I think youre right about Billy being asked to go on tour if it had ever happened George. They may have gone further and had additional outside musicians involved as well, good friends of theirs tho, as they were all too aware of the restrictions of 3 guitars and drums and the odd switch to piano/organ/keyboard.

However, Martin was only with the Beatles in the studio and Epstein was only involved with touring (ONCE he got them a contract) (also merchandising, but he wasn't so great there).

If you take a little poetic license with the concept of the 5th Beatle, only one person was with them nearly continuously from beginning to end, in the studio, on tour, on the movie set, in the movies themselves, on vacation with them, you name it;

that would be .... that's right: Tue, 03 Jul 2012 21:19:00 +0100 http://www.beatlesbible.com/forum/yesterday-and-today/the-fifth-beatles/#p54021 Yesterday... and today http://www.beatlesbible.com/forum/yesterday-and-today/the-fifth-beatles/#p54021 When I hear the term "Fifth Beatle" I equate that to something along theses lines (stay with me).

Here in the U.S., when the fan base for any sports team goes above and beyond in their support, they are referred to as the extra man. In U.S. football, there are 11 players on each side. Therefore, a raucous home crowd is referred to as the "Twelfth Man". I only bring that up because I feel you don't have to be a member of the team to be a Twelfth Man any more than you had to be a member of the band ...]]> Tue, 03 Jul 2012 20:19:07 +0100 http://www.beatlesbible.com/forum/yesterday-and-today/the-fifth-beatles/#p53960 Yesterday... and today http://www.beatlesbible.com/forum/yesterday-and-today/the-fifth-beatles/#p53960 I once had the idea of writing a book: "Fifty Fifth Beatles". There are so many of them.