Musicians Peter Asher and Gordon Waller tuning their guitars, rehearsing their song World Without Love, which beat the Beatles in the pop charts, in April, 1964.Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Im/Getty Images
Peter Asher: Everywhere Man
Directed by Dan Geller and Dayna Goldfine
Starring Peter Asher, James Taylor, Eric Idle, Steve Martin, Gordon Waller and Linda Ronstadt
Classification N/A; 118 minutes
Open in select theatres now
A delightful documentary on British pop music producer and manager Peter Asher is based on his cabaret show A Musical Memoir of the ’60s and Beyond. In the film he admits the British Invasion was “90 per cent Beatles.” Sticking with math, I’d say Peter Asher: Everywhere Man is roughly half Beatles and Beatles-adjacent.
The doc by Dan Geller and Dayna Goldfine scans the life of a Zelig-like figure who went from being a pop star himself to landing a high-powered position with the Beatles’ Apple Records. He discovered James Taylor, moved to California, managed Linda Ronstadt and, as a producer, played a role in the development of the L.A. folk-rock sound of the early 1970s.
How did all that happen? Talent and brains, sure, but it didn’t hurt to be the brother of Jane Asher, the actress and one-time girlfriend of Paul McCartney. The cute Beatle and songwriting partner John Lennon, we learn, wrote I Want to Hold Your Hand in the basement of the Asher family home. (Also, a fun fact: Asher’s mother gave Beatles’ producer George Martin oboe lessons.)
McCartney and Lennon also wrote A World Without Love, a non-Beatles song that was a hit single in 1964 for Peter and Gordon, which was Asher’s duo with former schoolboy chum Gordon Waller.
With John Dunbar and Barry Miles, Asher owned and operated the counterculture Indica Bookshop in London during the Swinging Sixties. McCartney, who helped get the store up and running, was “useful” to have hanging around, according to Asher.
“He can either write you a No. 1 record or put some shelves up.”
Or he could play drums on the first recording Asher produced: 1968’s And the Sun Will Shine, written by the Bee Gees and released by former Manfred Mann frontman Paul Jones. That same year, Peter and Gordon split up and Asher took charge of the artist and repertoire department of Apple Records. There he put an unknown James Taylor in front of McCartney and George Harrison for an audition.
“It wasn’t lost on me how remarkable it was,” Taylor says in the film. He was the first person signed to the label. Asher produced Taylor’s first album and later took the singer-songwriter with him to Los Angeles, where he produced Taylor’s breakout album Sweet Baby James in 1970 on the Warner Bros. label and helped the artist through a heroin addiction.
Peter Asher in his office, in 2013.Films We Like/Supplied
“Throughout some really dodgy times, Peter stayed with me,” Taylor says. “I think that’s no small thing.”
Directors Geller and Goldfine spoke with Asher (and A-listers such as Eric Idle, Steve Martin and Ronstadt) but also filmed his autobiographical stage show to help tell the story. Asher, 82, comes off as gentle, cerebral and reserved.
“I’m not generally a particularly emotional person, in a very English way,” he admits.
About the drug use of the 1970s, Asher says he “partook.” His first wife, American music publicist Betsy Doster, did as well. Her mental-health issues are discreetly discussed.
“Cocaine was a lot of fun, but it ruined everything,” Ronstadt says.
The second half of Asher’s career isn’t dealt with in detail; albums he produced for Diana Ross, Olivia Newton-John, Cher, Neil Diamond, Bonnie Raitt and others are covered off with a quick montage.
The film ends with Asher singing, “I won’t stay in a world without love.” A lot of people say a lot of nice things about him in Everywhere Man. A lack of love in his world doesn’t appear to be an issue.
Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that Peter Asher is the sister of Jane Asher.