By 1959 the band had found a regular gig in Hamburg, Germany and had a big following on the Reeperbahn. Well I am sure that you know where this story is going. By the time the five Beatles arrived the Tielman Brothers were playing rock n roll songs in both German and English. They had cut a record and they truly knew how to "Mach Schau." The bass player would frequently play his instrument with his teeth, the other guitar players would lay down on the floor and perform among other crazy things. The audience loved it!
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| The Tielman Brothers "Mach Shau" photo posted by Creative Commons law |
And the Beatles loved them as well. It has been said that Paul first saw the Hofner Bass being played by a member of the Tielman Brothers, which made him want to play one in the Beatles. George Harrison is quoted in Rolling Stone magazine when talking about his time in Hamburg about a great performer, "Andy, the Indo man," which was Andy Tielman the leader of the group.
All of this is nice and everything but then tonight I found this amazing photo. In the 1960 photo, the Tielman Brothers are performing in Hamburg and who do you spot in the audience? It sure looks like Paul McCartney and John Lennon to me! What do you think???
Edit: Alright---so I have been tricked and this has been manipulated to look like John and Paul were in the audience in the photo and it is not legit. I was fooled. I spent a lot of time making sure that the Tielman brothers really were in Hamburg at the same time as the Beatles and it never even dawned on me that the photo was a fake. However--I most likely believe it was made as a fan piece to show what it might have looked like because the Beatles DID see them in concert. Regardless of the photo (which I am leaving up), it is neat to learn a tiny bit about the other bands that were in Hamburg at the same time as the Beatles.
Sure they are! What a great photo, it looks like their final trip to Hamburg, december 1962. John's hair is a little longer though, looks like 1964,but surely is 1962.
ReplyDeleteSad to say---I have been tricked---everyone is telling me on facebook that the photo is a fake. John and Paul and have been added it after the fact. Boo!
ReplyDeleteStill it is sort of neat to learn a bit about a band the Beatles saw in Hamburg.
Couldn't you ask Paul abt this question?
DeleteCouldn't be 1960! The "Beatle haircut" was not in evidence that early. And suits? Not yet! Photoshopped, in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteis a photoshopped fake Lennon's haircut look like 1964 not 1960s
ReplyDeleteYes, fake, but only through trawling and testing do we find new facts and new tangents. Every so often gold shows up in the silt, but only after the kind of daily research this site puts in - - so keep 'em coming.
ReplyDeleteThank you Gary. I did research to make sure that the band was actually in Hamburg at the same time as the Beatles but it just never crossed my mind that someone would photoshop this photo. The site where this photo was found was not in English but I would guess that it was a fan with good intentions of making a photo of what it might have looked like if John and Paul were there. And they did a mighty fine job if you ask me! Even thought the photo itself is a fakery, I think it is still neat to learn a bit about one of the bands that played in Hamburg the same time as the Beatles. It helps us get a better picture of that time in their lives...and so I am leaving the photo up.
DeleteTielmans never have been playing in Hamburg. I played with Andy and asked him if he ever saw the Beatles during performance. His answer: PEOPLE say it....There is more info in the Dutch book Helden van toen by Harm Peter Smilde.
DeleteJohn his head is from the February 1964 US Arrived
ReplyDeleteYeah---we all know now. I was tricked. We get it.
DeleteOh and before you say it, Paul is from the 1965 Help performance he and John did in Austria.
DeleteThis is a photomontage.
ReplyDeletePaul photo was taken at the Hotel Marietta Austria, in 1965 .
John was photographed in the United States in February 1964 .
It's a nice photomontage. I wrote about it on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/notes/indischalbumnl/jungens-aus-indonesien/1065110276856446
ReplyDelete...and the original photo's can be seen here: https://www.facebook.com/leon.donnars/media_set?set=a.803226146430928.1073741843.100002306494750&type=3&hc_location=ufi
ReplyDeleteMy dad was with the Tielman Brothers in Hamburg and met the Beatles before they became famous, in 1959. This was shortly after the World Expo of 1958 in Brussels where the Tielman Brothers also played.
ReplyDelete