🎸 First chords of legend • 🎤 Beatles beginnings • 📍 Indra Club, Hamburg
In Hamburg’s red-light district, I stopped by the Indra Club, the smoky stage where The Beatles first performed on August 17, 1960. Back then, they played 48 nights straight, earning about 30 marks a night—barely enough for coffee and rent. Today, the walls are lined with photos of those early days, and the stage still hosts open-mic nights. The neon elephant logo is unchanged. Sitting there, drink in hand, you can almost hear Lennon laughing between songs.
Today, the Indra is still considered a medium-sized live club
The Beatles were contracted to play up to four and a half hours on weekday nights
Still alive as a live music venue
Their true first-ever live performance together (before becoming “The Beatles”) goes back a bit earlier — they played as The Quarrymen in 1957
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