Maybe not an internationally remembered event, but covered by every news outlet in Germany today: The Beatles played their first gig at the Indra Club at the infamous Reeperbahn in St. Pauli, Hamburg, 60 years ago. We Germans are very proud of being a crucial part of the Beatles history, and the Hamburg years from 1960-62 were when they cut their teeth in front of problematic audiences (to say the least), honed their skills, grew together as a band and most of all, learned life skills in an environment that couldn’t have been any rougher in Europe at the time. They also made lifelong friends with influential figures for their career like Klaus Voorman (one of the many fifth Beatles, but one with the most claims on that title) and Astrid Kirchherr and their art-minded, existential outlooks. There are countless anecdotes about their stays in Hamburg, what’s really missing is an authentic live recording from the time. I still dream about some long forgotten tape to be resurrected from those days. At least, their first studio recordings were made by Bert Kaempfert (the guy who wrote “Strangers In The Night” and “Spanish Eyes”) as backing band for another British expat, Tony Sheridan, and these recording made Brian Epstein aware of the group, and of course the rest is history.
If you could travel back in time to that day in Hamburg, would you try to influence some sort of change on the band?
I would encourage Pete Best to do whatever he could to stay with the band.
Pete Best and the band hardly knew each other, he was hired just shortly before the gig in Hamburg. I think later hiring Ringo was one of the best moves the Beatles ever made. Best hadn’t a say anyway, he was simply fired.
Yeah, there was lots of talk about firing Pete before George Martin brought in the session drummer. Some guys are fine for a bar band, but just don’t have the chops to take it to the next level.
While I realize it would be absurd for anyone to record some bar band in post WW II Germany, it would have been nice. We do have the Star Club tapes to give us an idea, but by then the Beatles were ready to move past the Hamburg/Cavern era
For a good idea of what kind of environment the Beatles were forged in, check out this clip from the film Mondo Cane:
And, at the same time, another band, whose legend will last a lunchtime,was playing just down the street…
The Reeperbahn Hamburg is one of the naughtiest streets in the world. This is where they ended up, far from home, and far from talented. For five hungry working class lads there are worse places than prison, and The Rat Keller Hamburg is one. For fifteen months, night after night, they played the Rat Keller before they finally escaped and returned to Liverpool.
In those early days, there was a fifth Rutle: Leppo. A friend of Nasty’s from art college, who mainly used to stand at the back. He couldn’t play the guitar, but he knew how to have a good time, and in Hamburg, that was more important.