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Author and producer Barry Miles

The Zapple Diaries: The Rise and Fall of the Last Beatles Label.

Barry Miles, a co-founder of International Times, was running the Indica Gallery and Bookshop when Paul McCartney invited him to run Zapple Records, a subsidiary of the Beatles’ Apple Records. In the decades since, Miles has been a prolific writer of books and journalism on countercultural themes from the perspective of one who was well-connected and in the thick of it. His role as manager and producer at Zapple gave him a unique inside view on the Beatles at the height of their fame, and their subsequent disintegration as a band and the chaos and acrimony that surrounded this.

Miles has written his brilliant memoir of this period of his life as a journal. Beautifully designed, packed with contemporary
photographs and memorabilia from his own collection, much of it rare or previously unpublished, The Zapple Diaries: The Rise and Fall of the Last Beatles Label will be welcomed by casual fans and aficionados alike. And it’s not just the Beatles we get to see as they were behind closed doors, away from the limelight and struggling with increasing tensions; Barry Miles hung out with, recorded and befriended a veritable Who’s Who of swinging 60s countercultural artists. For Zapple, Miles recorded Beat Generation poets Richard Brautigan, Charles Bukowski, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Allen Ginsberg, and Michael McClure – but just about everyone who was anyone gets a walk-on part in this unique memoir. Few of the recordings were released before Zapple folded, but some have more recently been issued, and others rest in archives awaiting rediscovery.

‘Fascinating’ – John Clarke, The Independent

The book was featured in the Independent (27 October 2015) with a review by John Clarke which you can view below. Far from being a mere footnote to the Beatles’ history, The Zapple Diaries is a brilliant read and a compelling piece of countercultural history recreated vividly by the incomparable Barry Miles. ‘If you can remember the 60s then you must be Miles’ – The Sohemian Society.

For more information on the title, click here: The Zapple Diaries.

To order directly from AmazonUK, click here: The Zapple Diaries UK.

To preorder the book from AmazonUSA, click here: The Zapple Diaries USA.

For direct sales or press enquiries, contact Nick Kent at Peter Owen publishers: email sales@peterowen.com or telephone 020 8350 1775

The Zapple Diaries review Independent 27-10-2015: