UPDATE:
Last week's announcement that the Hofner bass Paul McCartney bought in 1961 and had stolen in 1972 has taken another twist.
Cathy Guest, the woman who found the bass in her attic in Sussex, England, is hoping he will give her a reward.
A single mother of two children in school, she says she put a note in the guitar case explaining her financial situation.
“My husband (Hadyn) inherited it when another family member (his brother Graham) died and he’d had it for years.
“He had no idea where it came from. He was a keen musician and used to play all the guitars at home, including Paul’s bass. We both loved music and I still go to gigs every weekend.”
She adds that McCartney's team had been in touch promising a reward for its safe return.
“I’ve still got the offer open with them and I’ve taken advice. It’s part of rock ‘n’ roll history and it’s not like they’re a small band.”
McCartney paid roughly $38 for the bass in Hamburg, Germany, and he played it on such Beatles classics as "Love Me Do," "She Loves You," and their cover of "Twist and Shout."
Now estimated to be worth $12.6-million, it was found after a five-year search undertaken by Hofner, and journalist Scott Jones and his wife Naomi. They named the search The Lost Bass Project.
They discovered that the unnamed thief who stole it from a back of a van in London in 1972 during the recording of the second Wings album, Red Rose Speedway, sold it to Ron Guest, owner of the Admiral Blake pub, for a few pounds and some beers.
He gave it to his older son Graham, and after he died in a car accident, Haydin, Cathy's husband, inherited it. He died in 2020.
It was returned to McCartney in December and it took two months to authenticate it.
They had planned to make the announcement, but Cathy's son, Ruaidhri, went ahead and broke the news on social media.
He has followed up his initial post with the following: "As of recent, the Trace The Bass project has tried to jump in on the recent news when in truth, the project nor people involved had nothing to do with finding and returning the famous Höfner. The true story shall be told in time. For now, I ask for patience."
No word from McCartney's camp if they will send Cathy a check.
THE ORIGINAL STORY:
Paul McCartney has been reunited with his Hofner bass that was stolen in 1972.
It was found in the attic of a house in Sussex, England.
The Lost Bass Project, which was launched in 2018 to locate it, uncovered some information last September that led to its whereabouts.
Ian Horne, McCartney’s sound engineer with Wings, contacted the Project to say that it was not last seen in 1969 following the sessions for The Beatles' Get Back (Let it Be) album as originally believed, but rather on October 10th, 1972.
“[He] was preparing for his first UK and European tours with Wings, and the band was recording their second album, Red Rose Speedway.
“We had rented a truck to move the gear - guitars and amplifiers - to various recording studios and rehearsal spaces across London...
“One night, after a long day, we got to Notting Hill...and decided to park the truck up there for the night.
“We knew there was a huge padlock on the back doors, but when I got up in the morning and saw the van, with the broken padlock lying in the road, I knew it was bad news...
“We instantly suspected people living in and around Ladbroke Grove were responsible. One or two people living close by knew that we worked for Paul, so they would have known there was a chance that the kit in the back of the truck belonged to McCartney..."
Ruaidhri Guest, a 21-year-old British film student, posted photos of the bass Twitter/X with the message, “To my friends and family I inherited this item which has been returned to Paul McCartney. Share the news.”
The Lost Bass Project says the bass is "complete and still with its original case. It will need some repairs to make it playable again, but a team of professionals can easily carry these out."
McCartney has been reunited with the bass and his office released a statement saying, "The guitar has been authenticated by Höfner and Paul is incredibly grateful to all those involved.”
He bought it in Hamburg, Germany in 1961 for $125.
Although it seems like a long shot, there have been some documented cases of long-lost instruments resurfacing.
In 1963, the guitar John Lennon used to write "I Want to Hold Your Hand" went missing during the band’s Christmas show in London and resurfaced 51 years later, selling for $2.4 million at auction.
In 2011, Peter Frampton was reunited with the black Gibson Les Paul on the cover of Frampton Comes Alive 31 years after it was believed to have been destroyed in a plane crash.
In 2017, John Fogerty's wife Julie tracked down and bought his 1969 Rickenbacker 325 Sunburst guitar with the word “ACME” written on the head in yellow paint that he gave a young fan in the early '70s.
In 2020, Jimmy Page got back his 1960 Gibson Les Paul, "Black Beauty," that was stolen in 1970.
And in 2022, Randy Bachman found his 1957 Gretsch that was stolen from a Toronto hotel in 1976.
The Beatles made their second appearance in two weeks on The Ed Sullivan Show 60 years ago today, February 16th.
Unlike the week before, which was in Sullivan's New York City studio, they headed south to the Deauville [prn: Doe-Ville] Hotel in Miami.
Once again they performed five songs, repeating "She Loves You," "All My Loving," "I Saw Her Standing There," and "I Want to Hold Your Hand," and replacing "Till There Was You" with "From Me to You."