The Beatles And Tony Sheridan
No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VA… Read more The following three Lots represent the final three salary receipts from The Beatles 13-week engagement at the Top Ten Club in Hamburg, 1st April - 30th June, 1961. These three documents have not been offered before.
The Beatles And Tony Sheridan

Details
The Beatles And Tony Sheridan
A rare early musicians' salary receipt for The Beatles and Tony Sheridan for seven days' work at the Top Ten Club, Hamburg, June 10th-16th, 1961, the agreement written in German in an unidentified hand, in blue ink, on a loose page of cash book paper titled Musiken Rechnung [Musicians' Payments], dated 10.- 16.6.61, individually listing the five Beatles and Tony Sheridan in the following order: George Harrison, Paul McCartney, John Lennon, Stuart Sutcliffe, Pete Best and Tony Sheridan, and giving details of their matching salaries: 7 jage a 35.-=DM245 [7 days at 35 deutsch marks] less tax, giving a total per week for each of DM245, each paragraph signed individually by the recipient in blue ballpoint pen: George Harrison, Paul McCartney, JW Lennon, Stuart Sutcliffe, Peter Best and Tony Sheridan
Literature
M. Lewisohn, op. cit, 1992, pp.30-33 & 43

GOTTFRIDSSON, Hans Olof The Beatles From Cavern To Star-Club, Stockholm: Premium Publishing, 1997, pp.66-68

Special notice
No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis
Further details
Photograph courtesy of K&K Archives/Redferns.

Lot Essay

Although the Top Ten Club is not mentioned on this document, this salary receipt and those in the following two lots were found, along with those previously included at auction here, at that address, 136 Reeperbahn, Hamburg, in an accounts ledger, some years later.

The period covered by this receipt represents the Beatles' eleventh week of their gruelling 13-week engagement at the Top Ten Club. The hours were long and the salaries modest. According to the terms of their agreement with the club's owner, Peter Eckhorn, they were required to perfrom between 7.00pm and 2.00am, Monday to Friday, from 7.00pm to 3.00am on Saturdays and from 6.00pm to 1.00am on Sundays, with 15-minute break every hour. They also had their all-in accomodation thrown-in...dingy - old army bunk-beds in the attic four flights above the club... for 35DM [£3] per day. As with their first trip to Hamburg, this second engagement had an enormously beneficial effect on the group's performance and technique. As Mark Lewisohn remarked...13 weeks at the Top Ten club, playing a staggering total of 503 hours on stage over 92 nights...It was little wonder then that...their stamina and musical versatitlity improved dramatically as the visit wore on. When they returned to Liverpool in July they were simply untouchable.

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