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Magic Alex
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===Apple Studio=== [[File:3 Savile Row.jpg|thumb|left|150px|Apple Corps offices, at 3 Savile Row, where Mardas was asked to build a studio in the basement]] Mardas had often said that the [[Abbey Road Studios|Abbey Road]] studio was "no good",<ref name="TheBeatlesAnthologyDVD5">The Beatles ''Anthology'' DVD, (2003) (Episode 8 β 0:29:56) George Martin talking about Mardas saying that Abbey Road was "No good".</ref> much to producer [[George Martin]]'s annoyance: "The trouble was that Alex was always coming to the studios to see what we were doing and to learn from it, while at the same time saying 'These people are so out of date.' But I found it very difficult to chuck him out, because the boys liked him so much. Since it was very obvious that I didn't, a minor schism developed".{{sfn|Martin|1994|p=173}} Mardas boasted that he could build a much better studio, with a 72-track [[magnetic tape|tape]] machine,{{sfn|Lewisohn|1990|p=164}} instead of the 4-track at Abbey {{nowrap|Road{{tsp}}{{mdash}}{{tsp}}}}which was being updated at the time to an {{nowrap|8-track{{tsp}}{{mdash}}{{tsp}}}}so he was given the job of designing the new Apple Studio in the basement of Apple headquarters on Savile Row.{{sfn|Spitz|2005|p=768}} One of Mardas' more outrageous plans was to replace the [[sound baffle|acoustic baffles]] around Starr's drums with an [[Standing wave#Opposing waves|invisible sonic force field]].{{sfn|Spitz|2005|p=810}} Starr remembered that Mardas bought some "huge" surplus computers from [[British Aerospace]], which were stored in his barn, but "they never left the barn", and were later sold as scrap metal.{{sfn|Spitz|2005|p=810}} Mardas gave the Beatles regular reports of his progress, but when they required their new studio in January 1969, during the ''Get Back'' project that became ''[[Let It Be (album)|Let It Be]]'', they discovered an unusable studio: no 72-track tape deck (Mardas had reduced it to 16 tracks),{{sfn|Spitz|2005|p=810}} no [[soundproofing]], no [[talkback (recording)|talkback]] ([[intercom]]) system, and not even a [[patch bay]] to run the wiring between the control room and the 16 speakers that Mardas had fixed haphazardly to the walls.{{sfn|Spitz|2005|p=810}} The only new piece of sound equipment present was a crude [[mixing console]] which Mardas had built, which looked (in the words of Martin's assistant, Dave Harries) like "bits of wood and an old oscilloscope".{{sfn|Spitz|2005|p=810}} The console was scrapped after just one session. Harrison said it was "chaos", and that they had to "rip it all out and start again,"<ref name="TheBeatlesAnthologyDVD6">The Beatles ''Anthology'' DVD (2003) (Episode 8 β 0:30:32) Harrison talking about the chaos in the studio, and having to rip it all out.</ref> calling it "the biggest disaster of all time."{{sfn|Spitz|2005|p=810}} Harrison's suspicions of Mardas' competence had been raised when he saw him wandering around in a white coat with a clipboard, and considered the possibility that Mardas had "just read the latest version of ''Science Weekly'', and used its ideas".{{sfn|Anthology (book)|2000|p=290}} Mardas later stated that he had never been in the basement of Savile Row, as the studio equipment he was building was being tested in Apple Electronics, at Boston Place, Marylebone.<ref name="StatementbyMardas" /> The Beatles asked producer Martin to come to the rescue, so he borrowed two portable four-track recorders from [[EMI]], and long-time Beatles' engineer [[Geoff Emerick]] was given the task of building and setting up a recording studio with the loaned equipment.{{sfn|Spitz|2005|p=811}} During these sessions, Mardas gave the Beatles a prototype of a combination rhythm guitar and bass that had a swivel neck.<ref name="Con Artist">{{Cite web |last=Sokol |first=Tony |date=2021-12-01 |title=The Beatles: Get Back β Was Magic Alex a Con Artist or an Innovator? |url=https://www.denofgeek.com/tv/the-beatles-get-back-magic-alex/ |access-date=2022-01-16 |website=Den of Geek}}</ref> In the film ''[[The Beatles: Get Back]],'' Lennon wondered how he would play guitar with the strings of the bass against his hand, and noted that it was impossible to tune.<ref name="Slate">{{Cite web |last=Moran |first=Meredith |date=2021-12-07 |title=Here's What Happened to Get Back's Non-Beatle Characters |url=https://slate.com/culture/2021/12/get-back-beatles-billy-preston-glyn-johns.html |access-date=2022-01-16 |website=Slate}}</ref> After [[Allen Klein]] was brought in to be the Beatles' manager in 1969, he closed Apple Electronics<ref name="GetBackandothersetbacks">{{cite web |first=John |last=Robinson |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2003/nov/22/popandrock.thebeatles |title=Get Back and other setbacks |work=[[The Guardian]] |date=2 November 2003 |access-date=18 June 2011}}</ref> and Mardas left the company.<ref name="IndependentApology" />{{sfn|Miles|1997|p=546}} It was later estimated that Mardas' ideas and projects had cost the Beatles at least Β£300,000<ref name="CampbellNewStatesman3August1979" /> (Β£{{format price|{{inflation|UK|300000|1968}}}} in {{inflation-year|UK}} pounds if it was essentially spent in 1968). Starr once approved of one of Mardas' ideas: "He [Mardas] had an idea to stop people taping our records off the radio β you'd have to have a decoder to get the signal, and then we thought we could sell the time and put commercials on instead. We brought EMI and [[Capitol Records|Capitol]] in from America to look at it, but they weren't interested at all."{{sfn|Anthology (book)|2000|p=290}} According to author [[Peter Doggett]], in the Beatles' history, Mardas is the only individual who occupies a place close to Klein's in terms of vilification from commentators and biographers.{{sfn|Doggett|2011|p=65}}
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