Rock music souvenirs for sale

2008-09-04 16:01

London - A guitar burned onstage by Jimi Hendrix and The Beatles' first contract with Brian Epstein are up for sale on Thursday, and auctioneers predict bidding could run to hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Elvis Presley's fingerprints and the audio archive of legendary music producer Joe Meek are also included in the big-bucks London sale, which suggests the market in music memorabilia is booming.

The star lot at the sale, run by specialist auctioneer Fame Bureau, is a Fender Stratocaster that Hendrix set alight during a concert at London's Astoria in March 1967.

The musician burned another guitar at the Monterey Pop festival later the same year, where the stunt was caught on film.

The Fame Bureau says the scorched guitar was found last year in a garage at the home of a relative of one of Hendrix's business associates. It is predicted to sell for up to £500 000 ($900 000).

Worth millions

Also going under the hammer is Epstein's copy of his management contract with The Beatles, a pact that proved to be worth millions.

Fame Bureau managing director Ted Owen said the contract was "the most important music contract to have ever appeared".

The four-page document, signed on January 24 1962 by John Lennon, George Harrison, Paul McCartney and Richard Starkey - Ringo Starr's real name - is expected to sell for £250 000 ($450 000).

The contract, also signed by Harold Hargreaves Harrison and James McCartney on behalf of their underage sons, marked the moment when all the pieces were in place for a global outbreak of Beatlemania.

The contract entitled Epstein to 25% of the group's earnings once each band member was making more than £200 ($360) a week. Epstein did not sign it until October 1 1962 - after he had fulfilled a promise to get the band a deal with a record label.

The Beatles signed to EMI, and their first single, Love Me Do, was released on October 5.

The sale also includes the audio archive of Joe Meek, an enigmatic and tragic figure in music history.

A sonic experimenter along the lines of Phil Spector, Meek produced hit singles from his apartment above a north London leather-goods store.

Elvis' gun application

Hits included the Tornados' 1962 instrumental Telstar the first single by a British group to top the US charts. He recorded with musicians including Tom Jones, David Bowie and Jimmy Page, but became increasingly unstable.

In 1967, Meek shot and killed his landlady before killing himself. A film about his life, starring Con O'Neill and Kevin Spacey, is in production.

The set of almost 2 000 master tapes is expected to sell for up to £300 000 ($535 000).

Also up for auction are Elvis's application to the State of California for a concealed-gun permit - complete with a full set of fingerprints - and a Bechstein grand piano featured on The Beatles' White Album, David Bowie's Ziggy Stardust and Elton John's Goodbye Yellow Brick Road.

The Elvis application is expected to sell for £50 000 to £75 000 ($90 000 to $135 000) and the piano for £300 000 ($535,000).

- AP