Some groups didn't go to Hamburg because they were horrified at the idea of mixing with gangsters and hood ums. Dave Lovelady grew up fast when he was there with Kingsize Taylor. "I hated the whole time I was in Hamburg. I was a young lad straight from school and I'd never even been to London. It was the biggest thrill of my life to fly to Hamburg, but it was like Blackpool if it had strip clubs everywhere. As we walked to The Star- Club, the doors burst open. A fella' came tumbling down the steps and the bouncers shot him right in front of our eyes."

them. He didn't stand a chance of getting them for that, but I was only holding onto them for sentimental reasons. The record was 'worth bringing out, and I wouldn't have allowed it if I felt that they were detrimental to The Beatles. The music was fine and the tapes had plenty of atmosphere. Admittedly, by the time the record came out, the quality had gone. The company had tried to improve the sound by mixing it on 36-track machines, when it should have been released as it was. That was The Beatles playing in The Star Club and it was a gem. We offered The Beatles 60% of the total take and they didn't want to know. No one was interested in the record in the way it was released and I made nothing out of it."

In January 1963, 'Mersey Beat' published another poll which had some startling changes. The Beatles were still No.1 but Lee Curtis & The All Stars (with Pete Best) were No.2 and Kingsize Taylor & The Dominoes were not to be seen. They played Liverpool early in '63 with a line-up of Kingsize, Bobby Thomson, Sam Hardie, John Frankland and Brian Redman, who was more a country drummer than a rock n roll one. Redman then joined Sonny Webb & The Cascades, who developed into The Hillsiders. Drummer Gibson Kemp and saxophonist Howie Casey joined The Dominoes for a two-year residency at The Star Club.

In September 1963, The Star Club published a list of the number of appearances clocked up by the various performers, and it's interesting to plot a Top Ten. Tony Sheridan is easily first with 394 appearances, followed by King- size Taylor & The Dominoes with 332. Then there's a large gap until we reach the German band The Rattles with 154. The Beatles come tenth with 79. The Star Club was dominated by UK performers and a postcard sent home by John Lennon in 1962 states, "All 24 of us sleep in the same room but we're English".

The Star Club also featured celebrity acts, who would appear for one night. Sam Hardie: "Everyone was looking forward to seeing Ray Charles at The Star Club. He was God as far as most musicians were concerned. There were six acts on the show that night including

Screaming Lord Sutch, who made a point of saying, 'It'll be a fantastic show tonight with me and Ray Charles.' He" was convinced that it was a double billing. Ray Charles went on stage about (Nine o'clock, did his show and vanished. Lord Sutch didn't get on until about five in the morning, when the place was empty ."

Sam Hardie also remembers the night Fats Domino came to town. "There was a song Fats Domino made called 'Dance With Mr . Domino' and, with our group being called The Dominoes, we called it 'The Domino Twist' and used it as our theme. We played it everywhere we went. All the Germans knew it as 'The Domino Twist' but they knew Fats Domino had recorded it. When Fats Domino was at The Star Club, they were shouting for him to do certain songs. He had a big band with him that was very well rehearsed and they could launch straight into them. When they shouted for 'The Domino Twist', he looked puzzled but I was behind his piano and said, 'It's 'Dance With Mr. Domino'.' I'd hardly got the words out of my mouth and he was playing it."

Little Richard was at The star-Club a little longer. Sam Hardie: "Little Richard used to hold revival meetings in his dressing room and we took the mickey out of him. I was interested in black magic and somebody told Richard that I could fly using rabbit skins. Richard told me it was bad to use black magic to fly. He also believed that Tony Sheridan lived in a tree because no-one would give him digs."

From time to time, Kingsize Taylor enjoyed taunting the Germans. Colin Manley, who was in The Remo Four and is now in The Swinging Blue Jeans, remembers one incident. "We were backing Teddy one New Year's Eve at The star-Club and he came out with one of Hitler's speeches. I don't know the exact gist but when they were in Berlin and surrounded by the Americans and the Russians, Hitler said over the radio that there were 80,000 troops outside when there were only 8,000. Teddy gave this speech out to a packed star-Club. The reaction was strange. We were expecting bottles to be thrown, but perhaps because of Teddy's

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