Beatles contract to fetch £250k?

12 August 2008 02:46pm

The first management contract between The Beatles and their manager Brian Epstein is expected to fetch £250,000 at auction.

The document, billed as the most important music contract of all time, belonged to "fifth Beatle" Epstein, the businessman who helped launch The Beatles to international fame.

He became the band's manager in 1961 but the contract was not signed by the band members until January 24, 1962.

Epstein only inked his name on the document on October 1, 1962, after getting the Fab Four a deal with EMI for the release of the single Love Me Do, following rejections from other record companies.

Epstein said he did not sign earlier because he wanted the Fab Four to have the freedom to walk away if he could not deliver on his promise to get the band a record deal and a Number One.

Epstein pledged in the document to "undertake all necessary advertising and publicity for the Artists" and to "advise the Artists on all matters concerning clothes, make-up and the presentation and construction of the Artists' acts".

In return for his work, Epstein was entitled to a quarter of the band's earnings if each Beatle made more than £200 a week.

The contract is being sold by a Beatles' collector at The Fame Bureau's It's More Than Rock and Roll auction on September 4 at the Idea Generation Gallery in London.

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