One Australian is kicking himself tonight (Beatles memorabilia).

[mhendo]

Linkety

A vacationer who purchased a suitcase at an Australian flea market found a trove of Beatles memorabilia inside, including photos, concert programs and unreleased recordings, The Times newspaper reported Tuesday.

While the materials have yet to be authenticated, some experts believe the collection is the lost “Mal Evans archive,” originally belonging to the Beatles’ roadie and sound recordist.

<snip>

Fraser Claughton, 41, from Tinkerton, England, found the suitcase in a small town outside of Melbourne, The Times said. Realizing the suitcase was not empty, he bought it for about $36.

<snip>

The 4 1/2 hour reel-to-reel tape recording includes John Lennon and Paul McCartney experimenting with alternative versions of some previously unrecorded tracks. The collection also includes previously unknown versions of new recordings of “We Can Work It Out” and “Cry Baby Cry.”

The tapes, labeled “Abbey Road… not for release,” will be evaluated by the Beatles’ record label, Apple, and examined by experts to determine their origin and authenticity.

$36!!!

That guy is looking at some serious cash if the stuff is authentic, and the person who sold the case is probably half way through a 32oz bottle of cheap scotch and dreaming about what might have been.

[tdn]

Somewhere at home I have a book about the Beatles. On a few pages are pictures of valuable artifacts (lunchboxes, comic books, etc.). Imagine the sick feeling in my stomach when I remembered seeing these things around the house when I was a young 'un, and realizing that they’d long since been thrown out.