The Top Ten Club was a music club in Hamburg's St. Pauli district at Reeperbahn 136, which opened on 31 October 1960 and kept its name until 1994.
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In 1961, the Beatles performed 92 times at the Top Ten Club.
The Top Ten Club was a music club in Hamburg's St. Pauli district at Reeperbahn 136, which opened on 31 October 1960 and kept its name until 1994.
In 1961, the Beatles performed 92 times at the Top Ten Club.
At the beginning of the 20th century, Reeperbahn 136 was the location of the Grand Hippodrom and Café of Carl Richter [1] Later it was called Hippodrom [2] [3] and belonged, together with the bar, to Herbert Eckhorn. [4] In 1960, the heir to the hippodrome, Peter Eckhorn (* 12 February 1939 in Hamburg; † 19 May 1979), decided to close the hippodrome, rebuild it and reopen it with a new name as a music club. [5] The Top Ten Club was opened on 31 October 1960 by Peter Eckhorn and his manager Horst Fascher. [6] After disagreements, Peter Eckhorn separated from Horst Fascher shortly afterwards. Fascher then worked as a waiter in a restaurant in the Große Freiheit , where he persuaded Manfred Weissleder to turn the former Stern cinema into a music club, the Star-Club, becoming his manager. [7]
The Beatles, who until 31 December 1960 were under contract with Bruno Koschmider, the owner of Kaiserkeller, often visited Top Ten Club, where Tony Sheridan performed with his Jets. They also played together occasionally, which Bruno Koschmider found out about. On November 21, 1960 George Harrison was deported to England by the police, because at the age of 17 he was too young to work in a nightclub after midnight. It is assumed that it was Bruno Koschmider who tipped off the police because he was annoyed that the Beatles were unfaithful to him and wanted to switch to the Top Ten Club. Consequently, Harrison had to return to Liverpool. [8] [9] [10]
On 29 November 1960, Paul McCartney and Pete Best were arrested for attempted arson. They were said to have set fire to a condom when they packed their personal belongings in Bruno Koschmider's Bambi cinema, where they slept, to bring them to the Top Ten Club. [11] Best and McCartney spent three hours in the Davidwache Police Station, and were deported on 1 December 1960. [12] Lennon returned to Liverpool on 10 December, with Sutcliffe following in February 1961. [13]
The Beatles appeared back at the Top Ten Club with Tony Sheridan from 1 April 1 to July 1961; together they performed there for 92 nights consecutively. They were to play a total of 503 hours on stage, [14] playing seven hours a night and eight hours at weekends, with a fifteen-minute pause every hour. [15] Each member of The Beatles was to be paid 35 deutschmarks. [16]
Peter Brüchmann documented the Beatles' visit to the Top Ten Club in 1961, though his report did not appear in Quick until 1966. [17] Gerd Mingram photographed the Beatles by chance when he commissioned a trade union newspaper in the Top Ten Club. Some of the photos were sold in the mid-seventies to Paul McCartney for £30,000. [18] [ better source needed ]
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Since 1994 there have been about ten changes of ownership, and the club name has changed just as often. The names adopted were: MC-Music Club, [21] new Top Ten Club, Soap Opera, The Irish Harp, La Cage [22] (1997 to 2001), Titty Twister (a name based on the bar Titty Twister in the film From Dusk Till Dawn , from 2002 to 2003), [23] Golden Stars (2003), [24] Glam (2003 to 2005) [25] and La Rocca (2005 to 2006). [26]
Since 2008 the name has been moondoo, [22] and the operator is "Lago Bay Betriebsgesellschaft mbH". [27]
In 1994, the London Club Dome, in Tufnell Park in the London Borough of Islington district, was transformed into the Top Ten Club for the film Backbeat. [28]
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