More than 100 lucky Sir Paul McCartney fans have been selected to attend a special one-off concert by the former Beatle at the Cavern - the club where he and The Fab Four found stardom.

The draw for the 75 pairs of tickets was made at the headquarters of EMI records in west London on Friday.

Sir Paul is returning to the Liverpool venue on 14 December for the first time since 1963.

Fans from as far away as Argentina and Australia entered their names in the raffle for the historic concert by sending in application forms obtained from HMV stores around Britain.

Dream fulfilled

Kevin Reavey, 55, of the Aigburth area of Liverpool was the first name to be drawn.

He used to be a regular visitor to the Cavern and was delighted to find he would be returning for Sir Paul's performance.

"I stayed in this morning knowing that there was a chance I could have won, but I was very doubtful. The odds were against it with so few tickets," he said.

"I've been a fan of The Beatles since the beginning. I used to go to the Cavern but I never saw them there."

Another winner was 18-year-old Beatles fan John Ono Lennon, who was also the first person in the queue for an application form outside the Liverpool branch of HMV on Monday.

Lennon changed his name by deed poll and moved to the Penny Lane area of Liverpool from Worcester.

The furthest flung ticket-holder picked by EMI's head of promotions Malcolm Hill was Tomohiro Kobayashai from Tokyo, Japan. A Belgian fan was also picked in the draw.

Extra charity tickets

Although the initial 150 tickets for the concert have been allocated, there is still a chance for two more fans to attend by contacting a special ticket hotline.

Sir Paul has announced that the last two tickets will be given away in a telephone competition which will aid the cancer unit of Liverpool's Alder Hey Children's Hospital.

Sir Paul's mother worked as a nurse at the hospital. His wife Linda died from cancer in April last year.

The 24-hour phone line will be open until Monday morning with the money raised from the £1-a-minute calls going to the unit's fundraising appeal.

Sir Paul first played the Cavern on 24 January 1958 with his first band the Quarrymen which also featured John Lennon and George Harrison.

He last performed there in 1963. The original Cavern was demolished in 1973 but rebuilt on the same site in the 1980s.

The Cavern ticket competition hotline, on which callers have to name Sir Paul's new rock 'n' roll album, can be contacted on: 0906 911 0217.