Kaiserkeller | Hamburger Musikclub

This guide to the Kaiserkeller in Hamburg is set in the autumn of 1960, on a stage built from planks laid across stacked beer crates, shared night after night by two rival Liverpool bands, John Lennon's group and Rory Storm and the Hurricanes. It follows their boss Bruno Koschmider, who prowled the cellar shouting mach schau whenever the crowd's energy dipped, pushing both bands to throw themselves harder into the show. Somewhere in those weeks the two groups struck a private wager over whose stage would give out first. Picture five hundred and fifty drinkers packed shoulder to shoulder in this cellar, barely looking up from their glasses.