17 August 1960: Live: Indra Club, Hamburg | The Beatles Bible Pictured here (l-r): John Lennon , George Harrison , Pete Best , Paul McCartney , Stuart Sutcliffe . The group's contract was to run for two months, from 17 August to 16 October. The Beatles were to receive 30DM (£2.50) per person each day, paid every Thursday. Koschmider also paid their manager Allan Williams a commission of £10 each week. They were expected to perform for four and a half hours each weekday night, from 8-9.30pm, 10-11pm, 11.30pm-12.30am and 1-2am. They also had to play for six hours on Saturdays, from 7-8.30pm, 9-10pm, 10.30-11.30pm, 12-1am, and 1.30-3am.

Sunday hours were 5-6pm, 6.30-7.30pm, 8-9pm, 9.30-10.30pm, 11-12 midnight and 12.30-1.30am. The tired and hungry Beatles played to just a handful of spectators on this first night, mainly prostitutes and their clients. The band were also forced by Koschmider to turn down their amplifiers, following a complaint from the woman who lived above the venue. Feeling cowed by their unfamiliar surroundings, on this opening night The Beatles played the entire four and a half hour show huddled together and stock still. Afterwards they slept in Bruno Koschmider's flat. Compared to what followed, it was a positive luxury. Of course, on the first night we got there there weren't arrangements for anything. The club owner, Bruno Koschmider, drove us round to his house, and we ended up staying, all in the one bed. Bruno wasn't with us, fortunately, he left us to stay in his flat for the first night and went somewhere else.

Eventually he put us in the back of a little cinema, the Bambi Kino, at the very end of a street called the Grosse Freiheit. Bruno wasn't some young rock'n'roll entrepreneur, he was an old guy who had been crippled in the war. He had a limp and didn't seem to know much about music or anything. We only ever saw him once a week, when we'd try to get into his office for our wages. The city of Hamburg was brilliant; a big lake, and then the dirty part. The Reeperbahn and Grosse Freiheit were the best thing we'd ever seen, clubs and neon lights everywhere and lots of restaurants and entertainment. It looked really good. There were seedy things about it, obviously, including some of the conditions we had to live in when we first got there. George Harrison Flashback: the Beatles rock Shea Stadium; begin first Hamburg residency | KSHE 95 News > Real Rock News > Flashback: the Beatles rock Shea Stadium; begin first Hamburg residency Flashback: the Beatles rock Shea Stadium; begin first Hamburg residency Aug.

15, 2014 Comments Share It was 49 years ago tonight (August 15th, 1965) that the Beatles played their legendary concert at Shea Stadium in New York City. The show was the first on their 1965 U.S. summer tour, and it was also the first-ever open-air stadium rock concert. The group flew into New York on August 13th and a day later taped a five-song performance for The Ed Sullivan Show to be broadcast the following month. Sullivan returned the favor by introducing the group the next night at Shea, in front of a sell-out crowd of 55,600 fans. The Beatles, who performed on a makeshift stage near where second base would normally be, earned a whopping $160,000 for their 30-minute set -- which was a record payout at that time. The New York Police Department was worried that fans attending the shows would jam the tunnels in and out of Manhattan, so the Beatles were escorted from the Warwick Hotel to the Manhattan East River Heliport and flown by helicopter to the roof of the World's Fair building in Flushing Meadows Park, not far from Shea Stadium.

Next, the group jumped in a Wells Fargo armored van and were driven to the stadium. The van driver gave each of the Beatles a Wells Fargo "agent badge," which they all wore at the evening's concert. Unlike today's stadium events, no seats were set up on the field for safety reasons. Throughout the concert -- which also featured legendary New York DJ Murray The K and opening acts the King Curtis Band, Cannibal & the Headhunters, Brenda Holloway, and Sounds Incorporated -- fans were constantly stopped from making mad dashes towards the stage. Ringo Starr recalled the concert in The Beatles Anthology, saying, "What I remember most about the concert was that we were so far away from the audience. . . And screaming had become the thing to do. . . Everybody screamed. If you look at the footage, you can see how we reacted to the place.

It was very big and very strange.” John Lennon recalled the show in 1970, saying, "At Shea Stadium, I saw the top of the mountain.” During his last TV interview in April 1975, Lennon told Tomorrow Show host Tom Snyder that the entire "Beatlemania" era was as confusing and disconcerting to the group as one would imagine: "It was like being in the eye of a hurricane, and you thought -- 'What's going on?' That was about as deep as it got: 'What is happening?' You'd suddenly wake up in the middle of one -- a concert or a happening -- and (think) 'How did I get here? Last thing I remember was playing music in a club and the next minute this." Singer Bobby Vinton and the Rolling Stones briefly visited with the Beatles before they hit the stage. Vinton remembers hanging out with the Stones as they made their way to the concert: "Well, I remember I went to see the Beatles at Shea Stadium when they were here. I still saw the poster, I think it was like five dollars to see the Beatles at Shea Stadium. I went with Mick Jagger and the Stones, and they didn't quite. . .

they weren't there yet, y'know? They were just comin', and I remember walkin' in New York to Shea Stadium and a couple of guys noticed Mick Jagger and they start punchin' him. And, I mean, these guys in New York are kinda rough, and I said, 'Oh yeah, those bad guys from England.' (laughs)." Eric Carmen says that although primitive by today's big budget concert productions, the Beatles' performances during their touring years were defined by the quality of the material they performed: "Y'know, pacing was probably never a problem for the Beatles. Because first of all, all those songs were just terrific. They were playing for a half an hour.

So, I mean if you listen to an old Beatle tape of a concert, it's 30 minutes of 'Twist And Shout' and 'I Saw Her Standing There,' and 'Ticket To Ride.' And how bad can it be?” The Beatles' setlist for their 1965 Shea Stadium concert was: "Twist And Shout," "She's A Woman," "I Feel Fine," "Dizzy Miss Lizzy," their most recent Number One hit -- "Ticket To Ride," "Everybody's Trying To Be My Baby," "Can't Buy Me Love," "Baby's In Black," "Act Naturally," "A Hard Day's Night," "Help!" and "I'm Down." The show was filmed and eventually aired on U.S. TV in December 1966 as The Beatles At Shea Stadium. Although most of the footage from the show is featured in the group's Anthology series, nearly all of the behind-the-scenes footage from that day remains unreleased. The Beatles returned to Shea the next year, on August 23rd, 1966, to a less-than-capacity crowd, with as many as 15,000 seats going unsold.

Both Paul McCartney's and Ringo Starr's future wives -- the late Linda McCartney and Barbara Bach -- were present at the concert. McCartney said during The Beatles' Anthology that, "Linda was also there -- but as she was a real music fan she was quite (annoyed) with everyone screaming. I think she enjoyed the experience, but she genuinely wanted to hear the show. That wasn't the deal though. Not then.” In addition to the Beatles, other artists who have performed at Shea Stadium include the Rolling Stones, the Who, Eric Clapton, Elton John, the Police, the Clash, Simon & Garfunkel, Humble Pie, Grand Funk Railroad, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jethro Tull, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, and Bob Dylan. In July 2008, McCartney joined Billy Joel onstage during the final concert at Shea before the stadium was leveled.

McCartney -- playing the same Hofner violin bass that he did during the Beatles' 1965 and '66 shows -- performed "I Saw Her Standing There" and then took over piano duties from Joel for "Let It Be" -- marking it as the final song to be played in concert at Shea Stadium. Joel paid tribute to the Beatles numerous times over his 2008 two-night stint dubbed, "The Last Play At Shea" -- including wearing Ringo Starr's Wells Fargo agent badge that he had worn during their 1965 show. On July 17th, 2009 Billy Joel returned the favor during the opening night of McCartney's three-night-stand at the New York Mets' new home Citi Field by joining in on "I Saw Her Standing There." During his three-night run, McCartney paid homage to the "Fab Four's" 1965 gig by playing the band's original Shea closer "I'm Down" all three nights.

On July 16th, 2011, McCartney and Billy carried on the tradition by jamming on "I Saw Her Standing There" at McCartney's third venue-opening gig at New York City's other Major League Baseball arena -- Yankee Stadium. Flashback: the Beatles begin first Hamburg residency It was 54 years ago Sunday night (August 17th, 1960) that the Beatles began their first stint in Hamburg, Germany's Indra Club. At that time the group consisted of John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison -- all on guitars -- along with Lennon's art college buddy Stuart Sutcliffe on bass and drummer Pete Best, who had joined the group only five days earlier. During their initial 48-date booking, each band member received less than four dollars a day, and was contracted to play four-and-a-half hours every weekday night -- between 8:00 p.m. and 2:00 a.m., and for six hours a night on Saturday and Sundays. Their Saturday shift ran between 7:00 p.m. to 3:00 a.m., with Sunday's set starting at 5:00 p.m.

and ending at 1:30 a.m. The band lived in squalor, rent-free, in the back of the Bambi-Filmkusttheater, a movie theater owned by the Indra's proprietor and the Beatles' employer, Bruno Koschmider. It was while performing in Hamburg that the group, who were barely professional upon arrival, grew into a tight rock n' roll ensemble by sometimes playing as much as eight hours a night. Pete Best recalled the scene of the Beatles' opening night in Hamburg on August 17th, 1960 at the legendary Indra Club: "We got some crowd in -- but compared to the crowd that we built it up to before it closed, that happened very quickly. But on that opening night, I'd turn around and say it was a quiet night. But once word was out. . . once they'd actually seen us, people kept flocking in." George Harrison, who was only 17-years-old when the band first played in Germany, recalled in The Beatles Anthology that, "Hamburg was really our apprenticeship. We had to learn millions of songs, because we'd be on for hours -- we'd make stuff up.

Saturday would start at three or four in the afternoon and go until five or six in the morning. We'd have breakfast when we finished." In many ways Harrison felt that it was all downhill for the Beatles as a band following their early Hamburg days: "In the Beatles, I think the sad bit came when we got famous. Because before that, we played all them clubs, little clubs all over the place and in -- particularly in Germany, we played months and months in these nightclubs. We played eight hours a night. Then it was good, cause you were just. . . everybody was just dancing and drinking, the band was up there just drinking and playing and, y'know, there was no big emphasis on how groovy you were." Paul McCartney added that sex played a tremendous part of the band's Hamburg era, explaining, "Hamburg was quite an eye-opener. We went as kids. . . We were just Liverpool guys who, as far as we were concerned, could not get arrested back home. . . and suddenly you'd have a girlfriend who was a stripper. If you had hardly ever had sex in your life before, this was fairly formidable. Here was somebody who obviously knew something about it, and you didn't.

So we got a fairly swift baptism of fire in the sex scene. There was a lot of it about and we were off the leash.” McCartney recalled the band's pre-Hamburg career as being pretty dire and humiliating at times: "Music? Nah, we couldn't even win talent contests. We certainly weren't great talent. But eventually, we sort of got it together and decided we wouldn't do talent contests anymore. We used to keep getting beaten by this woman who played the spoons -- this old lady. 'Cause everyone was out of it 'round about half-eleven and kept voting (imitates a drunk) 'Ah, she's great!' And we'd come on -- 'Oh God, how you gonna follow that?'" In 1970 John Lennon revealed to Rolling Stone that Hamburg was also the Beatles' first taste of drugs, as they learned to depend on the amphetamine preludin to combat their alcohol intake and keep up their strength for their marathon sets, remembering: "I've been on pills since . . . I became I musician. The only way to survive in Hamburg to play eight hours a night was to take pills. The waiters gave you them. . .

The pills and the drink.” After their initial residency was over at the Indra, the group began playing at Koschmider's bigger Kaiserkeller Club, which is where they became close with fellow Liverpool drummer Ringo Starr, who was then alternating nightly sets with the Beatles' main competition, Rory Storm & The Hurricanes. Eventually, after continually sitting in with fellow British performer Tony Sheridan at a rival club called the Top Ten, word got back to the Koschmider, who according to legend, had the underage Harrison deported. McCartney and Best were also deported a week later for allegedly setting fire to their meager living quarters. Lennon returned home to Liverpool shortly thereafter, with Sutcliffe staying behind with photographer girlfriend Astrid Kirchherr. Lennon's first wife, Cynthia Lennon, went to art school with Lennon and Sutcliffe and says that their personalities balanced each other out perfectly: "What John gave Stu was the ability to laugh at himself and have humor, because he was such a serious student. And what Stuart gave John was a kind of. . . he was inspirational. John had no faith in his abilities to do anything serious -- or complete anything.

And Stuart was constantly supporting him." After their ill-fated first Hamburg stint, the band regrouped in Liverpool with McCartney eventually taking over bass duties from Sutcliffe. The Beatles returned to Germany to headline Hamburg's Top Ten Club on April 1st, 1961. On June 22nd, 1961 they backed Tony Sheridan in what was their first professional recording session. Best says that the Beatles' greatest nights were during their original stand in Hamburg during the fall of 1960. He revealed that the group's original bassist, Sutcliffe, while hardly a virtuoso, wasn't the incompetent player history has portrayed him as: "I've always turned around and I'll always defend his corner, because what you have is a situation where someone has said many years ago -- the same as I've been stigmatized over the years -- someone turned around and said 'Stu wasn't a good bass player' and it's lived with him ever since. He's no longer here to defend his corner so I will. There were better bass players and there were worse bass players, OK?

But what Stu gave on stage was that he played with 200 percent and he played with his heart and he played with his feelings." Although no movies of the Beatles' time in Hamburg exists, a number of photographers, including Kirchherr, documented their extended stays in Germany over the two years the band performed there. During his recent keynote address at Austin's South By Southwest music festival, Bruce Springsteen spoke about the importance of seeing the photos of the Beatles during their Hamburg era for the first time: "And then in some fanzine, I came across a picture of the Beatles in Hamburg, and they had on the leather jackets and the slicked-back pompadours, and they had acne'd faces, and I said, 'Hey, wait a minute, those are. . . those are the guys I grew up with' -- y'know, Liverpool wharf rats. So, minus their Nehru jackets and haircuts, (I thought) 'These guys -- they're kids -- they're a lot cooler than me, but they're still kids. There must be a way to get there from here.'" While researching his globally acclaimed new book -- All These Years Vol.

1: Tune In -- Beatles historian Mark Lewisohn uncovered an incredible fact about the band's Hamburg debut on August 17th, 1960, which underlined the Beatles being the mark between the past and future of Europe and eventually the world: "There's that nice fact in the book of the Beatles striking up in Hamburg, which is, y'know, white guys from England with an Irish-Scottish background -- and in Pete (Best's) case, Indian, as well, playing black American music from Africa, originally, to Germans -- to the survivors of the second Word War on the 20th anniversary of the day -- or the night, even -- that the Germans began bombing Liverpool. And they were all war babies. So, y''know, they're making peace, if you like, by bringing together all these things. They certainly had no concept of that and they were not trying to do anything like that, but that, when you step back and try to look at the picture is exactly what was going on." During John Lennon’s 1970 Rolling Stone interview, he set the record straight once and for all about the Beatles' abilities as a live act: “We were four guys, that. .

. I met Paul (McCartney) and said, ‘Y’wanna join me band? And then George (Harrison) joined, and then Ringo (Starr) joined. We were just a band that made it very, very big -- that’s all. Our best work was never recorded, y’know? We were performers -- in spite off what Mick (Jagger) says about us -- in Liverpool, Hamburg, and around the dance halls, y’know? And what we generated was fantastic, when we played straight rock. And there was nobody to touch us in Britain, y’know? But as soon as we made it, we made it -- the edges were knocked off. Y’know, Brian (Epstein) put us in suits and all that and we made it very, very big — but we sold out. The Beatles’ music died then -- as musicians. That’s why we never improved (laughs), y’know? As musicians, we killed ourselves then, to make it.

We always missed the club days, ‘cause that’s when we were playing music.” Check it out: For the most complete visual documentation of The Beatles in Hamburg, log on to: Photo by Oleg Kozlov, shutterstock.com The History of the Beatles' First Hamburg Show REDDIT Hulton Archive, Getty Images The stints the Beatles did in Hamburg, Germany are widely credited with turning them from just another teenage band in Liverpool into a tight rock n’ roll combo. They played their first night at the Indra Club on Aug. 17, 1960. They had gotten their gig through Allan Williams, who owned the Jacaranda Club in Liverpool and managed a handful of local groups, including the Beatles. He had developed a working relationship with Bruno Koschmider to send his acts to perform residencies at the Indra and the Kaiserkeller, both owned by Koschmider. A few days before, they had hired Pete Best as their drummer.

For the previous two months, Paul McCartney had moved from guitar to drums, but Koschmider specified that he wanted a five-piece band, so bringing on Best, whom they knew from the Casbah Club – owned by Best’s mother – was a natural choice. They arrived in Hamburg and, after stopping at Koschmider’s house where they were to stay the first night, went to the Indra on Grosse Freiheit just off the Reeperbahn, the famous red light district in Hamburg’s St. Pauli quarter. The next night, and for the rest of their first Hamburg trip, their lodgings were in the Bambi Kino, a nearby theater, where they slept on bunk beds in the storeroom next to the ladies room. Beatles Bible says that, for £2.50 a day per person, they played four sets between 8PM and 2AM on weeknights, five sets from 7PM to 3AM on Saturdays and six sets from 5PM to 1:30AM on Sundays. Their shows were comprised virtually entirely of covers of their favorite rock and R&B tunes, with stabs at whatever requests would be shouted at them by the drunken crowd.

The long hours were a change-of-pace from what they were used to, but it forced them to adapt, especially with Koschmider repeatedly urging them to mach shau — to “make a show.” “In Liverpool, we just used to do our best numbers, the same ones at every gig,” John Lennon said in Anthology. “In Hamburg, we would play for eight hours, so we really had to find new ways of playing. … We got better and got more confidence, playing all night long. It was handy, them being foreign. We had to try even harder, put our heart and soul into it, to get ourselves over.” They dealt with the exhausting shifts thanks to the introduction of Preludin, a stimulant used as an appetite suppressant, into their diet. “[T]he waiters, when they’d see see the musicians falling over with tiredness or with drink,” Lennon continued, “they’d give you the pill. You’d take the pill, you’d be talking, you’d sober up, you could work almost endlessly — until the pill wore off, then you’d gave to have another.” “We were frothing at the mouth,” George Harrison added.

Another way they passed the time was by indulging themselves in some of the other activities that draw men to the Reeperbahn. “It was a sex shock,” Paul McCartney later recalled. “[S]uddenly, you’d have a girlfriend who was a stripper. If you had hardly ever had sex in your life before, this was fairly formidable. Here was somebody who obviously knew something about it, and you didn’t. So, we got a fairly swift baptism of fire into the sex scene. … We all got our education in Hamburg. It was quite something.” The Beatles played the Indra until early October, when it was closed due to regular complaints about the noise. But Koschmider moved them into the Kaiserkellar, where they split time with another Liverpool band, Rory Storm and the Hurricanes, whose drummer was Ringo Starr . It was during this period that they met two people who would play a major part in their history. Klaus Voormann, a young German artist, walked into the Kaiserkellar one night during the Beatles’ set. Struck by what he heard, he invited his girlfriend, a photographer named Astrid Kirchherr, to see them perform.

They became regulars and befriended the band, in particular bassist Stu Sutcliffe, who was also an artist. Kirchherr took some photographs that became the definitive portrayal of their Hamburg era, and she and Sutcliffe soon fell in love. Sutcliffe also took a liking to Voormann’s hairstyle, which was common among the German art scene, and asked Kirchherr to cut his hair that way. Lennon, McCartney and Harrison soon followed — it didn’t work with Best’s naturally curly hair — and, a few years later, it would be synonymous with the Beatles’ image. Voormann would go on to design the cover of Revolver and play bass on solo sessions by Lennon, Harrison and Starr as well as Harry Nilsson , Lou Reed and Carly Simon . By the end of October, the Beatles’ reputation had grown and they attracted the attention of Peter Erickson, who owned the Top Ten Club. He offered them more money and better living conditions and the Beatles jumped at the opportunity. Koschmider retaliated by notifying the German authorities that Harrison was only 17 and therefore ineligible to work, which led to his deportation a few weeks later.

They continued in Hamburg as a quartet, but not for long. Upon retrieving their belongings from the Bambi Koni, McCartney and Best nailed a condom to the wall and set fire to it. Koschmider had them arrested for trying to burn the theater down. They spent the night in jail and were deported the next day. Lennon joined them back in Liverpool a few days later. In March 1961, a month after Harrison turned 18, they returned to Hamburg, where they stayed for three months and backed up Tony Sheridan – another Brit who was having success in Hamburg – for a recording session. However, when this residency ended, Sutcliffe decided to stay in Germany with Kirchherr. On April 10, 1962, three days before the Beatles’ final stint in Hamburg, Sutcliffe died of a brain hemorrhage. In 2008, a park at the intersection of the Reeperbahn and Grosse Freiheit was created and named Beatles-Platz. Situated atop black pavement designed to look like a vinyl record stands five statues representing the Beatles as a reminder of the importance of the city in the group’s development.

Beatles Albums Ranked Worst to Best Image of Today in History: Elton John ‘Retires’ from Touring & More « WCBS-FM 101.1 Today in History: Elton John ‘Retires’ from Touring & More In 1959...Miles Davis released his album Kind of Blue. In 1960...The Beatles began a three-month residency at Hamburg's Indra Club. It was the first time they played under their new name. London, UNITED KINGDOM: TO GO WITH AFP STORY "Now he's 64: Paul McCartney celebrates that birthday" (FILES) Picture taken 18 August 1964 of the British pop music group "Beatles" leaving the London airport for a tour in United-States. Paul McCartney was just 24 when The Beatles first recorded their hit track "When I'm Sixty-Four". Forty years on, the former Beatle finally found out the answers to the long list of questions contained in the song as he celebrated his landmark birthday 18 June 2006.

AFP PHOTO (Photo credit should read -/AFP/Getty Images) In 1966...John Lennon told a Canadian journalist of his admiration for draft dodgers evading the Vietnam War. Cannes, FRANCE: (FILES) Music legend and former Beatle John Lennon poses for photographers in Cannes 17 May 1971 where he presented his movies 'Apotheosis' and 'The Flu'. The FBI has released 20 December 2006 ten files on late former Beatle John Lennon which it had withheld for nearly three decades on the grounds that releasing them could endanger the United States. AFP PHOTO FILES (Photo credit should read -/AFP/Getty Images) In 1969...Woodstock stretched into its third day in New York. Concert-goers sit on the roof of a Volkswagen bus at the Woodstock Music and Arts Fair at Bethel, N.Y., in mid-August 1969. The three-day concert attracted hundreds of thousands of people, and became a landmark cultural event of the late '60s. (AP Photo) In 1970...Christine McVie joined her husband John's band, Fleetwood Mac.

NEW YORK, UNITED STATES: Members of the British rock group Fleetwood Mac (from left) John McVie, Stevie Nicks, Christine McVie, Mick Fleetwood and Lindsay Buckingham appear together after receiving their awards and being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 12 January in New York. The thirteenth annual Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction dinner also honored Santana, The Eagles, The Mamas and Papas, Lloyd Price and Gene Vincent. AFP PHOTO (Photo credit should read JON LEVY/AFP/Getty Images) In 1974...Pink Floyd released their album Atom Heart Mother. A file picture taken on June 9, 1988 shows British Pink Floyd founding member and keyboard player Richard Wright (C) flanked by guitar player David Gilmour (L) and drummer Nick Mason in Versailles. Wright died on september 15, 2008 at the age of 65 after battling cancer, his spokesman said.

Wright wrote and sang several numbers from classic albums of the British progressive rock band, including "Dark Side of the Moon" and "Wish You Were Here." AFP PHOTO/ PATRICK HERTZOG (Photo credit should read PATRICK HERTZOG/AFP/Getty Images) In 1974...Fleetwood Mac successfully got an injunction against another band touring with the same name. Stevie Nicks performing at a private show to introduce her upcoming May 2001 release 'Trouble in Shangri-la', her first solo collection since 1994, at SIR Studios in Los Angeles, California, March 31, 2001. Photo by Frank Micelotta/ImageDirect. In 1977...The day after Elvis died, President Jimmy Carter commemorated "The King," saying, "Elvis Presley's death deprives our country of a part of itself. He was unique and irreplaceable. More than 20 years ago, he burst upon the scene with an impact that was unprecedented and will probably never be equaled.

His music and his personality, fusing the styles of white country and black rhythm and blues, permanently changed the face of American popular culture. His following was immense and he was a symbol to people the world over, of the vitality, rebelliousness and good humor of his country." (FILES) Rock'n roll legend Elvis Presley is seen during a concert in a file picture taken in the 1950's. (Photo credit should read -/AFP/Getty Images) In 1979...On PBS, John Lennon and Bob Dylan starred in the documentary film Eat the Document. PARIS, FRANCE: American folk legend Bob Dylan performing 03 July 1978 in Paris. (Photo credit should read PIERRE GUILLAUD/AFP/Getty Images) In 1984...Elton John announced he was retiring from touring. He didn't keep the promise. LONDON - 1980: (UK NEWSPAPERS OUT WITHOUT PRIOR CONSENT FROM DAVE HOGAN. PLEASE CONTACT SALES TEAM WITH ENQUIRIES) Musician Elton John performs on stage.

(Photo by Dave Hogan/Getty Images) Photo by Dave Hogan/Getty Images In 1986...Def Leppard's Rick Allen played his first gig with the band since the automobile accident that cost him an arm. HOLLYWOOD, : British heavy metal rock group 'Def Leppard' pose in front of their handprints to be put in the Rockwalk 05 September 2000 in Hollywood From left are: Rick Allen, Joe Elliot, Rick Savage, Phil Collen, and Vivian Campbell. (ELECTRONIC IMAGE) AFP PHOTO/Lucy NICHOLSON (Photo credit should read LUCY NICHOLSON/AFP/Getty Images) In 1993...Michael Jackson announced that he was in negotiations to perform two concerts in Beijing, China. LONDON - 1984: (UK NEWSPAPERS OUT) Music star Michael Jackson waves to his fans during his Tour in 1984, in London. (Photo by Dave Hogan/Getty Images) In 1995...Depeche Mode's Dave Gahan was admitted into a Los Angeles hospital after slashing his wrists.

LOS ANGELES - DECEMBER 11: Dave Gahan of Depeche Mode performs at night two of 106.7 KROQ's "Almost Acoustic Christmas" at Gibson Ampitheatre at Universal City Walk on December 11, 2005 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Karl Walter/Getty Images) In 1995...Microsoft paid The Rolling Stones an undisclosed sum, rumored to be several million dollars, so they could use the song "Start Me Up" in Windows 95 advertisements. MUNICH, GERMANY - JUNE 4: (UK PAPERS OUT) The Rolling Stones Perform at the opening night of the European leg of The Rolling Stones Forty Licks Tour at the Olimpiahalle Spiridon on June 4, 2003 in Munich, Germany.

(Photo by Getty Images) Interdisciplinary Lesson: "Twist and Shout" | TeachRock INTERDISCIPLINARY LESSON: "TWIST AND SHOUT" Standards ESSENTIAL QUESTION What role did cover songs like “Twist and Shout” play early in the Beatles's career, and how did their experiences growing up in post-WWII Liverpool and performing in Hamburg nightclubs help them to develop as a professional musical ensemble? OVERVIEW People: The Beatles In late-1950s Liverpool, a teenage John Lennon teamed up with Paul McCartney to form the Quarrymen, a group that by 1960 would become the Beatles. As teenagers, Lennon and McCartney were initially drawn to Skiffle music. Skiffle, which developed in Britain after World War II, was a kind of street music that relied on homemade or inexpensive instruments—often a washtub bass, a washboard, a banjo and an acoustic guitar—and combos generally played covers of Folk and Blues-style songs. Similar in ways to Punk and Hip Hop, Skiffle players were not always reliant on traditional venues, expensive equipment or in-depth knowledge of an instrument.

Because of this, young musicians without much money or experience, including Lennon and McCartney, found the genre accessible. It was their door in. By 1960, Lennon and McCartney had transformed their band into a more professional operation. Now calling themselves the Beatles, their ensemble included lead guitarist George Harrison and drummer Pete Best, who would later be replaced by Ringo Starr. The group had incorporated more Rock and Roll and Rhythm and Blues covers into their repertoire and were soon performing gigs in dancehalls and nightclubs. Between 1960 and 1962, the Beatles were hired to play several residencies at nightclubs in Hamburg, Germany, including the Kaiserkeller and the Indra Club. During this period, the group typically played multiple sets over four and half to six hours a night. Their shows leaned heavily on the repertoire of early American Rock and Roll artists, including material by Little Richard, Chuck Berry, and Buddy Holly. In the process of playing so many shows and learning so many songs, the Beatles sharpened their skills as entertainers, as instrumentalists, and ultimately, as songwriters.

Places: London, Liverpool, and Hamburg The Beatles grew up in Liverpool, England in the late 1940s and 50s, the years following World War II. Unlike the United States, which did not directly experience combat on American soil, Great Britain struggled for many years to return to normalcy following the devastation caused by the war. Though the war had ended in 1945, rations on food and other material goods continued into the 1950s, and port cities, including Liverpool, had to rebuild much of their bombed-out infrastructure. Compared to the booming postwar years in the United States, life in Liverpool was bleak. Set against this backdrop, it was no wonder that the bright sounds of American R&B and Rock and Roll music proved attractive to teenagers like John Lennon and Paul McCartney. This new music came from a far-off country they had never visited, a place about which they had a vivid fantasy life based on images described in Chuck Berry and Little Richard songs. American Rock and Roll and R&B deeply affected the Beatles as they began to find their own musical style as a cover band.

After several years of developing their act in Liverpool and Hamburg, the Beatles signed to EMI in 1962. The group traveled to London to record their debut album, Please Please Me. The album showcased a band in transition, containing eight original songs including “I Saw Her Standing There” and “Love Me Do,” in addition to six cover songs including “Twist and Shout.” The collection portrayed the Beatles with one foot still in the world of the cover band and the other foot planted in their future as recording artists and original songwriters. Of the band’s first five albums, four included a mix of both Beatles originals and cover songs. But after 1965, the band recorded seven more studio albums, with only one cover song appearing on the cumulative track list. During this later stage in their career, the Beatles committed to crafting original songs and exploring new frontiers of recording popular music in the studio. Timeline: The Beatles’s fascination with American music culture can best be understood when considered in the context of teenage life in postwar Europe. The world in which Lennon, McCartney, Harrison, and Starr grew up was deeply scarred by war.

Liverpool, an important shipping center in England, had been largely bombed out by the Germans, requiring years of rebuilding. Food rationing, which had once been a wartime necessity, continued for nine years after the war as the British economy recovered. American records, including the Isley Brothers’ 1962 hit “Twist and Shout,” provided the members of the Beatles with an escape from this everyday reality. By performing this song and others like it in their setlist, the Beatles were able to immerse themselves, and their European audiences, in an American sound driven by a youthful energy that symbolized another world of possibility. MAY 1945: WORLD WAR II ENDS -- While a marked period of prosperity and growth follows the war in the United States, in England, it’s a time of lingering deprivation and rebuilding. APRIL 1948: THE MARSHALL PLAN SIGNED INTO LAW -- Rolled out in 1948, The Marshall Plan commits U.S. economic support to ravaged European communities, including Liverpool. JULY 1954: RATIONING ENDS IN THE U.K. -- Britain ends food rationing, which had continued for over nine years after the end of WWII.

During that same time, the U.S. economy had experienced a period of rapid growth and prosperity. AUGUST 1960: THE BEATLES PLAY HAMBURG, GERMANY -- The group begins their first residency at Hamburg's Indra Club. Playing long hours on stage helps the group develop their musical skills and group image. MARCH 1963: BEATLES RELEASE DEBUT ALBUM -- Please Please Me includes original Beatles songs such as "Love Me Do” and “I Saw Her Standing There,” as well as covers including "Twist and Shout." The album tops the U.K. charts for 30 weeks. FEBRUARY 1964: BEATLES APPEAR ON THE ED SULLIVAN SHOW -- In one of the most significant moments in music and television history, a record 73 million viewers tune in, launching the group into U.S. superstardom. Within two years of their first appearance on American television, the band would transition away from mixing covers with original material and commit entirely to writing original songs.

The Beatles, 1961 Video pages: Gerry Marsden - American Music Brought to Liverpool (2009) | The Beatles - Twist and Shout (1963) | Graham Nash - Skiffle | Steven Van Zandt - The Early Beatles | Isley Brothers - Twist and Shout (1962) IMAGES Upon completion of this lesson, students will: Know (knowledge): The impact of German bombing and post-war economic struggles on life in 1950s Liverpool Ways in which American musical styles reached British teenagers, including radio broadcasts and records imported by merchant sailors and U.S. Air Force soldiers The importance of the “Hamburg years” to the professional and musical development of the Beatles How musical ensembles often learn their craft through the performance of “cover” songs Be able to (skills): Analyze and draw conclusions from musical performances and interviews (Common Core State Standard: Reading 7) ACTIVITIES Procedure: 1. Display an image from 1942 of Liverpool after a German bomb attack during World War II. Mention that Liverpool is where the future members of the Beatles grew up. It is also an important port city in Northern England which made it a target during the war.

For contrast, display an image of a suburban family in postwar America . Study both photos as a class, then ask students: What do you think it might have felt like to live in a place that looked like Liverpool after the war? Compare that to what it might it have felt like to grow up in a house in an American suburb, untouched by the war. How might everyday life have felt different? Why might a teenager growing up in Liverpool post-war Liverpool have harbored fantasies about living some place else, such as the U.S.? 2. Play a clip of musician Gerry Marsden discussing how American records arrived in Europe, followed by one of musician Graham Nash discussing the emergence of Skiffle music in postwar England. Ask students: How might growing up in a port city such as Liverpool have contributed to the Beatles’s early education in American music? Why might a working-class teenager in post-War Liverpool, such as John Lennon or Paul McCartney, have been attracted to Skiffle? 3. Play the audio clip of “ Twist and Shout ,” recorded in 1962 by the American group the Isley Brothers.

Explain that the Beatles performed this song during their early period as a professional “cover band,” the term for a band that plays songs written and first recorded by other performers. Ask students: Thinking back to the postwar landscape of Europe, why do you think a song like “Twist and Shout” might have appealed to the Beatles? What do you think a recording like this made the Beatles think about life in the U.S. compared to their lives in postwar Europe? [Students may answer that given the devastation caused by the war, “Twist and Shout,” as an American product associated with Rock and Roll culture, might have stood as a symbolic contrast to the bleakness of life in Europe, and might have triggered a fantasy about life in the United States.] 4. Present the class with the following scenario: Imagine that you are a member of the Beatles in the early 1960s, when the band was beginning to play professional gigs. You’ve just heard “Twist and Shout” for the first time. At band practice that night, how would you describe the song to the rest of the group? How would you make your case to convince your band to cover it at your next show? 5.

Explain that between 1960 and 1962, the Beatles played a series of residencies in Hamburg, Germany, where they were hired to perform in nightclubs, playing multiple sets over four-and-a-half to six hours a night, six or seven night a week. Distribute the Beatles Discuss Hamburg Worksheet that includes a series of quotes about the Beatles in Hamburg and have a volunteer read the introduction aloud to the class. 6. Divide students into small groups of three or four. Direct groups to take turns reading the Beatles quotes aloud, underlining any words and phrases that describe how the band improved as a musical ensemble during their time in Hamburg. After reading through the quotes, groups should discuss the questions and fill in the answers on the second page of the worksheet. Once everyone has finished, invite groups to share out something the Beatles learned about being professional musicians from their time in Hamburg. 7. Play the video clip of the Beatles performing “ Twist and Shout ” live in 1963. Ask the students: What reaction do you think the Beatles were trying to elicit from their concert audience? How might the band’s experience playing covers in Hamburg have prepared them for the larger audiences they would see as they became more successful?

8. Display an image of the album cover and list of songs the Beatles recorded for Please Please Me, their debut album from 1963. Ask the students to identify and count the cover songs on the album, material not credited to John Lennon and Paul McCartney. Discuss as a class: What does the inclusion of six cover songs (all by American artists) on this record suggest about the Beatles’s relationship to American music culture and American life? 9. Play a video interview with musician Steven Van Zandt discussing the early career of the Beatles and how playing covers can help shape the identity of a band. Discuss as a class: What specific things does Van Zandt believe a group learns from playing covers? Do you think the Beatles would have been as successful later on if they had not spent this time playing together in Hamburg? Why or why not? 10. Ask students: as a music class using the Little Kids Rock methods, why do you think we spend time learning to play cover songs? What connections can we make between what we are doing as a class and what the Beatles did in their early days as a band?

[Note: Teacher may opt to have students write a short paragraph reflecting on these questions in place of, or in addition to, discussing as a class.] STANDARDS Common Core State Standards College and Career Readiness Reading Anchor Standards for Grades 6-12 for Literature and Informational Text Reading 1: Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text. Reading 7: Integrate and evaluate content presented in diverse formats and media, including visually and quantitatively, as well as in words. College and Career Readiness Writing Anchor Standards for Grades 6-12 in English Language Arts and Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science and Technical Subjects Writing 1: Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts, using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence. College and Career Readiness Anchor Standards for Speaking and Listening for Grades 6-12 Speaking and Listening 1: Prepare for and participate effectively in a range of conversations and collaborations with diverse partners, building on others' ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.

Speaking and Listening 3: Evaluate a speaker’s point of view, reasoning, and use of evidence and rhetoric. Social Studies – National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) Theme 1: Culture Theme 2: Time, Continuity, and Change Theme 4: Individual Development and Identity Theme 5: Individuals, Groups, and Institutions National Standards for Music Education Core Music Standard: Responding Interpret: Support interpretations of musical works that reflect creators' and/or performers' expressive intent. Evaluate: Support evaluations of musical works and performances based on analysis, interpretation, and established criteria. Core Music Standard: Connecting The Beatles in Hamburg: 50 Years Later The Beatles in Hamburg: 50 Years Later Aug 16, 2010, 13:57 ET from Hamburg Marketing GmbH HAMBURG, August 16, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- On August 17th 1960, the Beatles played their very first concert at Indra, a Hamburg music club. Over the following two and a half years, the band played 281 gigs in Germany, and laid the foundations of their career.

Now, 50 years later, the all-star band Bambi Kino, which includes members of Maplewood, Nada Surf and Moby, will bring pop history to life by performing the exact set-list of the Beatles from that very day. Beatles fans from all over the world will jump at the chance to experience this anniversary concert, and to explore to the band's influence on Hamburg's new, fresh pop-music sound: Nowadays, countless cutting-edge music clubs line the neon-bright, world-famous Reeperbahn - a boulevard of entertainment and subcultural hub for the last 20 years, which hosts exciting live music, theatre shows, big musicals, and is home to edgy restaurants. The Kaiserkeller, where the Beatles played after their guest slot at the Indra, today serves as a basement-club, while the Grosse Freiheit 36 is one of the main stages of the Reeperbahn Festival, which is Germany's biggest club festival and invites about 170 international newcomers to Germany's most creative neighbourhood - St. Pauli - for three nights of fantastic music in September.

The festival ticket entitles the holder to attend the weekly Beatles tour with musician Stefanie Hempel, who combines historical insights into the era of the Beatles with performances of their songs. The Beatles museum BEATLEMANIA comprises five floors exclusively devoted to commemorating the Fab Four. Its exhibitions include memorabilia from the later Beatles-clubs Top Ten and from the legendary Star Club, where the Beatles were performing when their first single "Love Me Do" climbed to number 17 on the British charts. Hamburg is where the Beatles became stars, and the city now invites everybody to come and discover this magnificent legacy. The Beatles themselves never tired of stressing the importance of their apprenticeship years in the music metropolis Hamburg, with John Lennon confessing: "I was born in Liverpool, but I grew up in Hamburg". Filmfootage: Contact: Hamburg Marketing GmbH Guido Neumann T +49-40-411110-617 guido.neumann@marketing.hamburg.de SOURCE Hamburg Marketing GmbH

Question: In August 1960, The Beatles began a residency in the Indra Club in which European city?
Answer: Hamburg