As British rock chronicler Spencer Leigh puts it, the Beatles were a tale of two cities. The first, of course, was the town where they were born, Liverpool. Next came Hamburg, where their early sound was hammered out under the intense pressure of playing all-nighters in rough bars.
In The Beatles in Hamburg: The Stories, The Scene and How It All Began (Chicago Review Press), Leigh digs up memories and photographs from this crucial phase. The Beatles finally settled on their name in August 1960 just before setting forth to Hamburg. Their working hours were long and the conditions squalid, but the port city was hungry for rock'n'roll and British bands were in demand. The 1994 film Backbeat dramatized the story, but Leigh provides a page-turning factual account of the band's two-year apprenticeship in a succession of clubs. He also explores the backdrop to their early success in Hamburg's red light district of St. Paul, better known in those days for prostitution than beer.
