DM's Beatles forums

Solo forums => Fifth Beatles and the Merseybeat Scene => Topic started by: pc31 on October 22, 2008, 11:26:11 PM

Title: beatles at the top ten club........
Post by: pc31 on October 22, 2008, 11:26:11 PM
this maintains to be the beatles at the top ten club.....check it out...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8pFDm4ReW4&feature=related
i didn't want to just post the video but wanted you to see the whole page......
Title: Re: beatles at the top ten club........
Post by: Bobber on October 23, 2008, 07:20:27 AM
Not all pics are from the Top Ten Club I believe. The song certainly isn't.
Title: Re: beatles at the top ten club........
Post by: Ligger on October 23, 2008, 02:10:41 PM
That second trip to Hamburg is when I wish I could have seen them.

Everything seemed to have fit into place so magically.

Peter Bruchmann's photos capture the moment just perfectly.

Stuart had made his decision. But still sat in (it's weird to see two bass players on stage).

By July, 1961 they all had professional equipment and were able to play so many covers.

Cry for a Shadow still sounds fresh. Ain't nothing wrong with Pete's playing IMHO.

Title: Re: beatles at the top ten club........
Post by: pc31 on October 23, 2008, 03:07:43 PM
Quote from: 63
Not all pics are from the Top Ten Club I believe. The song certainly isn't.
i had not heard that recording anywheres else tho...i didn't believe it was from the top ten tho...
Title: Re: beatles at the top ten club........
Post by: BlueMeanie on October 23, 2008, 03:16:39 PM
f8pFDm4ReW4 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8pFDm4ReW4)
Title: Re: beatles at the top ten club........
Post by: cubanheel on October 23, 2008, 09:13:05 PM
Mmmmm .... those trousers .... so tight ... nothing left to the imagination ....
Title: Re: beatles at the top ten club........
Post by: pc31 on October 24, 2008, 12:59:02 AM
down girl...down!!!!
that is funny because they made fun of that very factor on the rutles....classic... ;D
Title: Re: beatles at the top ten club........
Post by: pc31 on October 24, 2008, 01:23:02 AM
Quote from: 483
f8pFDm4ReW4 ([url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8pFDm4ReW4[/url])

spoil sport!! ;)
Title: Re: beatles at the top ten club........
Post by: Bill Harry on November 06, 2008, 10:25:00 AM
Ricki Richards, a member of the Jets who died a couple of years ago, told me that the Top Ten club in Hamburg was named after Vince Eager's Top Ten club in Soho. He said that when they were in Hamburg, Peter Eckhorn had the Hippodrome on the Reeperbahn and when he booked them they suggested the name change. Allan Williams also named his club, ironically in Soho Street in Liverpool, the Top Ten. Howie Casey & the Seniors, who were the first Liverpool group to go to Hamburg, opened there and the Beatles were to follow on their return from Germany. However, the club was  burnt down. I wonder what would have happened if it hadn't - and the Beatles became the resident group there.
Here is my piece on Howie Casey's story:

Howie Casey is a Liverpool legend and his bands preceded the Beatles on a number of fronts. Under their original name of Derry and the Seniors they were the first Liverpool group to go to Hamburg and as Howie Casey & the Seniors the first Mersey band to make a record in their own right.

Born 12 July 1937, Howie started playing saxophone because he liked jazz and decided to pursue a career in music by signing with the King
Title: Re: beatles at the top ten club........
Post by: pc31 on November 06, 2008, 11:07:07 AM
great piece of history there mr bill thanks for sharing...
Title: Re: beatles at the top ten club........
Post by: Ged on November 06, 2008, 11:12:42 AM
That was a great read Bill. Thanks very much. I'm interested in where Allan Williams' Top Ten club was in Soho street though as i'm from around that way, do you know what number/which side it was on as the tenements with the shops under them ran almost the length of one side. I'll have to ask him if I see him falling out of the pubs off Dale street again. :)
Title: Re: beatles at the top ten club........
Post by: Bill Harry on November 06, 2008, 11:38:16 AM
I'm not sure. I'd have to ask Howie about that. In recent years when I've been around the area, it all seems to have been altered. Are the tenements still there? I do remember the area in my mind, although I can't remember any of the street names. I must admit that Allan has to be admired for the foresight in trying to begin a full-time rock and roll club in Liverpool in those days. To me, he was a great club owner and the Blue Angel was always one of my favourite clubs. Do you remember his other club, Maggie May's in Seel Street? He had me do a regular 'Bill Harry Guest Night' to ontroduce new bands. I also have warm memories of the Jacaranda.
Title: Re: beatles at the top ten club........
Post by: Ged on November 06, 2008, 11:52:29 AM
Bill. The tenements (we lived in ones just down the road) were all demolished in the 1980s, new housing being the reason for most throughout the city, however, where Soho Street tenements once sat, there now only stands a load of roughly landscaped greenery - all a bit lumpy and not much use to anyone - that area has been decimated.  I gathered the club must've been on the East side which is where some windowless, bland looking industrial type structures existed until they too bit the dust.

Yes, Allan does have to be admired for being in the thick of getting some venues and groups off the ground back then, and yourself too for starting Merseybeat and Bob too of course for his DJ/Comparing - it must've been a great old time, i'm just glad to be conversing with another legend. Well done.
Title: Re: beatles at the top ten club........
Post by: Bill Harry on November 06, 2008, 12:32:35 PM
I did go out with a girl from the tenements by Soho street called Gertie Collins. She had a brother John Collins and I always remember his dream was to make a name for himself and come back in a big posh car to drive around the area to show people he'd made it!
Title: Re: beatles at the top ten club........
Post by: beatman on November 06, 2008, 06:46:00 PM
you've got two different eras in those photos, i reckon. the ones where they are wearing lighter clothes (and look a good deal younger too -- it's funny how they can grow up so much in a single year) are from their Indra and Kaiserkeller days in 1960
Title: Re: beatles at the top ten club........
Post by: alexis on November 06, 2008, 08:16:14 PM
One thing I never really understood - especially in the days when they weren't really "anybody", why were so many photos taken of them? For example, the Indra and Kaiserkellar days - so many pics for a bunch of young kids that probably weren't all that good.

Was Hamburg just a shutter-happy town, and if one of the other groups had made it big, we'd all be looking at extremely early photos of them instead?
Title: Re: beatles at the top ten club........
Post by: BlueMeanie on November 06, 2008, 08:32:24 PM
Quote from: 568
One thing I never really understood - especially in the days when they weren't really "anybody", why were so many photos taken of them? For example, the Indra and Kaiserkellar days - so many pics for a bunch of young kids that probably weren't all that good.

Was Hamburg just a shutter-happy town, and if one of the other groups had made it big, we'd all be looking at extremely early photos of them instead?

That's a good point. The amount of photos of them in Hamburg is out of all proportion to the amount of time hey spent there. There aren't that many photos of them performing in Liverpool before they became well known. Maybe they were taken by 'official' club photographers? Or the Germans are just snap happy!
Title: Re: beatles at the top ten club........
Post by: Bobber on November 06, 2008, 09:46:16 PM
Quote from: 483

That's a good point. The amount of photos of them in Hamburg is out of all proportion to the amount of time hey spent there. There aren't that many photos of them performing in Liverpool before they became well known. Maybe they were taken by 'official' club photographers? Or the Germans are just snap happy!

Well, one German lady called Astrid Kirchherr certainly was snap happy! I think she photographed them a lot when they were in Hamburg.
Title: Re: beatles at the top ten club........
Post by: pc31 on November 07, 2008, 01:14:33 AM
i think sam leach photographed the prefame beatles more than anybody else....
Title: Re: beatles at the top ten club........
Post by: beatman on November 07, 2008, 07:31:05 PM
and also... it's a miracle they came out as good as they did. presumably the club was pretty dark, and there isn't even any blurring in them -- most of them are action shots as well.
if you tried to take a picture like that these days you'd probably mess it up.
Title: Re: beatles at the top ten club........
Post by: pc31 on February 04, 2009, 05:51:39 PM
spaking of larry parnes...http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/documentaries/50s_parnespeople.shtml
Title: Re: beatles at the top ten club........
Post by: Bobber on February 04, 2009, 06:46:59 PM
Quote from: 63

Well, one German lady called Astrid Kirchherr certainly was snap happy! I think she photographed them a lot when they were in Hamburg.

Jurgen Vollmer took a lot of these Top Ten Club pictures I think.