Song featuring George Harrison and Ringo Starr discovered in attic

The Beatles
Credit: PA

A song featuring George Harrison and Ringo Starr has been played in public for the first time, after the composer discovered the tape more than 50 years after it was recorded.

Suresh Joshi, 77, said he met The Beatles stars when he was recording music for a documentary at London's Trident Studios in 1968, at the same time as the group was recording Hey Jude.

He said they recorded the song Radhe Shaam together, which was played for the first time at Liverpool Beatles Museum in Mathew Street .

Playback of Radhe Shaam at The Beatles Museum Credit: PA

Mr Joshi said that when he first met Harrison, who died in 2001, he came across as "very lonely".

Mr Joshi said Harrison told him he wanted to do something different, so he composed and produced a "rock song in an Indian style".

Singer Ashish Khan performed the vocals on the track while Harrison played the guitar and Starr offered to accompany on drums.

Mr Joshi said: "It was a miracle for me to have big stars like that play for me."

The song was never released as they all moved on to other projects.

Suresh Joshi Credit: PA

It was only during lockdown, when Mr Joshi was speaking to family friend Deepak Pathak, that he encouraged him to try to find the tape, which was in a box in the loft of his Birmingham home.

The song was almost lost for good when they tried to play the tape in a machine which caught fire, but it was rescued and restored by music producer Suraj Shinh, known as Nimbus.theproducer.

Mr Pathak approached the museum with the track and they arranged for it to have its world premiere on Wednesday. It will be released online later.

Museum owner Roag Best, brother of The Beatles' original drummer Pete, said: "This was the first time George or Ringo had played for anybody else outside Beatles and then that track just got put on the backburner.

"We are actually the first people in the world to hear this song."