The Top Beatles Collectables – All you need is love and £180,000
Fifties years on, we still feel the love for The Beatles
The Beatles have a special fascination for collectors and dealers in music memorabilia.
Beatlemania has thrived for five decades and is as robust as ever as recent auction of the Fab Four’s memorabilia in Liverpool proved.
A copy of the The Beatles Yesterday and Today Album, signed by John, Paul and Ringo sold for a remarkable £180,000.
The album was a prototype and the story behind it is that John wanted to get hold of a rare recording by Yellow Matter Custard, a Beatles tribute band. It was owned by Beatles fanatic Dave Morrell. John offered Dave a swap for a personal copy of the Yesterday and Today album.
That copy is special because John, a talented artist, drew a sketch (pictured) of a man holding a shovel with his dog next to him on the back of the album cover.
Whatever the Fab Four did as individuals, or as a group, inevitably created global fascination. Lennon especially became a global campaigner for peace and was always ready to attack politicians and Governments. As well as the music, the legacy these young Liverpool lads, created is treasure trove of items coveted and increasing in value.
John and Yoko tried to make a bedder world
To the Swinging Sixties generation, it seems like only Yesterday, but it’s half a century since John’s iconic Montreal Bed-in for World Peace. John and Yoko Ono celebrated their marriage lying in bed in full view of the media for a fortnight.
The event, at the Fairmont Queen Elizabeth hotel, Montreal Canada, attracted massive publicity. The couple tried to focus attention on the quest for peace at a time when the Vietnam War was raging. In pre-digital 1969, it was the equivalent of a campaign going viral on the Internet!
For two weeks John and Yoko cuddled and ate turtle soup, holding 156 interviews offering their thoughts on peace. Today the suite of hotel rooms where it all happened are preserved like a peace shrine but guests can stay there for about £1,000 a night.
Love is all you need – but cash helps for signed baseball
Other Beatles gems sold at the May auction in Liverpool included an interior door to John Lennon and Ringo Starr’s, Tittenhurst Park home. It sold for £5,760.
A black ink on paper cartoon by John depicting a man crawling out of a box, sold for £12,800.
A baseball signed by all four Beatles at Candlestick Park, San Francisco, at their last live performance sold for £57,600.
A poster from Liverpool Airport for the “Visit of The Beatles” on July 10, 1964 was signed by all four. It sold for £32,000.
For anyone interested memorabilia associated with John Lennon, there are examples for sale on the Internet. They are reasonably priced too.
Simple programmes for art exhibitions where his art and that of Yoko went on show sell for £100. It just a question of doing your research and being patient.
A Brand NEW Coin has been unveiled to mark 50 years since that iconic ‘Bed-In for Peace’ protest held in Montreal by John himself and his wife Yoko Ono. Issued by The Royal Canadian Mint, the coin is limited to JUST 9,999 worldwide!
Nice!