That price is explained by those ‘stars’ being The Beatles, with the August 12, 1963, concert at the Odeon in Llandudno coming just as the Fab Four were being launched on the road to superstardom.
Please Please Me, their debut studio album, had been released on March 22 to capitalise on the success of the single of the same name.
The poster, which sold in the Colwyn Bay saleroom against an estimate of £4000-8000, also had an intriguing provenance. It was consigned by Welsh folk singer Mary Hopkin, who was one of the first signatures to The Beatles’ Apple label and represented the UK in the 1970 Eurovision Song Contest. She had taken the poster from the venue at the actual concert, it is believed.
Auctioneer Ben Rogers Jones said: “It was just as the band was about to break into superstardom – 1963 was the key year for them, propelled that summer by She Loves You [released on August 23 in the UK].”
Most very early Beatles gig posters inevitably ended up in the bin, before they made it big, but Rogers Jones added that this example was “in excellent condition, with a bit of tearing round the edges but nothing hugely wrong with it”, and was a “striking, good full colour image”.
On sale day five phone lines were booked and one of them, a private collector from San Francisco, succeeded against an online underbidder.
