An early Beatles picture of the band performing — sans Ringo Starr — at Liverpool's Cavern Club will be auctioned off this month along with other photos of the group before they were mega stars.
Pete Best was on the drums for the legendary band in 1961 when the
pictures were taken, according to the U.K.'s Mirror Online. Stephen Bailey, the manager of The Beatles Shop in Liverpool, told the newspaper that a man recently came by the store and offered him the photo negatives.
"My father was a professional photographer and these might be of interest to you," Bailey said the man told him.
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The negatives show The Beatles playing at the club along with another shot of the Starr-less group posing with six young women, according to the Mirror.
Bailey said he learned that the photo with the women was taken June 14, 1961, at St. John's Hall in Liverpool during The Beatles' first gig after performing in Hamburg.
"It's a lovely photograph and so evocative of the relationship The Beatles had with their early fans," Bailey told the Mirror. "I am very excited about the auction. It just gets bigger and better every year."
Bailey told the Express that he will auction off the photos and other items, including rare copies of Merseybeat magazine, during a sale at the Liverpool Institute of Performing Art on Aug. 23.
Beatles manager Brian Epstein fired Best in 1962 and replaced him with Starr right before the group reached stardom.
"The golden apple was within my grasp and it was taken away from me,"
Best said in a 2010 AARP Bulletin article. "The severity of the situation once I got back home again brought me to tears."
Best told AARP that Epstein never told him why he was fired and added that he did not speak to his former bandmates after. He said that, after overcoming depression, he formed his own band.
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