THE tunic which inspired the Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album cover has sold at auction for £100,000 - more than three times its estimated value.

The military band tunic, worn by John Lennon in a Life magazine photoshoot in 1966, had been predicted to sell for £30,000.

The tunic is said to have influenced the Sgt Pepper album cover - to which Sir Paul McCartney's band paid homage during a rendition of Sgt Pepper at the recent Live8 concert in Hyde Park.

It went under the hammer last night at the Cooper Owen auction, the biggest sale of Lennon memorabilia for 20 years.

Lennon's handwritten manuscript of All You Need Is Love, retrieved from the stage floor directly after the Beatles' final live TV performance in 1967, sold for £600,000.

A piano from Lennon's New York apartment fetched £140,000 and watercolours painted by the musician aged 11 were bought for £70,000 - twice their estimated price.

A pair of his trademark glasses, which came in a box addressed to "Mr John Lennon", went for £55,000.