Who was/is Star-Club ? - CDs, Vinyl LPs, DVD and more
MANFRED WEISSLEDER AND THE STAR CLUB
When Manfred Weissleder opened the Star-Club on April 13, 1962, there was already a lively music scene on St. Pauli. Before the first English bands made guest appearances at the Kaiserkeller in 1960, it was Indonesian and Moluccan bands from Holland who presented their polished show rock 'n' roll in Hamburg's nightclubs. However, they were very quickly replaced by the rougher - and above all cheaper - groups from England.
The first were the Jets from London with Tony Sheridan on guitar. They were followed by Derry And The Seniors, The Beatles and Rory Storm And The Hurricanes from Liverpool, all of whom ensured that the British version of rock 'n' roll took hold and established itself in Hamburg's amusement district.
The first to earn money with the new music was Bruno Koschmider, who owned the Indra and the Kaiserkeller. But rock 'n' roll bands also performed at Studio X and similar establishments. The young restaurateur Peter Eckhorn hit the big time with his Top Ten Club on the Reeperbahn, which opened at the end of 1960. From the first day on, the place ran like clockwork and made Eckhorn a wealthy man with guest appearances by the Beatles and Gerry And The Pacemakers, as well as many other bands.
By 1962, Manfred Weissleder was already a successful entrepreneur. Born in Dortmund on January 29, 1928, he came to Hamburg in the mid-1950s to make a career on St. Pauli. In 1956, he started as a company electrician at the Tabu nightclub. Soon, however, he became active in other areas as well. For example, he tried his hand as an erotic film producer, which could be extremely risky in those days, but also extremely lucrative. On December 30, 1958, Weissleder ordered a Mercedes 190 D at a price of DM 9,950, and on January 30, 1959, a Mercedes 220 S, which he traded in a year later for a brand-new model in this class. He was doing well economically. In 1961 Weissleder bought a Chevrolet, in which he had a record player installed in 1962.
There was a reason for this, because in 1962 the blond giant with the appearance of a redneck and the progressive spirit entered the music business.
Of course, Manfred Weissleder was not unaware that people like Koschmider and Eckhorn were making a killing with the 'twist', as rock music was generally called in 1962 due to the huge success of the American fashion dance. Naturally, he was highly interested in cutting himself a piece of this cake. And the biggest one.
Chance came to his rescue.
Due to a requirement imposed by the building authorities, Weissleder had to create an additional exit for the stores he now operated on the Paradieshof, which leads off from the Grosse Freiheit. He succeeded in leasing the former Stern cinema on the Grosse Freiheit. Initially obeying necessity as a kind of further escape route. Now the task was to develop an idea to make money with the giant space. Horst Fascher, former waiter at Kaiserkeller, former manager of Top Ten and manager of St. Pauli star Tony Sheridan, helped him. Together they conceived the ultimate rock 'n' roll joint. A name was quickly found: The star that loomed over the cinema entrance to the Grosse Freiheit became the 'Star'. Stars had not performed on St. Pauli before. So Weissleder decided to bring real stars to Hamburg.
Horst Fascher, assisted by English singer/pianist and Top Ten veteran Roy Young as a talent scout, set out to procure artists for the new store. It was absolutely clear that the absolute local heroes had to be booked for the Star Club first. Tony Sheridan and ... the Beatles.
Both had a contract with Peter Eckhorn - Sheridan a written one, from which Weissleder got him out by paying the penalty, the Beatles only a verbal one, which their new manager Brian Epstein ignored in view of Weissleder's offer.
On April 13, 1962, the Star Club Hamburg, Grosse Freiheit 39, opened its doors. On stage were alternately Tex Roberg And The Graduates from South Africa, the English Bachelors (not, as claimed elsewhere, an Irish singing trio with guitars and double bass, but a duo that had already existed since 1958 and recorded 3 singles) and the Beatles, who also took on the task of accompanying Roy Young, the grand master on the piano.
Weissleder had managed to lure Roy away from the Top Ten with a super offer. He provided him with a grand piano with the name 'Roy Young' on the side. Further a white passenger car with white leather seats, which was to be worked off however by Roy with the star club. Furthermore he received a white stage suit and, of course, a better fee than in the Top Ten.
The Star Club was a huge success from the beginning. And its stars were the Beatles.
In the early months, up to eight bands a night took turns on the club's stage, almost exclusively English groups. However, time and again there were guest performances by American and English stars, some of them lasting several days, even several weeks. Apart from Elvis and the Rolling Stones, pretty much everything that had any standing in rock music was to make guest appearances at the Star Club in the years to come.
In the first years, it was pure rock 'n' rollers who satisfied the pent-up demand of young people addicted to this music. Gene Vincent, Bill Haley, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, Chuck Berry and many others brought to the enthusiastic teens and twens - the 'half-stars' - the sound that had been denied them for so long by the media.
The Star Club became their Mecca.
In the shadow of the 'Kings of Rock 'n' Roll', their crown princes developed, first and foremost the Beatles, who first conquered Hamburg, then Liverpool, then England, Europe, America and the whole world. With them their companions from the Star Club: Gerry And The Pacemakers, The Searchers, The Swinging Blue Jeans and many more.
By the end of the sixties, when the Jimi Hendrix Experience, Cream and many other 'progressive' groups were guests at the Star-Club, it had already passed its zenith.
Rock 'n' roll had become socially acceptable, thanks to the Beatles. It took place everywhere. Everywhere on earth, in newspapers and youth magazines, on the radio, even on television.
The star club was suddenly nothing special. The successful representatives of the beat jetted around the world, played for super fees in super halls and were no longer affordable for the star club.
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