The Beatles played at the opening of
the Casbah Coffee Club on 29 August 1959, which was in the cellar of
Mona Best's house. Aspinall later rented a room in the house and became very good friends with then-Beatle
Pete Best. The Beatles had previously used public transport to travel to local bookings, however by February 1961, they were playing two or three shows per night at different locations needing their own transportation. Best asked Aspinall to be a part-time
road manager for the band, so Aspinall bought an "old, grey and maroon Commer van" for £80, and charged each of the group five
shillings (60d [old pence], or 25p [new post-1971 pence]) per concert. Harrison later said: "Our early van became the centre of attention every time it pulled up. It was brush-painted red and grey and from head to foot was covered in graffiti – girls' names, and things like 'I love you, John'. It looked interesting, but the moment anybody saw it they would feel free to write all over it." The Beatles returned from their second trip to
Hamburg in July 1961, and Aspinall left his job to become their permanent road manager, as he was earning more money driving them around than he was earning by being an accountant. The Beatles were driven down to London by Aspinall on New Year's Eve in 1962, for their
Decca audition, but Aspinall lost his way, and the trip took ten hours. They arrived at 10 o'clock at night, and John Lennon said that they arrived "just in time to see the drunks jumping in the
Trafalgar Square fountains." In 1963, Aspinall was joined by
Mal Evans, who also helped set up the Beatles' equipment (and acted as a bodyguard) which freed Aspinall to concentrate on other duties, like arranging appointments or buying things for them, such as suits, boots, meals, or drinks. Best was sacked from the Beatles on 16 August 1962, by manager
Brian Epstein acting on behalf of Lennon, McCartney and Harrison. Accounts vary of Aspinall during this event. According to
Mersey Beat editor
Bill Harry, Aspinall was waiting downstairs in Epstein's
NEMS record shop, and was the first one to talk to the by then ex-Beatle in the Grapes pub, across from the
Cavern. Aspinall was furious and said that he would stop working for the band as well, but Best strongly advised him not to. However, in a 2007 interview, Aspinall provided Beatles historian
Mark Lewisohn with a distinctly different version of events, saying that he was physically present when Epstein sacked Best, that he told Best unprompted that he planned to continue working for the band, and that on his first subsequent encounter with the other band members, their first question to him was how Best had taken being sacked. Aspinall stayed with the band, ending his affair with Best's mother, a relationship that had led to the birth of baby Vincent "Roag" Best. Aspinall denied the story for years before publicly acknowledging that he was indeed Roag's father. Aspinall worked closely with Epstein, who provided weekly notes for Aspinall to give to the group members detailing their concert appearances and the fees they would receive. The Beatles had to travel in Aspinall's van along with their equipment, but British roads in the early 1960s were notoriously
pot-holed and slow to navigate. Ringo Starr remembered that the travelling never seemed to stop during the early tours of Britain in Aspinall's van, as they would be driven up and down Great Britain with one of the group in the passenger seat, but with the other three on a hard bench seat in the back.
Personal assistant Aspinall's job as personal assistant consisted of driving to concerts and meetings, but mostly meant just being there whenever someone needed something. Aspinall went on the first trip to the United States, and when George Harrison became ill with a fever and had a temperature of , he was ordered to stay in bed, so Aspinall stood in for him for
The Ed Sullivan Show camera rehearsals; however, Harrison was back in time for the final shooting. Before the cover of ''
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band'' could be completed by
Peter Blake, Aspinall was sent out to find photographs of all of the people that were to be shown on the front cover. Aspinall suggested the idea of Sgt. Pepper being the
compere, who would introduce the group, and the reprise of the title song near the end of the album. After recording sessions, Lennon, Harrison and Starr would be chauffeured back to their houses in the '
stockbroker belt' of
Southern England, but Aspinall would often drive McCartney and Evans in an
Austin Princess limousine to a late-night club to eat.
The Bag O'Nails nightclub was one of their favourites, at 8
Kingly Street in
Soho, London, as it also presented live music. They would eat steak, chips and
mushy peas, but Aspinall would always take out a
torch from his pocket (in the dimly lit club) to inspect the portions on each of their plates. This was to make sure that the portions were exactly as they had ordered, which McCartney always found amusing. Although Harrison, McCartney and Starr had passed their driving tests, Lennon didn't pass his driving test until 1965; however, he rarely drove himself due to being a notoriously bad driver by poorly navigating roads and failing to notice other traffic, and as a result, he was usually chauffeured to and from recording sessions and appointments by his own personal chauffeur.
Musical contributions Although not a musician, Aspinall made minor contributions to a handful of the Beatles' recordings. He played a
tamboura on "
Within You Without You", harmonica on "
Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!", some percussion on "
Magical Mystery Tour", and was among the many participants singing on the chorus of "
Yellow Submarine".
Apple Corps executive In 1978, Aspinall instigated the first of
three lawsuits on behalf of Apple Corps against Apple Computer, Inc. (now known as
Apple, Inc.) for
trademark infringement. The first suit settled in 1981 with an amount of £41,000 being paid to Apple by Apple Computer. As a condition of the settlement, Apple Computer was allowed to use its logo as long as it did not enter the
music business. The second suit with Apple Computer arose in 1989, when Apple Corps sued Apple Computer over its Apple IIGS (which included a professional synthesiser chip) claiming violation of the 1981 settlement agreement. In 1991, a settlement of £13.5 million was reached. McCartney praised Aspinall for trademarking the Apple name worldwide, and called Aspinall "Mr. X" in the Apple Corps organisation. In September 2003, Apple Computer, Inc. was again sued by Apple Corps, this time for the introduction of the
iTunes Music Store and the
iPod, which Aspinall and Apple Corps believed was a violation of the previous agreement for Apple Computer to not distribute music. The trial began on 27 March 2006 in the UK, and ended on 8 May 2006 in a victory for Apple Computer; the judge ruled the company's
iTunes Music Store did not infringe on the trademark of Apple Corps. Aspinall was also involved in several court cases in which Apple Corps took action against
EMI: In the early 1990s, Aspinall became the executive producer for
The Beatles Anthology; he, producer George Martin, and press officer
Derek Taylor are the only non-Beatles seen in new footage for the documentary. He continued to advise the surviving Beatles, as well as Lennon's and Harrison's estates, and to supervise the marketing of music, music videos and
merchandising. On 10 April 2007, it was announced by Apple that Aspinall had "decided to move on" and
Jeff Jones—a longtime VP at Sony Legacy—was hired as CEO to oversee the back-catalogue. One of Aspinall's final tasks at Apple was to oversee the remastering of The Beatles' back-catalogue for an anticipated 2008 release. ==Personal life and death==