Beatles contract goes under the hammer

LONDON: The “life-changing contract” that launched the ‘Fab Four’ on the road to Beatlemania is set to go under the hammer in Britain.

The Beatles’ first fully-signed contract with manager Brian Epstein is expected to fetch at least  £2,50,000 at an auction next month.

They could never have dreamed that the paper to which John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr added their signatures would one day be worth so much.

Epstein’s copy of the contract will be up for grabs at the Idea Generation Gallery in London on September 4. According to the report, the contract was signed on October 01 1962, shortly after Epstein secured The Beatles’ first record deal with EMI.

Two additional signatures are on the paper — Lennon and McCartney’s fathers signed their names as their sons were under 21. The auction will also include the Bechstein piano that The Beatles used in recording Hey Jude. —PTI