BE SURE TO WATCH PART 1 FIRST!

In this video, I continue to tell you about this fabulous early Beatles Kaiserkeller in-person poster from the fall of 1960.

In Part 1 of my video, I give a lot of basic background info about this poster and its origins.  In Part 2 here, I give still more pertinent info, including what all the German words on the poster mean.

This Beatles Hamburg show poster actually features SIX performing, important, full-time members of the world’s most famous band ever.  Can you name them all?

Naturally, there’s John, Paul and George; you also have Stuart Sutcliffe in the group; and you have Pete Best on drums. That’s five. Who’s the sixth? Why, it’s Ringo Starr, beating the skins for Rory Storm & the Hurricanes!

I love to point out the fact that this Beatles 1960 concert poster has 10 little red and white stars sprinkled throughout.

And guess how many musicians it was advertising? That’s right, 10… five in the B’s and five in RS & the H’s.  Pure coincidence, I’m sure, but a little bit of magic, too.

This Beatles German placard was painted skillfully using a bright yellow background, with red, light blue and black paints superimposed on top of that – plus a white cloud for Rory Storm and his band to sit in.

Rory & Co. were perceived as the headliners when this sign was conceived, but as anybody who was there can tell you, the Beatles rather quickly took over the spotlight.

If you’re a condition freak (and I’m not), you might have noticed a couple of missing notches on the left side of this Beatles Kaiserkeller window poster.

Some collectors would want to immediately fix those; they could easily be filled in and color-matched, becoming unnoticeable. But I, personally, like the way it was left unfixed; I like my vintage concert posters to look that way – old, used and vintage.

Did you know that this Beatles Hamburg broadside represents the very first time the name “The Beatles” was used on an advertising concert poster?

That’s right… in fact, they had only settled on their final name a few months before.  I’ve seen photographic evidence of a “Silver Beetles” concert poster from earlier in ’60, but this is the first with the name they finally settled on.

I like the way artist Erwin Ross equally spread out the color elements on his Beatles German billboard, seemingly giving about equal time to each of them.

And I love the way he chose blue color for both the all-important “Rock ’n Roll” and “und the Beatles” – the two most important sets of words on the poster!

It’s funny how neither he nor promoter Koschmider knew that they were creating a collector’s masterpiece with this Beatles 1960 window card. To them, it was a disposable nothing that could be thrown away the day after the final show ended.

But that’s what makes this hobby fun… all vintage concert posters were designed to last for just a few weeks, and then be torn down and thrown away.

It would be years before the world fully realized the long-term importance of a Beatles Kaiserkeller appearance poster.

Remember, when the group hit it big in 1963 (U.K.) and 1964 (U.S.), they were still considered just a teenage flash-in-the-pan… probably here today, gone tomorrow.  It wasn’t until beginning in the 1970s that their historical importance would really start to be appreciated.

It would have been awesome if they had made a Beatles Hamburg window display for either of the clubs the boys played at before landing at the Kaiserkeller in the fall of ’60.

They actually started off at the Indra Club in the summertime, followed by the more prestigious Top Ten Club, before moving on to the Kaiserkeller. There’s never been a trace, however, of any advertising materials involving the B’s from either of those first two venues.

The only way you could eclipse a Beatles German concert placard would be to find one advertising The Quarry Men – as you know, the group name which John, Paul and George used first.

They carried that name from 1957 through 1959, and played a lot of small, informal gigs around Liverpool, but there’s never been a poster spotted with that name on it. That would truly be a holy grail.

Which would you take, if you had a choice between a Quarry Men piece or a Beatles 1960 poster board?

A lot of collectors would opt for the Quarry Men poster… but then, you’d have to explain it to almost everyone who walked in your house and saw it, unless they happened to be rock historians.

Not so with this Beatles Kaiserkeller street poster. There would be little or no explaining necessary before people would suck in their breath and go, “Wow!”

It’s interesting to see the back of this Beatles Hamburg show placard. It looks very old and weathered, just like you’d want it to be.

Personally, I hate it when I get a vintage poster and the back of it is all clean & shiny, maybe even attached to a new backing board.  I like both sides of my poster to be vintage, even the blank back!

Should I apologize for taking two YouTube videos to show you this particular Beatles German event poster? No! I didn’t want to scrimp on important information, editing myself to down under 10 minutes.

This was not unprecedented… I’ve done two-part YouTube video blogs before, in fact several times.  If a poster’s too good, like this one, then I’m just gonna spread it out over two, and not shortchange you.

If you were able to secure a Beatles 1960 street poster like this for your collection, it would then be possible for you to have Beatles concert posters for seven straight years.

Because 1961’s are rare but much easier than this one; 1962’s are also very tough to find, but doable; and so forth, right up until they ceased touring in 1966.

Now that you know about this cardboard Beatles Kaiserkeller poster, you know that any paper one you’re offered is not the genuine article. That’s helpful to know.

It wasn’t until the Beatles’ February 14, 1961 show at the Cassanova Club that a paper concert poster was printed on a printing press. An image of that poster appears in several Beatles history books; it’s a beaut.

This Beatles Hamburg street sign managed to survive, undiscovered, in a trunk for 54 years before it saw the light of day. That’s amazing to realize.

It also makes you wonder how many other potentially valuable concert posters lurk in trunks, dark closets and storage areas that are even older than this one. How many Elvis posters from the 1950s?

Of course, almost none of them would be as cool as this vintage Beatles German concert sign. Because the Fabs are, of course, the biggest phenomenon in music business history!

But I’ve always pined for a 1954 Elvis, a 1920’s Louis Armstrong or a 1930’s Billie Holiday concert poster. Fat chance, but one can always dream!

But I digress.  This piece of Beatles 1960 concert memorabilia is the living end, and would reside right at the top of my want list – period.

It just doesn’t get any better than this. You can almost smell the German beer, hear the sailors fighting and see our boys up on stage, complete with Stuart Sutcliffe.

It’s been an amazing honor and pleasure showing you this Beatles 1960 street sign. I’m Pete Howard, and I can be reached through pete@postercentral.com or by phoning (805) 540-0020. And please always know that I pay the VERY BEST PRICES, period, for the oldest and coolest Beatles concert memorabilia.

To see a few more very early Beatles pieces – although not as early as this – just click on this page here on my web site: http://www.postercentral.com/beatles.htm