BEATLES MEMORABILIA AMONG MOST EXPENSIVE AT AUCTION

The market for music memorabilia has rocketed in recent years with investors willing to spend hard cash on rock history.

Among the items bringing in the big money are handwritten lyrics to hit songs - a draft of Don McLean’s American Pie just sold at auction for more than £800,000.

But when it comes to the most expensive items to ever go under the hammer the Beatles are top of the lots.

*John Lennon’s psychedelic 1965 Rolls-Royce Phantom V - sold for £1,748,462 in 1985

* The piano John Lennon wrote Imagine on - sold for £1.45 million in 2000.

* Handwritten lyrics to The Beatles song A Day In The Life from the Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band - sold for £810,966 in 2010.

* The drum skin from the cover of The Beatles Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album - sold for £541,000 in 2008