‘Fifth Beatle’ Neil Aspinall fights for his life

 

For more than 40 years, Neil Aspinall controlled the vast empire of the Beatles.

A quiet, bespectacled accountant, he was their chief confidant and business adviser, took part in some of their more rebellious pranks and even sang backing vocals on Yellow Submarine.

But his real genius was as a money man and in 1968 he took over Apple Corps, the company the Beatles had set up to manage their business interests.

He took computer giant Apple Inc to court three times over image infringement and, in winning two of the suits, the Beatles’ company was awarded more than £13.5million. 

But Mr Aspinall, 65, is believed to be suffering from lung cancer and has flown to New York from his London home for treatment at Manhattan’s prestigious Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Centre.

Paul McCartney has flown to New York to be at the bedside of the man known as “the Fifth Beatle” who was last night fighting for his life in hospital.

McCartney and Aspinall have been friends since they were schoolboys in Liverpool.”

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