The Beatles in Hamburg - 1960

 Pete  -  George  -  John  -  Paul  -  Stu

The period from August 1960 to December 1962 marked a significant period in the development of The Beatles.  Beginning on about August 17, 1960 The Beatles played at a series of Hamburg clubs including the Indra and the Kaiserkeller.  The group at this time was John, Paul, and George with Pete Best on Drums and Stu Sutcliffe on Bass.   Pete was auditioned and recruited the day before they left Liverpool!

Their schedule was intense.  The Beatles performed 7 days per week, often for 7 or 8 hours per night.  Living conditions were squalid, as Paul McCartney remembers... "We lived backstage in the Bambi Kino, next to the toilets, and you could always smell them. 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, with not very much covers—Union Jack flags—we were frozen."  

These were the years that The Beatles gelled. Their skills were honed, their repertoire was expanded, and their reputation was begun.  The Beatles emerged from this period ready to be launched into the stardom that would follow.

 
Rock on!!  Rob; in Vancouver 

"In Hamburg we got very good as a band because we had to play eight hours a night and we started building a big repertoire of some of our own songs, but mainly we did all the old rock songs. In fact, we did everything." George Harrison

The Beatles in Hamburg

"Love is Strange" - Mickey and Sylvia

Ewan McGregor and Louise Germaine lypsynch this classic '57 hit by Mickey and Sylvia.  Enjoy...

August 6 - Hiroshima Day

On August 6, 1945 the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima.  15 years later, August 6, 1960 saw the US and the USSR in the midst of the nuclear arms race and the Cold War.   65 years later, August 6, 2010 sees us still living under the threat of nuclear annihilation.

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Muddy Waters 1960 - "Hoochie Coochie Man"

Newport Rhode Island Jazz Festival

July 1960

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Personnel

• Francis Clay – Drums
• James Cotton – Harmonica
• Pat Hare – Guitar
• Otis Spann – Piano, Vocals
• Andrew Stevenson – Bass
• Muddy Waters – Guitar, Vocals

Top of the Charts - "Shakin' All Over"

UK #1  August 1960 - Johnny Kidd and the Pirates

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British Skiffle Music

Enough on the American political front.  There was certainly a lot more happening in the Summer of 1960 than the lead-up to a US election.  There's British music!  August 1960 would see the Beatles begin a 2-year stint in Hamburg, Germany.  This is a significant period which would see them refine their music, settle on the their band, and develop their early repertoire.  The Beatles would emerge from Hamburg in late 1962 and begin their meteoric rise to stardom.

But let's not get too far ahead of ourselves in this story.   Where did their music come from?   We've already looked at Buddy Holly as a significant influence in the formation of The Beatles' sound.  Now let's have a quick look at the British "Skiffle" scene.

From Wikipedia...

"Skiffle is a type of popular music with jazz, blues, folk, roots and country influences, usually using homemade or improvised instruments. Originating as a term in the United States in the first half of the twentieth century, it became popular again in the UK in the 1950s, where it was mainly associated with musician Lonnie Donegan and played a major part in beginning the careers of later eminent jazz, pop, blues, folk and rock musicians."

Lonnie Donegan made a musical living on "Skiffle Revival".  His hits included the great hits of the "Skiffle Genre" from across the pond in the US.

• "John Henry" (1955)
• "Cumberland Gap" (1957) 
• "Gamblin' Man" (1957) - UK #1
• "The Grand Coulee Dam" ('58) 
• "Midnight Special" (1958)
• "Tom Dooley" (1958) 
• "Does Your Chewing Gum Lose It's Flavour..." 1959) - UK #3
• "Battle of New Orleans" (1959) - UK #2
• "I Wanna Go Home" (1960) - UK #5
• "Michael, Row the Boat" (1961) - UK #6
• "Pick A Bale of Cotton"  (1962) - UK #11 

Wikepedia

"He was the first person we had heard of from Britain to get to the coveted No. 1 in the charts, and we studied his records avidly. We all bought guitars to be in a skiffle group. He was the man." — Paul McCartney

"I wanted to be Elvis Presley when I grew up, I knew that. But the man who really made me feel like I could actually go out and do it was a chap by the name of Lonnie Donegan." — Roger Daltrey

More from Wikipedia...

"A large number of British musicians began their careers playing skiffle in this period and some became leading figures in their respective fields. These included leading Northern Irish musician Van Morrison, British blues pioneer Alexis Korner as well as Ronnie Wood, Alex Harvey and Mick Jagger; folk musicians Martin Carthy, John Renbourn and Ashley Hutchings; rock musicians Roger Daltrey, Jimmy Page, Ritchie Blackmore, Robin Trower and Dave Gilmour; and popular beat music successes Graham Nash and Alan Clarke of The Hollies. Most notably The Beatles evolved from John Lennon's skiffle group The Quarrymen."

How cool is that!!  A few fun "skiffle" clips follow.

SKIFFLE ON!!   Rob; in Vancouver

"Skiffle was a name that was attached to what was, in essence, 

American folk music with a beat."
Van Morrison

Lonnie Donegan - Jimmy Page

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