The Beatles in Hamburg
The Beatles arrived very early in the morning of the 17th of August 1960, and made their way to the St. Pauli area of Hamburg. Allan Williams, a 29-year-old Liverpool businessman and promoter, had sent his leading group, Derry and the Seniors, to Hamburg where they were enjoying success. He wanted to send an additional group but initially tried to send Rory Storm and the Hurricanes who turned the offer down. Williams started promoting concerts for The Beatles in May 1960 after they had played at his Jacaranda club in Liverpool. He booked them into Bruno Koschmider's Indra club in Hamburg for a season of bookings starting on the 12th of August 1960. As they had no permanent drummer McCartney looked for someone to fill the position which was difficult because drummers were few and far between. Harrison had seen Pete Best playing with the Black Jacks in The Casbah Coffee Club which was run by his mother Mona Best. Best was regarded as a steady drummer known in Liverpool at the time as being mean moody and magnificent by female fans. McCartney asked Best to go to Hamburg telling him they would earn £15 per week each. Best had the chance to go to a teacher-training college but decided that playing in Hamburg would be a better career move. The group were to be paid about £100 per week which was much more than promoters in Liverpool paid. Williams drove the group and their equipment in his Austin J4 minibus which was loaded by crane onto a ferry at Harwich on the 16th of August 1960. All five Beatles Williams and his wife Beryl her brother Barry Chang and Lord Woodbine were in the minivan along with Georg Sterner making a total of ten people. This resulted in a journey that was both uncomfortable and dangerous. As Williams had not obtained German work permits they were detained at Harwich for five hours. Williams finally convinced the authorities that they were students on holiday although work permits were later obtained after their arrival in Hamburg.
After the closure of the Indra because of complaints about the noise the Beatles played in the Kaiserkeller starting on the 4th of October 1960. Their playing schedule at the Kaiserkeller remained the same as it had been in the Indra. Lennon said We had to play for hours and hours on end. Every song lasted twenty minutes and had twenty solos in it. That's what improved the playing. There was nobody to copy from. We played what we liked best and the Germans liked it as long as it was loud. The Beatles had been used to simply standing still when they had performed in Liverpool but Koschmider would come to the front of the stage and loudly shout Mach Schau mach Schau meaning make show or put on a show for the customers. Harrison explained that this prompted Lennon to dance around like a gorilla and we'd all knock our heads together. When reminiscing about the harsh conditions they endured performing 8 hours per day with little money for salary and sometimes sleeping in cramped and squalid living quarters Tony Sheridan pointed out with a grin We were like slaves. As Best had been the only one to take O-Level German at school he could communicate with Koschmider and the clientele better than the rest of the group. He was invited to sing a speciality number called Peppermint Twist while McCartney played the drums but Best complained that he always felt uncomfortable being at the front of the stage. Willie Limpinski Koschmider's business manager decided that the club would attract more customers if it presented continuous live music. Williams warned the Beatles about the competition they would face by playing in the same club as the Hurricanes featuring future Beatle Ringo Starr on the drums. In early October 1960 Storm
and the Hurricanes were free to travel to Hamburg replacing Derry and the Seniors at the Kaiserkeller. They arrived in Hamburg on the 1st of October 1960 having negotiated to be paid more than the Seniors or the Beatles. They played five or six 90-minute sets every day alternating with the Beatles.
The Top Ten club was opened on the 31st of October 1960 by Peter Eckhorn and was operated by Iain Hines who was an organist who became a member of Tony Sheridan's band The Jets. The Beatles who until the 31st of December 1960 were under contract with Bruno Koschmider often visited Top Ten Club where Tony Sheridan performed with his Jets. They also played together occasionally which Bruno Koschmider found out about. In late October 1960 The Beatles left Koschmider's club to work at the Top Ten Club as Eckhorn offered the group more money a better PA with reverb and echo and a slightly better place to sleep although by doing so the group broke their contract with Koschmider. Koschmider then reported Harrison for working under the legal age limit because at the age of 17 he was too young to work in a nightclub after midnight. On the 21st of November 1960 Harrison was deported back to England. It is assumed that it was Bruno Koschmider who tipped off the police because he was annoyed that the Beatles were unfaithful to him and wanted to switch to the Top Ten Club. When Best and McCartney went back to the Bambi Kino to get their belongings they found it in almost total darkness. As a snub to Koschmider McCartney and Best found a condom in their luggage attached it to a nail on the concrete wall of the room and set fire to it in order to have light to gather their possessions. There was no real damage done but Koschmider reported them both and on the 29th of November 1960 Paul McCartney and Pete Best were arrested for attempted arson. Best and McCartney spent three hours in the Davidwache Police Station and were deported on the 1st of December
1960. Lennon's work permit was revoked a few days later and he went home by train but as Sutcliffe had a cold he stayed in Hamburg. Sutcliffe later borrowed money from Kirchherr his German girlfriend for the airfare back to Liverpool in early January 1961.
The Beatles's introduction to Prellies Preludin a successor of Pervitin was in Hamburg. As the group had to play for hours Sheridan offered them Preludin saying Here's something to keep you awake. Astrid Kirchherr also supplied Sutcliffe and the other Beatles with Preludin which when taken with beer made them feel euphoric and helped to keep them awake until the early hours of the morning. Looking back Harrison said that the whole group would be frothing at the mouth and would sometimes stay awake for days. Lennon recalled The waiters always had these pills so when they saw the musicians falling over with tiredness or drink they'd give you the pill. You could work almost endlessly until the pill wore off and then you'd have another. McCartney said that he would usually take one but Lennon would often take four or five. Legitimate use of Preludin required a doctor's prescription but Kirchherr's mother was able to obtain it from a local chemist who supplied the drug without asking questions. Epstein later asked the Star-Club owner Weissleder not to publish photographs showing the group playing with tubes of Preludin. Starr explained that Dexedrine too was in plentiful supply in Hamburg as it was known to produce increased wakefulness and focus in association with decreased fatigue and decreased appetite.
Astrid Kirchherr Klaus Voormann and Jürgen Vollmer were early fans of the Beatles after they heard the group play in the Kaiserkeller. Kirchherr Voormann's girlfriend was initially horrified at the idea of spending any time in such a sordid district but Voormann eventually persuaded her to come too. After having previously only listened to trad jazz The Platters and Nat King Cole the Rock n' Roll that the Beatles played was totally new to them. The three friends visited the Kaiserkeller almost every night arriving
at 9 o'clock and sitting by the front of the stage. Kirchherr then 22 years old later said It was like a merry-go-round in my head they looked absolutely astonishing. My whole life changed in a couple of minutes. All I wanted was to be with them and to know them. Sutcliffe wrote to a friend that he could hardly take his eyes off her when she had first walked into the club. Kirchherr asked the Beatles if they would mind letting her take photographs of them in a photo session which impressed them as other groups only had snapshots taken by friends. The next morning Kirchherr took photographs in a fairground park called Der Dom which was close to the Reeperbahn. Kirchherr started dating Sutcliffe and they were engaged in November 1960. Kirchherr is credited with inventing the Beatles' moptop haircut although she personally disagreed. In 1995 she told BBC Radio Merseyside All my friends in art school used to run around with this sort of what you call Beatles' haircut and my boyfriend then Klaus Voormann he had this hairstyle and Stuart Sutcliffe liked it very very much. And he was the first one who really got the nerve to get the Brylcreem out of his hair and asking me to cut his hair for
him. Pete Best has got very curly hair and it doesn't work.
On the 13th of April 1962 the Beatles were booked as the opening act for the launch of a new club. The Star-Club opened by Manfred Weissleder had a capacity for two thousand people as well as cinema-style seating. When the Beatles were booked to play there Neil Aspinall left his job to become the Beatles' permanent road manager as he was earning more money driving them around than he was earning by being an accountant. The Beatles returned to Hamburg by plane to play from the 13th of April to the 31st of May 1962. Upon their arrival they were informed of Sutcliffe's death. By the time of their second Star-Club visit from 1, the 14th of November 1962 Ringo Starr had become the group's drummer. The Beatles stayed at the Hotel Germania Detlev-Bremer-Straße 8 having the luxury of single rooms for the first time and then stayed at the Hotel Pacific Neuer Pferdemarkt 30 for another booking from 18 to the 31st of December 1962. Harrison said We came back to play the Star-Club a big place and fantastic because it had a great sound system. This time we had a hotel. I remember it was quite a long walk from the club at the top of the Reeperbahn going back towards the city. Portions of their final performances were taped with a portable recorder by an associate of Ted King Size Taylor of the Dominoes another group playing at the club. The tapes were released on West Germany's Bellaphon label in 1977 as The Beatles: Live! at the Star-Club in Hamburg Germany 1962 and subsequently re-released in various formats and titles. The first recording of the Beatles ever released was the single My Bonnie made in Hamburg with Tony Sheridan who also had a residency at the Top Ten
club. He recruited the band to act as his backing group on a series of recordings for the West German Polydor Records label the tracks produced by the bandleader Bert Kaempfert. On the 22nd of June 1961 Sheridan and the Beatles drove to Hamburg-Harburg about 30 minutes from Hamburg to the Friedrich-Ebert-Halle auditorium hall and were paid 330 Deutschmarks about $75 for the recording.
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Common questions
When did The Beatles arrive in Hamburg for their first residency?
The Beatles arrived very early in the morning of the 17th of August 1960. They traveled to the St. Pauli area of Hamburg after Allan Williams booked them into Bruno Koschmider's Indra club starting on the 12th of August 1960.
Why were Pete Best and Paul McCartney arrested in November 1960?
Paul McCartney and Pete Best were arrested for attempted arson on the 29th of November 1960. They set fire to a condom attached to a nail in their room at the Bambi Kino to create light while retrieving their belongings as a snub against Bruno Koschmider.
What drugs did The Beatles use during their time in Hamburg clubs?
The group used Preludin which was a successor of Pervitin to stay awake during long performances. Astrid Kirchherr supplied the drug and it was also available through local chemists without a prescription alongside Dexedrine.
Who invented the moptop haircut style associated with The Beatles?
Astrid Kirchherr is credited with inventing the Beatles' moptop haircut although she personally disagreed with the claim. She stated that Stuart Sutcliffe got his hair cut by her after seeing Klaus Voormann wear the hairstyle.
When did The Beatles perform at the Star-Club in 1962?
The Beatles returned to play at the Star-Club from the 13th of April to the 31st of May 1962. They made a second visit from the 14th of November 1962 until the 31st of December 1962.