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Living the Beatles Legend

On the Road with the Fab Four – The Mal Evans Story

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Living the Beatles Legend

By: Kenneth Womack
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**MiCannes Award Music Book of the Year**

The first full-length biography of Mal Evans, the Beatles’ beloved roadie, assistant, confidant and friend

A towering figure in horn-rimmed glasses, Malcolm ‘Mal’ Evans was an invaluable member of the Beatles’ inner circle. Serving as their long-time roadie, personal assistant and protector, he was a sometime lyricist, occasional performer and regular fixer at the height of the group’s fame and beyond.

But Mal’s dedication to his beloved ‘boys’ and his own desire for stardom took its toll, leading to the dissolution of his marriage and his untimely death in January 1976.

Until now, Mal’s extraordinary life has remained shrouded in mystery. Drawing on hundreds of exclusive interviews and with full access to Mal’s unpublished archives – including his personal diaries, manuscripts and memorabilia – renowned Beatles scholar Kenneth Womack paints the first complete portrait of this complicated figure at the heart of the Beatles’ story.

Living the Beatles Legend is a fascinating but ultimately tragic tale about life at the edges of superstardom.

©2023 Kenneth Womack Entertainment & Celebrities Historical Music Celebrity
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Critic reviews

'Exhaustively detailed … captures Beatlemania up close' Observer
‘A meticulously researched job in not only piecing together the roadie’s viewpoint of the Beatles’ story, but also in depicting the tragedy of a man who was so in love with the group he destroyed his own life’ Daily Mail Book of the Week
‘Womack has woven a portrait full of complex threads that lead everywhere and, near the end of Evans’ life, nowhere … This book is just amazing’ Q
‘A celebration – not just of Evans, but of all the unsung supporting characters who make creative life possible … It removes the cloud of mythology that often shrouds the Beatles’ story and reminds us that their superstardom was by no means predestined’ Guardian
‘A Holy Grail for fans’ People
All stars
Most relevant
Mal Evans’ story his well worth hearing. He was a key part of the Fab Four’s shadow fab 4. Womack writes well, he’s weaved a compelling narrative from Mal’s fragments.

But, if you’re British, it’s torture, he mangles just about every place name he encounters, and I find myself shouting at the place names. He’s an academic, he should understand the importance of researching these things.

It doesn’t completely devalue the book. It’s a great book. But boy it’s irritating.

Great writer - lazy reader

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I don’t know why the author chose to read the book himself - probably financial - but it ruined the book for me. The story of Mal Evan’s life and death is interesting and tragic but I wish I had read it rather than listening to the audible and suffering through a very British story told with a broad Texan accent. Norwich pronounced Nor-witch was a low point!

Interesting book wrecked by awful narration

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I find myself nodding in agreement with the many complaints about the narration of this title. Whilst Kenneth Womack has produced an interesting piece of work, it is somewhat marred by the frequent mispronunciations.

My 2 main gripes:
1. I wish Ken had not so frequently used the word 'buoyed' - I lost count of its usage after about 50 mentions...
2. I wish Ken had not insisted on pronouncing the word 'buoyed' as 'booied' - once or twice would have been tolerable, but the word seemed to appear in every chapter.

Note to Ken, get yourself a thesaurus, lad!!

Over Buoyant

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This great story is totally ruined by the choice of narrator. The frequent mentions of ‘Burn Mouth’ and the ‘Grozvenor House’ suggest the American narrator hasn’t bothered to check his many mispronunciations and the editor hasn’t picked them up. I’ve only just started listening and the clumsy narration is already grating. There are so many great Audible narrators out there so I’m baffled as to why one with more empathy wasn’t chosen to tell Mal’s story more sensitively.

Grating American Narrator

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I enjoyed the various anecdotes and recollections, as seen from Mal Evans perspective. The narration was irritating, too vehement, uneven tempo and volume,and no attention to correct pronunciation of British place names and venues (apparently the Beatles once played at the Gowmont Cinema in Burnmowth!) A more thoughtful and sensitive narrative style would have made it more enjoyable.

Interesting Beatles back stories.

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