A letter written by The Beatles’ manager, Brian Epstein, following the firing of the band’s original drummer is going under the hammer.
Pete Best joined the band with John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison in 1960, back when they were still the lads from Liverpool, and had yet to find international fame.
Epstein signed the band in 1962 after hearing them perform, but just months later, before the band’s big breakthrough, Best was dismissed, and replaced by Ringo Starr – and the rest, as they say, is history.
“I read from the Mersey Beat Pete Best has now joined THE ALL STARS and I though I’d let you know that I have sent today, to him a certificate of release from his obligations under contract to myself,” the typed letter from Epstein to Joe Flannery, the band’s booking manager, reads.
In the letter, sent on September 8, 1962 and signed by Epstein in blue ink, the manager goes on to express his “sincere wishes” for Best’s success.
Following his departure from the Beatles, Best eventually left the music industry, working in a bakery and later as a civil servant.
The historic correspondence is expected to fetch up to £1,000 ($1,291) at auction, but Dan Hampson, Auction Manager at UK specialist auction house Omega Auctions, told CNN that there is “every chance” it could sell for more.
The letter is part of a cache of more than 200 Beatles items to be sold by Omega Auctions on October 28, with the collection expected to sell for around £60,000-$80,000 ($77,500-$103,000).
Meanwhile, all lots associated with Flannery – including an annotated note with a doodle from Paul McCartney – are expected to sell for a total of up to £15,000 ($19,365), Hampson said.