The Beatles: Unseen photos of Fab Four's US tour to be auctioned

An archive of unseen photographs of The Beatles on tour at the height of Beatlemania are set to be auctioned.

The behind-the-scenes pictures were taken during the band's famous 1965 US tour by musician Alan Holmes, a member of Beatles' support act Sounds Inc.

They capture the Fab Four on stage, at press conferences as well as during the filming of the famous Ed Sullivan Show.

The collection will go under the hammer later this month and is expected to fetch £5,000.

The lot of 38 original prints, 12 rolls of film and colour transparencies, all taken in 1964 and 1965, will be sold with full copyright.

Pictures from the 1965 Shea Stadium concert also feature in the lot, where the noise of some 55,000 fans was said to be so deafening neither the band nor the crowd could hear a note of what was being played on stage.

Mr Holmes never published the images in his lifetime and the collection was passed to a friend following his death.

Dan Hampson, a manager at Omega Auctions, said: "It's always exciting when new and unseen images of The Beatles come to light and the ones seen in this lot offer a fantastic documentary of life behind the scenes at the height of the mania surrounding the group in 1965.

"They're of exceptional quality and there are some really captivating shots.

"We're very excited to see what they will achieve at auction."

The set of photographs and negatives will be sold by the specialist auction house on the 28 March.

Why not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk