Star-Club 60 years anniversary

Star-Club in 1962. Scandinavian flags welcome sailors..

The time for village music was over when Star-Club opened its doors on Friday 13 April 1962. The club has legend status due to the many music pioneers and famous performers who visited the place. The first rock’n’roll wave was over in the US and American rock legends like Little Richard and Jerry Lee Lewis had to cross over to Europe to continue their careers, because there, rock survived and they could still draw large audiences.

Star-Club at night time during Jerry Lee Lewis’ concerts.

The Beatles also played at Star-Club several times that year, first with Pete Best behind the drums and later with Ringo as drummer. But by then, they were only there because of contractual obligations, now that their career had started to take off in Great Britain.

Colourised photo of The Beatles with Ringo on stage at the Star-Club in late 1962.

Wednesday, April 13, the 60th anniversary of the opening of the Star-Club will be celebrated in the nearby Indra Club.

The Star-Club itself burned down and is gone but otherwise all the other famous Beatles places are still in business in Grosse Feiheit, on the Reeperbahn and other places. The celebration takes place at Indra Club, where the Beatles started their Hamburg days in 1960. There will be talks with time witnesses like Horst and Uwe Fascher, Günter Zint, Tony Sheridan’s widow Rosi, Gibson Kemp and Mary Dostal from the Liverbirds. Live musical entertainment by Glaswegians The Poppermost and Hamburg’s Stefanie Hempel & The Silver Spoons. Admission at 18 and show start at 19:30. There is only room for about 150 guests at a time inside the Indra Club. Tickets are available from here.

Event poster

One of Hamburg’s Beatles guides Stefanie Hempel has announced that the Star-Club star from the original site has been preserved and will be on display at the Indra Club on the anniversary day.

Stefanie Hempel and the Star-Club star.

Your humble webmaster at the site of the Star-Club in 2010.

2 Responses

  1. RHWinter says:

    Thank you, humble Webmaster! 1962 is now SIXTY (!) years ago! That’s hard to imagine… Stefanie Hempel, by the way, is a great guide and knows how to bring the past into the present!

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