The Beatles: Unseen photos of US tour sell for £5,000

The photographs were taken in 1964 and 1965, at the height of "Beatlemania"

An archive of unseen photographs of The Beatles on tour at the height of Beatlemania have sold at auction for a hammer price of £5,000.

The behind-the-scenes pictures were taken during the band's 1965 US tour.

They capture the Fab Four on stage, at press conferences as well as during the filming of the famous Ed Sullivan Show.

Dan Hampson, Omega Auctions manager, said there had been "unprecedented interest" ahead of the specialist Beatles memorabilia auction.

The collection, which was sold with full copyright, consisted of 38 original prints, 12 rolls of film and colour transparencies, all taken in 1964 and 1965.

Pictures of screaming fans at the 1965 Shea Stadium concert featured in the collection

It also included pictures from the 1965 Shea Stadium concert, where the noise of some 55,000 fans was said to be so deafening neither the band nor the crowd could hear a note of what was being played on stage.

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Other notable sales included a Please Please Me record, signed by Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, which sold for £24,000 and a geography school book from 1959 which belonged to Paul McCartney, which sold for £14,000.

The behind-the-scenes pictures were taken by support act musician Alan Holmes

"We were well pleased with some incredible results today," Mr Hampson said.

"It was an auction packed full of quality lots - so we had seen almost unprecedented interest prior to the sale.

"This proves that the market for Beatles memorabilia is as strong as it has been and we're very happy to be able to achieve some life-changing results for our vendors."