Sunday, August 1, 2010

After a hard day’s flight, Ali Khaled enjoys a weekend magical mystery tour around Hamburg’s fan-tastic new Beatles museum

In 1957, a chance meeting between two teenagers at a church fair in Liverpool would go on to change the face of popular culture forever.

The miracle of The Beatles remains in the fact that John Lennon and Paul McCartney ever met at all. In rock n roll terms it was Isaac Newton sitting under an apple tree, Archimedes taking a bath, Christopher Columbus going on a cruise and Charles Darwin befriending some animals in the Galapagos Islands, all rolled into one.

The clothes we wear, haircuts we sport and, above all else, the music we listen to today were all shaped by that getting together of the then  untapped genius of John and Paul. It was pop culture’s Big Bang moment.

But while many people would identify the iconic images of the Fab Four disembarking at JFK airport and screaming adolescent girls as the birth
of Beatlemania, they were in fact the climax of years to back-breaking hard work and punishing stage show after stage show.

Many of those career-shaping gigs took place in Hamburg, Germany. Specifically, at the infamous Reeperbahn Street.

Indra, Top Ten, Kaiserkeller, Star Club - these were the clubs on the Reeperbahn, where, in the early 1960s, the ambitious and starry-eyed young Beatles honed their skills onstage daily, sometimes for up to nine hours at a time, and from where they went on to conquer the world.

Hamburg’s influence on The Beatles was profound, and not just musically.

It was where they met German photographer Astrid Kirchherr who inspired their famous moptop haircuts and sense of style.

Where original founding member, and Lennon’s best friend, Stuart Sutcliffe decided to leave the band and get engaged to Kirchherr, and were he tragically died in 1962 of a brain haemorrhage.

It is also where The Beatles were transformed from boys to men.

On a recent trip, I discovered that while the Reeperbahn has been transformed from simply the street where money can buy you love, it continues to provide all things for all people; a surreal Alice in Wonderland experience for party-goers, a Disneyland for adults.

The Reeperbahn is the heart, if not the soul, of Hamburg. Despite being a mere ten minute taxi ride away, it is, spiritually speaking, (neon) light-years away from the leafy suburbs that was home to our hotel, The Intercontinental Fontenay.

But it is impossible to escape the huge influence that The Beatles still have over this city. To this day, Hamburg, thanks to The Beatles’ blueprint, remains one of the most dynamic music scenes in Northern Europe and a vital stop for many young bands aiming for superstardom. Thus the motto of the annual Reeperbahn Festival: “New International Music”. And now, The Beatles themselves have returned to their old stomping ground. Sort of.
A new museum, simply titled Beatlemania, has opened its doors to the public and promises to be a real magical mystery tour to the band’s - incredibly - still expanding fan base.

Visitors to Beatlemania, a stones throw away from the Beatles Square on the Reeperbahn, can relive the career of the world’s greatest group, from the early innocence of being the world’s first boy band to the psychedelia of the late sixties. With over 1,300 square metres, the exhibition has a lot to offer: A fascinating experience using extraordinary displays of original items and unconventional presentations of selected eras of The Beatles’ career - from the Hamburg days up until their break-up. Visitors can follow the footsteps of John, Paul, George and Ringo during their wild times in Hamburg, record songs at Abbey Road Studios, experience the madness of Beatlemania at its peak, and go diving with Captain Fred and the crew in the Yellow Submarine.

Of course the Reeperbahn has far more to offer than just Beatles mythology.

Pubs, restaurants, karaoke bars and kebab shops are never less than full on any day of the week.

Thai Oase, a karaoke bar just off the Reeperbahn, proved a particular hit for our party, some of whom earned instant cult status thanks to a few inspired, but mainly shocking, vocal performances.

After a hard day’s night of partying, you can wind down the weekend at Sunday’s Fish Market, where a feast of local dishes and the city’s finest ales are on offer from 5am until midday.

The market surrounds the city’s central hall, from where it spreads out along the banks of the river Elbe. It is one of Hamburg’s highlights and a must in any visitor’s itinerary and a perfect end to an action-packed trip.

Even after three days of exploration, we had only just begun to scratch the surface of what Hamburg has to offer.  But we still experienced more than many other cities would offer in a lifetime.

With a little help from our German friends, of course.