To be clear not actually Bernard Sumner, but rather, the actor who portrayed Sumner in the 2002 film 24 Hour Party People – John Simm (who would also later play the main protagonist in the British TV show Life On Mars) was in a band called Magic Alex until they split in 2005 having toured twice with Echo & the Bunnymen and releasing one album.
Magic Alex was the nickname bestowed upon Yannis Alex Mardas by John Lennon who with the Beatles had employed as the head of Apple Electronics, a division of their Apple Corporation (not to be confused with the other Apple who make various electronic goods such as laptops and the iPhone).
Mardas had arrived in London in 1965 from Greece, and while earning a living as a self taught Tv repairman, as an artist exhibited his Kinetic Light Sculptures at the Indica Gallery, which is how he met Brian Jones of The Rolling Stones who he convinced to hire him to build a psychedelic light box which was to be used on a European tour but in the end disappointed.
Despite this (or because?) Jones introduced Mardas to John Lennon, who, after spending hours, under the influence of LSD, staring at a small plastic box with randomly blinking lights on it that Mardas had built – called The Nothing Box, would declare as his “new guru”, dubbing him “Magic Alex” and introducing him to rest of The Beatles.
Allegedly “Magic Alex” discussed plans of several inventions he was working on including a telephone that responded to its owner’s voice and could identify who was calling, a force field that would surround the Beatles’ homes, an X-ray camera, paint that would make anything invisible, car paint that would change colour by flicking a switch, and wallpaper speakers – although Mardas would later deny any such claims were ever made.
In 1967 he was commissioned by The Beatles to create one of his ideas; an “artificial sun” which would light up the night-time sky, as part of the opening event or their Apple Boutique. But when the time came for Mardas to demonstrate his artificial sun for the Beatles, he claimed that there was not a strong enough energy supply to power it which despite the great expense of the project, the accepted.
He also claimed, much to he chagrin of producer George Martin that the Abbey Road studio was “no good” and that he’d build an alternative, with a 72-track tape machine – and he was commissioned to do so in the basement of Apple HQ on Saville Row. In January 1969 when they came to use the new studio found no 72-track tape deck (Mardas had reduced it to 16 tracks), no soundproofing, no talkback (intercom) system, and not even a patch bay to run the wiring between the control room and the 16 speakers that Mardas had fixed haphazardly to the walls. The only new piece of sound equipment present was a crude mixing console which Mardas had built, which looked (in the words of Martin’s assistant, Dave Harries) like “bits of wood and an old oscilloscope”.
He finally left employment with The Beatles after Allen Klein was brought in to manage in 1969. It was later estimated that Mardas and his various projects cost the group in excess of 5 million pounds in todays money.
Mardas became a security consultant during the 1970s with many of his products and clients experiencing safety concerns.
pophole 