BILL HILLMAN TRACKS
THE BEATLES IN HAMBURG
THE GIGS: Part IV
www.hillmanweb.com/BEATLES/starclub.html

The Star-Club
39 Grosse Freiheit.
April 13 to May 31, 1962
November 1 to 14, 1962
December 18 to 31, 1962
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The Beatles played there April 13 to May 31, 1962, November 1 to 14, 1962 and December 18 to 31, 1962. There is a big old church next door to the building complex, across the street from the Kaiserkeller. 

To find #39 you need to go through the archway to an off-the-street court. It is no longer the Star Club. The original building has been torn down.

Back in 1962 the Star-Club was St. Pauli's largest and plushest music club with two-thousand crowd capacity and cinema-style seating.
 

Manfred Weißleder opened the Star-Club on April 13, 1962.  The last concert took place on December 31,1969, with the Hardin & York band from England. The "Salambo" Sextheater moved into the building in 1971 until it burned down in 1983, and was finally torn down in October 1986. 

Today all that remains is a memorial plaque to visitors of the famous Star-Club .... and of the Beatles:

Manfred Mann - Ray Charles - Equals - Rory Storm & The Hurricanes - Tony Sheridan - Tremeloes - Nice - Eric Burdon - Everly Brothers - KingSize Taylor & The Dominoes - Chubby Checker - Lee Curtis - Small Faces - Spencer Davis Group - Spooky Tooth - Cream - Georgie Fame - Vanilla Fudge - Gene Vincent - Searchers - Jerry Lee Lewis - Little Eva - Little Richard - Love Affair - Brenda Lee - Yes - Dave Dee, Dozy Beaky, Mick & Tich - Undertakers - Gerry & The Pacemakers - Jimi Hendrix - Donovan - Zodiacs - Soft Machine - Bill Haley - Who - Chuck Berry - Fats Domino - Black Sabbath/Earth - Move - Bo Diddley - Rory Gallagher - Rattles - The Jets - The (Liverpool) Roadrunners - The Jaguars - The Beatles


GEORGE: 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 twoards the city. We were there for a couple of months.

GEORGE: Little Richard (with 15-year-old Billy Preston in the band) was also on the bill with us for our fourth trip to Hamburg in November. By then things were better for us there. They had new Fender amplifiers for all the bands and we had a hotel room each. Hamburg was really happening then. . . they'd have four shows so they could get four different audiences in a night.

JOHN: We used to stand backstage at Hamburg's Star-Club and watch Little Richard play. Or he used to sit and talk. He used to read from the Bible backstage. . . . We'd outlived the Hamburg stage and wanted to pack that up. We hated going back to Hamburg those last two times. We'd had that scene. Brian made us go back to fulfil the contract.

GEORGE: I'd have to say with hindsight that Hamburg bordered on the best of Beatles times. We didn't have any luxury, we didn't have any bathrooms or any clothes, we were pretty grubby, we couldn't afford anything, but on the other hand we weren't yet famous, so we didn't have to contend with the bullshit that comes with fame.

PAUL: Hamburg was certainly a great childhood memory. But I think all things are enhanced by time. It was very exciting, though I think it felt better to me a little later in our career, once we'd started to get a bit of success with the records.

JOHN: We always talk about Hamburg and the Cavern and the dance halls in Liverpool because that's when we were really hot muically. We were performers then and what we generated was fantastic when we played straight rock -- there was nobody to touch us in Britain.
 

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40th Anniversary Jahre Star-Club.
April 13, 1962 - 2002

Star-Club in the sixties 
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The Beatles were recorded at the club in 1962 through one mic with a portable recorder in 1962 by Ted Taylor of the Liverpool group The Dominoes.

Fifteen years later these raw tapes were enhanced and released as a two-disc set on Germany's Bellaphon label under the title: THE BEATLES LIVE! at the Star-Club in Hamburg, Germany; 1962. 

The contents of this album give us some idea of the songs the Beatles were playing at that time:

I Saw Her Standing There
Roll Over Beethoven (George)
Hippy Hippy Shake  (Paul)
Sweet Little Sixteen (John)
Lend Me Your Comb (John)
Your Feet's Too Big (Paul)
Red Sails in the Sunset (Paul)
Everybody's Trying to be My Baby (George)
Matchbox (John)
Talkin' 'bout You (John)
Shimmy Shake (Paul)
Long Tall Sally (Paul)
Remember You (Paul)
Twist and Shout
Mr. Moonlight (John)
A Taste of Honey (Paul)
Besame Mucho (Paul)
Reminiscing
Kansas City (Paul)
Ain't Nothin' Shakin' Like the Leaves On a Tree (George)
To Know Her is to Love Her (George or John)
Little Queenie (Paul)
Falling in Love Again (Paul)
Ask Me Why
Be Bop A Lula (Horst Obber (German ~ waiter)
Halleluja, I Love Her So (Horst Obber German waiter)
I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Cry (Over You) (John)
Where Have You Been All My Life (John)
Till There Was You (Paul)
Sheila (George)
.CLICK FOR FULL SIZES


Colourized


INTO THE COURTYARD TODAY - FORMER SITE OF THE STAR-CLUB BUILDING

View of the Top-Ten from Kaiserkeller

Archway Entrance
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Doris Kaempfert Star Club Photos

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THE BEATLES' HAMBURG: CONTENTS
PART I: Gigs  |  PART II: Digs | PART III: Echoes | PART IV: Reeperbahn | PART V: Places
Photos I | Photos II | Photos III

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