Beatles book author, Thorsten Knublauch has graciously written his experiences with the Beatles in person q for this blog. Thorsten has written some excellent Beatle books including one of my favorites about the Beatles 1966 tour of Germany. Great stuff!
It is good to know that Thorsten is on the look out for Beatles in his area of Germany! I loved reading his stories and I am sure that you will as well.
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It is good to know that Thorsten is on the look out for Beatles in his area of Germany! I loved reading his stories and I am sure that you will as well.
As with every fan I always wanted to get an autograph of my heroes. I am a German Beatles fan since 1979 and I had to wait 10 years to see a Beatle in person. Since 1979 a lot has happened in my “fan life”. I have written for German fanzines since 1989 and I have published 3 books about the Beatles since 2008. I am specialist for the German Beatles history and my first book “Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand” (written with a friend) dealt with all German subjects from 1960 to 1970 and my other two books with the 1966 German tour. Those books lead to be invited by Mark Lewisohn to be the consultant for the Hamburg chapters of his “Tune in Volume 1” - what still is a great honour.
While writing this story I surprised myself how often I have seen a Beatle over the years since and what I have tried to get to them… I want to share my experiences with this blog but I can imagine that there are a lot of other people out there who experienced the same…
Paul attended a German TV Show called “Mensch Meier” in Cologne on May 18th 1989 to promote his “Flowers in the dirt” album. Cologne is a 1 hour ride from where I live. In the area where I live nearly everything takes place in Cologne as it is the kind of media capital. I queued for one of the 150 tickets a week before the whole night in front of the counter to be the second in the row… No one knew that there would be a concert tour to follow – as Paul paused 10 years with concerts and I wanted to grab this one off chance. When I arrived for the show some collectors told me that Paul had collected items for him to sign and they were just given back – all signed… My first chance passed. I was in the army that year and had to finish my job to get to Cologne afterwards.
In Dortmund, Germany I saw Paul at both of his shows in October 1989. I have seen him and Ringo a couple of times over the following years and it was always – “see the show and go home”.
I knew it was nearly impossible to get near the artists to ask them of an autograph on those concert days – at least I thought so. It was quite difficult to get the insider information where he might stay etc…
In summer of 1990 I was in Henley on Thames for a couple of days and tried to meet George. As you may know Friar Park has 2 gates – the well-known main gate and a back entrance gate – both secured with cameras. Over those days I walked a couple of times the one mile between the gates. Surely several of George’s people ask me to leave as this is not my business… One day I saw Dhani when he was being driven to school. While walking in between those 2 gates I could see (at the time) through the bushes to the main house. I saw a black Mercedes driving to the back gate. I ran and met the car shortly before driving off the main road. It was Ringos 50ths birthday July 7th 1990 and I did not met George – but Jeff Lynne… I had my “Nobodys child” MxCd with me that I bought a couple of days before in Liverpool when I was there for Paul’s Docks show. He kindly stopped the car, opened the window, signed it and told me that George was not home. I think he was - doing the final work on “Traveling Wilburys Vol. 3”. Unfortunately I haven`t seen him in those days.
On April 6th 1992 I attended the concert of George Harrison at London Royal Albert Hall. The story how to have bought the ticket and arrived there itself could fill a blog but I just want to tell that I sat finally in a box not far away from the box of Ringo and his family… The box next to me was filled with Mike Love, Alan Jardine and Bruce Johnston of the Beach Boys…. After I got the autographs of the “Beach Men” I went to the box next to Ringo and asked him“over the counter” if he could give me his autograph “as I came especially from Germany”. Ringo just answered quite rude: “I don`t care where you came from”. No one got his autograph that day. Two hours later when George’s set was nearly over I saw Ringo leaving his box. A quick shot and he went away and minutes later he was on stage with George. Even after the disappointment 2 hrs before I cheered for him – this was my first and last concert I attended with 2 Beatles on stage… A rare opportunity that still is my best Beatles-day. I later saw Ringo and George leave but there were no chances for autographs.
In 1990 I saw Paul in Liverpool and in 1993 during 3 concerts in Frankfurt and Dortmund but I tried nothing – autograph wise…
On April 30th 1998 I tried to get Ringo’s autograph another time. He appeared on a small TV show called ”Gute Nacht Gottschalk” in Cologne and it might be a good chance to get to him. I saw him in concert in 1992 (again in Cologne) but I only went to see the show. When he arrived (very early) at his hotel, I missed him as one of my friend wanted to drink a coffee first. We could have saved 15 hrs if we were there at the right time…. Ringo signed two autographs for other fans… After the TV show was over around midnight we waited at the back door with around 10 autograph collectors from the Cologne scene. He left the building saying “no pushing, be calm everybody will get an autograph”. After 8 or so autographs someone pushed and he stopped right away, dropped the pen and went in his car… I was left with my unsigned album cover – possible the only guy that evening… Surely the ones pushing had theirs so had my fellow and the coffee guy…. Shortly afterwards I bought from one of the hunters a signed photo that happened to be photographed for the local paper. Later that year I saw Ringo at two concerts in Germany but he entered the venues fast and did not sign at all.
In 1999 - after the death of Linda - Paul had his “Paintings exhibition” in Germany in Siegen. This is also a one hour journey from where I live and we drove there to see him arriving to the opening on April 30th. When he arrived – greeted by a huge crowd - he passed a group of fans where I was standing. There was no way to get his autograph and he did not sign anything on that day as he was “a painter and not a pop star on that occasion” he later said (and it was also written on a special sheet in the invitation cards for the grand opening)… You could buy instead signed art prints in the shop for 1.000 USD (they are more expensive nowadays). Surely we waited until the show was over to see him leaving. In between I saw someone I was involved in business and who was invited to the opening as he was responsible for the advert campaign of the exhib. He loosely promised me to give me his invitation card as a souvenir. I asked him for it when I saw him leaving as I don’t wanted to risk that he threw it away. His card was reading “Mr. X…. and wife”. While giving it to me he said: “Why don`t you enter the exhib yourself?” I said that those invitations are personalized and me and my fellow don`t look like “Mr. X…. and wife”. He said to go ahead and tell them that we are important etc. We tried and the guy at the door surprisingly let us in… We looked quite misplaced in our T-Shirt/Jeans outfit (my fellow wore a Ringo shirt) in between all those suits. We saw Paul’s kids James, Stella (who looked quite surprised to our outfit – no wonder) and Mary. We also saw Mike McCartney. Then we met George Martin and I talked to him a bit if he knew Paul’s paintings – he knew some of them… Same I did with Paul’s keyboarder Wix. Then we saw Paul who was talking to visitors discussing the exhib. A invited fan I know told me that he welcomed Paul and that he is in a good mood but does not sign today – don`t ask. I went to Paul and congratulated him shortly for his nice paintings and he shook my hand and said “Cheers, thank you.” Same did my friend. Wow – I can tell you he has small and kind of horny hands. Afterwards I heard from another fan who was there that you could talk to him long and serious about his pictures and that he would explain the background of certain motifs… I was too nervous to do more on that day… I also had inside the invitation card another invitation for a special dinner – but that was too much to risk. We left after around half an hour as we feared the whole time to be thrown out… Here are some photos taken by a another fan to illustrate the story a bit more… http://titan.glo.be/~kg001310/siegen.html
I saw Paul later in September the same year again in Cologne when he had a listening party for “Run devil run”. He did not sign at all that day and said to the press that he will never sign again as he did for 30 years now. Surely he did again weeks later – but not for me and my friend that day when we stood very near to him…
In 2003 I saw Paul in concert 2 times and wanted to try it again. In Oberhausen on May 8th2003 I waited at the back entrance gate and Paul passed by in a big white limousine and announced through the open window that someone would pick up things for him to sign. I never believe such stories. A couple of minutes later a roadie really appeared and chose a few things. I was lucky that he picked a photo that showed me in the crowd in Siegen in 1999 while Paul passed by. I had my “Abbey Road” album as well in hand but I had fear that the roadie would not allow Beatles products… My friend gave his “One” LP after me and this was accepted. After the sound check – after a long 1 hr or more wait - the roadie got back and handed out our items – signed… Very cool…
On June 6th2004 Paul played in the former East Germany in Leipzig during his Summer 04 open air tour. With a friend we wanted to try to get his autograph this time and we went to his hotel shortly before the show was over and missed the last encore. At the hotel were already a lot of fans queuing… Some roadies gave explanations what one could ask him to sign and what he would not sign at all (bootlegs or guitars). I think I was number 30 in the row. The chance was minimal. I never thought he would sign more than a couple of autographs. Paul arrived with the tour bus after 30 minutes and after a short while he left it and approached to the fans. He signed around 50 autographs I guess!! When I was in front of him I couldn`t speak or breathe… I got my tourbook signed – bought minutes ago – as I had no item with me. The autograph is quite a mess if you look at the large figure of autographs but ok – but I know it is authentic… No idea but perhaps Paul took the chance to sign for the first time for the German fans who previously were behind the iron curtain. For me it was a long journey but finally I had my autograph eye to eye after being fan for 25 years…
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The following years I tried it in 2011 at his hotel after a concert in Cologne but he was already at the airport – contrary to what he did 2 years before at the same hotel where he signed some autographs AFTER the show. In 2009 I stood with a Beatles-book I had written at the wrong hotel…. In Cologne it is impossible to get an autograph while he enters the venue so one has to try to find the right hotel… When Ringo played in Germany in 2011 we all knew he would not sign – so we did not try it… I never got my Ringo autograph eye to eye but over 15 years I got several items or autograph cards back by mail – what nor Paul or George did in those days… This year there is no concert in Germany – if he hopefully will come back in winter for shows I will surely try my luck again… Thorsten Knublauch www.bravo-beatles-blitztournee.de