WHEN a Wearside teenager won a competition 50 years ago to name the next album by The Beatles, the thrills did not stop there.
Margaret Svenson, 15, from Sunderland, also got to meet the group at a hotel in Carlisle in November 1963.
Her best friend Christine Gatenby gave Margaret her Please Please Me Beatles LP to be signed by the foursome.
And Christine’s younger sister Jackie, then aged 12, also asked Margaret to take along her new album by the group, With the Beatles.
All four Beatles signed the LP sleeve and today , after 50 years, Jackie has put the keepsake up for auction.
It is expected to fetch at least £3,000 at Boldon Auction Galleries in South Tyneside.
Now Mrs Jackie Marsden, of South Bents in Sunderland, she said: “ Christine was supposed to accompany Margaret to Carlisle but my mother thought she was too young to go.
“We gave her Margaret our LPs and she had them signed. It was a big thrill and I have kept it for 50 years. We had all their records.”
Giles Hodges, who runs Boldon Auction Galleries, said: “There has been an overwhelming response to the album sale. There has been international interest and we have installed extra phone lines.”
Potential buyers have also travelled from Liverpool to inspect the LP.
“The Beatles still generate a lot of enthusiasm with all age groups,” said Giles. “The album also has rarity value because it is from the early days of The Beatles, when they were more approachable.
“Rock and pop music memorabilia has taken a grip of the market and has become more and more collectable and more of an investment.”
In 1963, With the Beatles had advance orders of a half million and sold another half million by September 1965, making it the second album to sell a million copies in the UK, after the soundtrack to the 1958 film South Pacific.
With the Beatles remained at the top of the charts for 21 weeks, displacing Please Please Me, so that the group occupied the top spot for 51 consecutive weeks.
Beatles for Sale was released on in December 1964 for the Christmas market.
The album went to number one and stayed there for 11 of the 46 weeks that it spent in the Top 20.
