News The deal that almost ended The Beatles before they had begun
In 1957, John Lennon met 15-year-old Paul McCartney at St Peter’s Church Hall fête in Woolton. The pair immediately founded a friendship steeped in a mutual appreciation of contemporary rock ‘n’ roll music; it was only a matter of time before McCartney was inducted into The Quarrymen, Lennon’s band before The Beatles. The pair soon discovered intense musical chemistry as budding songwriters, with Lennon inviting his new recruit to intimate bedroom jam sessions at his Aunt Mimi’s house.
In 1960, two years after welcoming the young lead guitarist George Harrison, The Quarrymen rebranded as The Beatles. Bassist Stuart Sutcliffe and drummer Pete Best rounded out the band’s early 1960s lineup. Between August 1960 and December 1962, this five-piece performed regularly in a thriving live music scene in Hamburg, Germany.
Although this fertile environment suited The Beatles’ lofty aspirations, it almost facilitated their premature demise. During the band’s first trip to Hamburg in 1960, they signed a contract to play exclusively at the Kaiserkeller Club. However, their ambitions soon led them to a lucrative opportunity with a rival venue which promised greater exposure and financial yield.
With youthful naivety, The Beatles entered into a concurrent agreement, disregarding their pre-existing contract with Bruno Koschmider, the owner of Kaiser Keller. Bruno, incensed by the betrayal, unleashed his fury upon hearing of The Beatles’ surreptitious endeavours. With the smell of vengeance sweet in his nostrils, Koschmider sought to sabotage The Beatles in the springtime of their career.
After informing the authorities of The Beatles’ contractual breach, Koschmider managed to get Harrison deported for being underage. Since the guitarist was only 17 at the time, he had unwittingly broken the law while performing in late-night sets. Meanwhile, Koschmider had McCartney and Best arrested on suspicion of arson.
The Beatles had been staying at accommodation managed by Koschmider but were asked to leave following the contract dispute. McCartney and Best decided to pack up their belongings in the dead of night when they required a flame to light their way. In Anthology, McCartney revealed that they stuck a condom on the wall and set it alight for japes. However, it seems a more functional, controlled fire was also lit.
Koschmider, seeing singed condom marks on his walls as salt in the wound, reported a case of arson to the Hamburg police. “He’d told them that we’d tried to burn his place down, and they said, ‘Leave, please. Thank you very much, but we don’t want you to burn our German houses,’” McCartney recalled in Barry Miles’ Many Years from Now. “Funny, really, because we couldn’t have burned the place even if we had gallons of petrol — it was made of stone.”
Following vain attempts at mitigation, the authorities detained the pair overnight before arranging for their deportation. With McCartney and Best escorted out of the country, Lennon and Sutcliffe were the only remaining Beatles on German soil. Lennon returned to the UK ten days later of his own accord, while Sutcliffe remained until early 1961.
Though their initial visit ended in disgrace, The Beatles regrouped in the spring, once Harrison had turned 18 and the deportation fees for McCartney and Best were settled, embarking on another, more successful Hamburg campaign. This return proved instrumental in The Beatles’ early rise to prominence. After installing themselves at the prestigious Top Ten Club, the famous German bandleader Bert Kaempfert signed The Beatles to perform as Tony Sheridan’s backing band on his 1962 record My Bonnie.
The sessions, taking place in June 1961, gave the Beatles one of their earliest studio experiences, during which they recorded several tracks with Sheridan, and ‘Ain’t She Sweet’ and ‘Cry for a Shadow’ for themselves. These two songs and Sheridan’s ‘My Bonnie’ were released on Anthology 1 in 1995.
Listen to Tony Sheridan’s ‘My Bonnie’ below.
