The early days of The Beatles in Hamburg
by Graham Sclater
I had hoped to have included this piece in last
month’s edition to link in with the sixtieth
anniversary of the Beatles playing in
Hamburg for the first time but
unfortunately due to editing my next
novel, time caught me out.
I travelled to Hamburg in late December
1963 and played with my band for the first
time in January 1964. Strangely we had no
aspirations of success but were so pleased to be working as professional musicians. Within a couple of weeks it became apparent to us that John, Paul, George, Pete Best and Stuart Sutcliffe had played in Hamburg several years earlier. Coming from the Westcountry although we had obviously heard the Beatles’ records, we didn’t initially associate or connect Hamburg with them.
August 17th 1960 was when they started their journey although success was still a long way away. They ended up playing at the Indra club in Hamburg by default. Allan Williams managed the Jacaranda in Liverpool and, with John Lennon and Stuart Sutcliffe attending the nearby Liverpool Art College and Paul McCartney studying at the adjacent Liverpool Institute, they were frequent customers. After asking Williams for a chance to perform at the venue, he stipulated that they redecorate it in return for allowing them to use the basement as a rehearsal studio.
Williams was keen to send Rory Storm and the Hurricanes to the Hansa city but they were already booked for the summer season at Butlins Pwllheli so instead he asked John, Paul and George. They didn’t have a drummer so they asked Pete Best to join them. They all knew each other having played at his mother’s Casbah Club. He agreed and Williams became their first manager. Before they could get to Hamburg there was another problem. Bruno Koshmider who owned the Indra and the Kaiserkeller both in Grosse Freiheit, in the Red Light District of St Pauli, told Williams that the band had to have five members. John hastily spoke to Stuart Sutcliffe who was a student with him at Liverpool Art College. Stuart didn’t have a bass guitar or amp so John persuaded him to sell one of his paintings. He did and joined the group then known as The Silver Beetles’ as their bass player. Allan took the group to Hamburg and before going on stage at the Indra on August 17th 1960 it is believed they changed their name to The Beatles.
The Indra was very different to the much larger Kaiserkeller where another Liverpool band, Derry and the Seniors, with Howie Casey on saxophone, (who toured the world with Wings years later) had already played. The Indra was a tiny club frequented by sailors and merchant seamen, prostitutes and strippers. To gain the attention of the audience Koshmider insisted that all groups should “Mach Shau” (make show) rather than stand and just play. This was a phrase soon adopted by almost every club owner and manager across Germany.
John Lennon seemed to rise to Koschmider’s request and playing six to eight hours every night, their musicianship and stage presence improved beyond their wildest expectations.
Koshmider then booked them to play at the Kaiserkeller with Rory Storm and the Hurricanes for three months, October, November and December and it was there that Klaus Voormann, a young Hamburg musician took his girlfriend Astrid Kircherr to see the band. She immediately fell in love with Stuart Sutcliffe and that fateful evening was to set the wheels in motion for the eventual transformation of the five young men from Liverpool and to be a pivotal moment in their career and lives.
Klaus Voormann went on to form the band, Paddy Klaus and Gibson, signed to NEMS, before joining Manfred Mann on bass. He designed the album cover of the Beatles album “Revolver” while Astrid took the world famous photographs of the five Beatles capturing their images in Hamburg, many of which are still considered to be iconic.
Their reputation continued to grow and the famous poster which is still framed outside the Kaiserkeller was soon altered to bill them above Rory Storm and the Hurricanes.
Stuart left the band in July 1961 and unfortunately died of a brain tumour the following year. Paul had already been playing bass on stage some of the time so when Stuart left that became his instrument.
The band returned to Liverpool where their stage presence and musical ability had changed beyond all recognition and they played at various working mens clubs and of course regularly sessions at the Cavern.
Another young Englishman Tony Sheridan had built up a following in Hamburg and in 1961 he was signed by Bert Kaempfert to record an album. He needed backing musicians and Bert Kaempfert signed the four Beatles to record with him. The sessions took place at the Fredrich-Ebert gymnasium in Hamburg on 23 June 1961 and during a break the Beatles recorded two songs. “Ain’t She Sweet” and the instrumental “Beatle Bop” later renamed “Cry for a Shadow,” which is credited to Harrison and Lennon - their only collaboration.
The album and EP released by Tony Sheridan didn’t credit the band members instead they were billed as the Beat Brothers. But as their success grew the credits on the cover and label were changed and listed as The Beatles with Tony Sheridan. Bert Kaempfert released the Beatles from their recording contract and the rest is history. The tracks recorded that day in 1961 and 1962 were included in the Beatle’s anthology.
The band were booked to play at the Top Ten Club on the Reeperbahn for two months and, when the Star Club opened in 1962, the band played there during April and May before returning in November with Ringo on drums.
The Beatles final performance at the Star Club also in Grosse Freiheit was on 31st December 1962 when their first single “Love Me Do” reached the lower end of the UK charts.
I am so pleased to have been able to follow in their musical footsteps in Hamburg playing so many times at the same clubs (not the Indra) albeit not reaching the heights of musical success that they did.
Check out my novel “Ticket to Ride” based on my time in Hamburg on Amazon, Tabitha Books or my website www.grahamsclater.com
All of our books are available from this site, Amazon worldwide, and e books from Kindle.
Check out the news section for details of all publications, interviews etc.
TABITHA BOOKS