A never broadcast tape interview with John Lennon is heading to auction on Friday 24th June at David Duggleby Auctioneers.
Graham Paddison, the auctioneer, has descibed the John Lennon interview as:
"He says that he wanted to be rich, joked that he would probably have become just a layabout had the Beatles not taken off, disclosed that he had friends do his art college exams for him when he was away touring with the group in Scotland, revealed that he never told the college he was going to Germany because he ‘wanted his grant’ and declined to send a message to art students to keep working because ‘I never did much myself’.”
Asked whether The Beatles were musicians or entertainers, Lennon replies:
“I’ve never thought about it really but I suppose . . . we don’t count ourselves as good musicians, so I suppose we’re entertainers . . . but we don’t entertain much ‘cos we just stand there, so I suppose we must be musicians. We’re in the Union anyway.”
The interview was recorded by then 18 year old student John Hill almost 60 years ago as he blagged his way into a press conference in Hull, ahead of a Beatles Gig at the Hull ABC Theatre on October 16th 1964, to report for his art college's student magazine 'Torchlight'.
The recording is eight-and-a-half minutes long, and is being sold with full copywrite, the original Fi-Cord tape recorder with microphone, and photographs taken at the time of the interview.
The estimate is £3,000 to £4,000 which could be considered a bargain with John Lennon memorabilia in high demand - a Lennon & Yoko Ono unheard interview sold for £38,000 in Liverpool in September 2021, and a 33 minute cassette interview recorded in Copenhagen sold for $58,300, also in September 2021.
Full details at David Duggelby
Update: The tape was purchased for £3,100 by Liverpool's Beatles themed 'Hard Days Night Hotel' who intend to share the tape recording with hotel guests.