It was on this day, April 1st, 1961, The Beatles began a grueling three-month residency at The Top Ten Club, Hamburg, playing 92 straight nights. The group played for seven hours a night on weekdays and eight hours at weekends with a fifteen-minute break every hour. It was during this visit that Astrid Kirchherr cut Stuart Sutcliffe’s hair into the style destined to become known as the “Beatle haircut” which The Beatles later adopted themselves. In order to cope with the intense, unheard of schedule and along with the band’s penchant for party’s and pretty girls it was at The Top Ten Club where the band began their infamous association with drugs, of all kinds! During this 3 month stint, the band began their daily regimen of taking “Uppers” at night to keep them going, and “Downers” by day to get the little sleep they needed !
Jornalist and best selling author Malcom Gladwell chronicles these times in his 2008 best seller, “The Outliers” sighting this experience in the band’s life as essential to their later massive success !
Pictured above, the band’s classic Hamburg photo featuting 5 Beatles, including Pete Best on drums and Stu Sutcliffe on bass ! Just prior to Stu’s girlfriend Astrid, breaking out her scissors !
Yesh, Yeah, YEAH…
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Post Script : Didja ever play in a band ? Didja ever play THREE sets a night ?…
Welcome to The Malibooz 1964. The craziest part was that we were so anxious to play that we would only take 10 minute breaks between sets.