Beatles’ 1964 Copenhagen concert programme goes up for sale

An ultra-rare concert programme from The Beatles one and only visit to Denmark – signed by a unique line-up of the Fab Four – is set to be sold at auction with a potential £10,000 price tag.

The memento is from the The Beatles’ concert on 4 June 1964 – the first of two nights the Love Me Do stars played at K.B Hallen venue in Copenhagen.

The show marked a watershed moment for thousands of Danish Beatles fans who snapped up tickets in record time but one 13-year-old fan Annett was left heartbroken when her mother told her she was too young to attend a pop concert.

Instead she had to make do with a family friend, Uncle Luffe, giving her the next best thing: a programme signed by The Beatles.

Sixty years later Annett, now aged 73, has decided it’s time for her programme to find new owners and it will next week go under the hammer at Denmark’s Bruun Rasmussen auction house with a guide price approaching 80,000 Danish Krone.

The programme features autographs from four of the band members: John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and the stand-in drummer Jimmie Nicol, who stepped in for a sick Ringo Starr.

The drummer had remained in London, having been hospitalised with tonsillitis and pharyngitis the previous day. His temporary replacement, Jimmie Nicol, had to swiftly adjust to life in the whirlwind of Beatlemania for the next five dates that marked the start of the band’s world tour.

The group rehearsed their set in the afternoon, and Mal Evans taped the setlist to their guitars to help them remember the running order and they were also visited by the British ambassador to Denmark before taking to the stage.

The Beatles performed their first show at 6pm and returned at 9.15pm. The setlist for the first was: ‘I Saw Her Standing There’, ‘I Want To Hold Your Hand’, ‘All My Loving’, ‘She Loves You’, ‘Till There Was You’, ‘Roll Over Beethoven’, ‘Can’t Buy Me Love’, ‘This Boy’ and ‘Twist And Shout’.

‘Long Tall Sally’ was left out of the setlist as it had been performed by Danish support act The Hitmakers. The Beatles requested that The Hitmakers not perform it during the night’s second show, and it was duly performed as the last show in the headliners’ set.

At the Royal Hotel after the second show The Beatles were treated to smørrebrødsseddel – Danish sandwiches. Paul McCartney also sent Ringo a telegram which read: “Didn’t think we could miss you so much. Get well soon

Auctioneer Peter Broe said:  “The Beatles are without a doubt one of the most famous and influential bands of all time, and it is extremely rare for a treasure such as this to surface at auction. “Its significance is twofold: not only does it bear the autographs of every member of the band, but these signatures appear on a programme that’s directly tied to that historic Danish concert. “Beatlemania was at its peak at that time, and this signed programme stands as a vivid testament to the hysteria and magic that surrounded the band throughout the 1960s. And there’s also a really nice personal story associated with it.”

The programme actually features no fewer than six signatures, as it seems John Lennon and Jimmie Nicol initially wrote their autographs on the inside pages. Apparently, they had second thoughts, leading to all four band members ultimately signing the cover instead. So, there are two autographs from both John Lennon and Jimmie Nicol.

The programme’s back cover bears the name “Luffe”, a worker at Copenhagen’s B&W shipyard who was fondly known to his friends as “Uncle Luffe”. He lived in the apartment above a family with whom he had a close relationship, hence the nickname “Uncle Luffe”. To supplement his income, Luffe sold concert programmes as a side job.

On the morning of 4 June 1964, Uncle Luffe knocked on the door of the family and told them that he’d been given a free ticket to one of the two Beatles concerts at K.B. Hallen that evening. He would himself be there to sell programmes and wanted to give the family’s 13-year-old daughter Annett the ticket.

Peter added: “Annett recalls that she was absolutely over the moon when it happened. Her mother, however, declined the offer. Having seen the footage of screaming girls on television, she deemed her daughter too young for the intense Beatlemania that had reached fever pitch at the time.”

The following morning, Uncle Luffe appeared at the family’s front door holding in his hand the signed programme.

“He’d pulled a few strings with his contacts, who managed to get him the autographs,” added Peter.

In the days following the concert, Annett carried the programme in her schoolbag daily, proudly showing it to her awestruck classmates. She has owned it until this day. Now, many decades later, this unique programme has made its way into the public eye, still echoing that historic night at K.B. Hallen when The Beatles sent Copenhagen into a frenzy.

The signed programme from The Beatles’ concert at K.B. Hallen in Copenhagen on 4 June 1964 is estimated at DKK 60,000–80,000 and will be on sale at Bruun Rasmussen’s Live Auction on Tuesday 3 December.