Stumbling Across A Bit Of Beatles History – Ten Years On.

Ten years ago today we started our press campaign about one of the most memorable auction lots we ever had in the Beatles Shop’s Annual Beatles Memorabilia Auction. (No it’s not Lennon’s Toilet!)

Before I continue, I should point out that I have permission to tell this version of events from Stephen at the shop and I checked with my dad that he didn’t mind. Anytime I sound a bit vague or careful in this post it’s due to information I wasn’t entirely privy to, that may be a bit of speculation or out of respect for certain parties.

Let’s start at the beginning. A few months beforehand we had received a box of Cilla Black demos on acetates for the auction. They came from a family member. We decided it may be a good idea to listen to them. We knew it would be advisable to do this only once due to the delicate nature of the discs. In the press information we put out we said it was Stephen that listened to them. What actually happened was that I pointed out we had a turntable at home that plugged into the computer so records could be easily saved ads mp3s. This meant the demos could be easily be put onto a CD if people wanted the hear them. Perfect solution.

But why did we change the story for the press? Well, in the light of what happened next it was decided that it was for the best, both news story-wise and to make life easier all round – read on!

I took the demos home and my dad set up the record player and started the process of copying them. Towards the end of the recordings he popped into the living room so say that one of the demos definitely didn’t sound like Cilla, in fact it was a bloke. I went to listen to the recording, dad pressed play and slowly I realised who was singing. It was Paul McCartney. I called Stephen right away and said we would get a copy to him to listen to as soon as possible. While that was being sent I did a bit of googling and discovered that this particular demo, for It’s For You, had been missing for over half a decade. When I told my dad he was probably the first person who had heard this demo in over fifty years he had to sit down for a bit with his head in hands trying to take it in.

I headed back to Liverpool with the demos and the CD of the tracks, where we decided to “edit” the story so my dad didn’t have to be involved, don’t worry we asked him and he was happy about it. It was easier and simpler to have Stephen be the person who discovered this bit of Beatles treasure.

Now it was time to start to gather information about the demo. It was recorded in 1964 by Paul, I think there was some idea that he’d recorded it on a tape recorder and then sent the tape to be transferred to disc. This disc was them sent round to Cilla at the London Palladium. This is where the trail originally ended, but the vendor told us the disc was given to a family member who collected records.

Once the press releases went out, the fun began.

I’m going to confess that I’m slightly hazy on most of the timeline. Of course there was a lot of press. I remember us having to explain to one TV crew that they categorically could not touch or play the acetate. They are fragile things, and can only be played a certain number of times before the pressing deteriorates. They didn’t seem too pleased. We set up ways for the disc to be photographed, with either me or Stephen being the only ones to handle the object. As was the normal way we did these things, Stephen did most of the interviews and things just ticked along for a while.

Then I think some other relatives go involved, but they dealt with vendor directly and were more interested in the other demos in the collection. This was resolved and on we went until we were contacted by lawyers on behalf of Paul McCartney. They laid out most things we knew, we were selling the physical item and not the copyright to the sound on it etc… There were issues with the twenty second snippet we were using in the publicly so we took that down, it had already been stolen and was all over YouTube, Also McCartney required a copy for his archives. This involved the owner of the shop having to drive the acetate to a recording studio for a professional copy to be made, All this was handled and the auction was looming. Two weeks out, after nearly a month of promotion and with all the posters, banners and the catalogues printed the venue told us it was no longer available. I seem to recall there were mixed messages as to why. The official line was a problem with a roof, I think work had been done but it was all finished in plenty of time before our event. The tech people we dealt with at the venue were apologetic and had found us another venue not too far away. They even said they would have people available to send people to the new venue on the day. If I recall this never happened, but we didn’t think that was down to the staff.

We hit the social media accounts and spread the word about the venue change. The promotional materials were altered and if anything the hubbub caused meant we had more people asking about the auction. I remember being so stressed and upset at the hassle caused by the move, but it all fell right in the end. They even had one of the lighting engineers call the shop on the day to let me know the price the demo went for at the hammer so I could field the inevitable calls from the press. (I ran the shop on the auction day and Stephen was at the venue.)

The highlight of the whole experience for me was in the week of so prior to the auction. Interested parties wanted to hear the record before they bid. This was only done in person. The track was on my mobile phone and it was my job to make sure they had no recording devices on them, they had to hand their phones to Stephen, then I took them into the stockroom in the back of the shop and played them the track. It became a bit of a joke that I kept taking men into the back and they would come out grinning or in some cases, crying tears of joy, and hugging me in gratitude.

The hammer price for the demo was £18,000 (this was before costs were added) and once it was sold there was one last legal matter to take care of. The buyer, who was very nice by the way, wanted us to delete the copies of the mp3 files we had, and to sign to say we had done this and guaranteed no copies still existed. The CD with the track on was given to the buyer. And that was that. We’ve never heard it since.

As a footnote, I have had people tell me they have heard the demo since then. I ask them a simple question about the recording, and I know that they haven’t. There are a couple fake versions floating around, they don’t even resemble the snippet that’s still up on a few YouTube accounts.