Yanni “John” Alexis Mardas, a friend and employee of the Beatles also known as “Magic Alex” has died in Greece at the age of 74. Madras was one of the first employees of the band’s Apple Records and served primarily as a designer for their Apple Electronics brand, creating gadgets and lighting displays for the band and label. He initially came into the fold after befriending John Lennon, who enjoyed an art installation that Madras created that simulated an LSD trip. He went on to travel extensively with the band including on their legendary retreat to India. He was later accused of being a fraudulent designer to which he told the New York Times: “I invented a large number of electronic devices, none of which had anything to do with music of the business of the Beatles,” Mardas said in a 2010. “It must be remembered that none of these had even been thought about by others at the time, although most of them are now in common use.” Madras made claims to have been an early developer of voice recognition devices and speed dial technology. Copyright(c) 2017 RTTNews.com. All Rights ReservedLess «