John Lennon’s ‘Help!’ guitar going up for auction after being lost for 50 years 

A guitar used by both John Lennon and George Harrison, which appeared in the movie Help!, is headed to auction after being lost for 50 years.

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The model is a 12-string Hootenanny acoustic guitar, made in the early ’60s by Bavarian manufacturer Framus. It famously appeared in the Beatles movie Help!, as Lennon used it to perform a rendition of ‘You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away’.

It also features on the studio version of the song, and in ‘Help!’s title track, ‘It’s Only Love’ and ‘I’ve Just Seen A Face’. As well as Lennon, the guitar was also used by another Beatles member, George Harrison, who used it on ‘Norwegian Wood’, as well as the ‘Rubber Soul’ song ‘Girl’.

According to Darren Julien, the co-founder and executive director of Julien’s Auctions – where the guitar will be headed next month – the current owners were gifted the guitar by Gordon Waller, from 1960s pop stars Peter and Gordon, kept it in the attic and ultimately forgot they owned it.

“Finding this remarkable instrument is like finding a lost Rembrandt or Picasso, and it still looks and plays like a dream,” Julien added (via The Guardian).

He also said that he had travelled to the UK to verify the guitar and also rescued the original case, which had been thrown in the bin. He, alongside Beatles historians Andy Babiuk and Danny Bennett, confirmed that the instrument was the model in question from Help!.

“The woodgrain of a guitar is like a fingerprint in that no two guitars are the same,” he said. “Not only is the woodgrain a perfect match to the guitar that John and George are playing but so is the pickguard which can be exactly photo-matched. Because the guitar has been undisturbed for approximately five decades, it is in the exact condition in terms of aesthetics that it was when John and George played it.”

The Framus guitar will head to auction on May 29 and 30, and the auction will be accessible both online and at New York’s Hard Rock Cafe. It is predicted to sell for between $600,000-$800,000 (£485,000-£647,000).

At the auction, another piece of Lennon history will also be on offer – the telephone he used during the Bed-Ins For Peace protest that he took part in with his wife Yoko Ono.

More rock memorabilia is up for sale too, including a Versace outfit worn by Tina Turner on stage, Freddie Mercury’s Onitsuka Tiger trainers, Angus Young’s cap, a guitar played by Adam Clayton at U2’s recent Sphere residency shows, a jacket worn by Michael Jackson in 1984, a jacket owned by Joan Jett, and a guitar played by Mötley Crüe’s former guitarist Mick Mars.

A book containing handwritten lyrics by Tupac Shakur is also hitting the auction block, as well as a handwritten setlist by Nirvana‘s Kurt Cobain and a Fendi dress owned by Amy Winehouse. Find out more about the auction here.

Highlights from the auction will be on display from April 23-30 at London’s Hard Rock Cafe in Piccadilly Circus.

The John Lennon guitar heading to auction comes nearly 10 years after another one of the late Beatles’ instruments went to auction at Julien’s in 2015, and sold for $2.41m (£1.6m at the time).

The model in question was a J-160E Gibson acoustic guitar, which was stolen from the musician and unwittingly bought by a musician in the late ’60s.

In other Beatles news, last week it was announced that Disney+ will be releasing a restored version of The Beatles’ classic 1970 documentary film Let It Be on May 8.

The film, directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg, was first released in cinemas 54 years ago and has been difficult to obtain since – prompting considerable bootlegging. It features footage of the Fab Four while they were writing and recording their 12th and final studio album of the same name in January 1969 at London’s Twickenham Film Studios.

Elsewhere, Paul McCartney yesterday (April 23) announced that he would be releasing Wing’s 1974 live studio album ‘One Hand Clapping’ for the first time.

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