Beatles Auctions | Page 9 | Fab Forum | The Beatles Bible

Annadog40 said
If the hair was cut, it wouldn’t have any DNA so the people who buy it can’t clone him.

That’s a common misconception, @Starr Shine?. While cut or broken hair doesn’t contain nuclear DNA, as no cell nucleus, found within the root and follicle, but it would contain mitochondrial DNA (from the mother’s line) which exists outside of a cell nucleus. Mitochondrial DNA is important in cloning, and though no way (so far as I know) has been found to use the mitochondrial DNA found in cut or broken hair to create a clone, who knows how far off that development is.

Here’s the lock for sale:

The story that all the hair was burnt was reported in the press at the time, @Ahhh Girl. And it would still be mainly true, as this seems to just be a memento grabbed by the barber that nobody knew about before it was gathered up for the burning.

Without tests to compare it to known samples of John’s hair (and they do exist), @meanmistermustard, we can’t be absolutely certain. However, the acceptance of many artefacts associated with historical figures is based on provenance, and since the seller in this instance is the barber who did the hair cut, the provenance is couldn’t get any better. In the end though, whether you yourself believe it’s John’s hair comes down to whether you judge Klaus Baruck’s account as believable, or whether you think he’s lying. Certainly, had he saved some hair from that haircut, it seems highly unlikely he would have got it mixed up.

As people get older, and sometimes after their deaths, it could be that some surprising things turn up that were supposed to have been lost or not exist.

In February 1962 Brian took the Decca audition tape into the HMV Store on Oxford Street. On the second floor they had a recording booth, and the ability to cut records from tape (kind of similar in ways to the Percy Phillips set-up all those years before that had led to The Quarrymen’s That’ll Be the Day / In Spite Of All The Danger , just rather more professional). His idea was to get the tape cut to discs as those would be easier to play to people.

The discs were cut by Jim Foy. While the discs were being cut, Brian and Jim chatted. Jim expressed liking the band. Brian proudly explained that some of the songs were even written by the group. Discovering they were unpublished, Jim mentioned one of EMI’s publishing companies, Ardmore and Beechwood, was another floor up, and would he like Sid Coleman to have a listen. Brian jumped at the chance.

Sid liked the songs enough (Hello Little Girl , Love of the Loved and Like Dreamers Do ) to want to publish them, and via whatever route, that took Brian to a first meeting with George Martin on 13 February. It is this very disc, with Brian writing in the details (giving lead singer and band on both sides, unlike suggested in the article, Hello Little Girl  is clearly credited to “John Lennon & The Beatles”), that is said to be the only one of the discs Brian had had cut that George had time to listen to listen.

It was certainly this disc that was taken to a meeting between the two on 9 May, as George wanted something where he could evaluate the lead vocals to decide who would be the lead singer. The disc was left George Martin while Brian rushed off to send a telegram to the boys in Hamburg.

This disc took us to where Brian meets George Martin and – for whatever reasons – The Beatles get a record contract.

It sits alongside The Quarrymen’s disc in importance and rarity so far as I’m concerned.