A handwritten letter from Paul McCartney offering a Beatles audition to a mystery drummer has sold for almost GBP35,000 ($55,174), Christie’s auction house has said.
The note, found folded in a book at a Liverpool yard sale, offered an audition to someone who had advertised their availability in the Liverpool Echo newspaper four days earlier.
The unsigned ad said simply: “Drummer-Young-Free.” The letter was dated August 12, 1960 – two years before the band bounced drummer Pete Best in favour of Ringo Starr. Christie’s said a European buyer made the winning bid over the phone. The auction house had estimated it would fetch more than GBP4,400 ($A6,900).