Hamburg and The Beatles: Live! At The Star Club

Hello guys. We previously looked at the Decca Audition, and we're staying at this early stage of The Beatles. Today we're looking at the Hamburg period, which was essential to The Beatles development in terms of their scene show, as this was mastered during this period.

The Beatles preformed on several strip-clubish joints in Hamburg, and I'm not going to go into great details about these clubs, but you know, just gonna try to give a little overview.
I've read somewhere that they played like two hours, one hour break and then another two hours, every night of the week. So you can imagine the amount of concerts they had under their belt, when they finally got their record contract in 1962.

The clubs, on which The Beatles played, were pretty much all located in the St. Pauli area, located on the Reeperbahn, which is kinda the Hamburg version of the Red Light district, with lots of strip-clubs, bars, sex-shops and so on.
Now, I was at Paul McCartney's Good Evening Europe Tour gig in Hamburg, December 2009, so I'm going to post some of these pictures as well, as we went to see some of these clubs before the show.

Roughly translated to: "On the 17th of August 1960, The Beatles took the stage of  the Indra. It was their first Show in Germany, and the start of a great career."

My buddies, in front of the Indra

In August 1960, The Silver Beatles (as they were named back then) were booked to play on The Indra Club in Hamburg on Große Freiheit 64, this was their first performance in Hamburg and is thus kind of historic. So remember the 17th of August 1960, you might need it in trivial pursuit or whatever, this was the date for their first Hamburg gig.

October 1960, The Beatles are prohibited to play on the Indra, because they play to loud, and we're moved to preform at the Kaiserkeller, where they preform alongside the band Roy Storm and The Hurricanes, in which Ringo Starr were the drummer.
The Beatles returns to Liverpool during December 1960 and perform in England, until April 1961, when they return to Hamburg to play at the Top Ten Club on Reepherbahn 136. They played on the Top Ten Club till July 1961.

 In front Große Freiheit 36 (Kaisserkeller) and 39 (The Star Club)

We jump another year forward, to 1962 where The Beatles are booked on several occasions to play at The Star Club, which is located on Große Freiheit 39. They played The Star Club in April-May 1962 and December 1962. The December gigs are the last Beatles Hamburg gigs, for a little while at least.

It is some of these last gigs we are looking at today, we are looking at The Beatles Live! at the Star Club In Hamburg, Germany, 1962. A recording of a few concerts from The Star Club, the sound is pretty harsh, but it is still interesting to hear these. 

Lets look at the track list:

We see a number of tracks, which are to be included on their later albums: Kansas City (Or Kansas stad, as it is presented here), I Saw Her Standing There, Mr. Moonlight, Twist and Shout and the list just goes on.

I really dig this album with it's harsh sound of late 50's/early 60's rock n' roll, and the fact that the sound quality is a bit bad, well it just makes it even more enjoyable, in my book.

So yea, enjoy it, here is the download link: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=2S8M08CR
(The file might be unavailable, since I just finished uploading it, so check the link later for the download, if it doesn't work.)
 

And to round it all off, here's another picture from my trip to Hamburg, taken on Beatles Platz. A little spot where the two streets Reeperbahn and Gross Freiheit meets each other. Where some kind of monument has been placed to remember The Beatles

Hope you'll enjoy the album and that you enjoyed reading.

Cheers