it was a beneficial arrangement for stigwood, and it effectively placed him at the pinnacle of the british pop industry in one step, but epstein seems to have been about the only person in nems who was keen on the idea. alastair taylor is reported to have exclaimed "you must be joking!" when epstein told him of the merger. epstein was also considering handing over his role as manager of the beatles, but when the fab four learned of this they were outraged. they evidently disliked stigwood intensely. interviewed in 2000 by greil marcus, paul mccartney recalled the group's angry reaction:"we said, 'in fact, if you do, if you somehow manage to pull this off, we can promise you one thing. we will record god save the queen for every single record we make from now on and we'll sing it out of tune. that's a promise. so if this guy buys us, that's what he's buying.'"