Hamburg Delight

How I met Tony Sheridan and The Beatles

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(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?

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.

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.

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.

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).

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.

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.

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.

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.

         

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).

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

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)

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

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