Bored at a press conference

Stupid press conference

Raise your hand if you're Sure

A quick bite

Train of thought 1966

Photo by Frank Fischbeck 

Have a Banana!

Photo by Frank Fischbeck 

Invasion of Germany in '66

Stripped shoes and jacket -- it's George time!

A fan that meets the Beatles for Real in Hamburg in '66

I am out of town for the day and so I am having a guest blogger fill in for me.    I hope you all give Thorsten Knublauch a warm MTBFR welcome!    Thorsten is a long time friend of this site and has written several books about the Beatles, including one that I really enjoy about the Beatles German tour in 1966.     Thanks, Thorsten for sharing with us while I am out of town!   Peace and Love -- Sara S. 

The Beatles arrival for their Hamburg concerts during their German “Bravo-Beatles-Blitztournee” at a small suburb station in Ahrensburg on June 26^th 1966, a few miles outside Hamburg, is probably my favourite Beatles “event” ever.

The Beatles traveled by special train from their concerts in Munich to Essen (actually to the station in Mülheim near Essen) and overnight to Hamburg.  Having played two shows in Munich on June 24th, they were starting on June 25th at around 8.15 a.m. to arrive in Mülheim around 4.30 pm to play to shows in Essen.  After leaving at midnight they arrived in Ahrensburg around 5.30 a.m.

 The train stations were “secret” to avoid any trouble, but even the arrival in Mülheim brought at least 1.000 fans to the gates. Someone leaked the police plan to the press. The arrival in Ahrensburg was more secret and probably only a rumor among the fans but a few hundred fans were also there around the station and very few fans and several press were on the platform. Also on the platform were some former friends from their Hamburg days club days as Bettina Derlien and Hans-Walter “Icke” Braun. The security was nearly nonexistent. Only a few police officers and the Beatles entourage of Neil Aspinall, Tony Barrow, Alf Bicknall, and Robert Whitaker where on hand to protect the safe departure. 

As seen on the footage and photos, the Beatles had to run from the train to the entrance hall, talked for some minutes to the fans and friends and then had to run out of the hall down the small stairs through the waiting fans inside their car and off they went to their castle hotel in a little village nearby called Tremsbüttel.

I always liked the scene and the photos and still wonder how on earth this happened like this. What could have happened....? When I heard that my favorite photos came on the market I bought the negatives with copyright and an unpublished one to my collection of negatives from the tour.

I`d like to present my most favorite photo of that morning and probably my most favorite picture of the tour. It shows George and Ringo carrying their small suitcases and wearing their cool 1966 sunglasses being “photobombed” by a fan they knew a bit from their Hamburg days in the early Sixties. He is called Jochen von Bredow, was at the time a journalist, and could be seen in between George and Ringo wearing a sweater with a picture of the support group of the tour a German band called “The Rattles” from Hamburg. How cool is that…? I love the impression on the Beatles faces.

In between the two shows in Hamburg, Jochen von Bredow and many other friends from the old days managed to visit the Beatles backstage and can be seen on several photos where I show a few here.

If you are interested in the full story please check my video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfbkCP9HCvM.

I am planning to sell a set of my 4 new photos as shown here. Drop me a line to be informed soon. You`ll find my email address on my website www.bravo-beatles-blitztournee.de

Enjoy.

Return to Hamburg

The German wave

Leaving in the Rain

The Beatles left Hamburg for Japan on a rainy day, which didn't stop any fans!

Meet the Rattles

Before the Beatles left Hamburg on June 27, 1966, they stopped and had photos taken on the steps of the hotel with members of one of the opening acts on the tour, The Rattles.

The last performance in Hamburg

These photos could be from the afternoon or evening Hamburg 1966 concert

A little rest and relaxation

If all of the meeting with old friends wasn't enough, the Beatles also took a little time to relax backstage before the last concert in Germany.    It was said that people were calling the Beatles backstage nonstop and John ripped the phone out of the wall to get some peace and quiet.  Not sure how true that story is, but I could see it happening.

The Tubon

Paul (and John) played around with an instrument called a Tubon, which is a cylinder shaped instrument that had a keyboard on it.   Kathia Berger said that Bert Kaempfert brought it with him,  however it was Frank Dostal of the German Band the Faces that brought it.   His band had won a Beat Band contest in Feb. 1966 at the Star Club.   The winning prize was a guitar from George Harrison's collection signed by all four Beatles  (recently it has been discovered that the autographs are Neil Aspinall signatures and not really from the Beatles themselves).      I have read that originally the beginning of Strawberry Fields Forever was to be played on the Tubon.

What a difference 5 years can make

Another visitor was Peter Bruchmann who saw the Beatles perform at the Top Ten Club in 1961 and took a series of photographs of them performing.     He gave John and George a copy of their photos that he had taken, mostly likely the first time they had seen these photos since they were taken five years earlier.  

A meal with some old friends

After the press conference, the Beatles had a meal and got to talk and have photos taken with some of their friends from the Hamburg Days.    Those that were present backstage in 1966 were Icke Braun (and his wife at the time Evelyn Hamann), Bettina Derlien, Kathia Berger (who Paul always called "strawberry") and Jochen von Bredow.

Bert Kaempfert also made an apearance and there is a photo of him and George (reportedly from the June 28, 1966 issue of Bild magazine) was taken.  Paul spoke with him and congratulated him on his hit song, "Strangers in the Night."  Tony Barrow recalls John singing a line of the song to Bert, whereas Bettina recalled that John refused to speak to him.  

Paul and Kathina "Strawberry" Berger

John with Icke and Betty.  You can see Kathina's artwork in the background