Ah man ... I've got to sort hitting more garage sales
What could be one of the most hotly sought after lost archives of Beatles recordings has reportedly been found in a Melbourne flea market.
The archive of tapes and photos, which are believed to have belonged to Beatles roadie Mal Evans, were in a suitcase spotted by British holiday maker Fraser Claughton, who was looking for some cheap luggage.
He told the Times: "It is like finding the end of the rainbow in Australia.
"I spotted one tatty old suitcase, which frankly I wouldn't have given house room, but when I picked it up I realised there was something in it."
Thinking that the contents looked 'interesting', he agreed to buy them for £20.
Now experts believe the four-and-a-half hours of recordings, which include alternate takes of We Can Work It Out and Cry Baby Cry, could fetch several hundred thousand pounds at auction.
Peter Dogget, pop memorabilia consultant at Christie's, said: "It sounds very exciting indeed. It certainly does tie in with Mal Evans. He had access to the Beatles making music when no one else was around."
Children's publisher John Read, who is handling the collection on behalf of Mr Claughton, said it was already known that Mr Evans, who was shot dead in a bungled police operation in 1976, went to Australia as a sound engineer.
He said his name appears on some of the recording sheets in the collection.
However not everyone has been convinced. Mark Lewisohn, from the Beatles' Apple label, said he could not tell if the tracks really were new because so far he had only heard them over the telephone.
He said: "I am prepared to be excited, but from my point of view there isn't anything lost here."