Drum kit used in early Beatles song to be auctioned in California

LOS ANGELES - A drum kit used in the recording of The Beatles first single "Love Me Do" on their debut album will be up for auction on Thursday in Los Angeles, Nate D. Sanders Auctions said. The Ludwig drum kit was played by drummer Andy White, not Ringo Starr, in the first session that the Beatles collaborated on with record producer George Martin in London in 1962, according to auction house manager Michael Kirk. "This is a piece of rock history and there is only one drum kit that was there that day that this first track was laid down, the track that launched the Beatles," he explained. Starr had already been hired by the group but he had not had a proper audition with them, so White was brought in for the recording session. Kirk said the drum kit, which has a reserve price of $150,000, has attracted interest from around the globe.