Brian Epstein Radio Interview 1964

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hamilton_square
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Brian Epstein Radio Interview 1964

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http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b05s8j39

If any problems accessing the audio recording via the above BBC programme link then a MP3 audio recording of the 30-minute interview with Brian Epstein can be listened to and / or downloaded from …

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwzjBT ... sp=sharing

First broadcast on BBC Home Service Radio in 1964 as part of the “Frankly Speaking” series of occasional radio interviews with well-known personalities of the day. Though, in the case of the then 29-year old Brian Epstein, (not so) Frankly Speaking might have been a more apt title given the illegality and sensitivity of the prevailing British social climate regarding issues of homosexuality and religion. The interviewer was Bill Grundy, who as presenter of Granada Television’s People and Places introduced, on 17 October 1962, the first ever appearance on television of the Beatles performing on stage at the Cavern.

It is very noticeable to my tuned-to-British-English ear that Brian Epstein is speaking with a well-refined and practiced English accent known as Received Pronunciation (RP for short). When listening to the interview, compare it to that of interviewer, Bill Grundy, who speaks with a neutral North of England accent. It is estimated that less than 5% of the British population speak with a RP accent. It’s a British-English speaking way very much associated with a privileged English public school education here in the UK – for an English Public School read Private / Independent School in the US. It’s also the way that acting students attending London’s Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts (RADA) were trained to speak up to the end of the 1950s. Brian Epstein had both a privileged English public school education and an 18-month stint at RADA.

I can still remember the first time I ever laid eyes on Brian Epstein. It was one 1962 evening inside the Majestic Ballroom on Conway Street, Birkenhead. The Beatles (with Pete Best on drums) were playing and I was a 16-year old member of the audience. Epstein was standing to one-side of the audience, with his back against the wall, watching both the stage and the audience. He stood out like a bit of a store thumb with his short well-groomed hair, smart dark suit, white shirt and dark tie. As I didn’t have any idea who he was because he didn’t look like any of the regular security staff I was used to seeing patrolling around the audience perimeters. So, during a lull, I asked a couple of others I knew “who is that over there by the wall!” I remember some girl eventually told me who he was. I wasn’t really any the wiser for being told until a while later when it dawned on me he was one of the furniture shop Epsteins who were better known ‘round Birkenhead & District for selling furniture on easy credit terms (known in the local slang as buying something ‘on the knock’ – meaning the knock on the door when the collecting agent of the seller would call for the weekly payment).

Re: Bill Grundy
The television broadcasting career of Bill Grundy was as good as ended on 01 December 1976, when apparently under the influence of alcohol, he conducted a live televised interview with the Sex Pistols that has since gone down in the annals of British television history as one of the worst interviews seen up to that time …

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