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The Roadrunners
... back in Hamburg, 1999
In May, 1999, Pete Mackey returned to Hamburg for the first time in 35 years. He was representing the Roadrunners at the launch of a new 4 CD box set of Star Club recordings originally released on Ariola and now re-released by Bear Family Records. (More details of this on the Links page.)
The following photos and anecdotes will give you a flavour of Hamburg then & now. (So, OK, we lied about everything on this site being in black & white.) If you want to know where any of these places are, we have a Map (67Kb). Use your "Back" button to return to this page.
If things are taking a while to load, scroll down to the bottom of the page, where there's a nice anecdote from our friend Ulf Kruger.
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Arriving for the launch party in the Grosse Freiheit, just off the Reeperbahn. Pete Mackey is on the right, and on the left is Rick Hardy (aka Rick Richards) - formerly of the Jets and the first British artist of the rock & roll generation to release a German-language hit. At 65, he's still performing! Among the other British representatives were The Bobby Patrick Big Six, The Liverbirds and Tony Sheridan. |
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Beer Shop (aka Gretel & Alfons). Just a
couple of doors down from the Star Club. All the
bands used to drink here. Now, as then, there are
plenty of bars on the street which offer sex
shows, drag shows, etc. But this is a genuine
place-that-sells-beer and you are welcome (and
safe!) to call in here and sample the atmosphere
of those 60s days and nights. (It hasn't changed
a bit!) Just time for everyone to enjoy a beer before the launch party and catch up on the last 36 years! That's Pete (left) wondering how he got talked into all this by your humble servant on the right. |
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Grosse Freiheit 39. Nothing remains of the Star Club. It's commemorated only by this rather sad memorial which looks more like gravestone than a celebration. (Even sadder that it doesn't mention the Roadrunners among all the acts who are listed!) It was strange to stand there and watch the tourist groups passing by - not realising that, for two days only, they could have stopped and chatted to some of the acts who were there and playing the music all those years ago! Star-Club. Dies alles wurde moeglich durch Manfred Weissleder und sein Team: Horst, Pico, Hans und die vielen Anderen. |
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Hotel Pacific in the Neuer Pferdemarkt. The
Roadrunners and many other acts stayed here in
the early 60s. It's about a 10-minute walk to the
site of the Star Club in Grosse Freiheit.
(Slightly longer if you are staggering under the
influence of alcohol ...allegedly!) Just a few minutes north of here you'll find the Sankt Pauli Museum at Schulterblatt 37 - a small shrine devoted to the Hamburg scene of the 60s. Your chance to buy books, photos, posters and even a reproduction Star Club pin (which indicated that you were on the staff and not to be hassled if you went into anyone else's club). Our thanks to:
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Ulf Kruger of K&K Music Photo Archive, told us this tale: "I'm from a small town in Lower Saxony and, in the sixties, I was a drummer with a little 'Beat - Band'. A good friend of mine, whose father was the managing director of the local brewery, had a real tape recorder with one pre-recorded tape which I really loved. My friend didn't know who was playing on that tape (maybe he bought it with the second hand recorder). Anyway, I loved that tape & so I went to see him nearly every early evening before going to the pub. I had a listen to the tape and two (free) bottles of beer.
"My favourite song was 'You better move on'. I was a big Rolling Stones fan then and I liked that kind of material without knowing anything about Arthur Alexander or the other originals yet. I liked the voice on the tape much better than Mick Jagger's. But I didn't know, who the singer was. Now I know it was Mike Hart of the Roadrunners. And it was a great pleasure for me to help re - issuing one of my all time favourite recordings."
We are the Liverpool Roadrunners: www.liverpool-roadrunners.org.uk