A is for Apple

John Reed salutes The Beatles’ final flourish of creativity

It’s Cannes Festival, May 2010. Liam Gallagher is talking Apple in earnest, fronting out a media glare with characteristic edgy Manc cool, from leopard-pattern loafers up to black sunglasses and a Mod barnet Macca would have been proud of. “This film ain’t just about The Beatles, know what I mean”, proclaims Gallagher. “Jackie Lomax and all that… that’s what we’ve got to get across.”

The ex-Oasis singer – who owed more than a passing debt to one John Lennon – is talking about plans to adapt Richard DiLello’s highly entertaining ode to Apple, The Longest Cocktail Party, into a movie. Our Liam’s intentions seem honourable: “The Beatles aren’t gonna be in this film, mate. There are gonna be no wigs, it’s about the characters behind the scene and that’s where all these Beatle films have gone wrong.” Alongside Gallagher is producer Andrew Eaton, who was behind 2002’s 24 Hour Party People, a surprisingly engaging homage to the halcyon days of Factory Records – one of a myriad independents which doffed its cap to the maverick spirit of Apple.

The Longest Cocktail Party is a candid, poignant, highly entertaining first-person account from the label’s ‘House Hippie’. The book was patently popular chez Gallagher, …

by John Reed
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