Beatles First Live Gig Celebrated on 50th Anniversary in Hamburg
- Posted on Aug 18th 2010 5:00AM by Farah Ishaq
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Matias Boem
Named after the Beatles' notoriously rough accommodation in the German sea port city behind a cinema, the Bambi Kino band include Cat Power's former Dirty Delta Blues Band member Erik Paparazzi, ex-Guided by Voices guitarist Doug Gillard and Nada Surf's Ira Elliot. Lead vocals were tackled by Maplewood's Mark Rozzo and Elliot taking turns to faithfully recreate the Beatles original first night set list of rock 'n' roll and 12-bar blues covers.
Rozzo proclaimed, "It really is a thrill to play here. It was 50 years ago, right this very minute!" at the start of the band's two hour-long sets, adding "We're not doing too many Lennon/ McCartney songs tonight, we're playing what they played. We are huge fans of the Hamburg '60s sound."
In fact, just one Lennon/McCartney classic, 'I Saw Her Standing There' from their '63 album debut 'Please Please Me' made the set -- receiving loud praise from the sweaty full capacity Indra audience -- which included several Beatles fans who had seen the band originally at one of their almost 300 gigs between 1960 and '63.
Horst Fascher, the Hamburg club manager, credited with first bringing the Beatles to ply their music and practice their skills in the city, told Spinner at the anniversary show, "The show has brought back many happy memories, I loved the Beatles, I loved living with them, all the time I spent with them."
Comparing the Beatles' first live gig to the anniversary celebration, he noted that in August 1960, "Only 30 or so people were there, the club was nearly empty. They were an unknown band, an unknown name having not recorded anything. Also it was their first time playing with Best, they had not rehearsed at all.
"Bambi Kino's music is faultless, but the singing is not quite the same. The Beatles put such identity into their songs, whatever songs they picked. They lived the music full-time. They were the most ambitious band I have ever worked with," Fascher recalled.
Asked what had appealed to him about the then unheard of Beatles 50 years ago, Fascher said it was simply because "they were a different band, with a different look.
"They looked good too. All in leather jackets, tight pants and pointed shoes. The girls went crazy straight away, they were the ones that stayed for all of the early shows, even when the music wasn't always good. The boys usually left after a couple of songs."
Amongst the highlights of the 50th anniversary covers were Billy Fontaine's 'Nothin' Shakin' But the Leaves on the Trees,' the first Tamla Motown chart-topper 'Money (That's What I Want)' and the Wilbert Harrison/ Little Richard medley 'Kansas City/ Hey Hey Hey' which the Beatles went on to keep in their live set for their first UK tour in '63.
The billed two-part show ended with a bar-storming blues double of Carl Perkins' 'Honey Don't' and the Little Richard standard 'Long Tall Sally.'
Bambi Kino's 50th anniversary shows run each night at the Indra on the Grosse Freiheit, Hamburg until Aug. 20 and an album from the musicians' homage will follow, released by Hamburg's own Tapete Records.
The band, although only forming to pay tribute this week in Hamburg, have now also booked further gigs in New York and are thinking about touring Europe in the autumn as well as a return to Hamburg for the Reeperbahn music festival in September.
A variety of art and music shows and exhibitions are taking place across Hamburg this month, including live shows at the Beatlemania museum on the Reeperbahn, all celebrating the time of the Beatles in Germany before they left as world-famous pop stars.
- Filed under: Concerts and Tours, News, UK
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