A collection of letters penned home by the Beatles when they were playing in Hamburg went on display in the German city this week.
Details from the Liverpool City Region:
A special exhibition featuring a rare set of Beatles photographs and letters written by the band’s five original members whilst in Hamburg, is set to go on display in the German city this week.
Entitled Harbour Cities-Global Stages, the exhibition has been created to celebrate Liverpool City Region’s role as the official partner of Hamburg’s annual port festival – Hafengebustag. Encompassing 48 panels, across six pillars, the free exhibition will go on public display in Hamburg’s City Hall – the Rathaus Rathausdiele – from May 7-25 and is expected to be seen by more than 10,000 people.
The Beatles section features historic elements such as the only Lennon and McCartney letter in existence, the first photograph of John, Paul and George performing together, a photo of their first gig in Hamburg as well as an insight into how they had started to feel like stars and how they secured their first recording contract.
...The timing of the exhibition is apposite, given Hamburg is currently hosting the filming of a new six-part TV series looking at this very period, entitled Hamburg Days, with the Mayors of Hamburg and Liverpool City Region visiting the set the day before the exhibition is officially launched on Saturday, 9 May.
Commissioned by the BBC, the series is based on the memoirs of Klaus Voorman, who befriended The Beatles when they first came to Hamburg and became a life-long friend. Klaus would go on to design the cover of the Revolver Album in 1966 and play bass on numerous Beatles solo records. He features in the exhibition alongside photographer Astrid Kirchherr who would heavily influence the look of the band and was engaged to original bassist Stuart Sutcliffe.
Letters donated by The Cavern, Mike McCartney and the Liverpool Beatles Museum reveal the thoughts of John, Paul and George at this hugely influential stage in their career, as well as those of Stuart and original drummer Pete Best, who was hired specifically for their first visit to Hamburg which had been organised by the band’s first manager Alan Williams.
The unique set of letters, which are also accompanied by rare photographs of the band from that time including their first night in Hamburg in August 1960, chart their rise from a fledgling skiffle group to a rock’n’roll outfit that famously performed up to 8 hours a night in numerous venues along the Reeperbahn in Hamburg’s red-light district.
Some pivotal moments for the band – and 20th century pop culture – are captured in detail, such as George’s letter to Cavern DJ, Bob Wooler in June 1961, where he explains how the band were signed up for their first record contract. The resulting single – My Bonnie, which has the band credited as The Beat Brothers, in support of Tony Sheridan – would eventually catch the attention of Brian Epstein, whose curiosity would lead him to The Cavern and becoming their manager.
The letters from Pete and Stuart are hugely poignant, for differing reasons. Stuart’s letter is written several months after he left the band to pursue an arts course in Hamburg. In a letter to Mike McCartney, sent in February 1962, he talks of feeling unwell but ends on a positive note about his plans to make a surprise return to Liverpool to visit his sister and family. Tragically, the visit never materialised as 21-year-old Stuart died just seven weeks later of a brain haemorrhage in the arms of his fiancée, Astrid, in their Hamburg flat.
Pete Best’s letter to his mum, in April 1962, is sent just days after Stuart’s untimely passing, but without the band knowing. Instead, Pete regales how he, John and Paul had felt like stars boarding their plane having been interviewed by a member of the press about the recent success of them being voted Liverpool’s No1 band. This third visit to Hamburg, in which Pete talks about their hotel and new venue they will be opening – The Star Club, is a far cry from their first visit in August 1960, when they had driven by van for several days and had to sleep in the back room of a cinema. Unfortunately for Pete, this trip to Hamburg would be his last with the band. Just a few weeks after returning to England to record their first EMI session with George Martin, in June, he would be sacked by Brian Epstein.
Paul’s letter – to his brother Mike – is unique as it also features a message from John, making it the only Lennon-McCartney letter in existence. This letter, written in May 1962, gives an insight in to Hamburg’s flourishing live music scene, with Paul revealing how they’ve been told that American rock ‘n roll legends Chuck Berry and Jerry Lee Lewis may soon be visiting the city, and how Paul hopes The Beatles can perform with Chuck. Paul also reflects on a visit to Astrid’s house, just weeks after Stuart’s passing, and how the band have photos by her and Stuart on their walls. He also talks about buying a camera similar to one Astrid owns, further underlining her influence having famously cut Stuart’s hair to the mop-top style, which led the band – except Pete – to follow suit and which the world would first recognise them.
John’s contribution to the letter is a revealing insight into his lyrical and surrealistic wordplay and humour as well as his irreverence for religion. His input, which is dictated and written down by Paul, starts with a whimsical poem about keeping your chin up and is signed off as St John, as if from a verse in the bible, but written from a purely fictional platform 9! He then commiserates Mike McCartney for not getting a job as a hairdresser, without knowing if he actually got it or not, and which ends with him referring to himself as Rod Lennon, from the aforementioned Platform 9. The letter goes in a similar vein for several more pages, with characters such as Jesus to F1 legend Sir Stirling Moss, all making an introduction!
Paul and John are photographed (by Mike McCartney) in the exhibition playing their iconic Höfner 500/1 violin bass and Rickenbacker 325 Capri guitars, both of which were bought at the Steinway shop in Hamburg. Paul’s famous ‘lost’ Höfner, purchased in the summer of 1961 after Stuart Sutcliffe left, is also the subject of a new TV programme after it was stolen in 1969 and eventually found and returned to Sir Paul in December 2023.
Liverpool City Region Combined Authority, which created the exhibition in co-operation with the Hamburg Senate, with support from National Museums Liverpool, The Beatles Story, The Cavern and The Stuart Sutcliffe Estate, is looking at options to bring the exhibition back to the region this summer.
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