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How roadie Mal Evans gave Paul McCartney the idea for Sgt Pepper
It is a mark of how big The Beatles became that they hold their own cultural fort in society. They are a transcendent artistic force that goes beyond the art itself. The recent Get Back documentary was a paradigm for this—it widened The Beatles universe once more and brought up new beloved characters like the roadie Mal Evans. I mean, how many bands have had a publicly beloved roadie in their ranks?
In truth, Evans was largely beloved because of his jovial presence and no doubt the band themselves felt the same way about having him around. However, he is about to hold even higher esteem in a creative regard when you consider that he inadvertently provided The Beatles with the impetus for their avant-garde chapter as they borrowed ideas from the arthouse to make the next page of rock a little more flowery.
It is also fittingly a comical tale to boot. The premise is already quite bizarre: Paul McCartney was flying with Mal Evans from Bordeaux to Kenya to break up his hectic schedule with a much-needed safari holiday. I’m not sure why that seems unusual but a young ‘Macca’ escaping the counterculture revolution to revel in the beauty of the Amboseli Park in full bush regalia is a mirthful image.
And it is so like ‘Macca’ that while on route he came up with a masterpiece through a simple misunderstanding thanks to the loveably mumbling Mal Evans. As McCartney explained in a recent interview with Howard Stern: “I was coming back on a plane, and I was with our roadie Mal [Evans]. He said, ‘Well, pass the salt and pepper’. And I thought he said, ‘Sgt Pepper’. I said, ‘That’s great! Wait a minute, hold that right there.’ So, that was the idea planted.” Who was this mystic character who Evans was randomly mumbling about? ‘Macca’s’ mind whirled like a kaleidoscopic whirligig.
And what a revolutionary idea it was. Alter-egos and concept albums had already been knocking about in the advancing frontier of modern music, but The Beatles did what they did best with it—they took somebody’s invention of the pie, paired it with simple old mash and poured their own secret recipe gravy on top.
As McCartney continues: “Then because I’d been listening to all this alternative music, I thought, ‘What about that for an idea, we’ll pretend we’re another band while we’re making this album’, and the idea was, ‘When you walk up to this microphone, John, you won’t be John Lennon you’ll be a guy out of this group so you can do anything you want’.” This liberated move produced an album that aimed to push boundaries, and it was spawned by a comical Abbott and Costello scene.
As for Mal Evans he simply humbly seasoned his plate and forgot about the impetus he inadvertently provided. Nevertheless, his integral role in structuring the ‘Fab Four’ should not be forgotten. His pivotal homely influence was anything but inadvertent. Prior to The Beatles, Evans had worked as a telephone engineer, occasionally picking up part-time work as a bouncer at the Cavern Club. It was here where he met the young lads from Liverpool and their manager Brian Epstein later hired him to help them on the road.
Thus, when things grew strange for the scouse scallies, there was something grounding about good old Mal. In tandem with Neil Aspinall, Evans became a central figure in the management of the band and his jovial approach helped to keep things on an even keel when they could’ve otherwise turned hairy.
It was also a relationship that ran both ways. During his time with the history-making band, Evans also picked up a few musical tips and he eventually remained in the industry after their split as a record producer. In fact, he even scored a top ten hit with the Badfinger tune ‘No Matter What’, proving the mixing bowl of music that The Beatles helped to stir.
However, it sadly took a tragic turn as his career began to slide in 1976 and it affected his mental health. On the morning of January 5th, Evans was so sullen that his girlfriend Fran Hughes phoned Beatles memoirist John Hoernie and asked him to come to the apartment in the hopes that he could be talked out of his slump. Hoernie arrived to find Evan “really doped-up and groggy”. Things then took a turn for the worse when Evans became agitated and brandished what turned out to be an air rifle.
Hoernie phoned the police to try and get them to defuse the hostile situation informing them that Evans was on Valium and wafting a rifle around in a state of confusion. When they arrived, Evans began to point the air rifle at them and refused to lower his weapon. The police at this stage were apparently unaware that it was merely an air rifle and they opened fire on Evans after a stand-off. Six shots were fired and four of them struck and killed Evans.
But beyond this tragic end, the legacy of Evans as a smiling influence is the one that rightfully endures. It only adds to his charismatic aura that he was able to coax creative ideas like Sgt Peppers whether inadvertent or otherwise.
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