Beatles Memorabilia auction: very rare signed record of Beatles hit on sale.

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A very rare signed copy of the Beatles hit single Please Please Me is expected to make thousands of pounds at Beatles Memorabilia auction.

The seven-inch copy of Please Please Me is described as “very, very rare” and has an estimate of £7,000 to £8,000.

Beatles Memorabilia, the annual auction which takes place in the band’s home city of Liverpool, also includes a number of times belonging John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo Starr as well as their manager Brian Epstein.

Other highlights of this year auction are 3 rarely seen photographs of Beatles taken at Newcastle City Hall and the Sunderland Empire as Beatlemania was sweeping the world in November 1963.

The pictures were taken by Keith Perry, a freelance photographer, and the negatives were forgotten for 48 years.

Each photo is being sold with full, worldwide copyright and they are expected to attract a frenzy of bid.

A cap belonging to John Lennon is also expected to attract huge interest and carries an estimate of up to £4,000.

Among the more unusual items up for sale is a compulsory purchase order issued for the famous Cavern Club before it was filled in with concrete in the early 1970s.

The order, dated November 17 1970, carries an estimate of up to £5,500.

Other Beatles Memorabilia collected from the Mathew Street venue include a piece of the stage, which could fetch £1,600 to £1,800.

A programme of the Cavern Club reopening, carried out by then prime minister Harold Wilson in July 1966, has a guide price of £80 to £120.

The auction is also inviting bids for a telegram addressed to “Mr. G Starkex” sent by comedy star Peter Sellers to Ringo Starr and first wife Maureen on August 21 1968.

The message is to let them know that the weather is holding up for Sellers’ visit to see them.

“The annual sale, part of the Beatles Convention in Liverpool, is attracting huge levels of interest,” the organizers said.

Stephen Bailey, manager of the Liverpool Beatles Shop which is staging the sale, said:

“The memorabilia has just kept coming in and there’s a lot of excitement building.

“We have several signed singles this year and they always attract a lot of interest from fans and collectors.

“But it’s always the more unusual items which capture the imagination of the buyers.”

There are a total of 322 lots being sold in the auction, which will take place today in the Paul McCartney Auditorium at Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts.