Aside from my postcard from John, my
stash of Beatles memorabilia is memorably slight and most of it was picked up
on a whim in 1975 from a shop in Greenwich Village for $20. I wasn’t sure what
motivated me to invest in two pairs of Beatles ladies’ stockings (still unworn,
incidentally), two Beatles wigs (also unworn), a scrapbook of at least 100 bubble
gum cards (mostly Dezo Hoffman pix from ‘63/4), an orange plastic guitar
(smashed by my kids), a yellow submarine (intact, just) and a few other odds
and ends (badges, hair clip, tour programme, plate etc), but they have followed
me around for years now and to my immense disappointment are, with the possible
exception of the stockings and wigs, virtually worthless.
Now reduced to one, above. Back in the
eighties I gave one of each to a rock-mad pal as a wedding present and he was
delighted. His bride, however, was not, no doubt preferring a
pop-up toaster or six wine glasses. The marriage didn’t last, and the groom tells
me he hung on to the stockings and wig but was unconcerned about retaining any glassware or kitchen appliances.
The disappointing valuation of my little collection is the viewpoint of Pete
Nash, editor of The British Beatles Fan Club magazine, to which I am an
occasional contributor. Unlike mine, Pete’s stash of Beatles memorabilia is
memorably gigantic and a good deal of it, some 2,500 items, went on sale this
week. Not to put too fine a point on it, this may well be the most valuable
Beatles’ collection to hit the market this century, containing as it does some
of the rarest and most sought after items that interest Beatle collectors.
Top the list is a
one-sided test pressing of The Beatles’ second album With The Beatles, an unassuming relic to be sure, especially as its
label (pictured below) does not offer any information as to what the grooves
contain. This is priced at an eye-watering £5,500.
Most of the items that
follow, at least those that need a buyer with a fairly deep pocket, are
test-pressings, promo discs and interview recordings distributed only to radio
stations. I was particularly intrigued by a 10-inch shellac record of ‘I’ll Cry
Instead’ b/w ‘Tell Me Why’ which was released on a red Parlophone label in India
in September 1964, priced at £3,500 which, if it were being sold by an original
purchaser in its country of origin, might feed its owner’s family for a decade.
Two other Indian singles (‘Hard Day’s Night’ and ‘Can’t Buy Me Love’) in a
similar format are a bit cheaper, probably because – unlike ‘I’ll Cry Instead’
– these songs were released as singles everywhere else.
A small selection of Pete's collection. I have a plate similar to those on the right and the orange guitar looks suspiciously like the one my kids destroyed.
Only 14 of the 2,500 items are priced in the four figure range, with the vast majority, ie over 2,000, at less than £100, and most of those less than £50. About 300 cost less than a fiver. Bottom of the list is a bog-standard 7-inch of ‘I Feel Fine’ at a very reasonable 49p which, taking inflation into account, is probably cheaper than when it was released in 1964. I bought it then, for six old shillings and three old pence, but I must have lost it along the way, though I do still have four of my Beatles singles, all bought when they were released: ‘She Loves You’, ‘I Want To Hold Your Hand’, ‘Can’t Buy Me Love’ and ‘Day Tripper’. Since all four are irredeemably scratched due to excessive use on purchase, I estimate their value at 10p each tops, and even my Twist And Shout EP, again much played, is probably worth less than a tin of dog food.
Long before the internet
and e-Bay the best place to acquire Beatles memorabilia outside of specialist
record shops was at fan festivals, the first of which – called Beatlefest – was
held at the Commodore Hotel in New York City in September 1974. I went along
to see what was happening and whilst there bumped into May Pang, with whom John
was living during his sabbatical from Yoko. I’d met May once or twice before
and she told me that John had sent her
along with a wad of cash to pick up stuff for him from the traders in bootlegs
and other Beatle bric-a-brac. May confessed that she didn’t really know what to
buy for John and asked me for advice, so I chose half a dozen bootlegs that I
thought he might like, and drew her attention to a picture of him in Hamburg, standing in a doorway and dressed in a leather jacket, taken in 1961 by Jurgen
Wollmer. That picture, of course, ended up on the cover of John’s Rock’n’Roll LP, released the following year, and I have good reason to believe that my intervention played a role in this.
Pete Nash’s bumper
Beatle sale can be accessed here:
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