Sir George Martin and his son, Giles, spent three years splicing and dicing the Beatles’ catalogue to create Love, the soundtrack to a Las Vegas stage show with Cirque du Soleil. A “mash-up” in modern musical parlance, it mixes elements of Penny Lane with Strawberry Fields Forever and marries Blackbird to Yesterday in a reinterpretation of the band’s work.

Bob Spitz, author of The Beatles: The Biography, said: “They are the Beatles’ songs and overdubbing them and massaging them allows other people to impose their own creative ideas on something that was so immediate and of a particular time. I thought that legacy was virtually tamper-proof, until now.” The project’s supporters argue that its juxtapositions and layerings, together with a digital enhancement of the original recordings at the Abbey Road studios, shed new light on the Beatles’ legacy. “We know there’ll be letters,” Giles Martin said. “But sometimes we take this music for granted. I hope this will help people to hear Beatles music again.”

EMI expects the first “new” Beatles album in 26 years to be a bestseller. “Best of” albums by U2 and Oasis are also released today. A spokesman for HMV said that the albums had attracted the largest numbers of pre-orders of any to date. The company said that the Oasis CD was likely to sell the most copies this week, but that the Beatles album would do well over Christmas.

Sir George, 80, said that the record, which has united Sir Paul McCartney and Yoko Ono, concludes his involvement with the band. He believes that it will see off the challenge from Oasis. Sir George said: “I think the Gallaghers are very talented, but they are not as good as the Beatles. Noel once told me he felt he was the inheritor of Paul McCartney’s ethos. They have modelled themselves on the Beatles, but possibly too much for the good of themselves.”

The Love stage show is selling 2,000 tickets a night at the Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas, even with prices of up to $150 (£80). Discussions about a global tour are continuing. A London staging could become one of the West End’s success stories if a suitable venue were found.

Sir George said: “They spent $100 million building a theatre specially for the show in Vegas. If you could take over the Royal Albert Hall and convert it that would be fine. But it’s very difficult to transfer.”

Philip Anschutz, the American tycoon, could bring the show to the Dome in London. The venue, renamed the O2, is part of his Anschutz Entertainment Group. A spokeswoman said: “It would be great to have Love in London and, as a world-class facility, we would welcome it at the O2.”

Up for auction

£100,000 estimated price that a Maton MS500 Mastersound guitar played by George Harrison in 1963 is expected to fetch at auction

£45,000 expected for John Lennon’s hand-made, hand-painted psychedelic jacket, from 1967, made for him by Mick Jagger’s brother, Chris

• The Cooper Owen’s Music Legends auction, including 300 pieces of pop and rock memorabilia, takes place at Air Studios in London on November 30

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