Paul McCartney discusses Apple at lunch with EMI chairman and banker

BEATLE PAUL IN CITY TALKS ABOUT MONEY

BEATLE Paul McCartney visited the City yesterday to talk over the Beatles’ money problems. “The problem is that they have so much money coming in,” Lord Poole, the merchant banker, explained last night.

Lord Poole, head of Lazard’s and former Tory Party chairman, was Paul’s host at a “simple, informal lunch” of salmon and chicken at Lazard’s headquarters in Old Broad-street.

Paul wore a bright yellow shirt, for the occasion. “Very colourful,” said Lord Poole politely… He said later: “The Beatles thought they would talk to a merchant bank to see if they could get some advice on handling their tremendous income.”

The Beatles’ business empire spreads over five “Apple” companies, set up to collect royalties from the use of the Beatles name, their film earnings, and their many sidelines.

From Daily Mirror – July 3, 1968

A Beatle in the City

For some time now the Beatles have been strolling unmolested among the pillars of the establishment. They are no longer seen as such a grave threat to traditional values. And yesterday they achieved the ultimate in social acceptance. In the City.

Paul McCartney went to lunch in the dining room of one of Britain’s most respected merchant banks, Lazards, where the more regular visitors are the dignitaries from Rolls-Royce, P&O, English Electric and the countless other giant British companies who are Lazards’ clients.

The man who brought the Beatle to the bank was Sir Joseph Lockwood, whose Electric and Musical Industries is one of Lazards’ clients. E.M.I.’s profits have of course benefited in no small way from the success of the Beatles’ records, and Sir Joseph has also struck up a personal friendship with them.

Lord Poole, the chairman of Lazards, stresses that this was “a purely exploratory meeting“. The talk, naturally, covered the Beatles’ sorties into the retail world through the Apple shops. But this was by no means the only subject discussed. Says Lord Poole: “We found Mr. McCartney’s whole approach to life very interesting“.

The Lazards men found the lunch “very exciting” – though they fear that Paul may have thought it rather dull. However, as Lord Poole says: “The handling of that enormous cash flow is a matter of great complexity.” And after all, now that “All you need is love” has put them in the money, who better than a group of square merchant bankers to look after it for them?

From The Times London – July 3, 1968