Beatles treasure trove may be fool’s gold
Lawyers warned the British tourist who bought the supposedly “lost” artifacts for a pittance that he was not guaranteed to make a fortune, even if the goods proved genuine.
Briton Fraser Claughton said he stumbled across the collection in a battered suitcase at a market in the hamlet of Lara, north of Melbourne, and snapped it up for just Aus$50 (e30).
Experts say the collection of around 400 photographs, concert programmes and sealed tapes marked ‘Abbey Road’ - the Beatles’ favoured recording studio - could contain previously unheard Beatles songs.
It is thought to be the long-lost archive of Mal Evans, a close associate of the Beatles throughout the band’s career.
Rock historian Glenn Baker was sceptical about the collection’s authenticity, although he said if it was genuine it was pop music’s equivalent of the holy grail.
Evans was working for the post office in Liverpool in 1962 when he first heard the group.
He struck up a friendship with the band and was hired as a bodyguard, soon becoming road manager and back-up musician on records such as Rubber Soul and Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.
After the Beatles split in 1970, Evans moved to Los Angeles, where in 1976 he was shot dead by police after brandishing an unloaded rifle following a row with his girlfriend.
The only mention of him visiting Australia is during a 1964 tour, years before the Abbey Road tapes were made.
Australian Copyright Council executive officer Libby Baulch warned: “He might find himself owning scraps of paper and bits of vinyl or tape, but he won’t be able to reproduce them or record them because the copyright will still rest with the original owner.”
