Rejected By Decca - The Beatles' Original Audition Tape Up For Auction

On New Year’s Day, 1962, The Beatles travelled from Liverpool to London to record up to 15 songs at Decca’s label, for the label’s senior A&R guy, Dick Rowe, to consider with a view to possibly signing the band. Ten of those songs are included on an original master tape that will be put up for auction on November 27 2012. Dick Rowe became known as the man that turned down The Beatles.

Reuters report that the tape is expected to fetch around £18 – 20,000 ($29,000 – 32,000). The likelihood of the content of the tape receiving a commercial release, however, would be slim, as The Beatles own the copyright through their own company. The tape is marked up as ‘The Silver Beatles,’ which is the name briefly used by the group before they found fame. It comes accompanied with a handwritten track list, as well as a black and white photograph of the band posing in their leather jackets. The image would most likely have been used as the record sleeve image.

Ted Owen of The Fame Bureau auction house, specialising in music memorabilia told Reuters “the most important thing about this is the quality. There are bootlegs out there, horrible bootlegs – some are at the wrong speed, others are crackly and taken from a cassette off an acetate. This quality we have never heard.” Also on sale at the auction is a black Fender Stratocaster played by Jimi Hendrix at his legendary Monterey Festival set in 1967. Dick Rowe for the record, managed to save his reputation, at least, by signing The Rolling Stones.