A guitar performed by John Lennon and George Harrison in periods for the albums Assist! and Rubber Soul, which has spent the final 50 years mendacity in an attic, is to go up for public sale alongside different memorabilia objects reminiscent of a handwritten live performance setlist by Kurt Cobain, a guide of handwritten lyrics by Tupac Shakur and a Fendi gown worn by Amy Winehouse.
The 12-string acoustic guitar, a Hootenanny mannequin made by Bavarian agency Framus within the early Nineteen Sixties, was primarily performed by Lennon and likewise seems within the film Assist!, used to carry out You’ve Bought to Disguise Your Love Away. The studio model of that music additionally options the guitar, in addition to Assist!’s title observe, It’s Solely Love and I’ve Simply Seen a Face. Harrison, in the meantime, used it to play the rhythm guitar half on Norwegian Wooden, and it seems on one other Rubber Soul music, Woman.
Darren Julien, co-founder and govt director of Julien’s Auctions who’re providing the merchandise, stated: “Discovering this exceptional instrument is like discovering a misplaced Rembrandt or Picasso, and it nonetheless appears to be like and performs like a dream.”
He stated the present house owners – who had forgotten they owned it – had initially been gifted the guitar by Gordon Waller, from Nineteen Sixties pop stars Peter and Gordon. That duo had hits with Lennon-McCartney songs reminiscent of A World With out Love, which topped the US and UK charts.
Julien travelled to the UK to confirm the guitar on the home it was being saved in, and likewise rescued the guitar’s authentic case which had been thrown in a bin. Aided by Beatles historians Andy Babiuk and Danny Bennett, Julien stated he had confirmed the instrument’s provenance. “The woodgrain of a guitar is sort of a fingerprint in that no two guitars are the identical,” he stated. “Not solely is the woodgrain an ideal match to the guitar that John and George are taking part in however so is the pickguard which could be precisely photo-matched. As a result of the guitar has been undisturbed for roughly 5 a long time, it’s within the actual situation when it comes to aesthetics that it was when John and George performed it.”
In 2015, Julien’s Auctions bought one other Lennon guitar: a J-160E Gibson acoustic guitar stolen from him and unwittingly purchased by a musician within the late Nineteen Sixties. It fetched a worth of $2.41m (£1.6m on the time). The newly found Framus guitar has a gross sales estimate of $600,000-$800,000 (£485,000-£647,000) however Julien argues it may promote for greater than the Gibson, as it’s “traditionally extra vital”. The corporate has additionally beforehand bought a drum equipment utilized by Ringo Starr for $2.2m, in addition to a duplicate of the White Album owned by him.
Additionally going up for public sale on 29 and 30 Could, on-line and at New York’s Exhausting Rock Cafe, is one other piece of Lennon historical past: the phone he used through the Mattress-Ins for Peace, protests towards the Vietnam warfare made by him and spouse Yoko Ono.
In addition to Beatles memorabilia and aforementioned different objects, followers can bid on a guitar performed by Adam Clayton at U2’s current live performance residency at Las Vegas’s Sphere, plus his stage outfit; Onitsuka Tiger trainers worn by Freddie Mercury; a Versace ensemble worn by Tina Turner on her Wildest Desires tour; a jacket worn by Michael Jackson in 1984 through the Victory tour with the Jackson brothers; a cap worn by Angus Younger of AC/DC on stage; a jacket worn by Joan Jett within the Soiled Deeds music video; and a guitar performed by Mick Mars of Mötley Crüe, emblazoned with “Ladies Ladies Ladies” on the reverse.
Highlights from the public sale will likely be on show from 23-30 April in London, on the Exhausting Rock Cafe in Piccadilly Circus.
The Lennon/Harrison guitar discovery comes after one other long-lost Beatles instrument, a Höfner bass owned by Paul McCartney, was returned to him in February after it had been stolen in 1972.
