There are plenty of stories about the positive collaborations that shaped the world of The Beatles. The impact of George Martin was so influential that they deemed him the fifth Beatle. Billy Preston’s playing reinvigorated the group for their final releases. Even other artists like Eric Clapton played a hand in helping the Fab Four continuously develop their sound. But what about a collaboration that felt more like a curse?

Instantly, the mind goes to Phil Sector, the producer who arguably put the final nail in the coffin. Upon hearing what Spector had done to his songs, especially ‘The Long And Winding Road’, Paul McCartney went straight to sign the band’s divorce papers after years of being the one holding onto the group.

Plenty of people try to argue that it was the influence of Yoko Ono that spelt disaster for the group, as if the mere presence of John Lennon’s wife set the band on a path towards an inevitable end. However, in actuality, the impact of Ono’s creative mind and her already lengthy career in performance art and avant-garde music undoubtedly helped shape some of the group’s most interesting compositions like ‘Revolution 9’. So even if the other band members didn’t quite get on with Ono’s presence, her influence was still a positive one on their creativity.

But when it comes to the person in question, he was a hindrance on every level, with George Harrison deeming him the “biggest disaster of all time”.

However, it’s important to remember that the band were breaking new ground, not just musically, but in the business world too. In 1968, they made a bold move when they launched Apple Corps, a company that would not only serve as their record label, allowing them to act independently, but looked after all their business and promotional affairs. Now, it’s more common for musicians to act as a kind of business unit, but back then, the Liverpool lads were figuring all this out without any real guidance. So, it’s understandable that mistakes were made.

One of those mistakes was hiring Alex Mardas, an old friend of John Lennon’s who talked up a big game to get in the door. He promised the band the world, saying he could get them new technology, unique recording equipment, and all kinds of other goodies to help push their sound into the future. He told them he could build a 72-track studio that would be more advanced than any other in the world. So, deciding to take a chance on an old friend and trusting what he said, they enlisted him to do it.

But when the day came for the band to head into this new and supposedly career-changing studio, it was a mess. Not only was there no exciting, futuristic technology, there wasn’t even a mixing desk. There was no soundproofing, no connecting ports between the control room and the booth, meaning that nothing could even be recorded, but even if it could, the creaky floorboards and noisy neighbours would have ruined it.

“Alex’s recording studio at Apple was the biggest disaster of all time,” Harrison said. The quiet Beatle seemed to see the man for the crook he was, adding, “He was walking around with a white coat on like some sort of chemist but didn’t have a clue what he was doing.” In the end, the studio was not only not what they were promised but was totally unusable. As Harrison explained, “The whole thing was a disaster and had to be ripped out.”

But old friendship is too strong of a bond for a hack job to break. John Lennon stayed loyal to his friend despite everyone else around him hating Mardas and seeing right through his act. George Martin, especially, as a man with actual and real expertise in the area, was left “tearing [his] hair out” as the band’s old friend lied his way into their sacred and once productive space.