Unreleased John Lennon tapes are up for auction in Denmark

A new recording of John Lennon playing an unreleased song in Copenhagen in 1970 is up for auction this month.

The 33-minute recording is being sold by four men who met the Beatle when they were schoolboys. The tape — which was recorded after a press conference — includes a conversation between Lennon, the schoolboys and some local journalists. After the chat, Lennon played a number of songs including the unreleased ‘Radio Peace’.

The ‘Imagine’ singer and his wife Yoko Ono were staying in a town on the west coast of Denmark in the Winter of 1969-1970 to spend time with Ono’s daughter, Kyoko, who lived with her father in northern Jutland.

The four schoolboys who met Lennon that day have put the recording up for auction. The tape will go under the hammer on September 28th and is projected to go for between €27,000–€40,000.

“The tape is totally unique because it’s a conversation. It took place after a press conference with the four schoolboys and some journalists, and John Lennon plays a few songs for them,” Alexa Bruun Rasmussen from the Bruun Rasmussen auction house told AFP.

“One of them, ‘Radio Peace’, has never been published,” she added. “It’s a little piece of Danish history and when we listen to it, we can sense that John Lennon felt cosy in Denmark. He could be left alone and just be.”

The schoolboys who spoke to Lennon were mainly interested in his peace activism in the interview which was conducted months before The Beatles broke up. "With the auction, they want to pass on the message John Lennon stood for," said Bruun Rasmussen.

The interview was published in the teenagers' school newspaper — this issue of the paper will be sold along with pictures from the meeting in the auction. The recording is only available in cassette format.

"To listen to the 33 minutes of the tape you need an old-fashioned cassette player and I guess that nostalgia part will add to its value,” added Bruun Rasmussen.

In other Lennon news, a tribute show to the iconic Liverpudlian called Dear John is slated to be livestreamed next month. The event takes place on what would be Lennon's 81st birthday, October 9th, to raise money for War Child.

The event will follow up the release of the Dear John tribute album which arrived earlier this year and included covers of Lennon classics. A range of artists featured on the record which also raised money for War Child.