Two rare handwritten setlists from British music legends Beatles are to be auctioned, the auction will take place on 28th October 2021.
The lot comprises of two setlists, the first setlist dates to the early stages of the band’s career from a concert during their early performing years. During this infantile stage of the group’s progression the band’s name was The Silver Beetles and the band’s line-up was also different, Sir Paul McCartney was not the singer and bassist within the line-up but was the drummer. The first setlist is from 1960 and is written by McCartney, the setlist is for a performance at Liscard’s Grosvenor Ballroom located in the town of Wallasey within the English county Merseyside. The setlist includes various covers played at the gig including the Elvis song ‘Stuck On You‘, as well as Beatles original ‘One For 909‘.
The year of the setlist is a mere three years before the initial formation of what would become the multi-hitmakers Beatles. The second setlist is dated from 1963 and is also from the early years of the band’s career. A year before the writing of the setlist Sir Ringo Starr joined the group as their drummer, completing the group and cementing the band line-up with which they rose to fame. The setlist is from a gig held on 17th April 1963 at the Majestic Ballroom located in Luton and was written on the back of a publicity postcard belonging to record label Parlophone. Signed by the four band-members, included in the setlist is ‘Love Me Do‘ and cover of Little Richard hit ‘Long Tall Sally‘.
Within this same year of 1963, the group released two studio albums, the first being their debut album ‘Please Please Me’. The album was produced by their long-term collaborator, producer George Martin, who is often referred to as the fifth Beatle due to his heavy involvement within the band’s sound and career. Eight months after the release of the Beatles’ debut studio album the second album of the year ‘With the Beatles’ was released on 22nd November 1963, the album featured George Harrison’s first solo composition, ‘Don’t Bother Me’.
The importance of the setlists’ worth is clearly due to the rarity in which each holds, there are only eight setlists by the Beatles which currently exist. Both setlists are predicted to sell for between $150,000 and $250,000, the auction is being held by international auction house Bonhams. Howard Kramer, the Senior Specialist responsible for the music lots within the auction houses’ Popular Culture department has spoken to Rolling Stone concerning the first setlist. “At this point, the Beatles were about to become a band in the truest sense, Pete Best had yet to join the band and the first Hamburg engagement was about two months out. Pretty soon, there was no looking back.”
Kramer has also spoken to Rolling Stone concerning the second setlist, “This setlist shows them as a working band that understands their role as entertainers, This is just one set of two played that night but we can see that they are still balancing their own developing work with songs from other artists and diverse sources.” The Senior Specialist also provided the following comment on the band’s career and the scope in which the setlists hold within their value. “Setlists generally have a short life, Once the gig is over, they’ve served their purpose. Collecting scraps of paper from pop bands wasn’t a thing yet in 1960 and 1963. That scarcity is what makes these setlists so interesting. “The Beatles’ career was relatively brief and there’s very few tangible, physical items directly used by the band that become available to the public, The Beatles are still the most collectible
