Website says it has proof of Beatles’ secret reunion

AN internet auction house claimed yesterday to have proof that the Beatles reunited in secret in the mid-1970s in an attempt to record a final album.

The website is auctioning a recordings list and tape, said to have been made at a session in 1976 which ended in a dispute between the Fab Four.

New York-based curator Gary Zimet claimed that John, Paul, George and Ringo recorded five songs at the Davlen Studios in Los Angeles, but never released them.

While the tape label, listing the songs Happy Feeling, Back Home, Rockin' Once Again, People Of The Third World and Little Girl, is intact, the tape itself was said to be "bulk erased" by the Beatles because the session ended in a row.

An unerased version is still being held in vaults at Abbey Road Studios in London, he said.

Mr Zimet said the former co-owner of the LA studio, Len Kovner, and sound engineers could "independently confirm" that the session took place.

He quoted a letter from Mr Kovner which said the recording session was a "failed attempt to reunite" the Beatles.

"This tape deserves its place in rock archives. "The only copy is in a vault in Abbey Road," the letter said.

But a spokesman for Paul McCartney said: "What reunion was that? I am not aware of any Beatles reunion in the 70s."

A spokesman for producer and "fifth Beatle" George Martin could not be immediately reached for comment.

Abbey Road had no immediate comment.

Last month the same website momentsintime.com put on sale an album cover signed by John Lennon for Mark Chapman, the man who later shot him dead.

Mr Zimet said the new Beatles specimens were being sold by a former engineer at the LA studio.

"I'm not sure exactly how he came by it but from what I understand he was one of the engineers present that day," he said. "The owner approached me because of the publicity over the Chapman album."

Mr Zimet said he expected the exhibits to sell for tens or possibly hundreds of thousands of dollars.

"It's very hard to say because there literally are no comparables, but I wouldn't be surprised if it brings something in the hundred to two hundred thousand dollar range."