APPLE BOUTIQUE

LONDON, 1968


We decided to close down our Baker Street shop yesterday and instead of putting up a sign saying, "Business will be resumed as soon as possible" and then auctioning off the goods, we decided to give them away. The shops were doing fine and making a nice profit on turnover. So far, the biggest loss is giving the things away but we did that deliberately. We're giving them away - rather then selling them to barrowboys - because we wanted to give rather than sell.

We came into shops by the trademan's entrance but we're leaving by the front door. Originally, the shops were intended to be something else, but they just became like all the boutiques in London. They just weren't our thingy. The staff will get three weeks pay but if they wish they'll absorbed into the rest of Apple. Everyone will be cared for. The King's Road Shop, which is known as Apple Tailoring, isn't going to be part of Apple anymore but it isn't closing down and we are leaving our investment there because we have a moral and personal obligation to out partner John Crittle who is now in sole control. All that's happened is that we've closed our shop in which we feel we shouldn't, in the first place, have been involved.

Our main business is entertainment, communication. Apple is mainly concerned with fun not frocks. We want to devote all our energies to records, film and electronics adventures. We had to refocus. We had to zoom in on what we really enjoy, and we enjoy being alive, and we enjoy being Beatles.

It's 1968; already, it's 1968. Time is short. I suppose really what we're doing is Spring cleaning in mid-summer. The amazing thing is our giving things away. Well, the answer is that it was much funnier to give things away.

Well, it's just The Beatles are The Beatles are the moptps and the moptops are The Beatles are the moptops ... are whatever you see them to be, whatever you see us to be. Create and preserve the image of your choice. We are yours with love, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr.

~Paul McCartney


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