A recording of an unreleased John Lennon song has sold for £43,000 in Denmark.
John Lennon and Yoko Ono
The rare cassette tape of the late Beatles legend and his wife Yoko Ono was made by four Danish teenagers more than 50 years ago, just months before the 'Hey Jude' band split up. The 33-minute tape features an interview with the couple and what is thought to be a never-released song.
The buyer remains unknown but made a telephone bid for the cassette, which was sold alongside photographs of the schoolboys with John and a copy of a school newspaper.
The Copenhagen auction house had predicted that the cassette would likely be bought by a museum or collector prior to bidding opening on Tuesday (28.09.21).
The interview took place in January 1970 when John and Yoko were staying in Thy, a place in the north west of Denmark to spend time with Ono's young daughter Kyoko, who lived in the area with Ono's ex husband Anthony Cox and his partner Melinda.
Karsten Hoejen, who made the recording, says that he and his school friends were mainly interested in John and Yoko's campaigning for peace.
He recalled: "We were a bunch of 16-year-old hippies."
The boys persuaded a teacher to let them attend the event which Hoejen taped with his friend Jesper Jungersen taking photographs.
Hoejen recalled how the meeting was "very cosy" and "relaxed".
He said: "John asked me, 'Where do you come from? A radio station?'. 'No, from a school magazine,' I said.
"[They] were sat with their feet on the table in their woollen socks."
John and Yoko even performed a short tune called 'Radio Peace' that had been written as the theme song for a radio station that never made it to air.
Hoejen told the BBC: "The radio station was never opened and the song was never released. To our knowledge the only place where this song exists is on our tape."
Tagged in John Lennon Yoko Ono