The Beatles’ first recording contract, which was signed in 1961 in Hamburg, will be auctioned in New York next month.
According to specialists, the six-page contract could fetch $150,000.
The contract led to the single My Bonnie, which was released on Polydor in Germany under the name Tony Sheridan and the Beat Boys.
It will be auctioned by Heritage Auctions on September 19.
John Lennon signed the document JW Lennon and Paul McCartney signed his full name James Paul McCartney.
The contract was also signed by George Harrison and Pete Best, the drummer who was to be replaced by Ringo Starr the following year.
The Beatles were backing Tony Sheridan at Hamburg’s Top Ten Club at the time, and together they were signed by German record producer Bert Kaempfert to record a rock’n’roll version of My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean.
The papers are being sold by the estate of Uwe Blaschke, a German graphic designer and Beatles historian, who died in 2010.
The auction also includes a signed copy of the band’s first UK single Love Me Do and a postcard Ringo Starr sent to his mother from Hamburg.
Beatles rarities from 1963 have been released on iTunes.
Fifty-nine tracks – unreleased outtakes, demos – have been released on iTunes to stop them falling out of copyright and into the public domain.
EU copyright law covers recordings for 70 years if they have had an official release or 50 years if they have not.
The 2-disc set was apparently released, then removed, early on Tuesday, causing speculation it was only being published briefly to extend the copyright period.
Fans posted screenshots of the collection on the New Zealand iTunes store, along with links which later became invalid.
Online reports suggested the same thing had happened in Australia, Russia and Saudi Arabia – although the EU’s copyright laws would not apply in any of these territories.
Beatles rarities from 1963 have been released on iTunes
Gathering together live material and recording session offcuts, the compilation includes four alternate takes of She Loves You, two of From Me To You and several live versions of Roll Over Beethoven.
It also features three attempts at There’s A Place, as well as demos of two songs the group gave to other artists – Paul McCartney and John Lennon’s acoustic version of Bad to Me and Lennon’s piano demo of I’m in Love.
The tracks had been widely bootlegged, but never officially released until now.
After a recent change in the law, the master tape for The Beatles’ 1963 debut album Please Please Me is protected by copyright until 2033, but the unreleased session tapes for that album are not.
If the Beatles chose not to release the recordings before the end of the year, other record labels could theoretically put them out and profit from them next year.
The band’s 1962 debut single Love Me Do arguably slipped out of copyright last year before the EU’s copyright extension was signed into law.
At least one record company issued a “remastered” version of the song, although that has since been deleted.
The copyright law in question only covers the recordings – the composition of the songs remains the copyright of the songwriter for 70 years after his or her death.
Officially called The 50th Anniversary Collection, it carried a subtitle which explained its true purpose: The Copyright Extension Collection, Vol. 1.
The Beatles have decided to release 59 rare and unheard recordings in a bid to stop their copyright protection expiring.
The digital compilation includes four alternate takes of She Loves You and five of A Taste Of Honey.
EU law protects songs for 70 years after they are recorded, but only if they get an official release. Otherwise, copyright lasts 50 years.
In the case of The Beatles, that means their 1963 debut album Please Please Me is protected until 2033, but the unreleased session tapes for that album are not.
If the Beatles chose not to release the recordings before the end of the year, it would mean other record labels could theoretically put them out and profit from them.
The band’s 1962 debut single, Love Me Do, arguably slipped out of copyright last year, before the EU’s copyright extension was signed into law.
At least one record company issued a “remastered” version of the song, although that has since been deleted.
The new collection is expected to reach iTunes on Tuesday.
The Beatles have decided to release 59 rare and unheard recordings in a bid to stop their copyright protection expiring
News of its arrival first appeared on Norwegian Beatles blog, WogBlog, which also published cover art and a tracklisting.
According to the site, the collection contains three versions of There’s A Place as well as demos of two songs the group gave to other artists — Paul McCartney and John Lennon’s acoustic version of Bad to Me and Lennon’s piano demo of I’m in Love.
The Beatles are not the first band to issue rare material in a bid to extend copyright.
Bob Dylan’s record label rushed out 100 copies of an album last year containing early TV performances, alongside multiple versions of Blowin’ in the Wind, Bob Dylan’s Dream and I Shall Be Free.
Officially called The 50th Anniversary Collection, it carried a subtitle which explained its true purpose: The Copyright Extension Collection, Vol. 1.
A second volume followed this year, while Motown has also begun issuing rare recordings on iTunes under the “Motown Unreleased” banner.
Given the low-key nature of the release, it is likely that Apple Corps, the Beatles’ record label, will take down the new material after a brief period, allowing them to exploit the recordings in a more considered way later on.
However, it is likely that the release of rare material will become an annual event, as the band seek to protect their works for another 20 years.
Meanwhile, a more glossy campaign is being mounted to promote a new Beatles box set, which is being released to mark the 50th anniversary of the band’s first trip to America.
The 13-disc set includes all of the band’s American albums, including five that have never been available on CD before.
Many of the records feature different titles, track listings, mixes, and artwork from their UK versions.
The Beatles will also be given a lifetime achievement award by the Grammys in 2014, during a special ceremony the night before the main event.
German electro pioneers Kraftwerk, country star Kris Kristofferson and soul group The Isley Brothers will also be honored.
John Lennon’s school detention documents are being put up for sale.
Teachers from Liverpool’s Quarry Bank High School for Boys wrote that 15-year-old John Lennon was punished for “fighting in class” and “sabotage”.
The two documents from 1955 were rescued by a teacher in the 1970s who had been told to burn all of the books in a storage room at the school.
The sheets are expected to be sold for up to £3,000 ($5,000) each at auction.
The documents reveal that on two occasions John Lennon received three detentions in one day.
Other reasons given by his teachers for punishment include “nuisance”, “shoving” and “just no interest whatsoever”.
John Lennon’s school detention documents are being put up for sale
The documents cover the periods when he was in Class 3B between May 19 and June 23, 1955, and in Class 4C from November 25, 1955, to February 13, 1956.
John Lennon went on to meet Paul McCartney in 1957 and together they formed the Beatles, who had their first hit in late 1962 with the song Love Me Do.
The details of the young John Lennon’s detentions were discovered by an enterprising teacher in the late 1970s.
He had been asked to clear out a storage room to make space for a newly-appointed teacher and had been instructed to burn all the books stored in the room.
But spotting the name “Lennon” in the top of some of the pages he realized they related to the famous former student and tore the sheets from the book to retain as a keepsake.
A number of the pages he had taken out of the book and kept were destroyed at a later date in an accident involving chemicals.
Other sheets he gave away but these pages are some of the few that have survived.
The sheets have been authenticated by John Lennon’s close school friend, Pete Shotton, who wrote a book John Lennon: In My Life.
Peter Beech, who was John Lennon’s general science teacher at the time, said: “The sheet is typical of John Lennon, he was an extremely cheeky boy.
“He did, however, know his limits. In the classroom, if you settled John down, you generally settled the class down.
“His chemistry teacher Eric Oldman said that John could actually go far.”
John Lennon died aged 40 after he was shot outside his New York apartment on December 8, 1980, by Mark Chapman.
Online bidding for the detention sheets and other items of Beatles memorabilia starts at TrackAuction.com on November 22.
The Beatles, Mick Jagger and Robbie Williams are among the names being considered to appear on the new £10 banknote.
According to The Mirror, the Bank Of England has released a list of 150 great Britons who have been suggested by members of the public to be the face on one side of the new notes when they are printed.
They join a list that includes football star David Beckham, Princess Diana, literacy great William Shakespeare and wartime Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill, who could feature on the new series F notes.
The Beatles, Mick Jagger and Robbie Williams are among the names being considered to appear on the new £10 banknote
Other suggestions include suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst, TV stars John Cleese, Michael Parkinson and Terry Wogan; scientists Stephen Hawking, Sir Alexander Fleming and current favorite WW2 codebreaker Alan Turing, who died aged 41 in 1954 after being prosecuted for being gay.
Last month, Robbie Williams scored a chart double as his ninth album Take The Crown and single Candy occupied both Number One spots. The last time he had similar success was back in December 2001 when he had a Number One single with Something Stupid, his cover of Carson and Gaile’s 1967 track featuring Nicole Kidman, and a Number One album with Swing When You’re Winning.
Last week, The Rolling Stones played the final show of their 50 And Counting run of gigs at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey, where they were joined onstage by Lady Gaga for a rendition of Gimme Shelter.
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