Planet Drum news

Sgt Pepper drum skin makes £540,000

© Press Association 2008

The iconic bass drum skin used on the front cover of The Beatles' 1967 album Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band sold for £541,250 at auction.

Auction house Christie's had estimated that the hand-painted skin would sell for around £150,000, but it sold for almost four times that.

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is the eighth studio album by The Beatles. Recorded over a 129-day period beginning on 6 December 1966, the album was released on 1 June 1967 in the United Kingdom and the following day in the United States. Sgt. Pepper's is often described as The Beatles' magnum opus, and one of the most influential albums of all time by prominent critics and publications. It was ranked the greatest album of all time by Rolling Stone in 2003.