A furniture set which was discarded in a skip has now gone on display in a museum after a passer-by spotted its connection to the Beatles.
The green wicker table and chairs, which were in the dressing room of Hulme Hall in Port Sunlight, Wirral, were unveiled as the latest exhibits at the Liverpool Beatles Museum on Thursday.
The band had their first official performance with Ringo Starr as drummer at the venue in August 1962, as well as their first radio interview later that year.
The broadcast, with Monty Lister for Radio Clatterbridge, was recorded in the dressing room and the furniture can be seen in a photo of the band taken during the interview.
The picture shows them gathered around one of the chairs, with Sir Paul McCartney resting his foot on it as he speaks towards a microphone and John Lennon and George Harrison leaning on it and looking into the camera.
Museum owner Roag Best told the PA news agency the furniture had been destined for the tip.
He said: “Hulme Hall was having a restoration last year and they were throwing all this stuff into a skip when someone walked past and thought, ‘I’m sure that’s the stuff from the dressing room’ so he dragged it all out of the skip.”
The finder approached auctions site Tracks, which initially sold the table and chairs to a buyer in America.
According to the online listing, the three pieces of furniture, sold for £750.
But when the buyer realised the cost of transporting the lot overseas, the sale fell through and the museum was offered the furniture instead.
Mr Best, brother of the band’s original drummer, Pete Best, who was replaced by Starr, said the furniture was linked to “two iconic moments” in the band’s history.
He said: “It’s involved with Ringo’s first performance as a member of the Beatles and it’s also iconic because it’s tied to the Beatles’ first radio broadcast with Monty Lister, who was way, way ahead of his time.”
The set was unveiled at the Mathew Street museum by radio presenter Billy Butler, who spoke about his former Radio Merseyside colleague, Mr Lister.
A recording of the interview was played, in which the presenter introduces the Fab Four as an “up and coming Merseyside group”.
During the interview, Starr explains that he joined the band nine weeks before and Sir Paul describes Lennon as the “leader of the group”.
The group also speak about performing in Hamburg, Germany, and about writing songs PS I Love You and Love Me Do.
