Neil masters photobombing in Germany

Paul Gets Back to the Passage

The German wave

Die Beatles in Yeah Yeah Yeah

Play fighting in Germany

50 years ago John Lennon wrapped up the scenes of "How I won the War" that were filmed in Germany.

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

Hamburg press conference 1966

The Beatles performed an afternoon and evening concert at Hamburg.   At this time, I am not able to tell the two concerts apart in the photographs, so I am going to combine the photos for one post.  

In between the two shows, a press conference was held.  It was at this press conference that John complained about the questions being bad....

Coming back to Hamburg

When the Beatles arrived at the train station in Hamburg at 5:30am at least 200 fans were there to greet them.   There wasn't much protection for them and the Beatles had to make a made dash to get through the mob of fans.

Two fans managed to get autographs (their names are Elke and Sonja) and a few old friends from their Hamburg days also got to see them:  Icke Braun and Bettina Derlien (who was wearing a blonde wig because she remembered that John liked blondes) spoke to them briefly and  were invited to join them backstage before the concert that night.

The Beatles went into the car that waited for them and made it to their hotel where they slept until about 1:30pm.   Once they awoke and had some breakfast, John was examined by a doctor for sore throat.  They then went to the balcony and made a 45 second appearance to the fans that had gathered on the street below.

The Beatles left the hotel and went to the venue.