Launched in February 1969, Zapple was the spoken-word division of the Beatles' Apple Records, intended to "pioneer a new area for the recording industry equivalent to what the paperback revolution did for book publishing". Label manager Barry Miles travelled across America recording such counterculture heroes as Allen Ginsberg , Charles Bukowski and Lawrence Ferlinghetti for the first batch of Zapple releases, while back home John Lennon and George Harrison were recording their own work for the label. But with the demise of the Beatles, Zapple folded and many of these recordings have remained unheard. In unearthing his archive for the first time, Barry Miles tells the story of the Zapple experience and gives an insider's account of life at the centre of the Beatles' crumbling empire. Producer Owen McFadden