STOCKPORT AUCTION HOUSE – RARE BEATLES PHOTOS GO UNDER THE HAMMER

Previously unpublished colour photographs of The Beatles during their first tour of the US are to be auctioned by Omega Auctions in Stockport.

The 65 slides that include many stage shots, including George Harrison with his red Rickenbacker guitar, which appeared in the film A Hard Day’s Night, will go under the hammer on 22 March, 50 years to the day in 1963 when the band released their first album, Please Please Me.

Auctioneer Paul Fairweather of Stockport based Omega Auctions said: “This is a fabulous collection, particularly given that all the slides are in colour.”

    The photographs were taken by award-
    winning physicist Dr Robert “Bob” Beck.

    Dr Beck was a researcher and inventor who
    died in 2002, leaving a huge archive of
    photographs and slides in his Hollywood
    home.

Ernie Sutton from the British Beatles Fan Club said: “These photographs show The Beatles during their 1964 US tour, both on and off-stage.

“New photographs that emerge of The Beatles are always of interest to the fans, but with the majority of photographs from this tour in black and white, it is a delight to see colour photographs from that historic tour.”

The transparencies are to be sold along with the copyright and it is estimated that they would fetch between £10,000 and £15,000.

The band played a string of sell-out concerts in the US in August 1964 following an appearance on the Ed Sullivan show in February that year. 

After the huge success of the band in the US, colour photography and film of them was more widely used for their 1965 and 1966 appearances there.

The famous 1965 Shea Stadium show was filmed in colour by the BBC.

Dr Beck’s slides also feature close-up portraits from the Las Vegas Sahara Hotel press conference, the Las Vegas Convention Centre gig, plus shots of a private party at the Beverly Hills mansion of the then president of Capitol Records, Alan Livingston.

The transparencies are to be sold along with the copyright and he estimated that they would fetch between £10,000 and £15,000.

Source: BBC news