JAINA BERARDI
Special to The Leader
English rock group The Beatles gained international fame during the 1970s. However, Chris O’Dell is showing that they couldn’t have gotten by without a little help from an American friend.
“I wanted to prove that they couldn’t exist without me,” O’Dell said. “With them, I was working on American thinking. If they said they needed something as soon as possible in England … I figured out a better and faster way to get them to pay attention.”
In 2013, O’Dell visited SUNY Fredonia and gave a speech titled, “Gender, Drugs and Rock n’ Roll.” She returned to campus Tuesday, Sept. 27 to deliver another lecture during professor Armand Petri’s “Business of The Beatles” class. Petri, who moderated the discussion, regards O’Dell as “The First Lady of Rock & Roll.”
O’Dell is known for being the first ever female arena tour manager. She worked for an abundance of rock bands during the ‘70s, including Fleetwood Mac, Queen, Phil Collins, and Earth, Wind & Fire. She was a personal assistant for The Rolling Stones, but before all that, she started as a secretary for The Beatles at Apple Corps.
Most of O’Dell’s talk surrounded her time with The Beatles, who founded the multimedia corporation Apple Records. Near the beginning of her speech, she explained that her first breakthrough in the music industry was in 1968. At 20 years old, she was invited to England by The Beatles’ publicist, Derek Taylor.
She said that she “went [all] out for the experience.” In order to have enough money to accept the invitation, she cashed in her car, life insurance policy and record collection. A few days after she arrived, O’Dell was brought to the first office of Apple Corps, and met John Lennon, Yoko Ono and Paul McCartney.
O’Dell created her own job at Apple Records by doing oddball tasks around the office. She started by sitting in for the secretary and bought sandwiches for The Beatles, then made deals with local restaurants to give her silverware and dishes with her lunch orders. Eventually, O’Dell was even invited to join The Beatles on Abbey Road to sing in the background of “Hey Jude.”
However, many people claim that O’Dell was never actually a contributing asset of the music industry and credit her success merely to the fact that she is a woman who openly admits to using her looks and sexuality in a manipulative way in a male-dominated industry.
“But [for me] it was harder … because I had to prove myself a little bit harder than probably other people did,” O’Dell said.“On the other hand, it was easier because I was female. Since everybody I worked with was male, I knew how to manipulate.”
After two years, she started skipping her shifts at Apple to hang out at Eric Clapton’s house and was eventually let go for doing so. She then moved back to Los Angeles and became the personal assistant for The Rolling Stones.
“If there had been a job description for [working with] The Rolling Stones, it would have said sleep with Mick [Jagger] whenever he asks,” she said.
O’Dell admitted that she would often always say yes. From complying with her employers, to moving in with George Harrison and his wife, she explained that she had to often go to great lengths to prove that she was worthy to be in the room.
Towards the end of her speech, Petri opened the room to the audience for questions. One student asked O’Dell about the feminist standpoint in relation to the music industry and women who have inspired her. She explained that although she never really thought of it as a feminist viewpoint, growing up, she admired her grandmother, who at 45 years old, ran for town mayor. She describes what she learned from her grandmother as “breaking through one step at a time.”
O’Dell also exclaimed her pride for the amount of women that are in the music industry today.
“Never enough!” replied Petri. “Women, go out and conquer.”
O’Dell then gave some advice of her own to students.
“Get in wherever you can. Then it’s up to you to prove what you’re capable of,” she said.
Another student asked O’Dell what advice she would give herself if she could go back to when she was a touring manager.
“You really need to pay attention to what you need,” she said.
She further explained that she probably would have focused more on her own finances. Overall, she advised students to trust their gut and instincts.
In all that O’Dell has done throughout her career, it seems as though she has followed this piece of advice herself. Whether the masses agree with all of her actions or not, O’Dell has gotten to where she wanted to be by taking risks and leaps of faith.