A lost recording of the Beatles playing at a tiny club in Germany in 1962 has been unearthed and is set to be auctioned in London for an estimated 200,000 pounds.
The original master tape which contain the live performances of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr performing at the Star Club in Hamburg in 1962 have been discovered from a storage and show the group just before they became famous.
The tapes had been lost since 1977, the Daily Mirror reported.
The unedited recordings cover 300 minutes of The Beatles performing 33 songs, which were mostly cover tracks.
The tape was originally the property of Ted Taylor of the Liverpudlian band Kingsize Taylor and the Dominoes which performed with the Beatles in Hamburg in December 1962.
Ted Taylor reportedly asked Lennon for permission to record the group and he agreed.
Music company Lingasong later bought them and teamed up with music producer Larry Grossberg to convert them from mono to stereo sound.
Grossberg kept the master tape and recently re-discovered it in storage after forgetting he had it.
The tapes will be sold by Ted Owen and Co Auctioneers in London on April 1.
As far as Beatles’ fans and collectors go, these tapes are pure gold. They are the most significant and most important set of tapes ever to come up for auction because they represent a time when the Beatles were unknown and before they became famous.
– Ted Owen, Ted Owen and Co. Auctioneers.
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