IF you happen to have a rare, signed Beatles album or poster in your attic, an Antiques Roadshow-style event being staged in Glasgow on Sunday would like to hear from you.
The company, Tracks Ltd, is holding a valuation day at a city hotel, on the 60th anniversary of the first-ever Beatles concert in Glasgow.
The Fab Four made their Glasgow debut on Friday, June 7, 1963, at the Renfield Street Odeon as part a Roy Orbison package tour. Throughout the tour they played a set of seven songs - ‘Some Other Guy’, ‘Do You Want To Know A Secret’, ‘Love Me Do’, ‘From Me To You’, ‘Please Please Me’, ‘I Saw Her Standing There’ and ‘Twist And Shout’.
12 Beatles songs that tell the greatest ever band's story
The market for music memorabilia from the 1960s and 1970s has boomed in recent years, especially as people who were teenagers in those decades now have enough money to invest in buying memorabilia.
According to Tracks, autographs and written material are of "great interest" to collectors. The signatures of The Beatles have always brought the most money.
The Beatles 'Love Me Do' at 60 and their Scottish legacy
A "good, clean" set of autographs can fetch upwards of £4,000, and a set from 1967, the year of their landmark album, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, are valued in excess of £5,000.
Album sleeves autographed by The Beatles are valued at £15,000 to £20,000 and even more if signed on one of the later releases.
For another heritage rock act, Led Zeppelin, which disbanded in 1980 following the death of drummer John Bonham, signatures are valued at £8,000; signed albums between £8000 and £10,000; and concert posters, £10,000. Humbler but still valuable Zeppelin items are of interest: handbills are valued at £500, concert programmes at £50 and concert tickets at £75.
Memorabilia relating to Jimi Hendrix or the Rolling Stones can also fetch keen prices.
The Rolling Stones: always there when you need them
Tracks says that a 1960s Stones concert poster is worth around £10,000 whereas on from the 1970s poster is worth around £400. Mick Jagger & co played the Glasgow Barrowland venue in January 1964.
But items relating to such punk acts as the Sex Pistols and the Clash can also command good prices.
According to Tracks, posters from the Sex Pistols tour of 1976, during which most of the concerts were cancelled, can bring £2000 to £3000 if in excellent condition.
A good peak-period poster from a Clash concert from 1976 or 1977 could bring around £2000.
A cult has grown up around the Manchester band, Joy Division, and associated memorabilia has risen in price recently. A letter written by their deceased lead vocalist Ian Curtis could raise around £2000 to £3000. Artefacts relating to another Manchester band, the Smiths are also in constant demand.
Tracks is now asking for any Scots collectors to bring their rock memorabilia to Sunday's event at the Radisson Red Glasgow Hotel, close to the OVO Hydro.
Gareth Wilson, adminstrator at Chorley, Lancs-based Tracks, said: "In terms of the Beatles we're looking for anything vintage from the 1960s, when they played the city - concert poster, flyers, tickets, autographs.
"But of course it's more than just the Beatles. It's any band that was popular across the board in that era. Autographed items are always of considerable interest. If you have a signed Beatles album, you can name your price, really.
"We can make a valuation or an offer, which they're more than welcome to take us up on", he added. "We can buy it on the day, or of course they can go away and think about it, and come back to us at a later date. It's entirely up to the person, really."
Tracks was established in 1989 and has held regular valuation events across the country.
The company's own website offers a great deal of memorabilia relating to the Beatles, Stones and other acts, all for sale.
A Beatles Scottish tour programme from April 1964 is available for £550 or £595.
Leading Scottish groups get a look-in, too.
A handbill flyer for a Simple Minds concert in 1979 at the Liverpool venue, Eric’s, is available for £200, while a poster for their 1982 gig at the Hacienda, Manchester, can be yours for £195.
Obituary: Dan McCafferty, singer with Scottish rock group, Nazareth
A sheet signed by Nazareth, in Germany in the 1970s, is available for £150.
* Radisson Red Glasgow Hotel, Glasgow, Sunday, June 4, 10:30am to 4pm. Studio 3 Room, behind reception. Admission is free.
https://www.tracks.co.uk/
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here