The drum skin which appears on the famous front cover of The Beatles' 1967 album 'Sgt Pepper' has sold for a massive £541,250 (over $1million) at an auction in London.

The skin was sold at Christie's Auction House in the capital yesterday (July 10) for almost four times the estimated price. It was part of a large rock memorabilia auction which also featured Jimi Hendrix, The Who and Ella Fitzgerald lots.

The second highest bid of the day was for the lyrics to 'Give Piece A Chance' handwritten by John Lennon which sold for £421,250. They were originally given to writer Gail Renard when Lennon and Yoko Ono were staging their 'bed-in' in Montreal in 1969.

Also up for sale was a series of never-seen-before Beatles photographs and a pair of sunglasses worn by John Lennon on the sleeve to 'Mind Games' which went for £39,000.

Elsewhere, a Gibson guitar once owned by Pete Townshend shifted for £32,450, a rare live recording of Jimi Hendrix in 1968 went for Ј48,050.

(by Scott Colothan)