McCartney lyrics go for a song

Sir Paul wrote the note in the 60s

A hand-written quotation from a Beatles song penned by Paul McCartney has sold at auction for £1,350.

The former Beatle included the opening lines to his 1967 hit Penny Lane in a note to an old friend.

Valuer Richard Westwood-Brookes of Dominic Winter Book Auctions, in Swindon, which sold the note said such quotations were "extremely rare".

The song was released as a double-A side with Strawberry Fields Forever - a song also reminiscing the band's Liverpool childhood.

McCartney's Penny Lane was based on people in the area where he, John Lennon and George Harrison had all lived at times.

The song's opening lines are: "In Penny Lane there is a barber showing photographs of every head he's had the pleasure to know, and all the people that come and go, stop and say hello".

Memorabilia

Both Strawberry Field and Penny Lane still exist in Liverpool and street signs had to be painted, bolted down or moved higher after they were regularly stolen as souvenirs by fans.

The bank, roundabout and fire station which feature in the song are all still there and the barber shop is now a unisex hair salon, which has a photograph of the Beatles in the window.

Earlier this week, the lyrics to another song written by McCartney in 1969 failed to sell at an auction of pop memorabilia.

The words to the song "Goodbye" recorded by Mary Hopkin failed to meet the £30,000 reserve price when auctioned at Christie's in London on Thursday.