How I met Tony Sheridan and The Beatles
(story by
George Dankmeyer edited by Piet Muys and Cees Bakker)
 |
| Hamburg - Grosze Freiheit 1956 |
The famous Dutch impresario Lou van Rees offered the
Harry Bredow Band, of which I was a member, to play at the Blauer Peter club in Hamburg
during August, September and October 1960. The club was located at Grosse Freiheit, a
side-street of the Reeperbahn. This club was a so called Frühlokal, it was open from
04.00 PM till 10.00 PM. Mainly in that period Italian and Italian orientated bands were
contracted, because of the popularity of the style/genre. That means close-harmony singing
was obligatory.
Harry Bredow’s (vocals, guitar, piano) sidemen
were Rob van Kreeveld (piano- today jazz piano teacher at Royal Conservatory The Hague);
Wim Zuijdervelt (died April 2004 - trumpet, bass, vocals); Henny Heutink (deceased March
2000 - drums) and myself George Dankmeyer aka Giorgio Dareno (guitar, bass and vocals).
 |
Harry Bredow
Band at the Blauer Peter (Hamburg, September/Oktober 1960)
l/r: Rob van Kreeveld, Harry Bredow, Henny Heutink, Wim Zuijdervelt, George Dankmeyer |
Jimmy Ward (Irish, although he always tried to persist/convince his
Scottish origin/descent). Jimmy Ward sang the song
"At the End Of The Rainbow" very well; the man on the double bass: Tony
Cavanaugh (Afro American, ex- GI) had a good performance with :”He Ba Be Re Bop”
. Tony Sheridan's right middle finger was "stiff", I remember. These three
musicians played at Top Ten Club on the Reeperbahn, where there was much fluorescent
light. Our band was listening very often to them between 20 - 24 hours. And under such
circumstances you often hear the invitation: Just like to sing/ play a couple of numbers
with us?
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| Harry Bredow aka
Garry Brandy with his Framus (Hollywood) guitar. |
A German young man Horst Fascher (former
talented boxer), who worked in Top Ten and who was a former employee of club owner Bruno
Koschmider of Kaiserkeller's - kind of bodyguard of Tony Sheridan, once had the idea to
let play our band at Top Ten, in a change with Tony/Tony/Jimmy. As we were full of energy
we accepted the invitation, because we now also could play for a younger public. The
Blauer Peter public was more jet set-like, movie stars (Curd Jürgens, Hans Jörg Felmy
and more), sportsmen as Olympic 100 meter gold medal winner (Rome-1960) and world record
keeper Armin Hary, football players of HSV, airport flight crews, sailors and so on.
Digging in my memories I remember that Blauer Peter was also visited by a famous boxer:
Floyd Patterson.
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| Hamburg, Reeperbahn with Revuepalast Casino de Paris
and far left Hotel Menke Haus (July 1960). |
The Harry Bredow band (Blauer Peter
club) stayed during August to October 1960 at the Hotel Menke Haus, where another Dutch
band The Rhythm Stars played of which Harry Bredow and Wim Zuijdervelt were former members
; the band’s new name was The Atomic Five with Jan Smit (piano), Jaap Boogaard
(drums), Aat O'Well (sax) and two other musicians. The Atomic Five's shownumber was:"
Night Train" playing it on the dancing floor, lying on the ground etc.
Most of the time we had our meals (dinners) at an
Indonesian restaurant: Dewi, opposite to the hotel. The owners name was Moesi.
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| Harry Bredow Band with Moesi
from Indonesian restaurant Dewi as guestsinger |
Just for the record Tony Sheridan played a Fender
Stratocaster, Tony Cavanaugh double bass and Jimmy Ward drums. When the two bands played
together the sound was fuller because we were specialized in close-harmony singing. Tony's
repertoire was Elvis, but his success number was Summertime. With our piano player Rob van
Kreeveld they did a original version of Elvis' Lover Doll.
Because of lack of energy we played 10 or 14 days at
Top Ten and after that incidentally when there was a special occasion. Then by surprise
together with The Tony Sheridan Trio we were invited to play at the Club 99 in Bremen to
promote the 'Berlin Golden Boys & Gils Rock'n'Roll Team' for a live transmission of
Televison/Radio Bremen in September 1960. Tremendous success, music and show (lying on the
ground and more exiting movements). The offer
to make a record was cancelled by us, because we had to move to another club after the end
of our contract with Blauer Peter. Tony and his men later started to make records.
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| Henny Heutink
behind his Westend drumset |
Very actual in the hit parade was a new release of
Ramona (Blue Diamonds), which we never heard and when there was a special request for us
to play that number, so we played the old 3/4 version, ha ha. Another hit at that time was
: Wir Wollen Niemals Aus Einander Gehen, by Heidi Brühl.
Another band we met there was Rory Storm and The
Hurricanes (with drummer Ringo Starr). A typical rock 'n roll band in style of Tommy
Steele (who's brother Colin Hicks I played also once with, but that was pure incidentally - see further down at Mike Anoi). Rory Storm's band also played in the Grosse Freiheit (Kaiserkeller, a smaller
club).
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| Rob van Kreeveld
the piano man. |
Once an evening there were English talking guys with
Western outfit listening to us, presenting them as
The Beatles from Liverpool. They played at Indra and from August 1960 as second band with
Rory Storm in the Kaiserkeller. As they didn't earn so much money they offered us to buy
their cowboy boots, but we were not interested in that, instead of that we paid their
drinks and some more small things as a sandwich or so.
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| Henny Heutink (middle) and George Dankmeyer(right) together with a Dutch member (?) from The Atomic Five (Hotel Menke Haus -Summer 1960 |
But it was very friendly atmosphere. I myself met
Stuart Sutcliffe several times and then we walked up together, chatting about all kinds of
subjects and much about art. I remember that he sometimes said to me that "a
splitting headache was torturing him" or something similar. He told about his German
girlfriend, who was artist too? I once saw her at a distance with Stuart.
Remembering the time I'm sure that our band was the
first Dutch band which had a narrow contact with Tony Sheridan and the others and very
probably the first Dutch band who met The Beatles in their first line up.
 |
Henny Heutink
the drummer man
He later came back to Germany as drummer of The Black Dynamites |
After Hamburg we performed through Germany. Later
our band changed its name into Rhythm Sellers. We played the summer of 1961 in Sheherazade
(Scheveningen - The Netherlands). Harry Bredow left the band and in his place Leo van
Oostrom joined us. He was the first Royal Conservatory student on saxophone in our
country. He now still is a teacher as Rob van Kreeveld (our pianist) also is. Sometimes we
talk about our wonderful time we had at Hamburg. But it is 45 years back!! Henny Heutink
(drums) and Wim Zuijdervelt (bass, trumpet) passed away.
 |
THE RHYTHM
SELLERS (Sheherazade, Scheveningen - Summer 1961)
l/r: Rob van Kreeveld, Leo van Oostrom, Wim Zuijdervelt, George Dankmeyer aka Georgio Dareno, Henny Heutink |
I was born in Surabaya (1937) and lived near the house of the family Tielman (The Tielman Brothers). Studied at the RK HBS in Surabaya before I came to Holland in 1951. Then St.Canisius College (Jesuit College) in Nijmegen. Later journalism / communication / public relations/ government intelligence / jazz music.
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THE HURRICANE ROLLERS with Hawaiian dancers on stage in
Como, Italy (1960)
|
In 1959 I joined as guitarist the Hawaiian show of Miker Anoi aka Guus 'Broer' Arends (steeler) with The Hurricane Rollers as rock & roll band to make a major tour of Italy from 27 December 1959 to
20 March 1960. The Hawaiian band also appeared in a big show in Milan along with Shirley Bassey,
Colin Hicks (brother of Tommy Steele) and Eve Dancers from Paris all accompanied by a big band.
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MIKE ANOI
& THE ROYAL HAWAIIANS (Copenhagen - April/May 1961)
l/r (standing): Eddy Scipio, Mike Anoi aka Ir. Guus 'Broer' Arends, John Marjon.
Kneeling in the middle: George Dankmeyer aka Giorgio Dareno and left and right are two boys from The Beverly
Nicolls Show |
In the beginning of the year 1961 I played with the
Hawaiian band The Royal Hawaiians of Mike Anoi (steeler), and we made a trip through Denmark and Germany.
After that I was a member of the Italian band of Franco Betro and in the period 1963-1965
I joined the Indo-Rock group The Fire Devils.
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FRANCO BETRO Italian dance & showband late 1961 at Gstaad, Switzerland.
l/r: Secondo Neri (sax),| Gino Basanello (guitar), Franco Betro
(drums&leader), Mario Tremeschin (piano) and George Dankmeyer aka Giorgio Dareno (bass
& leadsinger). |
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FRANCO BETRO
Italian dance & showband at Biel (Bienne), Switzerland - February 1962
l/r (standing): Gino Basenello (guitar and bass) - Franco Betro (drums) - Secondo Neri (sax)
l/r (kneeling): Mario Tremeschin (piano) - George Dankmeyer aka Georgio Dareno (bass and guitar)
The Fire-Devils at the Pam-Pam in Scheveningen (Summer 1963)
l/r: Rein de Vries, George Dankmeyer, Don Hieronymus, Arnold v.d. Kloor, Humphrey Versteegh |
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THE FIRE DEVILS
with Tony Eyk (organ) at the Phonogram studio 1963
l/r: George Dankmeyer, Hans 'Jassy' Amo, Don Hieronymus, Tony Eyk, Hans de Koning, Mike
'Chiel' Nanlohy
THE FIRE DEVILS at Les Galeries, Schevingen (1965)
l/r: Hans 'Jassy' Amo, Don Hieronymus, Huib Liauw Goan Seng, Roy de Chauvigny de Blot, George Dankmeyer
(foto: Sam Patty) |
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| George Dankmeyer
(left) with Kalkurt Pesch, Kees de Wit and Rudi Pesch in the1950s. |
George Dankmeyer, The Hague 2005
All
pictures: George's private collection & all rights reserved.
George Dankmeyer was born in Surabaya July 18, 1937 and died October 10, 2017.
Homepage created by
pmouse 14-02-2005
