Alf Bicknell

While it’s a fool’s errand to argue the situation of Alf Bicknell as the so-called “fifth Beatle,” it’s equally non-sensical to ignore his part in the Fab Four’s mythology — their chauffeur and confidante, he was also the inspiration for the classic “Drive My Car” and an associate from the chorus on “Yellow Submarine.” Alfred George Bicknell was created in Haslemere, Surrey, on Oct 28, 1928 — after stints like a butcher and a circus clown, he became a specialist driver, frequently chauffeuring dignitaries for an exclusive firm that frequently worked well for the U.K.’s foreign embassies. He was ultimately recommended towards the Beatles’ supervisor, Brian Epstein, and in Oct 1964 was employed as the band’s personal driver amid filming on the second feature, Help! Using the Beatles in the frenzied top of their popularity, Bicknell’s job needed not just that he securely deliver his costs to and from concert times, film sets, as well as the famed Abbey Street recording studio room, but also that he get around the substantial throng of screaming enthusiasts who trailed the group just about everywhere — he once went more than a policeman’s feet, but otherwise taken care of a spotless protection record. Through the 2 yrs he was for the Beatles’ payroll, Bicknell initial drove the music group within an Austin Princess using the home windows totally blacked out; he was afterwards handed the tips to John Lennon’s Rolls Royce Phantom V — he afterwards recounted that Lennon once threw his chauffeur’s cover out the automobile home window, proclaiming “You’re among us today.” During periods for the traditional Silicone Soul, Bicknell was a fixture at Abbey Street, also organizing delivery of meals towards the studio room — “Drive My Car,” the Lennon/McCartney traditional that opened up the record, was partly an homage to his commitment towards the music group. During periods for the traditional follow-up, Revolver, Bicknell was also recruited to sing support vocals on “Yellowish Submarine,” also adding the anchor-like sound impact that in most cases was only a bit of string and a vintage tin bath. Following the Beatles give up touring, Bicknell resigned his post in August of 1966, briefly relocating towards the U.S. to operate a vehicle the brand new Christy Minstrels — he later on chauffeured Sir Robert McAlpine before a personal injury to his correct arm pressured him to retire from traveling in 1980. In 1989 he released an autobiography, Baby, YOU ARE ABLE TO Drive My Car! (later on reissued as the publication and video bundle Alf Bicknell’s Beatles Journal), and in addition toured lecture circuits talking about his encounters, although he steadfastly declined all gives to dish the dirt around the even more seedy areas of his Beatle encounter — he do, however, public sale five tapes of the group rehearsing “EASILY Fell” and reading Biblical passages in comical voices. A fixture at Beatles conventions within the last many years of his existence, Bicknell died of the coronary attack in Oxfordshire on March 9, 2004.