The Beatles: A group of rare photographs of the Beatles at Hamburg Airport,

2nd June 1962, Qty

Footnotes

Provenance:
According to the vendor, these photographs were taken by her aunt with a borrowed camera. Apparently her aunt had got to know the Beatles and had attended their final night at the Star-Club, at the close of their third residency in Hamburg, which ran from 13th April to 31st May. This added around 144 hours of stage time to their career, over 48 nights, with just one day off. Their arrival in Hamburg had been overshadowed by the news of the death on 10th April of their former bassist, Stuart Sutcliffe, aged just 21.

Also seen in these photographs taken on Saturday 2nd June are Gerry Marsden, who had taken the vendor's aunt to say goodbye, bouncer Horst Fascher and club-owner Manfred Weissleder. Paul can be seen holding a bunch of roses brought, it seems, by the aunt. Amongst the Beatles' new clothes they were taking home was Stuart Sutcliffe's art school scarf, the only item that John retained from his close friend's possessions.

The Beatles left on a mid-afternoon Lufthansa flight to London Airport and then flew to Manchester where they were collected by Neil Aspinall for the drive back to Liverpool. Just four days later they travelled to London for the historic recording session at EMI's Abbey Road studios.

Literature:
Lewisohn, Mark, All These Years Volume 1: Tune In, Little, Brown, London, 2013.