Sue Johnston, best known for her roles in Brookside and The Royle Family, has revealed that she inadvertently destroyed an irreplaceable Beatles relic. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, she was a close friend of the band and worked for Brian Epstein's NEMS organisation. Paul McCartney gave her a reel-to-reel tape of the Beatles recording Love Me Do in a garage, but she later recorded over it with a radio show, unaware of its future value.
How It Happened
Speaking on the podcast A Night In with Sally Lindsay, Johnston recalled her days working at a Liverpool tax office and regularly visiting the Cavern Club at lunchtime. She became friends with Paul McCartney and other musicians. McCartney brought her the tape from Hamburg, but she taped over it to listen to The Max Miller Show. She said, 'I had no idea how valuable that would have been.'
Impact and Value
The tape would now be worth a fortune, comparable to a three-bedroom house in Liverpool. Johnston's friendship with McCartney endured; he sent a video message for her freedom of the city award. The story highlights the casual loss of music history during the Merseybeat era.
