Fifth Beatle storms out after 46 years

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Neil Aspinall, a school friend of Sir Paul McCartney and the late George Harrison, yesterday stepped down as chief executive of Apple Corps.

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A source said the 64-year-old, known as the Fifth Beatle, was disillusioned by the company's board of directors, who 'just wanted to make money'.

Mr Aspinall is thought to have disagreed with moves to allow legal downloads of the Beatles' music on the Apple iTunes site.

The source added: 'The board has been blocking and questioning the things Neil wants to do. The way the board want to play it is for money, money, money. All the Beatles albums - the entire back catalogue - is going to be re-released.'

Aspinall - described as the Beatles' 'keeper of the flame' - was their first road manager in 1961. In 1968 he was given a management role at Apple.

Twelve years ago, he was executive producer on the Beatles Anthology and behind successes such as the compilation album One.

His departure was revealed in a press release announcing his replacement, Jeff Jones, ex-executive vice-president at Sony/BMG.