The fifth Beatle, his daughter and a score to settle over Eleanor Rigby
WHEN an auction house announced that it was to sell the original score for the Beatles 1966 classic Eleanor Rigby, it provoked great interest.
Not least from Alexis Stratfold, daughter of the band’s producer Sir George Martin, known as the fifth Beatle – who was given the sheet music by her father 30 years ago and has no intention of ever selling it.
Mrs Stratfold, 63, the eldest of Sir George’s four children, keeps the handwritten document, valued at around £75,000, in a frame on a wall in her home.
Her lawyer wrote to Omega Auctions, in Warrington, Cheshire, threatening to sue if it continued to claim it had the original. Mrs Stratfold said: ‘I was absolutely gobsmacked when I read that “the original” Eleanor Rigby score was being auctioned.
‘The original was given to me by my dad 30 years ago. He knew it was of great historical value and even pointed out the coffee stains from John Lennon.
‘It’s an emotional thing, something he gave to me so many years ago. My intention has always been that when I pass away it will be kept in the family. I found it extraordinary that they were purporting this to be the original.’
Last month Omega Auctions announced with great fanfare that it was to auction ‘the original’ score on September 11, along with the grave deeds for a real Eleanor Rigby buried in a Liverpool churchyard close to where Paul McCartney first met Lennon.
After being contacted by Mrs Stratfold’s lawyer, the auction house has now agreed to change the catalogue description for the score, which includes the signatures of Sir Paul and Sir George, from ‘the original’ to ‘an original’.
In an email to Mrs Stratfold’s lawyer, Omega Auctions director Karen Fairweather said its score, valued at £20,000, is an authentic handwritten manuscript by Sir George. But she conceded it is likely to have been an alternative version of Mrs Stratfold’s original, perhaps a working draft or a copy he gave to musicians before recording.
She wrote: ‘The score was given by George Martin to a well-known gentleman in the music business who was both a friend and business associate. When the gentleman passed away in the 1990s, the score was left to his daughter. Our client wishes to remain anonymous, so we are not in a position to name the individuals.’
Mrs Stratfold’s score is an eightpage manuscript composed in pencil by Sir George on April 27, 1966, the day before a classical string ensemble recorded the music at EMI’s Abbey Road Studios. The first page notes the venue of the recording as ‘EMI Studio 2’ and the time and date as ‘6pm. 28th April 1966’.
The song title ‘Eleanor Rigby’ is written along with a list of instruments used by the studio musicians: ‘4 violins, 2 violas, 2 celli.’
The front page, which also features a coffee stain understood to have been left by Lennon, is concluded with the note ‘arranged by G. Martin 27th April 1966’. There are then four pages of music for Eleanor Rigby, accompanied by the lyrics, and three blank pages.
Omega Auctions’ score is confined to a single page with notation and lyrics across both sides, as well as the song’s title, the venue ‘Abbey Road No 2’ and the instruments ‘4 violins, 2 violas and 2 cellos’ written in one corner. The score also bears signatures from Sir Paul and Sir George.
Sir George, who died last year aged 90, gave each of his four children an original score for a Beatles hit as a legacy.