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  5. From Bruce Thomas’ (Elvis Costello and the Attractions, bass) Facebook wall:

    Now here’s a thing… sometime in the mid-Nineties, Peter Thomas and I were doing a recording session at Abbey Road — (not with EC and the Attractions), possibly for some Japanese pop singer whose name escapes me. We were on a break, and wandering the corridors, in the basement, idling about. For some reason, PT opened a janitor’s cupboard – the kind where brooms and mops and buckets are kept. As he did, I saw his jaw drop, and his face blanch. “What the f**k!!” he whispered. “Look at this.” He held the door ajar for me to peep in. And there among the brooms and mops, leaning up in a dark corner was a Hofner 500/1 Violin Bass. “But look at this!” I said. Because taped along the top side of this bass was a set list of the songs. The same set list from the Beatles’ last live show on 25th August, 1966, at Candlestick Park, San Francisco.

    Rock and Roll Music
    She’s A Woman
    If I Needed Someone
    etc. through to
    Paperback Writer
    Long Tall Sally

    Obviously, my first thought was how we might smuggle it out of Abbey Road, but at the same time there were several equally obvious realizations. Which one would keep it? You couldn’t tell anyone about it. And you certainly couldn’t try to sell it. It would be worth millions — more than Hendrix’s white Strat – more than any other guitar in the world! You could only ever look at it, hanging on your bedroom wall. And whichever one of us had it, would certainly be vulnerable to blackmail by the other!

    I’d always assumed that the Beatle Bass Macca has been using on recent tours was ‘the bass from the cupboard.’ But apparently not. Now, if this little anecdote helps in any way to track the original down eventually, then good. But we definitely saw it, maybe sometime in the mid-90s. (Note: I’d be quite happy to share the reward 🙂 🙂 )

    • That sounds like Paul’s main Hofner that he got in 1963. There are some photos of it in the brilliant Beatles Gear book by Andy Babiuk and it has the 1966 tour set list taped to the body. No idea what it was doing in a broom cupboard though.

      Was amazed to find out Paul only ever had two Hofners, the main one he got in 1963 which he is most associated with, and his first which he bought in 1961 and was lost in 1969.

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