NEMS Offices (Beatles-era site), London

NEMS, short for North End Music Stores, is more famously known as the empire run by Brian Epstein, often dubbed the 鈥淔ifth Beatle鈥� (minus the haircut and the screaming fans). Back in Liverpool, the Epstein family鈥檚 NEMS shop was the go-to music store, and it became ground zero for Beatlemania before Beatlemania even had a name. Legend has it that the store kept getting flooded with requests for a little-known record called My Bonnie, credited to some band backing a guy named Tony Sheridan. That backing band was The Beatles. The record flew off the shelves every time it was restocked鈥攁nd that鈥檚 when Brian鈥檚 managerial spidey sense started tingling.

Once Epstein officially signed on as the band鈥檚 manager, he handled the business end of Beatlemania from his NEMS offices in London鈥攁t first tucked away in a nondescript building, and later upgraded to a prime address right next to the London Palladium in 1964. Because if your band is rocketing to global stardom, your office location needs to keep up. Epstein worked there until his untimely death in 1967, quietly pulling the strings behind the scenes while the Fab Four lit up the stage.

That office also hosted plenty of press interviews鈥攁nd one particularly infamous moment. It was there that John Lennon casually dropped his 鈥渨e鈥檙e more popular than Jesus鈥� comment. In Britain, it passed with barely a shrug. But once the quote crossed the Atlantic, all musical hell broke loose. Christian communities in the U.S. did not take kindly to the idea of mop-topped prophets outshining the Messiah. Cue the bonfires of Beatles records. Epstein scrambled for damage control, organizing press conferences galore, while Lennon walked it back, saying he wasn鈥檛 comparing himself to Christ鈥攋ust pointing out that, well, times were changing.

And that is how a family-owned record store became the command center of the most iconic band in music history.

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Sight Name: NEMS Offices (Beatles-era site)
Sight Location: London, England (See walking tours in London)
Sight Type: Attraction/Landmark
Guide(s) Containing This Sight:

Beatles London Walking Tour

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