones enquiring about "My Bonnie", a single by Tony Sheridan with backing by the group. Taylor later claimed to have invented the name of Raymond Jones and placed an order for "My Bonnie" at the main NEMS shop. As he wrote in The Beatles Book (1997), Taylor thought NEMS was losing sales by not stocking the disc:
The truth is that we were being asked for My Bonnie but no one actually ordered it. Brian would order any record once we had a firm order for it. I thought that we were losing sales and I wrote an order in the book under the name Raymond Jones and, from that moment the legend grew.
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