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Rock legend Jeff Beck's guitar sells for over £1m

Bob Dale
BBC News, South East
Getty Images Jeff Beck performing on stage, wearing a white shirt, black jacket and trousers and sunglasses, playing a white Fender Stratocaster guitar.Getty Images
Jeff Beck died at his home in Wadhurst in 2023

A guitar owned by legendary rock musician Jeff Beck has been sold for £1,068,500 at auction.

The 1954 'Oxblood' Gibson Les Paul, which featured on the cover of his 1975 album Blow by Blow, went under the hammer in London on Wednesday.

The musician died at his home in Wadhurst, East Sussex, at the age of 78 in 2023.

Over 130 guitars, amps and pedals from his six-decade career were auctioned at Christie's, where the collection was on display for a week.

Getty Images English rock group The Yardbirds perform their song 'Over Under Sideways Down' on the set of the Associated Rediffusion Television pop music television show Ready Steady Go! at Wembley Television Studios in London on 27th May 1966. Members of the group are, from left, Paul Samwell-Smith, Chris Dreja (behind), Keith Relf, Jim McCarty and Jeff Beck.Getty Images
Jeff Beck (r) rose to international fame as a member of the Yardbirds

The instrument had a pre-auction estimate of £300,000 - £500,000.

"Originally it was not an Oxblood" said Amelia Walker from Christies, "it was a Gold Top.

"Fans will know it from the cover of his debut solo album Blow by Blow, released in 1975, recorded with George Martin.

"He used it for the encore at the end of David Bowie's final performance as Ziggy Stardust in July 1973."

Jeff Beck was born in Wallington, then part of the county of Surrey, in 1944.

He rose to fame as member of the Yardbirds in the mid-Sixties, a band which also featured Surrey guitarists Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page.

PA Media An auction house employee, wearing a white shirt, dark trousers and tie and a Christie's apron and white cotton gloves, holds Jeff Beck's famous Oxblood Les Paul guitar at the auction house, in front of a giant picture of the musician.PA Media
One of the guitars for sale is the famous Oxblood Gibson
A close up of a white Fender Stratocaster guitar, covered in signatures by a series of music legends.
A custom Fender Stratocaster signed by many rock legends, will raise funds for a Kent animal rescue centre

The last guitar to be sold will be a white Fender Stratocaster, with the money from that sale going to Folly Wildlife Rescue in Tunbridge Wells, a charity that Jeff Beck was a patron of.

The instrument is covered with autographs, having been signed by all the performers at a tribute concert to the musician at the Royal Albert Hall, organised by Eric Clapton in May 2023.

Getty Images Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page pose at the 24th Annual Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony at Public Hall on April 4, 2009 in Cleveland, Ohio. Jeff Beck, wears a white shirt and holds a statuette, while Jimmy Page wears a white shirt, black dinner jacket and black scarf.Getty Images
Jeff Beck was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2009 by fellow Surrey guitar legend and Yardbird bandmate Jimmy Page

"This is a moment in time of that tribute" said Ms Walker, "it's really special, it's a Jeff Beck signature Stratocaster as well.

"We've got Rod Stewart, Ronnie Wood, Eric Clapton, Billy Gibbons, Kirk Hammett and Johnny Depp."

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