A CHANCE discovery of a battered suitcase in an Australian flea market appears to have solved the mysterious disappearance of one of the most important collections of Beatles memorabilia.

For almost 30 years the “Mal Evans archive” has been considered the Holy Grail of Beatles collections, inspiring fans in a worldwide search.

Experts said yesterday that the contents of a suitcase bought by chance by a holidaymaker in Australia could have belonged to the Beatles’ most trusted aide. Evans, who worked as a roadie, sound recordist and musician for the Beatles, amassed a large collection of the group’s memorabilia during his life and brought it together in the mid-1970s to write his memoirs.

In 1976, he was shot dead in a bungled police operation, and the archive disappeared.

Inside the battered suitcase, found this year, were tapes which contain alternative versions of hit songs such as We Can Work It Out and Cry Baby Cry that have never been played in public, a Beatles specialist said last night.

You can listen to a brief extract of the purported Beatles recording here

The 4½-hour recording on reel-to-reel tape includes John Lennon and Paul McCartney chatting as they experiment with acoustic or electric versions of songs later abandoned.

The tapes contain not only bootleg recordings — tapes that have been smuggled out of studios and broadcast on the radio — but new material, according to Peter Doggett, pop memorabilia consultant at the auctioneer Christie’s and a renowned Beatles expert.

“With the exception of (two of the tracks) it sounds very exciting indeed,” he said. “It certainly does tie in with Mal Evans. He had access to the Beatles making music when there was no one else around. There has been much debate as to what happened to his memorabilia. It is possible that this is it, or part of it.”

Fraser Claughton, 41, of Tankerton in Kent, discovered the memorabilia at a flea market in Lara, a town near Melbourne. He was looking for a cheap suitcase to carry his belongings but found up to 400 photographs, vinyl records, concert programmes and sealed reels of tape marked in handwriting “Abbey Road . . . not for release”.

“It is like finding the end of the rainbow in Australia,” he said. “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.

“I thought they looked interesting and ended up paying. In the end I paid 50 dollars, just under £20, for the lot.” John Read, a children’s publisher who is handling the memorabilia on behalf of Mr Claughton, was amazed when he played the tapes. “I could hardly believe it,” he said. “We think it might have belonged to Mal Evans because there are recording sheets in the collection with his name on them.

“We know he went to Australia as a sound engineer so he had an Australian connection.” Mr Read now intends to sell the tapes and photographs. Mr Doggett said that, depending on how much of the recording was original, it could fetch hundreds of thousands of pounds:

“Two years ago a recording of John Lennon going through lots of versions of He Said, She Said sold for just less than £60,000. That was 20 minutes long.”

However, Mark Lewisohn, who works with Apple, the Beatles’ label, said that he could not tell if the tracks were new or bootleg copies because he had only listened to them on a telephone.

“I am prepared to be excited (if I can listen to the tracks in better quality) but from my point of view there isn’t anything lost here,” he said.

Evans was a technician for the Post Office in 1962 when he first heard the Beatles at the Cavern Club in Liverpool.

He befriended the band and was soon hired as a roadie, driving the band’s van and setting up their equipment.

When the band stopped touring in 1966, he continued to work with them in the studio.

He lent his voice to Yellow Submarine and played the Hammond organ on You Won’t See Me. He played harmonica on Being For the Benefit of Mr Kite, tambourine on Dear Prudence and did background vocals on You Know My Name (Look Up the Number). He also appeared in the Beatles film Let It Be, in which he played the anvil during early versions of Maxwell’s Silver Hammer.

He was shot dead in Los Angeles when police mistook an air pistol he was carrying for a more powerful weapon.

LENNON'S SONG

I’ve got something to tell you, I’m in love,
I’ve been longing to tell you, I’m in love,
You’ll believe me when I tell you, I’m in love with you
You’re my kind of girl,
You make me feel proud.

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