Beatles for sale: Hamburg strip club tapes capture band on brink of fame

Beatles for sale: Hamburg strip club tapes capture band on brink of fame

It was where the biggest band of all time cut its teeth. The Star Club in Hamburg, one of the key venues where a little-known four-piece from Liverpool transformed themselves into the Fab Four, is afforded a special status among Beatles fans. Before an audience often more interested in the fleshy delights of Hamburg’s Reeperbahn red light district, the Beatles performed not only their own songs but those of other groups and singers whom they admired.

Now, for a six-figure sum, a collector will be able to own the historically important recordings made at the venue in December 1962. Ted Owen and Co auctioneers are selling a package of tapes, edited and unedited, that features 33 tracks recorded at the club, which has long since disappeared.

The recordings capture a crucial moment in the Beatles’ evolution. Ringo Starr had only recently replaced Pete Best on drums and the band were starting to make a name for themselves in Britain, having hit the charts two months earlier with Love Me Do.

Many of the songs are performed at pace because of the drugs the band were experimenting with at the time – Preludin, a form of speed. “All the waiters in Hamburg were using it. So their songs were performed at breakneck speed,” Owen said.

By:Jamie Doward

Source: The Guardian

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