Letter sent from Paul McCartney to an unknown drummer
The Liverpool group, Derry and the Seniors, had given up their jobs to do a gig for Larry Parnes. When they didn't get it, they were so annoyed that they decided to go to London to beat Larry up. Allan Williams said to them: 'If you are going to London you should take your instruments'. He drove them down and got them into the 2I's, the club where Tommy Steele had been discovered. They didn't beat up Larry Parnes, but they did go down well at the club.
Bruno Koschmider, a German promoter, saw them there and hired them for his own club, the Kaiserkeller in Hamburg, where they stayed for a couple of months. He liked them so much that he got in touch with Allan Williams and said, 'We want another Liverpool band to play at the Indra'.
Allan Williams offered the gig to The Beatles, but said that 'the fellow wants a five-piece'. The band had heard about musicians getting gigs in Stuttgart, where there were American army bases and knew that those kinds of gigs were available around Germany, so it was an exciting thought.
With their Saturday night residency at the Grosvenor Ballroom cancelled due to local complaints, The Beatles had some time off. On August 6th they went to Mona Best's Casbah Coffee Club where they saw The Blackjacks playing.
The group had Mona's son Pete Best playing a brand new drum kit. The Blackjacks were on the point of splitting up, so The Beatles suggested to Pete that he join them for their first trip to Hamburg.
Best was interested in the proposal, and agreed to audition for them on the following Friday. As he was the only suitable drummer The Beatles knew, he was the only person auditioned and duly got the gig. They departed for Germany on 16 August 1960.
In 2011, a letter Paul McCartney's had written was discovered, folded up inside a copy of the antiques price guide What's It Worth?. The book was bought at a car boot sale in Bootle, Merseyside for just 50 pence.
Paul had spotted a small classified advertisement in the Liverpool Echo, published on Wednesday 10 August, which simply read: DRUMMER, young, free—KP 60 Echo. On August 12th (the same day as Pete's audition) he wrote a letter to the unknown drummer, which read:
Dear Sir,
In reply to your advertisement in Echo, Wed. night, we would like to offer you an audition for the position of drummer in the group.
You will, however, need to be free soon for a trip to Hamburg (expenses paid £18 per week (approx.) for 2 months.)
If interested, ring Jacaranda club, Slater St. [ROYAL 65'64] and ask for either a member of the 'BEATLES', Alan Williams, or else leave a message, stating when you will be available.
Yours sincerely, Paul McCartney of THE BEATLES
The mystery drummer did receive McCartney's letter, and phoned the Jacaranda, but was too late. He was informed that the group had already left for Germany with another drummer.
The anonymous purchaser of the letter was a coin and antique collector from Bootle. He initially took it to the Beatles Shop in Liverpool, where he was offered £3,000, but took it to the Beatles Story museum to see if they would offer more to put it on display.
The museum declined to offer a valuation on site, but put him in touch with Christie's, where it was auctioned in London on 15 November 2011 and sold for £34,850 ($55,000).