This is later with Lee Matthews the Lee Matthews podcast war What You Hear Weekday Afternoon's on the Drive. Kenneth Walmack is one of the world's foremost writers and thinkers about everything Beatles. He's written many volumes before about the topic, and his newest creation is Living the Beatles Legend, The Untold Story of mal Evans. Let's start with who Malcolm Evans was, Kenneth Womack. Well, he was the guy who essentially handled all of the needs of the Beatles. He
was their fixer. He was the fellow who set up their equipment tore it down. He was the guy who would stay up all night with him while they mode these amazing recordings. He really was a jack of all trades, and he was there for them throughout the entire time of Beatlemania and beyond. Did he start before the Beatles caught on? Oh? Yes, he had known them them when Pete Best was still in the band in nineteen sixty one, and he was there as they were gearing up for their first number one
Stringles. In fact, he helped with the promotion, and then when things got really hot in summer of sixty three, punintended that mouth stepped up and joined them full time, left his really pretty good job with the British Post Office to help out the boys. How did he meet them initially? Was he just going to maybe one of the clubs where they were performing. Oh? No, He was absolutely at the cavern. Right he went down those steps, He heard the rock and roll and just thought, man, this
is for me. Sounds like Elvis. He loved Elvis like a lot of folks during those days and for now, and that was too much for him to resist. They asked him to be a bouncer because he was a big guy, but only because it would help him get close to the band. It was just so into the music and when it time, because they were so familiar with him and trusted him when the king times more, mal was really the natural choice. The book is about Malcolm Evans, the beatles longtime
roady, personal assistant and devoted friend. Kenneth Womack is the author of this little known chapter in the life of the of the Beatles, living the Beatles legend, The untold story of mal Evans. What is it about the Beatles music? I mean, I'll tell you what I experienced when I first heard it, and it was early seventies. Sister had just bought the Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club band album, the Beg's remake for that film that they did.
I heard the music and I thought, well, let me go back and hear the original, and I started looking and listening in the original. And I shared a house with a lot of people, so I would have to put on the headphones to listen to music so as not to disturb everybody. But I think putting on those headphones and hearing what they were doing engineering one was for that time for me was Wow, this is amazing. The production value of these songs. Yeah, they are incredibly well made. You
know, we can chalk that up to George Martin. You listen to the Beatles and then you compare them to most, if not all, the acts in the nineteen sixties. They just sound better. And a lot of that has to do with working at EMI in Northwest London. It also has to
do with George Martin, who is just the perfect producer for them. But those recordings are going to stand the test of time because they don't sound like some scratchy outtake from you know, Days Gone by they are very well recorded, and of course then you throw in the fact that these guys could really
play, and you've got something. Well, it's amazing too. None of them are classically trained, yet a lot of the production value of the music was I think that's where Martin came in, and because he had recorded so many classical recordings, and when the Beatles would say we want it to sound like this, he would say, yes, I know exactly how to do
that. But back to mal Evans, which is what the book is about, Kenneth Walmack is with us, and I guess Mal also had a sense of discretion because you didn't hear that much about him, No, you didn't, and he understood that in ways that again we should be really impressed with, because you know, these were different times. Mal understood his role and he understood that part of his job was to be discreed. Like you said, if part of his job was to hang back so that you know,
the Beatles would have space, was his job was to make space. His job was to move people along. But at the same time he was very cognizant of not wanting somebody to say, wow, those Beatles treated me really badly. He didn't want those kinds of stories out there, so he would be very careful to ensure that folks felt like they got their money's worth, that they got their times worth. But they didn't. Kenneth Womack, he's
one of the world's most foremost writers and thinkers about the Beatles. And this book is about the living of the Beatles. Legend the untold story of Malcolm Evans, one of their confidants and roadies. And did he endeared himself to all of the members? Then? I gather not just one or two.
Oh No, he was very close with all four of them. When the touring days thankfully ended in nineteen sixty six, his family and him moved from Liverpool down to London so they could be in the center of where all the boys lived. Mal had to have working relationships with everybody, and he was so good at it. They would sometimes get jealous of each other. Whoever
had mal really storing that particular day. He also contributed to speaking of the production value of the songs, He contributed to some of the background instrumentalists and lyrists. Yeah, he played on a good two dozen songs or so. You know. He would help out if they needed a word here and there, he would. You know, somebody needed to play a piano note, he would do it. You know, it didn't matter. He plays on
that gigantic chord. At the end of the day in the Light, oh Mal was they just had so few people in their orbit, which was probably smart of them in retrospect, because you know, if you don't have an entourage that you're constantly traveling and what round with, you get more work done. You're not having to tend to the entourage. So you know, having only Mal and Neil asp and all the other the other road manager with them
meant that they got a lot more done. You mentioned that chord. That's one of my favorite production values because I've listened to it again and again and again and you don't even hear any breathing, which is incredible considering how they would record songs back then. That's yeah, a day in the Light. I taught it last week in class and what the it's a map work.
It is just incredible. You can hear Mal counting down the measures before the during the orchestration, because they needed a way to get from the verses to the middle section with McCartney. What what a Tube. I mean that thing is, that's one of the great works, along with The Wasteland and you know Ulystes of the twentieth century, Kenneth Wolmack. The name of the book is Living the Beatles Legend, The Untold Story of mal Evans, available everywhere
you get books. And we thank you for joining us today, Thanks for listening to Later with Lee Matthews, the Lee Matthews Podcast, and remember to listen to The Drive Live weekday afternoons from five to seven and iHeartMedia Presentation