Live: Star-Club, Hamburg

This was the opening date of The Beatles’ second residency at the Star-Club in Hamburg, Germany.

The group had previously performed at the club over seven weeks in April and May 1962. This stint was considerably shorter, and amounted to a total of 49 hours on stage over a 14-date period, ending on 14 November 1962.

The Beatles performed for three and a half hours each night. For this they were paid 600DM (£53.50) per person each week. On occasion they shared a bill with Little Richard, whom they had performed with in Liverpool the previous month.

We went in November and in December. I don’t know where we stayed that final time. It’s hazy, to say the least. The staying wasn’t important, the living was cool. It was fairly crazy; I’d been there with Rory Storm, and I’d been separately to play with Tony Sheridan (I’d played with him for a month) and I was back this time with The Beatles, and it really felt good. It was becoming like home.

Little Richard played the Star-Club with Billy Preston. Billy was sixteen and he was fabulous; still it. I watched Little Richard twice a night for six days: it was so great. he did show off a bit in front of us – he’d want to know we were in the wings; he’d heard of us by that time.

We were only twenty-two and we still loved the Preludins and we still liked to drink and we could get away with anything as long as we went on and played. The only thing that the Germans wouldn’t tolerate was your not going on stage, and you could go on (and we did) in several states of mind.