IN THE beat city, where The Beatles honed the talent which would make them world famous, they are building a square to celebrate their part in the formation of the Fab Five.
Yes, the city of Hamburg is not only recognising John, Paul, George and Ringo at Beatlesplatz, a public square located in the middle of the Reeperbahn, home to the clubs where they wowed the German Beatnik audience. The city is also recognising Stuart Sutcliffe's part in their early days.
In the early 60s, during that heady period of social change many young Liverpool groups such as Gerry and the Pacemakers, Rory Storm and the fledgling Beatles gravitated to the port city of Hamburg where there was already a lively music scene.
Now, four and a half decades later, the city of Hamburg has decided to honour The Beatles with the public square. It will be integrated into the street's design, which will be modernised in preparation for the World Cup in Germany next year. The venues and places where The Beatles once performed and lived are all within walking distance of Beatlesplatz.
The group first came to Hamburg in the summer of 1960, a time when they had just changed their name to The Beatles and started to take a serious approach to their music.
Stuart Sutcliffe had joined the band as a bass player; and Pete Best had taken the stool behind the drums. Before that, John, Paul and George, who all played the guitar, had been supported by a changing cast of musicians.
A club owner from Hamburg with whom Alan Williams - at the time The Beatles' manager - had contacts was looking to hire a beat band from Liverpool to play in one of his clubs. He had engaged Derry Wilkie and the Seniors before and wanted to try it with another band. Gerry and the Pacemakers, also among the bands managed by Williams, declined, so The Beatles ended up taking the gig.
The job was anything but glamorous. The group had to perform up to six hours a night, in the first weeks at the rather scruffy Indra bar, later at the slightly classier Kaiserkeller. The audiences were often drunk and unpredictable, and fights broke out regularly. The band was accommodated in a small room behind the screen of the Bambi Cinema, where they were exposed to the soundtracks of the films on show.
But despite the bad working conditions, it was Hamburg where The Beatles gathered valuable experiences in the art of performing live. George Harrison later said that the band developed its unique style during those endless hours on the stages of Hamburg.
