Uploaded June 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Timestamps:
00:00 - Intro
01:34 - What drove Brian Epstein?
06:00 - Fashioning a myth
08:25 - What attracted the Beatles?
11:05 - Forbidden sexuality
16:33 - Relationship with the Beatles
18:03 - A great mistake
23:03 - Protecting the boys
26:50 - All You Need Is Love
29:12 - Had Brian lived...
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Help us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock going: patreon.com/wordinyourear
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Philip Norman has written books about the Beatles – and John, Paul and George - and now turns the spotlight on the man who launched them and the extreme personal and professional obstacles in the dramatic path of his short life, the man who built a shield around them but couldn't protect himself. We talk to him here about ‘Mr Moonlight: Brian Epstein and the Making of the Beatles’ with particular attention to …
… how he changed Britain’s image and was mortified to get no recognition for it
… the Beatle whose demands he was always fastest to execute
… the level of homophobia and anti-Semitism he had to absorb
… his reckless pursuits in the days when homosexuality could mean life imprisonment
… contract killers, blackmail, rigged roulette wheels and why the Krays said “it wasn’t us” when they heard he’d died
… the way he fashioned his own myth and airbrushed others who’d helped the Beatles succeed
… why McCartney’s 21st birthday party could have ended the band
… his genius (and fraudulence) as a salesman
… the double catastrophe of Brian’s US merchandising deal
… John, Aunt Mimi and “a story about the British class system”
… and the chaperone on George and Pattie’s first date.
Order copies of ‘Mr Moonlight’ here: simonandschuster.co.uk/books/Mr-Moonlight/Philip-Norman/9781398542266
Timestamps:
00:00 - Intro
01:34 - What drove Brian Epstein?
06:00 - Fashioning a myth
08:25 - What attracted the Beatles?
11:05 - Forbidden sexuality
16:33 - Relationship with the Beatles
18:03 - A great mistake
23:03 - Protecting the boys
26:50 - All You Need Is Love
29:12 - Had Brian lived...
----
Help us to keep The Longest Continuous Conversation In Rock going: patreon.com/wordinyourear
----
Philip Norman has written books about the Beatles – and John, Paul and George - and now turns the spotlight on the man who launched them and the extreme personal and professional obstacles in the dramatic path of his short life, the man who built a shield around them but couldn't protect himself. We talk to him here about ‘Mr Moonlight: Brian Epstein and the Making of the Beatles’ with particular attention to …
… how he changed Britain’s image and was mortified to get no recognition for it
… the Beatle whose demands he was always fastest to execute
… the level of homophobia and anti-Semitism he had to absorb
… his reckless pursuits in the days when homosexuality could mean life imprisonment
… contract killers, blackmail, rigged roulette wheels and why the Krays said “it wasn’t us” when they heard he’d died
… the way he fashioned his own myth and airbrushed others who’d helped the Beatles succeed
… why McCartney’s 21st birthday party could have ended the band
… his genius (and fraudulence) as a salesman
… the double catastrophe of Brian’s US merchandising deal
… John, Aunt Mimi and “a story about the British class system”
… and the chaperone on George and Pattie’s first date.
Order copies of ‘Mr Moonlight’ here: simonandschuster.co.uk/books/Mr-Moonlight/Philip-Norman/9781398542266
