"All you need is Beatlemania"
Sixty years ago, in October 1963, mass hysteria ensued after a spectacular TV performance at the London Palladium by The Beatles, a band formed in 1960. A few months earlier, on March 22, 1963, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr had released their first number one album, "Please Please Me." With the single "I Want To Hold Your Hand" launched in November of the same year, their international triumphal procession began. The new musical virus, called "Beatlemania," infected musicians all over the world - including in the GDR. Everywhere in the country, guitar and beat bands were founded based on the Liverpool model
Guitar and beat bands were formed all over the country. The GDR record label AMIGA released three singles and one Beatles long-playing record in 1964/65. However, when Walter Ulbricht, GDR Council of State chairman and SED party leader, railed against the influences of decadent Western rock music on the young beat scene in the GDR in his speech at the 11th plenum of the Central Committee of the SED in 1965 and demanded, "... with the monotony of Je-Je-Je ... one should put an end to it," it came to an abrupt end for the time being. But this only fired up the musicians even more, because the Beatles had long since become role models and mentors for numerous bands in the GDR. Thus, the influence of the Beatles on the eastern rock landscape was soon indispensable. And even the "official GDR" developed a not so bad relationship with them over the years.
In this volume, music expert Wolfgang Martin describes how these developments took place and invited well-known artists such as Frank Schöbel, Dieter "Maschine" Birr, Toni Krahl, Thomas Natschinski, Arnold Fritzsch, Veronika Fischer and representatives of Beatles fan clubs, which also existed in the GDR, to talk about their experiences. It becomes clear: For most musicians and especially fans in the GDR, the Beatles had become immortal. And what began 60 years ago and revolutionized the world of popular music will remain important for generations to come.
Wolfgang Martin, born in Luckenwalde in 1952, worked from 1976 as a radio editor and presenter at the Voice of the GDR radio station , from 1982 as editorial director and from 1986 as head of the music editorial department of the youth radio station DT64 .In 1992 he moved to the newly founded East German Radio Brandenburg (now rbb) and from May 2003 until his retirement was head of music at Antenne Brandenburg. He published in numerous music magazines of the GDR , ČSSR and FRG and is the author of several music non-fiction books. Most recently published by Bild und Heimat: Wie die Westmusik ins Ostradio kam (2020) and Paradiesvögel fängt man nicht ein. Hommage to Tamara Danz (2021).