Wednesday 23 May 2012

“Mimi’s Still Got The Cats”

John’s Aunt Mimi took in student lodgers. One of these was a veterinary student who stayed at the house on Menlove Avenue in the late 50s, while John was also living there.

A few years later in 1964, this student caught up with his former house mate at a Beatles concert in Cardiff and was treated to the autograph below.

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It is fully signed by all four Beatles with John adding a personal message about Aunt Mimi and her cats at the top.

The estimate on this interesting item is £5000-£5700.

The annual Liverpool Beatles Auction takes place at the Paul McCartney Auditorium at Liverpool Institute of the Performing Arts on Saturday 25th August 2012. It is organised by The Beatles Shop on Mathew Street, Liverpool.

Any press enquiries about this item,the vendor or the Beatles Auction in general should be made to The Beatles Shop (see contact section on this website)

Rare Signed Ticket

By the time of our auction this rare ticket will be just over 50 years old! 

In 1962, a few months before the release of Love Me Do, The Beatles appeared on the bill in Southport with Joe Brown as the headline act. Tickets for Beatles shows early in their career are very rare and few and far between. Tickets tended to be thrown away or collected on the door. This ticket is used, as it has had a corner torn off, probably on entry to the venue.

joebrownticket

The ticket is also signed on the reverse by Paul McCartney and John Lennon. Both have added the dedication to Jo.

joebrownticketautos

The estimate for this item is £2250-£2500.

The Word Of Bob

Bob Wooler was the DJ in the Cavern Club and a very well known person on the Beatles scene.

Before his death, a little over a decade ago, he was working on a biography. Eventually this was published, written by the local music historian and author Spencer Leigh. However, at one point Bob handed some type written pages over to another local writer asking him to finish the job. Two of these pages are up for sale in our auction this August.

The two A4 sheets, typed on Bob’s typewriter, recall how the DJ’s drink was spiked with prellies by John and George as well as other comments about John Lennon.

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(Please note the above extracts are edited by request.)

This historical document goes under the hammer on Saturday 25th August as part of the annual Liverpool Beatles Auction organised by The Beatles Shop. It’s estimated value is still to be confirmed. The vendor is donating the proceeds to charity.

Please contact the The Beatles Shop for further details.

Wednesday 9 May 2012

Rare Images of Lost Lennon TV Programme

These photographs may just seem to many to be just some snaps of John Lennon on the television, but they are images of a television programme that vanished from the BBC archives over forty years ago!

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Beatles Archivist and Author Keith Badman explains the importance of these images….

"A wonderful find; telesnap images from John's 22 June 1963 appearance on BBC Television's legendary, record judging panel show, Juke Box Jury. The short-sighted Corporation decided to junk all but two of this long-running series, including every Beatles-related one, so this is a real discovery. Each week's guests were expected to be respectable and friendly to each of the new singles they were offering their opinions on, even to ones they didn't particularly like. But not John. Even the latest by his idol Elvis Presley took a battering. On '(You're the) Devil in Disguise', John was heard to say, "I don't like this. And I hate songs with 'walk' and 'talk' in it, you know, those lyrics. She walks, she talks. I don't like that. And I don't like the double beat, doom-cha doom-cha, that bit. It's awful. Poor ol' Elvis." The BBC's 35mm film print of John's appearance vanished from the archives in 1968. 

These photographs are up for sale in our Beatles Auction on 25th August at The Paul McCartney Auditorium at Liverpool Institute for the Performing Arts. They are estimated to fetch between £300 and £375.

For more details please contact The Beatles Shop via the contacts section on this page.

A better image can be made available to members of the press, please contact us.

Various Photographs

As mentioned in a previous post we have a number of items in this year’s auction from Freda Kelly’s personal collection. This includes a number of photographs that she collected over the years as the secretary of the Beatles Fan Club.

These are just a sample.

fredacasbahpic

Beatles at The Casbah Club. Estimate - £150-£200

fredacorriebloke

Publicity shots with Chris Sandford from Coronation Street (2 photos in this lot) Estimate -£60-£70

fredapicbillharry

With Mersey Beat editor Bill Harry. Estimate - £80-£100

fredapromobestpic

Early promotional photograph by HC Watnough featuring Pete Best. Estimate £150-£200

None of the photographs are being sold with any form of copyright.

Happy New Year from Paul and Linda!

These lovely autographs from Paul and Linda McCartney were written on the back of a cigarette packet. The vendor was lucky enough to be in the same pub on the Wirral as the McCartneys while they celebrated the New Year in 1982/83. They even got a couple of photographs which are included with this lot.
newyearpaulsig
Estimate - £350-£400

Merry Christmas Freda!

We have a few lots in the auction this year from the collection of Freda Kelly, the secretary of the Beatles Fan Club in the 60s.

This Christmas card given to Freda in 1965 looks, at first, to be signed by all four of the Beatles. However it is in fact a set of Beatles autographs that were done by the road manager (and later head of Apple) Neil Aspinall.

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It was common practice even from the early days to have someone else sign autographs to be given out. Neil seems to have been particularly expert at it!

Estimate - £100-£150.

NB: As stated these are not genuine Beatles autographs and are not being sold as such.

Thursday 3 May 2012

Family Ties

The Beatles relatives were often asked to get autographs for fans, but also they were occasionally asked to sign autographs too.

Here’s Louise and Harold Harrison’s signatures on the reverse of a Beatles promotional card.

louiseharoldautos

Estimate - £60-£70

John lived with his Aunt Mimi on Menlove Avenue for most of his childhood. We have two Mimi related items going into this year’s auction.

mimi

This signature on the reverse of a Beatles promo card is estimated at £140-£150

And there is also a two page handwritten letter from the eighties from Mimi.

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This carries an estimate of £320-£360

Bob and Allan

Bob Wooler and Allan Williams used to be well known verbal sparring partners at Beatles events until Bob passed away a decade ago.

Bob was the legendary Cavern DJ and Allan is “the man who gave the Beatles away” In fact this was the title of Allan’s book.

A copy of this book is up for sale in our auction and it has been signed by both Allan Williams and Bob Wooler.

allanbobautos

The estimate on this item is £60-£70

Ringo or Robin?

 

In 1969 Ringo Starr went into business with designer Robin Cruikshank. The company, which existed until 1986, was call Ringo Or Robin Ltd.

rorstickers

 

We have a short strip of ROR stickers up for sale in our auction in August.

They are estimated to sell at £30-£40.

 

 

 

 

There are also two ROR mirrors in the auction. One features the Disney character Goofy and is estimated to sell at £200-£250

The second smaller mirror features an apple in its design.

applerormirror

(note that the images you see in the mirror are reflections of the ceiling in the shop, it’s a plain mirror with cut out apple design in the middle.)

This mirror carries an estimate of £100-£125.