Gazza
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Rat Bastid "We piss anywhere, man.."
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Belfast, UK
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Paranoid Android wrote on Aug 25 th, 2012 at 11:15am: I'm cool Gazza...just finished my 2nd cup of coffee and was just letting the caffeine do the talking... Like everyone...I hate polls...like everyone i love to complain about them just as much. For the record...The Beatles were horrible in concert...no one could hear them and they couldn't even hear themselves... they knew it and called it quits to become the studio band we all know today. Sound technology in 1964-1966 was so underdeveloped...correction...non-existent, for a band to play stadiums... I am sure they were cool in the Cavern Club and stuff...but that is an entirely different scenario So says the 3rd cup of coffee!!!  My 'relax' comment was generalising - not at you specifically..lol... I just find the consternation over these polls a bit odd. Anyway, hardly their fault that they were obliged to play stadiums to satisfy ticket demand in an era when people didnt want to listen and when PA equipment was totally unsuited to anything larger than ballrooms. I doubt the Stones progressed much in that 1964-66 time frame either, although they were unquestionably the better of the two bands as a live act... fortunately they got the chance from 1969 onwards to develop their stagecraft and perform with decent sound systems. I would imagine The Beatles were a pretty shit-hot band at the Cavern (where they played almost 300 times in a couple of years) and in Hamburg. They built a fanbase on their live reputation before they ever made a record. As did the Stones. I doubt any band with any musical talent who played this often could have been anything less than a top notch performing act after doing it this often for over two years. The Beatles arrived very early in the morning of 17 August 1960, but had no trouble finding the St. Pauli area of Hamburg, as it was so infamous. Unfortunately the Indra Club (64 Grosse Freiheit) was closed, so a manager from a neighbouring club found someone to open it up, and the group slept on the red leather seats in the alcoves. The group played at the club on the same night, but were told they could sleep in a small cinema's storeroom, which was cold and noisy, being directly behind the screen of the cinema, the Bambi Kino[23] (33 Paul-Roosen Strasse).[29]
McCartney later said, "We lived backstage in the Bambi Kino, next to the toilets, and you could always smell them. The room had been an old storeroom, and there were just concrete walls and nothing else. No heat, no wallpaper, not a lick of paint; and two sets of bunk beds, with not very much covers—Union Jack flags—we were frozen."[30] Lennon remembered: "We were put in this pigsty. We were living in a toilet, like right next to the ladies' toilet. We'd go to bed late and be woken up next day by the sound of the cinema show and old German fraus [women] pissing next door."[23] After having been awoken in this fashion, the group were then obliged to use cold water from the urinals for washing and shaving.[31] They were paid £2.50 each a day, seven days a week, playing from 8:30-9:30, 10 until 11, 11:30-12:30, and finishing the evening playing from one until two o'clock in the morning.
Their playing schedule at the Kaiserkeller remained the same as it had been in the Indra.[25] Lennon said: "We had to play for hours and hours on end. Every song lasted twenty minutes and had twenty solos in it. That's what improved the playing. There was nobody to copy from. We played what we liked best and the Germans liked it as long as it was loud."[23] The Beatles had been used to simply standing still when they had performed in Liverpool, but Koschmider would come to the front of the stage and loudly shout “Mach schau, mach schau!” (Make a show for the customers). Harrison explained that this prompted Lennon to “dance around like a gorilla, and we’d all knock our heads together.”[5] As Best had been the only one to take O-Level German at school, he could communicate with Koschmider and the clientele better than the rest of the group,[37] and was invited to sing a speciality number called "Peppermint Twist" (while McCartney played the drums) but Best complained that he always felt uncomfortable being at the front of the stage.[38] Willie Limpinski, Koschmider's business manager, decided that the club would attract more customers if it presented continuous live music.[39]
The poster announcing Storm's appearance, with "his Hurrican", at the Kaiserkeller in Hamburg. The Beatles appear lower on the bill.[40]
Williams warned The Beatles about the competition they would face by playing in the same club as the Hurricanes by saying, "You'd better pull your socks up because Rory Storm and the Hurricanes are coming in, and you know how good they are. They're going to knock you for six."[23] In early October 1960, Storm and the Hurricanes were free to travel to Hamburg, replacing Derry and the Seniors at the Kaiserkeller. They arrived in Hamburg on 1 October 1960, having negotiated to be paid more than the Seniors or The Beatles.[41] They played five or six 90-minute sets every day, alternating with The Beatles.[3][42] They were appalled at the living conditions The Beatles and other groups like Howie Casey and the Seniors (who were sleeping in one room at the back of the Kaiserkeller) had to put up with,[43] so they booked into Hamburg's Seamens' Mission.[5]
The Beatles steadily improved during their time in Hamburg, and this was noticed by other musicians who were there at the time. McCartney recalled, "We got better and better and other groups started coming to watch us. The accolade of accolades was when Sheridan would come in from the Top Ten (the big club where we aspired to go) or when Rory Storm or Ringo [Starr] would hang around to watch us. What'd I Say' was always the one that really got them."[23] The song was often played by the group, once being played for 90 minutes non-stop, with group members walking off stage to wash and drink before returning.[54] Sutcliffe wrote a letter to his mother saying, "We have improved a thousand-fold since our arrival and Allan Williams, who is here at the moment, tells us that there is no group in Liverpool to touch us."
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Top 20 Live Acts of All Time (Read 2,789 times)
