The Beatles, signed concert tour poster, Sweden, 1963

The concert poster is from The Beatles' first post-breakthrough international tour. On March 22, 1963, the Beatles released their first album, Please Please Me, rewriting the world order. The tour, which was capped off by the iconic radio recording in Karlaplansstudion and the TV show "Drop-in" with host Lill-Babs, are today some of the most significant musical moments in Swedish music history. A funny detail is that Lill-Babs got to sign autographs for the then relatively unknown Beatles. The radio program was originally broadcast on Sweden's Radio P1 on the evening of November 11, 1963 and was released by Apple Records on the album "Anthology 1" in 1995.

For the Beatles, this was their first big international breakthrough and the visit to Sweden was the starting point for their international triumph. The Swedish orchestra Trio mé Bumba was going to tour Sweden with a new, unknown band from England, The Beatles, but the organizer was unsure how the British would attract an audience, so initially The Beatles were the opening act. After the breakthrough with the radio show, there was a quick switch and Trio med Bumba had to stand back due to enormous crowd pressure, and the Beatles became the main act.

The poster at auction is signed by all members of The Beatles; John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. The poster is dedicated to their newfound friend Bumba, the leader of Trio mé Bumba. Bumba asked for a signed poster during the tour and then kept it in his son's bedroom for several years. Later, the poster was sold to Lennart Karlsson, who ran several of the Baldakinen group's dance restaurants in Stockholm. He met Bumba during a Beatles event at one of his restaurants and then bought the poster which was hung in Karlsson's office where the current owner saw it and asked to buy it.