In their early days, the Fab Four played countless shows overseas.
The Beatles, with their original line-up of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Stuart Sutcliffe and Pete Best, travelled to Hamburg, Germany in August 1960. There they would begin a 48 night residency at the Indra club.
No arrangements had been made in advance for accommodation, so that night they stayed at the club owner, Bruno Koschmider's house. The next day they were put up in the back of a little cinema, the Bambi Kino, at 33 Paul-Roosen Strasse.
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The room had been an old storeroom, and there were just concrete walls and nothing else. No heat, no wallpaper, not a lick of paint; and two sets of bunk beds, like little camp beds, with not very many covers. The room was also right next to the ladies toilets, which was where they had to wash.
After playing 48 consecutive nights with no time off, The Beatles' residency at the Indra Club in Hamburg ended on October 3 due to police pressure caused by a stream of complaints, mostly made by the woman who lived above the club.
George Harrison would soon be deported from Germany for being too young. On November 29 1960, Macca and Pete Best would be arrested on suspicion of arson.
BeatlesBible.com states: "It was dark as McCartney and Best gathered their belongings in the Bambi Kino. As there were no lights they lit an object – different accounts mention rags, a wall tapestry, or a condom attached to a nail – in order to see. There was no damage apart from a burn mark on the wall, and the fire eventually extinguished itself on the damp wall.
"Bruno Koschmider, however, was furious, and told the police that The Beatles had attempted to set fire to the cinema."
Paul McCartney said: "He’d told them that we’d tried to burn his place down and they said, “Leave, please. Thank you very much but we don’t want you to burn our German houses.” Funny, really, because we couldn’t have burned the place even if we had gallons of petrol – it was made of stone."
McCartney and Best were arrested, and spent the night in jail before being released. They were deported from Germany on the following day.
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