An Australian-made Maton Mastersound MS-500 belonging to the Beatles, played at their last-ever Cavern Club appearance in 1963, is up for auction after its current owner, Roy Barber died in 2000. The guitar was used by the Beatles at the gig and has been on display at Liverpool’s Beatles Story museum until now.
Auctioneer Luke Hobbs expects the guitar to bring in somewhere between £300,000 and £400,000 when it is sold on auction in Wilshire in September this year.
George Harrison’s guitar up for sale
When the Beatles played their last gig at Liverpool’s Cavern Club in 1963, George Harrison played the guitar, which is now available for auction.
As noted by the BBC, he used it in other performances during the summer of 1963, while his usual guitar was undergoing repairs. The guitar had also been played during a studio recording of “This Boy” and “I Want to Hold Your Hand” during October 1963.
Once Harrison got his regular guitar back, the guitar was sold to Roy Barber, who played with Dave Berry and the Cruisers. The guitar was played in their biggest hit of the 60s, “The Crying Game.” Barber died in 2000, leading to the guitar being placed on display The Beatles Story museum in Liverpool. It was later sold on auction in New York in 2015, where it fetched £373,000.
‘Very special’ guitar
Luke Hobbs told the BBC that the guitar was “something very special,” adding that it is directly linked to the early days of Beatlemania.
Hobbs expects interest from all over the world when the guitar goes on auction.
“Iconic Guitar Once Played By The Beatles George Harrison Set To Fetch £400,000 At Auction” • |Express 🇬🇧| https://t.co/b71dzFjQiG
— JaiGuruDeva (@JaiGuruDeva) August 3, 2018
Auctioneers will also be offering other Harrison memorabilia, including a pair of customized Ray-Ban sunglasses worn by the Beatle in the 1970s and 1980s.
They expect the sunglasses to bring in over £3000.
Paul McCartney ‘hardcore’ at the Cavern Club
Paul McCartney made a magnificent return to the Cavern Club in July, where he held a “secret gig” to a packed room of delighted fans. NME quotes from their previous article about the gig, saying McCartney, 76, played for almost two hours with only one drink of water and a towel-off in a tiny room.
McCartney was heckled by people in the audience and he kicked back at them. At 76, he was in a room that was as hot as hell and he could still have filled that club 40,000 times over.
Paul McCartney wows fans at The Cavern Club in Liverpool https://t.co/uOjVP9ap1G
— Anne Sewell (@anners2008) July 27, 2018
Their reviewer pointed out that McCartney hadn’t played “Hey Jude” at the Cavern Club gig, but added that it didn’t matter. The review went on to say that when McCartney gets up on stage, it seems like he has something to prove, but the only thing he does prove is that there will never be another performer like him.