Magic Alex, one of the most colourful and mysteryious characters in the Beatles’ story, has died at the age of 74.
Born Yanni (‘John’) Alexis Mardas, he became a close friend of The Beatles in the mid 1960s, eventually becoming head of Apple Electronics in London.
In 1965 Mardas exhibited his Kinetic Light Sculptures at London’s Indica Gallery, and the following year met John Lennon. The pair formed a close friendship, and Lennon nicknamed him Magic Alex.
Mardas made a number of electronic devices which amused Lennon and the other Beatles, and invented and researched a number of other concepts involving light and sound. Shortly after the formation of Apple, The Beatles set up Apple Electronics, for which Mardas was a partner and director. Apple bought premises on Boston Place, London, where Mardas worked on the development of light machines.
He accompanied The Beatles at their request to Rishikesh, India, where they studied Transcendental Meditation under Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Upon their return he was asked to stop work at Boston Place and work on a recording studio in the basement of Apple at 3 Savile Row, London.
In the summer of 1969, after holidaying in Greece with Cynthia Lennon, Pattie Harrison and Donovan Leitch, Mardas returned to Boston Place to find the doors padlocked and his equipment missing. A receptionist at Apple told him he had been fired, along with much of the other staff, by Allen Klein. This marked the end of his association with The Beatles.
In the 1970s, Mardas ran a number of companies offering security and anti-terrorism measures, including bullet-proof cars and bugging devices, for VIPs and former heads of state.
In 2004 he put 15 items of Beatles memorabilia up for sale at Christie’s auction house in London, including the leather collar worn (with nothing else) by Lennon on the cover of Two Virgins, and a custom-made Vox Kensington guitar.
Alexis Mardas died at the age of 74, in his apartment in the Kolonaki neighbourhood of Athens, Greece in January 2017. His body was discovered on 13 January, but early reports suggested he had been deceased for several more days. He had reportedly been suffering from pneumonia.
Also on this day...
- 1990: Paul McCartney live: Wembley Arena, London
- 1969: Get Back/Let It Be sessions: day eight
- 1969: US album release: Yellow Submarine
- 1968: Recording: Wonderwall Music by George Harrison
- 1966: George Harrison and Mick Jagger visit Dolly’s nightclub, London
- 1965: Live: Another Beatles Christmas Show
- 1963: Television: Thank Your Lucky Stars
- 1962: The Beatles live: Hambleton Hall, Liverpool
- 1961: The Beatles live: Aintree Institute, Liverpool
Want more? Visit the Beatles history section.
This is the first I’ve heard about Magic Alex passing away, saddened to hear this news. I’ve been reading the book You Never Give Me Your Money and was thinking about what a weird but interesting guy Alex was just the other day. RIP.
The guy that slipped a mickey to Cynthia, and tried to have sex with her, all at the request of John who wanted a divorce and something to hold over her so she could not take half his money (she didn’t anyway). Yeah, whatever.
Does anyone remember the BBC Radio documentary made about him about a year ago? I’m sure I didn’t imagine it but I can’t find any record of it.
Dead? No great loss, children. There was nothing “Magic” about him. He was a con man,a thief, a liar and a swindler.
He was not a thief or a con man, because as far as I know, he never served time in prison, and he did in fact file several defamation lawsuits against newspapers for printing libellous stuff about him.
Magic Alex’s only experience with electrical appliances or electronics was being a TV repairman in his native Greece, so perhaps in hindsight, he should’ve stuck to fixing TV sets.
He did say that, contrary to common misconception, he never actually got around to actually building a studio in Savile Row and he dismissed the idea that he built an unusable studio of hopelessly poor quality as a complete fabrication.
He also denied misconceptions that he promised, discussed or even made any effort to invent anything that would’ve been highly unrealistic and outlandish, such as force fields, artificial suns, flying saucers using the engines from John’s Rolls Royce or George’s Ferrari, electric paint, magic paint, wallpaper for stereos to operate as a loudspeaker and a house hovering in the air on an invisible beam not to mention that the idea of him trying to levitate them using “electro-magnetism” in the presence of Liliane Lijn to make them disappear was absurd. He did say that he never met Liliane Lijn in the presence of any of The Beatles.
I’d nothing else, the guy did have a vivid imagination. I’m still waiting for electric paint and sonic wallpaper.
Interesting to note, there may be a few ideas of his that have become reality. Not to give him too much credit, since he was a bit crazy. Colorful, but crazy.