Former Beatle Paul McCartney was able to find a bass guitar that had been missing for more than 50 years, on which he played “Love Me Do”, “She Loves You” and “Twist and Shout” in the studio and on stage.
According to Paul McCartney's website, the instrument, a violin-shaped Höfner purchased in Hamburg in 1961 for 30 pounds sterling (that would be 50 Canadian dollars at today's price), has been authenticated and “Paul is incredibly grateful to all participants” in the research.
The bass was found to be “complete,” but its original case “is in need of repair,” according to a press release from The Lost Bass Project, which launched a call to find the instrument in 2018 and whose campaign attracted renewed media attention last fall.
Contrary to what the initiators of the project, the journalist couple Scott and Naomi Jones, initially thought, the instrument did not disappear in 1969, but was stolen from the back of a van in west London in 1972.
Of the 600 calls and messages received, one proved crucial, Naomi Jones explained on BBC Radio 4 on Friday, allowing “the puzzle to be put together”. The instrument was eventually found in the attic of a townhouse on the south coast of England.
“Because of this advertisement, a person […] remembered an old bass guitar that was in her attic. They took it out and realized what they had. In a few days it was back in the hands of Paul McCartney!” the Lost Bass Project said Thursday, according to CBS News.
According to Scott Jones, the thief lived in one of the squats in Ladbroke Grove in Notting Hill, an area that is now middle class but was then populated by “musicians, artists and hippies”.
The author of the theft was probably unaware of the identity of the famous owner of the instrument and, upon learning about it, would have asked the owner of the local pub to hide his loot, the journalist continued.
“The incredible thing is that when we started this research, we thought [que la basse] “could be anywhere in the world,” Naomi Jones pointed out, but in fact it all took place within “a few kilometers” of the Notting Hill area.