BNPS.co.uk (01202 558833)
Pic: TedOwen&Co/BNPS

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The controversial Live at the Star Club album made from the tape...and no longer on sale after a protracted legal dispute.

Before they were famous...The controversial historic recording of the Beatles' on stage in Hamburg just weeks before they hit the big time are set to sell for a whopping £200,000.

The tapes were recorded for Ted 'Kingsize' Taylor at the Star Club in Christmas 1962. Ted was actually topping the bill with his band The Dominos that night, and it's only by chance that the worlds greatest group appear on the end of the tapes.

The vintage Phillips tape machine used to record the fledgling Fab Four via a single microphone attached to the ceiling above the stage has also survived, and is being sold for an estimated £35,000 by London-based Ted Owen Auctioneers.

A long running legal dispute began in 1977 when an album of the tapes was released and it took untill 1998 for the Beatles to be awarded full rights to their music - so sadly for would be vendors the tapes can only be played privately, if they did come with commercial rights you could add several digits to the estimated price.