July 10, 2006 14:35

Paul McCartney’s first guitar on sale

For £100,000

Photo Gallery: Paul McCartney

The guitar that Paul McCartney learnt how to play his first chords on is being auctioned and is expected to fetch £100,000.

The seller of the Rex acoustic guitar is McCartney’s friend Ian James from his schooldays at Liverpool Institute High School for Boys.

In a signed letter accompanying the item, the former Beatle writes: “The above guitar belonging to my old school pal Ian James was the first guitar I ever held. It was also the guitar on which I learnt my first chords.”

Ian James taught the 15-year-old McCartney the chords that would later impress John Lennon enough to let him join his band The Quarrymen.

“Paul and I hung around together after school,” James said. “We both had an interest in rock ‘n’ roll and I would show him a few chords. I remember one day he told me he’d written a song and I thought ‘Blimey, that’s hard’.”

Ian James and McCartney lost touch for 28 years, but were then reunited in 1991 at a Wings concert.