POP/ROCK - Aug. 7, 1989

Alf Bicknell, 60, a former chauffeur for the Beatles, could make up to $100,000 from the auction of a collection of the band’s tapes he recently rescued from his garden shed in Surrey, England. The tapes, which will be sold off by Sotheby’s on Aug. 22, have never been heard by the public and Bicknell says he had ignored them all these years because he thought they had been sent to the group by fans. “I was absolutely staggered when I found they were recordings by the boys,” he said. Included on the tapes are the Beatles singing hymns with Gerry Marsden of Gerry and the Pacemakers and the sound of hysterical laughter. Bicknell, who was a driver for the group from 1964 to 1966, said John Lennon told him to take the 20 tapes after he announced he was quitting his job. “He said, ‘You take them and good luck,’ ” Bicknell recalled.