The vendor, Richard Martin, was the lead guitarist with The Aztecs, the resident band at the Ad-Lib Club, which in the Sixties was a regular celebrity haunt. Martin recalls meeting The Beatles at the club...On the day that they recorded 'A Hard Day's Night' [Thursday, 16th April, 1964] John, Paul & Ringo (I don't think George was with them on that night) came in with the acetate and gave it over so it could be played to all that were there on the night..... Martin recalls being given the plectrum by John Lennon....one evening when John & Ringo had a 'jam session' with us which went on until the small hours - we played a lot of rock n' roll and I think broke and swapped a few plectrums.

A Hard Day's Night was recorded on the evening of Thursday, 16th April after the Beatles had spent all day filming in Notting Hill. Further mixing took place at later dates and the single and album were released on Friday, 10th July, 1964. The acetate included in this lot has no differences to the released version, but is almost certainly one of the initial pressings as during the later mixes, The Beatles were on tour in Australia, and on the day of the release, were in Liverpool so would have been unable to visit the Aztec club.