Hendrix, Beatles, Elvis memorabilia up for auction

[September 04, 2008]  LONDON (AP) -- A guitar burned onstage by Jimi Hendrix and The Beatles' first contract with Brian Epstein are up for sale 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 rock 'n' roll 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 pounds (US$900,000).

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 Jan. 24, 1962, by John Lennon, George Harrison, Paul McCartney and Richard Starkey -- Ringo Starr's real name -- is expected to sell for 250,000 pounds (US$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 percent of the group's earnings once each band member was making more than 200 pounds (US$360) a week. Epstein did not sign it until Oct, 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 Oct. 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. Hits included the Tornados' 1962 instrumental "Telstar" the first single by a British group to top the U.S. 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 pounds (US$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 the King's 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 pounds (US$90,000 to US$135,000) and the piano for 300,000 pounds (US$535,000).

[Associated Press; By JILL LAWLESS]

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