Buy a London record shop on eBay

The owner of a landmark London record shop has put it up for sale via eBay at a Buy It Now price of £300,000 – but he’s warned those interested not to expect a financial return.

Tim Derbyshire opened On The Beat Records in 1979, but says the collectable-vinyl business will close if no new owner is found.

In the auction listing he explains: “If you’re at the stage in your life where you don’t have to worry about making money, but can live a bohemian life, meet interesting people every day and the occasional rock star, here’s your chance to take over the oldest record shop in Swinging London.

“I’ve given it my heart and soul for all these years but it’s time for me to step down and let another passionate music lover take over. You can make history.


“If you’re mad about music, love vinyl and want to keep the dream alive, here’s your chance to take on an Aladdin’s cave of musical gems. The Beat must go on – keep my dream alive!”

Four offers have so far been made for On The Beat Records, which is on sale as a going concern with all stock. The auction closes on November 25.

source: classicrockmagazine.com

Win Maiden, Rammstein memorabilia in Metal Hammer charity auction

Metal Hammer are following up the success of the Heavy Metal Truants charity bike ride with a series of eBay auctions offering limited-edition memorabilia from Iron Maiden, Rammstein, Bullet For My Valentine and others.

The cycle trip in June saw a troop of hardy souls including Maiden manager Rod Smallwood and Hammer editor Alexander Milas travel 171 miles from London to Donington in time for the Download festival.

They’ve raised £80,000 for Childline, the Teenage Cancer Trust and Nordoff Robbins – and now that total is set to increase.

Items in the Monster Rock Charity auction include signed Maiden artwork, a guitar signed by Rammstein, one signed by BFMV and an amp signed by Black Sabbath, Slipknot and others.

Find out more – including a video documenting the Heavy Metal Truants ride – on the Metal Hammer website.

source: classicrockmagazine.com

Rare Color Photos of the Beatles Going Up for Auction

A collection of unpublished early color photographs of the Beatles are going up for auction in the U.K., the BBC reports.

The photos were taken in 1964 during the Beatles' first U.S. tour. They include stage shots of George Harrison with his red Rickenbacker guitar, close-up portraits of the group at a press conference at the Las Vegas Sahara Hotel and photos from a private party at the Beverly Hills mansion of Capitol Records president Alan Livingston. Since color film was expensive at the time, most images of the Beatles before 1965 were in black and white.

The photos were snapped by Dr. Robert Beck, a physicist and inventor who left the collection of 65 slides in an archive at his Hollywood home after his death in 2002. They will be sold by Omega Auctions on March 22nd to mark the 50th anniversary of the release of the Beatles' first album, Please Please Me.

source: rollingstone.com

Eric Clapton sells Richter painting for record $34.2 million

LONDON – A painting by Gerhard Richter owned by British guitarist Eric Clapton has sold for £21.3 million ($34.2 million), a record for the work of a living artist, auction house Sotheby’s said.

An anonymous bidder bought the red, blue and yellow oil painting on canvas, “Abstraktes Bild (809-4)”, in London on Friday for more than ten times the $3.4 million that Clapton paid for the painting plus two others in New York in 2001.



The price beat pre-sale estimates and Richter’s previous record of $21.9 million in May for “Abstract Picture (7938-3)”.

The German artist, 80, is described as the world’s top-selling living artist.

Richter was born in Dresden and grew up in communist east Germany. He now produces both abstract and figurative painting as well as photographs from his Cologne studio.

His profile has been boosted by a retrospective, “Gerhard Richter: Panorama”, which has been shown in London, Berlin and Paris this year.

Clapton, 67, known for his work with Cream and the Yardbirds and for songs including “Crossroads”, “Layla” and “Tears in Heaven”, has an extensive art collection.

The sale comes as the art world descends on London for Frieze Art Week, with contemporary art exhibits from hundreds of galleries around the world.

Sotheby’s senior director Alex Branczik said: “The combination of outstanding provenance and gold-standard quality in this sublime work by this blue-chip artist made for an historic auction moment.

“Gerhard Richter’s international appeal as one of the hottest contemporary artists was once again confirmed this evening.”

source: interaksyon.com

Tom Petty Auctioning Off 'Favorite' Convertible on eBay

Starting on October 11th, Tom Petty fans have 10 days to bid on his sleek, champagne-colored 1996 Jaguar XJS Convertible on eBay, where the rocker is auctioning it off for charity.

"I have so many great memories associated with this car," says Petty. "When I began dating Dana (my wife), I asked her what her favorite car was. So, I phoned the office and said I wanted a champagne convertible Jaguar XJS. The next day, they delivered it to my house and showed me how everything worked and I took it for a drive down the Pacific Coast Highway. I was in heaven, as was Dana. This car has such an incredible design. My favorite car I ever owned. We sure are going to miss it."

Jaguar stopped making the XJS in 1996. All proceeds from the auction will benefit Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières, the medical humanitarian organization that provides independent health care and assistance in over 60 countries.

source: rollingstone.com

Beatles fans come together to set anniversary record

LONDON – Fifty years after John Lennon’s harmonica heralded the first entry of the Beatles into the charts, fans came together in the Fab Four’s home town of Liverpool in northern England on Friday to deliver a record-breaking rendition of their debut single.

Aficionados poured in from as far afield as Peru and Tokyo for a weekend of live music and Beatlemania, which kicked off with 1,631 people singing “Love Me Do” outside the city’s central Liver Building.

Local choirs, school groups and lunching office workers joined in, breaking the previous record for singing “in the round” – where two groups sing exactly the same melody, beginning at different times – to break the previous record of 897, according to Guinness World Records.

“The demographics here today are interesting – it goes from people in their 70s to school kids,” said Dave Jones, who runs Liverpool’s famous Cavern Club where the Beatles were the house band between 1961 and 1963 and which is staging a weekend-long extravaganza of their music.

“We’re trying to recreate the atmosphere of those glory days in the 60s,” Jones told Reuters. “It’s generation after generation enjoying the music.”

The 50th birthday of Love Me Do is also the anniversary of a lucky break for the band.

Beatles producer George Martin told the BBC the song was the “best of a bad bunch”. The broadcaster plans to air a documentary this weekend containing claims that the band’s manager bought thousands of copies to help the record get to number 17 in the UK charts.

Auction house Sotheby’s is marking the anniversary by selling the original collage used for the insert of the 1967 Beatles album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Sotheby’s expects it to sell for 50,000-80,000 pounds ($81,000-$129,500).

source: interaksyon.com

Greece raises $2.1 billion in 3-month debt auction

ATHENS (AFP) - Greece raised 1.3 billion euros (S$2.1 billion) in an auction of three-month treasury bills on Tuesday at a slightly reduced rate of 4.31 per cent, the public debt management agency said.

"Total bids reached 1.98 billion euros and the amount finally accepted was 1.3 billion," the agency said in a statement, with the rate down from 4.43 per cent at the previous auction of three-month bills in August.

The last equivalent sale on Aug 14 had been extraordinarily large, to help the government avoid a cash crunch as Greece was facing redemption of a 3.2-billion-euro bond held by the ECB.

Relying on EU-IMF rescue loans for its economic survival and having been shut out of the long-term debt markets since 2010, Greece, which faces a fifth year of continuous recession, regularly issues short-term debt.

source: straitstimes.com

Elvis' Bible Sells for $94,000 at Auction

A bible that once belonged to Elvis Presley sold for £59,000 (about $94,000) at an auction in England on Saturday, the BBC reports. The final bid was more than double the expected sale price of £25,000.

The bible had been given to Elvis in 1957 by an aunt and uncle on his first Christmas at Graceland. He used it throughout the rest of his life, and wrote down his thoughts and annotations in its pages. The winning bidder for the book did not wish to be identified, but is reportedly an American man living in the U.K. who bid against two rivals by telephone.

The bible was part of a trove of Elvis memorabilia that had been the property of one British collector. Included in the auction was a pair of stained underpants worn by Presley at a show in 1977. Although bidding for the drawers reached £5,000, it failed to meet the reserve price of £7,000.

source: rollingstone.com

Warhol’s Marlon Brando silkscreen could fetch $20M at auction

NEW YORK – An Andy Warhol silkscreen of actor Marlon Brando, clad in leather astride a motorcycle from the movie “The Wild One,” is expected to sell for $20 million when it hits the auction block in November, Christie’s said on Wednesday.

“Marlon,” a 1966 silkscreen that is one of the late pop artist’s most famous Hollywood portraits, will be part of the auction house’s sale of post-war and contemporary art. It is being sold from the collection of businessman and Museum of Modern Art trustee Donald L. Bryant Jr.

“Alongside his portraits of Elvis Presley, Warhol’s image of Marlon Brando exudes a raw sexuality and intense power rarely found in his work,” said Brett Gorvy, Christie’s chairman for post-war and contemporary art.

The image of Brando was taken from a publicity photo for the 1953 movie about motorcycle gangs.

“Marlon” will be sold at Christie’s New York headquarters on Nov. 14. The sale coincides with the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s exhibit of works by Warhol.

The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, established in 1987 at the late artist’s direction, said on Wednesday that over a period of years it would sell through Christie’s paintings, photos and other works by Warhol.

“The Foundation also plans to mark its 25th anniversary by making additional gifts of significant works to museums, continuing its long history of donating Warhol’s art,” it said in a joint statement with Christie’s.

Warhol’s “Green car crash – Green burning car I” sold in 2007 for $71.7 million. A four-panel self-portrait, Warhol’s first, commanded $38.4 million in May 2011, and his “Double Marlon,” another Brando-inspired work from 1966, sold for $32.5 million in 2008. Four months ago, a Warhol work featuring Elvis sold for $37 million at Sotheby’s.

source: interaksyon.com

Signed Orange amp auctioned for Childline

Orange Amps have donated a special Rockverb 50 Mk II amp to Childline to help raise money to support children in distress.

This amp was signed by some of the world’s most famous rock artists attending the Classic Rock awards at the Camden Roundhouse on November 9, 2011, including:

Gene Simmons (Kiss)
Brian May, Roger Taylor (Queen)
Lemmy (Motorhead)
Duff McKagan (Loaded/Guns N’ Roses/Velvet Revolver)
Roy Harper
Randy Bachman (Bachman-Turner)
Rudy Schenker (Scorpions)
Steel Panther
Danny Bowes and Luke Morley (Thunder)
Michael Monroe (Hanoi Rocks)
Steve Conte (Michael Monroe band/New York Dolls)
Ian Gillan (Deep Purple)
Biff Byford and Paul Quinn (Saxon)
Lynne Jackaman (Saint Jude)

Go here to bid: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=110940091549#ht_939wt_1139

source: classicrockmagazine.com

Les Paul Auction Raises Nearly $5 Million, Fetches Record-Setting Prices for Guitars

An auction of Les Paul's guitars and his other memorabilia raised nearly $5 million. The sale of the music instruments owned by the godfather of electric guitar additionally pulled in record-setting prices for guitars, according to Julien's Auctions of Beverly Hills.

A 1982 Gibson Les Paul, a rare prototype recording model, was sold for $180,000. Meanwhile, a 1951 Fender No-Caster helped raise $216,000, a 1940s Epiphone Zephyr a.k.a "Klunker #3" fetched $144,000, and a 1927 Gibson L5 sunburst guitar went under the hammer for $87,500.

Other items which were up for sales included a collection of Les Paul research notes ($28,125) and a Les Paul recording console ($106,250). A sign for the Les Paul Iridium Club and a custom license plate were auctioned off at the two-day sale as well.

The auction concluded on Saturday, June 9 on what would have been the late musician's 97th birthday. It benefited the Les Paul Foundation that supports music education, engineering, innovation and medical research.

Les Paul died from complications of pneumonia at the age of 94 in August 2009. He was well known for being a pioneer of recording techniques and inventing one of the world's most widely played guitars, the Gibson Les Paul. Along with his wife Mary Ford, he enjoyed a string of hits in the 1940s and 1950s that included "Mockin' Bird Hill" and "How High the Moon".

source: aceshowbiz.com