Beatles Help! jackets fetch £115,000

Jackets worn by George Harrison and Ringo Starr in The Beatles' 1965 film Help! have fetched £115,000 at auction.

Starr's cape fetched £61,000, while Harrison's sold for £54,000, including buyer's premium. Both beat separate pre-sale valuations of £20,000-30,000.

Meanwhile, a piano used by Sir Paul McCartney and John Lennon was bought by a South American collector for £57,500.

The 1907 Bechstein grand piano was used to compose the tracks Help! and Yesterday, according to Omega Auctions.

The piano and jackets were sold by Richard Lester, now 82, who directed Help! and The Beatles' first film A Hard Day's Night.

The auction took place at the Adelphi Hotel in Liverpool.

The jackets were 'amongst the Holy Grail for any Beatles collector', the auctioneers said

But a cape, suit and sheet of handwritten lyrics belonging to McCartney were withdrawn from auction after the star made a late legal challenge.

Auctioneer Paul Fairweather said: "Unfortunately the lawyers have claimed that Paul would never have given any clothing away."

The rest of the sale went ahead on Thursday to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the release of The Beatles' hit Can't Buy Me Love.

Harrison and Starr wore their jackets during five days of filming Help! in the Alps and on the accompanying album cover. They were sold to UK buyers, Omega said.

Film director Richard Lester bought the piano at the end of the 1960s

The piano, meanwhile, came from Twickenham film studios, where it was situated from the 1930s until Lester purchased it in the late 1960s.

The Fab Four used it to write the title track to Help! while they were filming at the studios. McCartney was also working on Yesterday at the time, Lester said.

"He was playing it that much that I actually threatened to remove the piano off the set if he didn't finish the song soon and give it a rest."