The Beatles Hamburg Anniversary
If you study high performance, this date marks the beginning of greatness
Nine Facts You didn't know about this Formative Period
August 17, 2020 marked the 60th anniversary of the Beatles arrival in Hamburg Germany to begin, what would become, a roughly two-year stretch playing clubs around the city, including at The Indra, Kaiserkeller, Star and Top Ten. The two-year residency lasted from August 17th, 1960 to December 31, 1962 and alternated between performances in Hamburg, Germany and Liverpool, England.
This period proved pivotal to their musical development. The Beatles arrived early morning August 17th, 1960 with a formative, loosely organized, undisciplined sound — some members of the band were still learning their instruments! And they ended their stint in Hamburg with a tight, disciplined, hard driving portfolio.
The first performance at the Indra Club found them playing in front of a sparse crowd of sailors and prostitutes. This area, after all, was the St. Pauli or red-light district of Hamburg. Prior to their Hamburg period, the Beatles, as multiple incarnations, including the Quarryman, Johnny and the Moondogs and The Silver Beatles had performed roughly thirty times together — that is the three primary members, John, Paul and George — not including Ringo.
Remember, the group had started as teenagers. No member of the group was over the age of twenty when they arrived that summer. However, John Lennon and Paul McCartney had been writing songs for years — since their July 6, 1957 meeting at a performance of the Quarrymen at St. Peter’s Church in Liverpool. The band served an incredible apprenticeship over the course of the next two years which arguably made them into the world’s transcendent Rock N’ Roll band.
Here are 9 Things you might not know about the Beatles time in Hamburg
1. Hamburg Period. We think of this time as the Hamburg Period. Rightly so. However, from August 1960 to December 1962 they performed more gigs in Liverpool. If you keep track, courtesy of the Beatlesbible.com, I counted ~603 Liverpool v. ~269 Hamburg performances or 872 total performances. There were 866 days between August 17 and NYE 1962 — that is 2 years, 4 months and 14 days. They played more often than once a day. Think about how ambitiously the group performed during that time frame? No matter that the group spent more time in Liverpool during this period, in response to a question about growing up in Liverpool. John Lennon famously quipped: “I didn’t grow up in Liverpool. I grew up in Hamburg.”
2. Seventeen-year-old George Harrison arrived in Hamburg under the legal age for a valid work permit. The government deported George on November 21, 1960. It happened after Bruno Koschmider, the owner of the Indra and Kaiserkeller Clubs, for whom the Beatles formed the contract, reported them to the police — after a contract dispute! Bruno was furious that the Beatles had entered into a verbal agreement to play at the rival Top Ten club and terminated their contract.
3. The Bambi Kino. They initially lived in a sleazy room on the second floor of the Bambi Kino, a cinema across the street from the Indra Club — another building owned by Bruno Koschmider. And, next, an interesting fact about their last moments in this building.
4. Paul and Pete Best burned a condom against a brick wall for light (it was dark) as they moved their belongings out of the Bambi Kino on their way to new lodgings. Shockingly, the flame enraged the owner — once again — Bruno Koschmider. Paul and Pete were also deported for arson but not until after spending the night in jail!
5. First Professional Recording. On June 22 & June 23, 1961, the group backed up Tony Sheridan on a recording in Harburg, a suburb of Hamburg at Friedrich-Ebert Hall. Now, Friedrich-Ebert Hall sounds very fancy, and it might have been, but it was a function hall for the town and an assembly hall for the grammar and high schools. The hall had great acoustics. If you are wondering: the group recorded several songs including “My Bonnie” “The Saints”, “Why” and “Cry for a Shadow”. The last track, “Cry for a Shadow” is an instrumental, and it was originally called Beatle Bop AND is the only song to be credited to John Lennon and George Harrison alone. Now you know!
6. The Beatles setlist during this period was varied and underscored a broad musical curiosity. One Hamburg performance, which can be found on YouTube, and came out as the album, “Live! At the Star Club, Hamburg” in 1977 included such hits as “Roll Over Beethoven, “Besame Mucho,” “Long Tall Sally,” and “Twist & Shout.” Only two Lennon McCartney originals are listed: “I Saw Her Standing There”, which opened the performance and “Ask Me Why.” They played thirty songs on the setlist. I might be dating myself, but the sound is tight, hard driving, and almost punk like in energy. Check it out, seriously.
7. The Beatles arrived in Hamburg as a five-member band, including bass player Stuart Sutcliffe, John’s classmate from the Liverpool College of Art and Pete Best, the drummer Ringo Starr would famously replace.
8. Pete Best’s mother, Mona, owned the Casbah Club — Pete Best’s mother, Mona, owned the Casbah Club in Liverpool where the Beatles would often play during this period, even before their Hamburg residency. In fact, on opening night for the Casbah club on August 29, 1959 — John, Paul & George Harrison still as Quarrymen — helped decorate the club. In case you are interested, and because I cannot help myself: the Quarrymen rocked the Casbah on seven occasions. And, the Beatles, rocked the casbah another 37 times throughout the time frame. As you can imagine the eventual breakup with Pete Best was not a particularly welcome event in the Best household. The Beatles legendary producer, George Martin precipitated the split after the group auditioned for Parlophone, EMI records on June 6, 1962.
9. The fab four did not want to fulfill their last contracted Hamburg stretch in December 1962. The group was tired. Remember all the performances mentioned before! But Brian Epstein, their manager, prevailed upon them to fulfill the dates. Their last performance during this period was New Year’s Eve, 1962. The Beatles returned in March 1966, world famous, and lodged under different conditions at the Tremsbuttel Castle.
An enormous array of much more detailed information about the Beatles’ time in Hamburg exists in print and on the web. I’m going to credit the sources I used on my website. There is some phenomenal work chronicling this period. Now, August 17th, 1960, for my money, is an incredible date of arrival for the band.
In my presentation titled “Hamburg” which chronicles some of this period and intersects with modern research on reaching high performance, we take a look at a period which inarguably produced one of the most incredible musical apprenticeships in history (I don’t think that is an overstatement.)
A question may be for anyone interested in combining an interest in performance — musical, business or otherwise — and the Beatles might just be: in your various endeavors, pursuits, missions: what is your Hamburg?
One Again: thanks for stopping by. If you like, consider signing up for my newsletter at either www.josephrupp.org or www.sugarhighmotivation.com.
And here is a brief list of sources you can dive into if you are interested!
Sources:
Tune In. Mark Lewisohn. Crown Publishing. 2013.
What Goes On. Walter Everett and Tim Riley. Oxford University Press. 2019
Shout! Philip Norman. Fireside. Simon and Schuster. 2003.
The Beatles in Hamburg. Ian Inglis. Reaktion Books Ltd. 2012
