It was 1961. Brian Epstein was running a Liverpool record store when he was stumped by a customer’s request for a record – My Bonnie - which, for a first, he didn’t have. The Beatles – the band responsible for this record - were just another British band playing dance hall and lunch shows at that point, and most people thought them to be “awful”. A curious Epstein met the Beatles for the first tim
e in a dressing room “not larger than a broom cabinet” after catching a lunchtime performance of theirs at the Cavern Club. The day he intended to sign them, the Beatles all showed up late – three of them had been sitting and drinking while the fourth was “having a bath”. Despite warnings from the Beatles’ previous manager and the Beatles’ apparent disregard for manners or punctuality, Epstein came on board as the Beatles’ manager. In the six years of working together that followed, the Beatles went from being nowhere to everywhere, going on to multiple Grammy wins and nominations, platinum discs and becoming one of the biggest rock bands ever. From reforming the image of the band to getting them their first auditions and putting them on all the platforms they eventually conquered with their music, Epstein picked talent in favour of all else because he saw something remarkable about the Beatles, despite popular opinion being otherwise. "It seems to me that with everything going on, someone ought to be looking after you," Epstein had said to the Beatles before he came on board as their manager. Those are the very words that drive our work at Yellow Sub Artist Management. The Beatles haven’t looked back since that fateful day. We don’t plan to, either. We have heard way too many Red Hot Chili Peppers songs, been to way too many gigs and concerts around town and more, sung along to way too many Beatles' covers, downloaded way too much illegal music off the internet, lost way too many pairs of earphones and drunk one too many Budweisers. We couldn’t put it more simply – we love music and, in the immortal words of Hendrix, it IS our religion. We are an artist management company of the most unconventional sorts that you could find. We are the oddest bunch of people coming together to manage music, but our lot is dedicated and charged as hell. The music scene in Delhi and around is burgeoning with talent, and it has already burst forth from its nascence into a festivity of sorts, with a jubilant celebration of independent and upcoming music. We at Yellow Sub fancy ourselves to be right at the heart of this celebratory movement. With the studio and record label system losing out to a newer management-centric movement and digital becoming the new platform for music, there isn’t much money or fame in selling CDs or EPs anymore. Where there is money is in gigs, and the right gigs come after the right outreach and marketing. What we do for our artists is create their own loyal audience and advise them to the best of their potential and more, by undertaking hardcore talent management, marketing through social and audio-visual media, networking and gig booking. We understand how the relationship between and artist and their management/representation is THE most important relationship either party would have, and that’s why we choose to work only with music and with artists we believe in – whether they are inexperienced or experienced, in demand hot as fresh cakes or cold as turkey. The manager is like the proverbial “fifth member” of a four-piece band and he or she can really mould the entire direction of an artist’s career. Keeping this in mind, we work only with music we feel passionately about so that it translates into our work and results.
