Paul McCartney's first guitar has sold for £330, 000 at an auction held at London's Abbey Road studios, fetching more than three times its estimate. The instrument was sold by McCartney's old school friend Ian James, and was accompanied by a letter of authenticity which read: "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 learned my first chords in his house at 43 Elswich Street, Liverpool 8."
The guitar's buyer, Craig Jackson says: "This is such an important piece of rock history and I am an extremely happy man tonight. Without this guitar The Beatles may never have existed and it is a fantastic acquisition."
Elsewhere in McCartney news, or rather gossip, The Mirror reports that the former Beatle thinks his ex-wife-to-be is a bit of a gold digger, according to a 'close friend', and is furious with her, because she has allegedly rejected a £30m divorce settlement and is, it's claimed, pushing for a figure in the region of £200m.
That very close friend, the tabloid claims, said: "Paul believes Heather wants as much money as she can get. He thinks she is proving herself to be nothing better than a gold-digger. Paul is a reasonable guy who doesn't like confrontation. He wanted to keep the divorce quick and amicable for the sake of [their daughter] Beatrice - but feels Heather is being difficult and trying to drag things out. In his eyes they had agreed they wanted to make the divorce quick and painless and a settlement was virtually in place - but then Heather started getting unreasonable because she wanted more money. She wants as much as she can."