Quarentena Ediciones publishes journalist Tomás Crespo’s editorial debut, a detailed description of The Beatles business venture

On all the re-launches of The Beatles records, you can find the image of a big and magnificent nearly-round apple: the symbol of Apple Corps. But… what was Apple in fact?

“It’s a company we’re setting up which involves records, films, electronics, which make records and films work, and manufacturing (…) It’s a system where by people who just want to make a film about anything don’t have to go on their knees in somebody’s office, probably yours”, spitted John Lennon during the press conference where the company was introduced. “Some kind of western communism”, added Paul McCartney. Was it?

In May 1968, The Beatles set up a business conglomerate named Apple Corps: they opened a boutique in London, financed movies, recruited new talents for their label, and published themselves for Apple Records long-remembered LP’s such as “The White Album”, “Abbey Road” or “Let it be”. They also quarreled and ended up with the band… but still, they continued a few more years with the activities of Apple, and started their four solo careers under the protection of the company they previously had created.

“La manzana envenenada”, recently published by Quarentena Ediciones, remembers all those years in which The Beatles first personal tensions, that later turned out to be an open war, matched up with the tough adventure of running a hippie-inspired company, a “western communism”… where not everything was as flowered as it was supposed to be.

You can buy the book at the Barcelona Beatles Weekend Shop