The True Story of Their Band Formation

If you were to ask John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and George Harrison what made The Beatles as great as they were, they’d likely say it was their time in Hamburg. Drummer Ringo Starr, who joined later, would probably agree.

In their early days, the Beatles performed at various local spots in Liverpool, including the Jacaranda coffee bar, run by Allan Williams, who occasionally acted as their booking agent before Brian Epstein took over as their manager. In August 1960, Williams informed them he could book a gig in Hamburg if they could secure a drummer. This led to Pete Best joining the band, as Ringo had not yet become a member.

The Beatles’ Hamburg experience began on August 17, 1960, with a 48-night stint at the Indra Club. They concluded their Indra run on October 3 and moved to The Kaiserkeller the next day, where they performed for 58 nights until November 30. They shared the bill with Rory Storm and the Hurricanes, whose drummer was Richard Starkey, later known as Ringo Starr. Future performances would also take place at the Top Ten Club and the Star Club.

Germany was an eye-opener for The Beatles. The living conditions were dreadful. "We lived backstage in the Bambi Kino [an adult theatre], next to the toilets, and you could always smell them," Paul McCartney recalled in The Beatles Anthology. "The room had been an old storeroom, and there were just concrete walls and nothing else. No heat, no wallpaper, not a lick of paint; and two sets of bunk beds."

Beatles biographer Julius Fast noted that it was in Hamburg that the band decided on their distinctive look. "Their hair was not unusually long in front … their hair curled down on the napes of their necks, and their sideburns were long, a la Presley. They wore black T-shirts, black leather pants or skintight jeans, and black leather motorcycle jackets."

They also realized quickly that their Liverpool-style performances wouldn’t cut it in Germany. Johnny Black wrote in Mojo magazine, "Before long, ballads were being ousted from the running order in favor of cranked-up rock tunes."

John Lennon reflected on this period in the early 1970s, “We had to play all the tunes for hours and hours on end. That’s why every song lasted 20 minutes and had 20 solos in it. The Germans like heavy rock, you know, so we had to really keep rocking all the time. It was just a little nightclub, but, at the same time, it was still a bit frightening, because it wasn’t a dance hall, and all these people were sitting down, expecting something.”

George Harrison remembered, “We had to learn millions of songs. We had to play so long, we just played everything. So it was all the Gene Vincent — we’d do everything on the album; we’d get Chuck Berry records and learn it all, same with Little Richard, the Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly, Fats Domino — everything, because we’d be on for hours. We’d make stuff up. Hamburg was really like our apprenticeship, learning how to play in front of people.”

Allan Williams remarked, “It was not Liverpool that made The Beatles, but Hamburg. Working all those outrageous hours would make or break a group.” It’s clear that it didn’t break the Fab Four.

Pete Shotton, one of John Lennon’s closest friends, wrote in John Lennon in My Life, “Hamburg transformed The Beatles from happy-go-lucky amateurs into true professionals. Which is not to imply that they smartened their appearance, polished their act, or stopped eating, drinking, smoking, swearing and looning about onstage — far from it. Nonetheless, Hamburg forced John and the others to instill some method into their madness. It was only after their return from Germany that The Beatles truly seemed to know what they were doing. Hamburg, in short, made The Beatles.”

Source: Mojo, The Beatles Anthology, John Lennon in My Life