Myth-busting outtake photo from The Beatles’ Sgt Pepper shoot up for auction

Photo is part of a press release for the unreleased Beatles album ‘Sessions’ and could fetch up to £10,000

A unique, myth-busting outtake photo from The Beatles Sgt Pepper's cover shoot is set to fetch thousands when it goes up for auction this week.

The picture shows The Fab Four in their colourful outfits as they posed for the most famous album sleeve of all time in 1967.

But auctioneers claim it dispels a long-held rumour that McCartney didn't pose with the group on the day, due to a falling-out with the rest of the band.

The back of the album featured Macca with his back turned, prompting speculation among fans that it wasn't actually him.

Experts claimed he had fallen out with the band and did not want to join the others for the group photo for the front of Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

They said he may have posed alone and was later added in. However, auctioneers say this image proves he was there.

The unreleased image was included years later in 1984 as part of a never-sent press release for the unreleased Beatles album Sessions.

Sessions, a compilation album of previously unreleased tracks, was due to be released eight years after the band split. Accompanying the release of the album in November 1984 would be the single “Leave My Kitten Alone”.

Due to objections from the estates of John Lennon and George Harrison, the album never saw the light of day, but all of the tracks had been mixed and finalised along with artwork and press release information.

(Wessex Auction Rooms / SWNS)

Going under the hammer at Wessex Auction Rooms for the first time anywhere in the world is the complete press release kit.

It includes all internal EMI Records memorandum to PR staff, press releases for the album and single, mock up sleeve artwork and a number of previously unseen photos and transparencies.

Auctioneer Martin Hughes says ''the jewel in the crown'' is the outtake from the Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album shoot.

He said: “It had long been rumoured that Paul McCartney was not at the Sgt. Pepper's sleeve photo shoot because the back of the album only showed him from behind.

''This new image showed the side of his face which would prove that he was indeed there on the day. Beatles fans from around the world, and there are a few of them, will be queuing up to bid on this.”

The collection is expected to fetch over £10,000 on Friday 18 August.

SWNS