The instrument was used on a litany of recordings by The Beatles during the 1960s, but was considered a lost relic, until it miraculously recently appeared in an attic, according to Julien’s Auctions. The auction house are planning to sell the item at their ‘Music Icons’ two-day event, which is due to take place at the Hard Rock Cafe in New York City on May 29th and May 30th.
Lennon’s lost guitar is the item they expect to earn the most from the auction in New York, which they estimate will be sold for $600,000 to $800,000. If Julien’s Auctions are correct with their prediction, this will set a new world record for the highest-selling Beatles guitar.
In a statement, Darren Julien, co-founder and executive director of Julien’s Auctions, said, “The discovery of John Lennon’s Help! guitar that was believed to be lost is considered the greatest find of a Beatles guitar since Paul McCartney’s lost 1961 Höfner bass guitar.
He continued: “Finding this remarkable instrument is like finding a lost Rembrandt or Picasso, and it still looks and plays like a dream after having been preserved in an attic for more than 50 years. To awaken this sleeping beauty is a sacred honor and is a great moment for Music, Julien’s, Beatles and Auction history.”
Rediscovered cassette tapes containing recordings of The Beatles to be auctioned. Three rediscovered cassette tapes containing recordings of The Beatles in 1966 are expected to fetch between £10,000 and £15,000 at auction.
They were made on Sir Ringo Starr’s personal tape recorder and include clips from the band’s tour of Germany, Japan and the Philippines. In the tapes, the group discuss the importance of their famously short and punchy song structures.
There is also a demo of The Beatles’ song Don’t Pass Me By and the sound of Sir Ringo performing on the piano.
Another sound bite contains The Beatles manager Brian Epstein discussing how to import valuable goods from Japan to the UK without paying high import taxes
Another recording is from the group’s first trip to India where they experimented with traditional instruments.
Omega Auctions auction manager Dan Muscatelli-Hampson said: “These tapes are truly a remarkable discovery.
“Hours of previously unheard material from such a pivotal period will be of huge interest to Beatles experts, fans and collectors and the fact that they were made by Ringo himself and contain such intimate scenes with the band from the tour is just incredible.
Also An Unheard Lennon Tape Sells For Nearly 50,000 Euros At Danish Auction. The 33-minute recording also features an interview with the Beatles star from local journalists and schoolchildren.
The artefact went under the hammer in Copenhagen on September 28. The buyer, who remains unknown, made a telephone bid for 49,760 euros ($58,000) for the cassette as well as accompanying Polaroid photographs of the schoolboys with Lennon and a copy of a school newspaper.
The Beatles star was spending the winter of 1969-1970 in a small Danish town on the west coast, spending time with wife Yoko Ono’s daughter Kyoko, who was living with her father in Jutland.
The audio, which was recorded after a press conference, includes a conversation between the four teenagers, Lennon and some local journalists. After their chat, Lennon plays a number of songs for them, including a track called ‘Radio Peace’, which remains unreleased.
“The tape is totally unique because it’s a conversation. It took place after a press conference with the four schoolboys and some journalists, and John Lennon plays a few songs for them,” Alexa Bruun Rasmussen of the Bruun Rasmussen auction house told AFP.
“One of them, ‘Radio Peace’, has never been published. “It’s a little piece of Danish history and when we listen to it, we can sense that John Lennon felt cosy in Denmark. He could be left alone and just be.”
Also a newly discovered tapes feature 91 minutes of fascinating discussion about Lennon’s favourite Beatles songs, his ardent love for Yoko Ono and being ‘possessed’ by fame is going to auction.
A fascinating cache of mostly unheard interview tapes with John Lennon is up for auction this month, offering an insight into topics including his favourite Beatles songs, his love for Yoko Ono, the corrupting power of fame and his feelings of hypocrisy over initially accepting an MBE. (TheGuardian)
Only around five minutes of them have been aired before, in a TV broadcast in the late 1980s. Zeilig died in 1990, but the tapes have only recently been discovered by his family. They are estimated to sell for between £20,000 and £30,000. On the greatest Beatles songs, Lennon says on the recordings: “I’m prejudiced, I like my own, you know. [laughs] I like Revolution #9” – the freeform sonic experiment at the climax of The White Album. Asked to name more, he picks I Am the Walrus, Strawberry Fields Forever, A Day in the Life and Rain.
