A Prince Among Stones by Prince Rupert Loewenstein Page B

McCartney after the Beatles’ break-up, were both entertainment lawyers (Paul met his wife Linda Eastman as a direct result). Jim Beach, the long-time manager of Queen, also started out as a lawyer. It was a predictable path: the small groups who turned into the big bands were obliged to find good lawyers, who then scented profits and transformed themselves into managers, in precisely the way Allen Klein, a qualified accountant, had spotted the chance, realised it was enormous and exploited the opportunity with not just the Rolling Stones, but also the Beatles.
    It was Mick who had introduced Klein to John Lennon a few weeks before I met Mick. After we had spoken he rang Lennon back and said, ‘I’ve rethought it and I’ve gone to this other person. I think you should do the same because I’m not happy about my introduction of Klein.’ But it was too late.
    I met Allen Klein in London during the early days of working through the Stones’ documents. I had to be extremely careful with him because I was well aware that everybody around me thought that I was getting into a situation where the risk was greater than the potential reward.
    Klein was equally careful with me. He was very wary indeed, and I think that shortly after we met he realised that in some way or other he, too, was at risk. He came across as oily, but at the same time aggressive. I soon realised that with anything he said, there was no reason why one should either believe or disbelieve it.
    Mick found it a lot harder to deal directly with Allen Klein. He felt very aggrieved, that Klein had acted improperly, and that he, Mick, had been made to look a fool. There was one frightening incident in the Savoy Hotel when Mick started screaming at Klein who darted out of the room and ran down the corridor with Mick in hot pursuit. I had to stop him and say, ‘You cannot risk laying a hand on Klein.’ In retrospect I thought it was probably a good idea that Keith had not joined us on that occasion.
    Essentially the band were handcuffed on the one side by their contract with Allen Klein and on the other to Decca Records, and my job was going to be to allow them to escape, Houdini-like, from both with the minimum damage. There was no question of renegotiating the contract with Decca. The challenge was how to get out of that contract, because they had no freedom to go to any other record company. Decca had rights over works ‘created in whole or in part’. There was hardly any room for manoeuvre.
    However, the contract with Decca was completely normal. What was abnormal was the contract they had with Klein, as we discovered in due course.
    Having read about the Beatles and Northern Songs, and how they had made a substantial amount of money selling the copyrights in their songs, which clearly had a value, and after giving careful thought to the tax implications, I decided that examining the Stones’ financial affairs would be ideal work for an intelligent set of financial advisers, which essentially is what Leopold Joseph was.
    I also realised that if a way could be found to get through and past the lack of transparency and the dodgy business practices which surrounded the touring business, there was a lot of money to be made, although at the time the artists were making no money out of touring.
    However, it seemed obvious that the artists who could make money were the ones who performed well. And I had seen enough of Mick and the Stones to realise that performance was their forte. The potential for money was there. It was not going to disappear. The trick would be to make sure the money went to the performers, not the promoters. I resolved to tackle that issue as soon as the immediate knotty legal issues were resolved.
    The group’s documents arrived – in truckloads. I persuaded my colleagues and company lawyers to look at all the documents for no charge. This, I have always thought, was one of the most remarkable deals