‘Lost’ Beatle trove bought for a song

All you need is luck.

A vacationer who purchased a suitcase at an Australian flea market found a trove of Beatles memorabilia inside, including photos, concert programs and unreleased recordings, a London newspaper reported Tuesday.

While the materials have yet to be authenticated, the Times said, some experts believe the collection is the lost “Mal Evans archive,” originally belonging to the Beatles’ roadie and recording engineer. Evans was killed by police in Los Angeles in 1976 after he had brandished a fake gun. His belongings were lost during the investigation.

Fraser Claughton, 41, from Tinkerton, England, bought the suitcase in a small town outside of Melbourne for about $36. “It’s like finding the end of the rainbow in Australia,” he told the newspaper. “I spotted one tatty old suitcase, which frankly I wouldn’t have given house room, but when I picked it up there was something in it.”

The 4 1/2-hour tape recording is said to include John Lennon and Paul McCartney experimenting with previously unrecorded tracks, plus new versions of “We Can Work It Out” and “Cry Baby Cry.”

The Times put an excerpt from another of the newly discovered recordings, “I’m in Love,” on its website, www.timesonline.co.uk.