Mal Evans
Malcolm Frederick Evans was an English road manager and personal assistant employed by the Beatles from 1963 until their break-up in 1970.
In the early 1960s, Evans was employed as a telephone engineer, and he also worked part-time as a bouncer at the Cavern Club. The Beatles' manager, Brian Epstein, later hired Evans as the group's assistant roadie, in tandem with Neil Aspinall. Over time, Evans became a constant companion to the group, being present on all of their tours, and after the Beatles stopped touring in 1966, at nearly all of their recording sessions. As a constant presence, the Beatles occasionally used Evans as an extra musician; he has contributions on most Beatles albums from Rubber Soul onwards. During the final years of the group, and continuing after their break-up in 1970, Evans worked as a record producer and continued to work with the individual Beatles on their solo projects. As a producer, his biggest hit was with Badfinger's top 10 hit "No Matter What".
In 1976, at the age of 40, Evans was shot and killed by police at his home in Los Angeles, when he threatened officers with what turned out to be an air rifle. A decade after his death, his collection of diaries, notebooks and other handwritten documents was discovered, many of which provided key insights into Beatles recording sessions and internal band dynamics, though the disposition of these writings has been a source of some legal controversy in the intervening decades.
Early life
Malcolm Frederick Evans was born in Liverpool to Frederick and Joan Evans and grew up in Waldgrave Road, Wavertree, Liverpool, along with his three sisters Pam, June and Barbara. He could also play the banjo.What is known about him starts in 1961, when Evans married a Liverpool girl, Lily, after meeting her at a funfair in New Brighton opposite Liverpool on the Wirral. Their first child, Gary, was born in the same year. Their daughter, Julie, was born five years later in 1966.
The Beatles were the resident group at Liverpool's Cavern Club when Evans first heard them perform during his lunch break. He was then living in Hillside Road, Allerton and working as a telephone engineer for the Post Office. He became a committed fan, even though his musical hero at the time was Elvis Presley.
He first befriended George Harrison, who put forward Evans' name to the Cavern Club's manager, Ray McFall, when he needed a doorman. The 27-year-old Evans was accepted, even though he wore thick-framed glasses, but mainly because of his burly frame, which was an asset when holding back unruly fans at the Cavern's door. He was later nicknamed the "Gentle Giant" and "Big Mal". In 1962, Evans wrote that it was "a wonderful year", as he had Lily, his son Gary, a house, a car, and he was working at the Cavern Club, which he wrote into a 1963 Post Office Engineering Union diary, which also had information concerning Ohm's law and Post Office pay rates.
The Beatles
On 11 August 1963, Evans began working for the Beatles in the combined role of roadie/bodyguard. Evans and Aspinall's duties were to drive the van while on tour, and to set up and test the equipment. Evans' telephone engineering experience was valuable in setting up and maintaining the electrical equipment. The Beatles were being driven back to Liverpool from London by Evans through heavy fog on 21 January 1963, when the windscreen was hit by a pebble and glazed over; Evans had to break a large hole in it to see the road ahead. This was in winter, so the group had to lie one on top of the other in the back with a bottle of whisky and try to stay warm in the freezing temperatures, something Paul McCartney later referred to as a "Beatle sandwich".Evans had many other duties as well as acting as a bodyguard; he was sent to buy anything they needed, such as clothing, meals, or drinks. If John Lennon said "Socks, Mal", Evans would have to rush to a local store and buy pairs of cotton socks for him. In 1967, Evans wrote in his diaries that he "bought Ringo Starr|Ringo some undies for his visit to the doctor". Although Beatles' memorabilia are in continuous demand, a full set of autographs by all four could be forgeries: Evans and Aspinall used to sign many of them when Lennon, McCartney, Harrison and Starr were too busy.
The Beatles started their first European tour in January 1964, and Evans was allowed to take his wife and son with him, but was involved in a "big punch-up" with photographers in Paris while protecting them. Epstein's associate, Alistair Taylor, once asked him why he was driving an Austin Princess limousine, rather than a Daimler, a Bentley, or a Rolls-Royce. Evans explained that the Beatles were forced to choose an Austin, because they had tested every car to see how wide the doors would open as they had to "dive into the car" to escape their fans.
United States and the Philippines
The Beatles, and Evans, were introduced to cannabis by Bob Dylan in New York City in 1964. McCartney and Evans, both high for the first time, frantically searched until they found a pencil and paper so McCartney could write down his cannabis-influenced thoughts about life. He entrusted the writing to Evans, only to discover the next morning that he had only written, with no further explanation, "There are seven levels!" He later guessed it was rooted in a general concept shared by some world religions although he admitted he would not have known anything about them at that point. The Beatles attended "The Night of 100 Stars" at the London Palladium on 23 July 1964, and during the show Evans constantly supplied them with whisky and Coca-Cola, which he delivered to them balanced on a wooden oar he had found backstage.The Beatles were always assisted by Evans on their American tours, and when they played two shows at the Hollywood Bowl in the summer of 1965 Epstein arranged for them all to have a four-day rest in a luxurious horseshoe-shaped house on stilts in Benedict Canyon off Mulholland Drive in Los Angeles. They spent their time there smoking cannabis joints. Evans and Lennon swam in the large outdoor swimming pool with cigarettes in their mouths, to see who could keep them alight the longest. After recording sessions in London, Lennon, Harrison, and Starr would be chauffeured back to their houses in the "stockbroker belt" of southern England, but Evans, Aspinall, and McCartney would drive to a late-night club to eat steak, chips, and mushy peas. The Bag O'Nails nightclub was one of their favourites, at 8 Kingly Street in Soho, London, as it also presented live music. In his memoirs Evans wrote: 19 January and 20: "Ended up smashed in Bag O'Nails with Paul and Neil . Quite a number of people attached themselves, oh that it would happen to me... freak out time baby for Mal."
In July 1966, the Beatles toured the Philippines, and unintentionally snubbed the nation's first lady, Imelda Marcos. After the supposed snub was broadcast on Philippine television and radio, all of the Beatles' police protection disappeared. The group and their entourage had to make their way to Manila airport on their own. At the airport, Evans was beaten and kicked, and the group members were pushed and jostled about by a hostile crowd. Once the group boarded the plane, Tony Barrow and Evans were ordered off, and Evans said, "Tell Lil I love her", thinking he was about to be jailed or killed. Epstein was forced to give back all the money that the group had earned while they were there before being allowed on the plane.
Kenya and ''Sgt. Pepper''
The Beatles' last concert was at Candlestick Park, San Francisco, on 29 August 1966, but Evans continued to work for them in the studio, and to run errands. After returning to London following their last American tour, McCartney went by himself on holiday to France, but asked to meet Evans in Bordeaux, at the Grosse Cloche church. At exactly the pre-arranged time of one o'clock, Evans was standing under the church clock when McCartney arrived. They then drove to Madrid together but, after feeling bored, McCartney phoned Epstein's office in London and asked to be booked on a safari holiday in Kenya. When they arrived they visited the Amboseli Reserve at the foot of Mount Kilimanjaro, and also stayed at the exclusive Treetops Hotel, where the rooms are built on the branches of trees.They spent their final night in Nairobi at a YMCA, before they returned to London. The Beatles—according to McCartney—needed a new name, so on the flight back to England, Evans and McCartney played with words to see if they could come up with something new. Evans innocently asked McCartney what the letters "S" and "P" stood for on the pots on their meal trays, and McCartney explained that it was for salt and pepper, which led to the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band name. They arrived back in London on 19 November 1966. Before the cover of Sgt. Pepper could be completed by Peter Blake, Evans and Aspinall were sent out to find photographs of all of the people that were to be shown on the front cover.
In the spring of 1967—after the album was completed—Evans flew with McCartney to Los Angeles to see McCartney's then-girlfriend, Jane Asher, who was acting there with the Old Vic theatre company. The three of them went on a trip to the Rockies, returning to LA in Frank Sinatra's jet. Evans: "We left Denver in Frank Sinatra's Lear Jet, which he very kindly loaned us. A beautiful job with dark black leather upholstery and, to our delight, a well-stocked bar." When they were back in LA, they were invited to visit the house of Michelle and John Phillips, from the Mamas & the Papas. Brian Wilson was also there, as he was working on the Beach Boys' Smile album. Evans wrote about singing "On Top of Old Smokey" with McCartney and Wilson, but was not impressed by Wilson's avant-garde attitude to music: "Brian then put a damper on the spontaneity of the whole affair by walking in with a tray of water-filled glasses, trying to arrange it into some sort of session."