Hamburg celebrate The Beatles 60th anniversary with Stream & Shout show
17 August 2020 at 9 pm (CET) streamed live from the Indra music club, St Pauli
On 17 August 1960, five young lads from Liverpool made their very first public appearance as “The Beatles” – live on stage at the Indra in Hamburg. In the following two years, they would lay the foundations for their global career in the live clubs of St Pauli, Hamburg’s infamous red-light district at the time. This summer, Hamburg will be celebrating the Beatles’ 60th anniversary with a dedicated event: the grand “Stream & Shout” show on 17 August 2020. The event will be hosted by Stefanie Hempel, Hamburg’s Beatles expert, who will be joined by friends from the music scene, celebrity guests as well as contemporary witnesses. Together, they will be presenting a unique rock'n'roll programme at the original venue, the Indra, to be enjoyed via live stream at www.stream-shout.hamburg. Hamburg’s landmark, the Elbphilharmonie concert hall, will also be joining in on the anniversary celebrations with a special live act.
Hamburg – where the Beatles story began
It was on 17 August 1960 that John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Stuart Sutcliffe and Pete Best first performed at the Indra music club in the legendary St Pauli neighbourhood. This was their very first official engagement as The Beatles, and some of them were actually still minors at the time. With only a few interruptions, the Liverpool band then spent two years in Hamburg, paving the way for their unparalleled world career. In Hamburg, the Beatles would spend more time on stage than anywhere else in the world – as part of 281 gigs, five engagements with four different live clubs, and with a total of 1,200 hours performing live at various Hamburg venues. With months of consecutive engagements and endless nights in the clubs of St Pauli, the Beatles swiftly turned into a professional live band. Hamburg is also the place where they met Ringo Starr, where they shaped their unique style and where they acquired their iconic haircut. Or, as John Lennon aptly put it, they “grew up in Hamburg, not Liverpool”.
Stream & Shout – the grand anniversary show streamed live from the Indra
On the occasion of the Beatles 60th Hamburg anniversary, Hamburg now invites Beatles fans from around the world to enjoy the Stream & Shout programme via live stream directly from the original location. At www.stream-shout.hamburg as well as on Facebook and YouTube.
Hamburg's Beatles expert Stefanie Hempel will be hosting the event on 17 August from 9 pm (CET) straight from the Indra in St Pauli. Together with her band, she will be presenting a unique rock'n'roll programme – including a recreated original Beatles set from August 1960 as well as some of the Beatles’ greatest hits and legendary songs. Performing fellow musicians at the Indra will include the Kaiser Quartett, Cäthe, Bernd Begemann, Jessy Martens, Billy King, Jimmy Cornett, and Michèl von Wussow.
There will be classic pieces and new interpretations alongside entertaining stories and anecdotes from the young Beatles’ wild years in Hamburg. Listeners can look forward to a musical discovery tour through Hamburg’s legendary St Pauli district and a big reunion of contemporary witnesses, former companions as well as fans and friends of the Beatles. Among them the Cavern Club in Liverpool, the US band Bambi Kino, Beatles expert Mark Lewisohn, and a number of surprise guests.
Hamburg's landmark, the Elbphilharmonie concert hall, will also be joining in on the anniversary celebrations: there will be a live stream from the Grand Hall prior to the Stream & Shout show. Starting at 8 pm (CET), a premiere honouring the Beatles, arranged by jazz pianist Julia Hülsmann, will be streamed especially for the occasion. She will be accompanied by Nils Wogram (trombone) and Christopher Dell (vibraphone).
As a hotspot for early rock'n'roll music, Hamburg goes down in international music history, and with the upcoming Stream & Shout show, the cultural hub in Northern Germany now invites people from around the globe to explore and celebrate the city's unique musical legacy.
