Beatles 1960 Concert Sign with Rory Storm & Hurricanes, Pt. 2

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• published: 23 Aug 2015
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http://www.postercentral.com BE SURE TO VIEW PART 1 FIRST! With this video, I continue showing you an amazing Beatles Kaiserkeller street sign that dates from the band’s earliest days in 1960. I gave all the basics in Part 1 of my video; in this one, I go through the wording on the poster and translate the German for you. Hurricanes guitarist Ty Brian is the one responsible for saving this Beatles German appearance poster. It was found in 2014 in a trunk of his old memorabilia. Mr. Brian passed away back in the late 1960s, so it was his estate, and specifically his sister, who ‘liberated’ this poster to the public. Notice how club owner Bruno Koschmider’s name is plastered prominently on his Beatles 1960 event poster. He was clearly right in the center of the action. In fact, it almost looks like HE’S one of the attractions, not just the money man behind the scenes, which was his true role. If you have a white-paper Beatles Kaiserkeller concert poster, please know that it’s not an original… it’s a reproduction, guaranteed. It’s been reproduced (in much smaller size than the original door sign) so many times that some of them might even be decades old themselves. But again, the big key with a Beatles Hamburg window card is that it be hand-painted… anything printed, forget it. Now I suppose some unscrupulous types will try to hand-paint forgeries going forward, so be cautioned. There was a piece of this Beatles German poster board detached when it was found in a trunk decades later; it was in the lower left-hand area. You can see the lines where the piece came off, and then was gently reattached for the purposes of this museum-quality framing in 2014. As I speculate in the video, one has to wonder if this is the only Beatles Kaiserkeller placard that’s ever going to surface… in addition to the two larger, paper door signs. Pure speculation, of course, but one has to think the odds are pretty slim… who would save these, other than the musicians themselves? But if you want a genuine Beatles 1960 show poster, there’s not much else you can turn to… this is the only German stuff we know of. There’s a vintage photo of a “Silver Beetles” concert poster from a few months earlier in 1960, but who knows if one was ever saved; doubtful. Now if you’re strictly after a Beatles Hamburg in-person poster – if you’re really hung up on Germany - then maybe you can eventually land the orange Beatles Star-Club poster from 1962. But a caveat: that one’s been reprinted, and only about four years later (1966), so some of those repro’s look extremely old and authentic. Serious fans DO covet any Beatles German broadside, however, because as George Harrison once famously said, “We reached our peak [as a live band] in Hamburg.” That’s because once they got famous, of course, it was on the stage for 30 minutes, nothing heard because of screaming girls, and then off again. Not many hours of playing per night, like in Hamburg. This Beatles 1960 billboard measures approximately 19 by 26 inches, by the way, and yes was painted directly onto cardboard. It’s adorned with 10 nice little stars throughout, in both white and red paint. Interesting… 10 stars, and 10 musicians advertised (five in each band). Shooting this Beatles 1960 broadside for my video blog was one of the most thrilling hobby exercises I’ve ever undertaken. It’s very carefully preserved in a large, sturdy frame, which I cradle on my knee like a newborn baby. Notice how the venue’s name, “Kaiserkeller,” is plastered across the top of this Beatles Hamburg appearance poster. Translated to English, that literally means “emperor’s basement.” And then directly below that it says “Tanzpalast der Jugend.” In English, that would mean “dance palace of the young.” Hmmm… I wonder if the legal drinking age was maybe 16 at the time. Even if you’re not a poster nut, if it’s Beatles German concert memorabilia you’re after, there’s nothing else to shoot for… tickets were never used, and apparently neither were handbills or flyers. Fully signed pay receipts, executed once a week in the owner’s office, is about all one could strive to collect, but those are very rare and pricey, too. I wish this Beatles 1960 window poster had been printed in a small run… even if it were just 25-50 copies, spread around town to advertise the residency. Then collectors would have something more realistic to chase down as collectors… instead of just drooling over this almost-unique holy grail. This Beatles Kaiserkeller window display is discussed in great detail by me, Pete Howard, a Fab Four fan since ’64. I can be reached via either pete@postercentral.com, or on [805] 540-0020. To see a few more old Beatles gems like this, just romp on over to this page right here on my site, http://www.postercentral.com/beatles.htm