Furious that The Beatles had made a verbal agreement to play at rival Peter Eckhorn’s Top Ten Club, Kaiserkeller owner Bruno Koschmider terminated their contract. Despite this, they continued to perform at the Kaiserkeller for another three weeks.
There was an added reason why Koschmider wanted them out: at 17 years of age, George Harrison was too young to be working in the club.
There was a curfew at ten o’clock every night. The German police would come up on stage and announce: ‘It is twenty-two hours and all young people under eighteen years must leave this club. We are making an Ausweiskontrolle.’ Eventually we got so used to it that we started saying it ourselves. We would do joke announcement. I knew a bit of German; George and I had learnt it in school. Everyone else had learnt French, but they taught us German and Spanish. So it was very handy and we could do all the silly stuff. We eventually got a really big steaming club full and they loved us.
Although The Beatles were aware of the curfew, they managed to avoid the police checks for some time, despite having no work permits.
We used to call them ‘the Gestapo’ – guys in very convincing German uniforms, going around looking at all the kids’ passports. We had never seen the like of it. In Liverpool you could go anywhere as long as you didn’t get caught in a pub, and certainly nobody came round and asked you for your pass. I suppose it was all leftovers from the war.
Anthology
Koschmider’s notice to The Beatles, given on this day, stated:
I the undersigned hereby give notice to Mr George Harrison and to Beatles’ Band to leave on November 30th, 1960. The notice is given to the above by order of the Public Authorities who have discovered that Mr George Harrison is only 17 (seventeen) years of age.
It went on for two months before the penny dropped as to what they were actually saying: ‘Everybody under eighteen years old get out.’ I was only seventeen and I was sitting with the band and getting worries, and eventually somebody did find out; I don’t know how. We didn’t have any work permits or visas, and with me under-age they started closing in on us; then one day the police came and booted me out.
Anthology
Harrison was finally deported on 21 November 1960, although The Beatles continued to perform at the Kaiserkeller for a few more nights without him.
Also on this day...
- 2023: Paul McCartney live: Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane
- 2018: Paul McCartney live: Tokyo Dome, Tokyo
- 2017: Paul McCartney reveals photo inspiration for Lady Madonna
- 2016: Ringo Starr and his All-Starr Band live: Orchard Hall, Tokyo
- 2011: Ringo Starr and his All-Starr Band live: Auditorio Nacional, Mexico City
- 2010: Steinway announces John Lennon grand piano
- 2010: Paul McCartney and Wings’ Band On The Run is reissued
- 2005: Paul McCartney live: Pepsi Center, Denver
- 2004: Album release: Acoustic by John Lennon
- 1975: Wings live: Perth Entertainment Centre, Perth
- 1968: George Harrison produces Is This What You Want? by Jackie Lomax
- 1968: UK album release: Wonderwall Music by George Harrison
- 1967: Recording, mixing, editing: Untitled Sound Effects, Hello, Goodbye, The Fool On The Hill
- 1967: Mixing: All You Need Is Love, Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds
- 1965: Television: The Music Of Lennon & McCartney
- 1964: The Beatles live: Astoria Cinema, Finsbury Park, London
- 1963: The Beatles live: Odeon Cinema, Cheltenham
- 1963: UK EP release: The Beatles No. 1
- 1962: The Beatles live: Star-Club, Hamburg
- 1961: The Beatles live: Cavern Club, Liverpool (evening)
- 1961: The Beatles live: Cavern Club, Liverpool (lunchtime)
- 1960: The Beatles live: Kaiserkeller, Hamburg
Want more? Visit the Beatles history section.
“There was an added reason why Koschmider wanted them out: at 17 years of age, George Harrison was too young to be working in the club.”
This isn’t strictly true. Koschmider almost certainly didn’t care about these things because he never bothered to uphold his part of the contract to obtain work permits for the band. He only “cared” about this once he found out that the Beatles had played at the Top Ten and he wanted payback. (Lewisohn doesn’t mention an actual verbal agreement prior to Koschmider terminating their contract, but that doesn’t mean there wasn’t one. Source?)