The Beatles live: last show at the Indra Club, Hamburg

Having played 48 consecutive nights with no time off, The Beatles’ residency at the Indra Club in Hamburg ended on this day.

It wasn’t the end of their contract, however – they were obliged to perform in Bruno Koschmider’s venues from 17 August to 16 October. They left the Indra due to police pressure caused by a stream of complaints, mostly made by the woman who lived above the club.

By this time The Beatles had performed live for over 200 hours in Germany, and were on their way to becoming a truly electrifying live act.

It was Hamburg that did it. That’s where we really developed. To get the Germans going and keep it up for twelve hours at a time we really had to hammer. We would never have developed as much if we’d stayed at home. We had to try anything that came into our heads in Hamburg. There was nobody to copy from. We played what we liked best and the Germans liked it as long as it was loud.

Bruno Koschmider decided to turn the Indra back into a strip club, and moved The Beatles the following night to the larger Kaiserkeller.

We were at the Indra for about a month, and then the club shut down and we moved into the Kaiserkeller, where Derry and the Seniors were. It was right at the time they were leaving. They’d finished their two months and Rory Storm and the Hurricanes were coming out.

The Kaiserkeller was great – at least it had a dance floor. And all the tables and chairs were located inside pieces of ship. The tables were barrels and there were ropes and nautical things around.