Epstein would have been aware of how the charts were compiled. For him to buy 10,000 records would have been a futile gesture. 'Love Me Do' would have been No. 1 in both NEMS shops whether they sold 50 or 5,000.

If NEMS had been a chart selection shop in the weeks the charts were compiled, having 'Love Me Do' at No. 1 wouldn't have had a major effect on the final national figure. The record would have had to make an impact in shops scattered throughout Britain to achieve a placing.

A few years later on, there were people who did obtain lists of chart shops (for the music papers and not the official one compiled by Music Week (formerly Record Retailer) and sent representatives travelling around the country buying up records - but only three or four in each shop so as not to make what they were doing obvious.

Epstein didn't do this, so buying up 10,000 copies would have been a useless exercise.

The facts make Philip Norman's account in 'Shout!' rather bizarre, because he seems to approach the apocryphal story as if it were true, including comments from Joe Flannery to consolidate his story. However, I can't accept his account because I know a number of things Joe told Norman were unsubstantiated rumours and I even had the publishers delete some of them from the book.

I think, basically, that the fanciful tale of Brian buying such a huge quantity stemmed from Flannery's account to Norman. Since the publication of 'Shout!' many writers have taken accounts from the book and treated them as fact.

In 'The Beatles: An Oral History' by David Pritchard and Alan Lysaght, Norman once again relates the tale: "Joe Flannery was a close assistant to Brian Epstein...One day he walked into a storeroom at the back of the NEMS store in Liverpool and saw all these boxes of records. Brian had this little melody he used to sing when he went into that room. It went: 'Here we go gathering dust in May.' Those were the unsold copies of 'Love Me Do' sitting in his storeroom."

I don't accept this story. However, if it were to be believed, then how would Joe know exactly how many records were in the boxes and how many records had been sold in the stores? Where would he have got the figure of 10,000 from? As I've mentioned, when the story first began to circulate around Liverpool it was a rumour that Brian had bought 1,000 copies of the record - and over a period of time it reached Flannery's 10,000.

Epstein said the story was untrue. I tend to believe him. As a record store manager who knew what he was doing, he would have been aware that buying such an amount for his two shops wouldn't have had any great impact on the charts.

Editor's note: This is another of the features I originally had published in Beatlefan magazine some years ago.

In the 5 December 1964 issue of Melody Maker, they described how their Top 50 charts were assembled: "The planning of the Pop Fifty is a giant task every week. This week, with the release last Friday of the new Beatles single, a special plan was implemented to ensure that Britain's most authoritative hit parade was assessed with the greatest speed and accuracy. The chart bureau was augmented.

"Record shop managers throughout Britain co-operated magnificently in rushing their returns to the MM, express post

"It started at 6.50am and ended when the results were announced at 12.10pm."

As anyone can see, the way the charts were compiled this way would make it impossible to affect the chart by the entry of a single, or even two, shops.

I'm surprised at Peter Brown's brief mention of it in his book. Brian actually hired his friend Peter, who had run the record department at Lewis's store, to take over at the NEMS Great Charlotte Street branch when he moved to Whitechapel. As a record store manager, Peter would have known too well that ordering a vast amount of records at two stores in one city would not affect the charts which were compiled in London. If he really believed the story, he would have been able to provide more credible detail.

Spencer Leigh and Alan Clayson also looked at the myth in their book 'The Walrus Was Ringo', pointing out that in the BBC TV documentary 'Mersey Sound', John Lennon confirmed that the rumour was untrue.

Further proof comes from Brian's own brother Clive, who was in charge of the non-record area of the Great Charlotte Street store. He said, "My father was very involved in the business then and neither he nor myself at any time were going to risk these thousands of records which have been suggested as part of the stock or part of the hype. Invoices and statements went through the office and every cheque was either signed by my father or myself. Something like that would obviously have been noticed."

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