Search over 1.4 million articles by over 600 experts
  1. Home
  2. Entertainment
  3. Classic Rock

More from About.com

Browse Topics A-Z
photo of Dave White

Dave's Classic Rock Blog

By Dave White, About.com Guide to Classic Rock since 2005

The Beatles, Live in Hamburg? Well, maybe ...

Thursday January 17, 2008

In the spring of 1962, The Beatles were in their third extended engagement in Hamburg, Germany. They were the first act to play the just-opened Star Club, where the club's DJ happened to record the audio of one of their performances on tape.

Other performances from the Star Club gig have been released over the years, but the promoter who has this particular recording claims it is unique because it contains two songs (both covers, which made up most of the band's repertoire at the time) and because it is the first recording to feature Ringo Starr on drums (original drummer Pete Best having been booted from the band six months earlier.)

The promoter tried to release the recording back in 1996, but ran into a large brick wall known as Apple Corps, the company that owns and licenses rights to all things Beatle. Now, he has hooked up with an independent record label, Fuego Entertainment, and is going to try again.

No release date has been announced, and remember, Apple Corps is the company that goes up against corporate giants like Apple Computers, and wins.

You can read the whole story at billboard.com.

Comments

January 24, 2008 at 1:09 pm
(1) Erik D. says:

This already exists in Vinyl format, I purchased a group of Beatles records from someone online recently and seemingly this recording your talking about was revamped by an independent label and already exists. Though the sound quality isn’t great because they used a single microphone on the other side of the room, the back of the vinyl says that they spent over 100,000 dollars putting it back together, and it’s totally listenable especially for die hard beatles fans

If were talking about the same thing, it’s titled “The Beatles first live recording, Hamburg Germany Vol 1.” and I also have volume two. Spc 3661…Pickwick is the record lable

January 24, 2008 at 1:22 pm
(2) Dave White says:

Hey, Erik. The guy who’s promoting this one claims it is different from the Hamburg tapes that have been previously released. Who knows? A lot of questions are being raised about whether it’s even authentic.

Leave a Comment

Line and paragraph breaks are automatic. Some HTML allowed: <a href="" title="">, <b>, <i>, <strike>

  1. Home
  2. Entertainment
  3. Classic Rock

©2008 About.com, a part of The New York Times Company.

All rights reserved.