Hamburg, August 17, 1960: Four young musicians from Liverpool take the stage of the small and slightly scruffy music and Vaudeville club Indra. On a side street of the notorious Reeperbahn, Europe’s most sprawling adult entertainment quarter, over the next two and a half years and 281 concerts, this was where The Beatles laid the foundation for the meteoric rise that was to follow.

The Beatles

Exactly 50 years later, the all-star band Bambi Kino, named after the infamous first accommodation of The Beatles behind the Bambi cinema in Paul Roosen Strasse, will bring pop history to life.

Comprising Maplewood, Nada Surf, Moby and Cat Power, the outfit will perform the original ‘Beatles 1960 Hamburg’ set on August 17, at the same venue half a century later.

Today, the chic north German port city is gearing up to mark the golden jubilee of its tryst with the Fab Four in glorious style. Beatles fans from all over the world coming for the 50th anniversary concert can retrace the quartet’s chemistry with the city and savour Hamburg’s new pop sound.

The Kaiserkeller, where The Beatles played after their guest slot at the Indra, today serves as a club, while the higher Grobe Freiheit 36 is one of the main stages of the Reeperbahn Festival, Germany’s biggest club festival.

The festival ticket entitles the holder to attend the weekly Beatles tour with musician Stefanie Hempel, who tells anecdotes from the Beatles era and sings Beatles songs. Also, the Beatles museum ‘Beatlemania’ at Nobistor 10 fills five storeys with exclusive Fab Four memorabilia, chronicling their days in Hamburg to the final break-up through a detailed presentation.