This may or may not be a big deal, but Neil Aspinall is stepping down as the head of Apple Corps. (That would be Apple as in Beatles, not computers.)
For hard-core Beatle fanatics, Aspinall looms large in the legend. He shuttled them around in his van when they were just another working band, and famously got lost as he drove them to their audition for EMI. He was a general lackey until Mal Evans came along to take over the position as gofer and whipping boy, at which point Aspinall started ascending the ladder, finally being named by the lads as the head of Apple, their boutique label and corporate entity.
When the band broke up, Aspinall found himself in charge of maintaining their legacy. Due to the unfavorable terms of their initial contract with EMI, Aspinall couldn't prevent, for instance, the occasional use of Beatles music as commercial jingles, but he worked diligently to make sure reissues of older material were perceived as events, and has tried to make sure the band's music is treated as art, not product, which is why he has prevented their music from being available online, or on multi-artist compilation CDs. If you want to hear their music, Aspinall reasoned, you should buy the original albums and hear it the intended context.
He's made some missteps--what the hell is the deal with that Cirque Du Soleil thing?--but Aspinall has proved that the trust placed in him by the lads was not misplaced. He's done their name proud.
Aspinall's replacement is Jeff Jones, a former exec at Sony Music, who among other things was responsible for that label's excellent Legacy series of reissues. Any guy who could put together a comprehensive Moby Grape best-of is okay in my book, but Jones is just another music biz guy, not a member of the family. Aspinall could stay on good terms with The Beatles and their extended families because, damn it, he was there, and knew how to keep the peace. With someone else in charge, the fractious harmony may be disturbed, and more interpersonal rows may become the order of the day. More distressingly, will Jones seek to protect their image, or turn them into mere commodities?
It's impossible to know, of course, but this Beatlemaniac is not optimistic. We'll miss you, Neil.
