Who was ‘the teacher’?
In Hamburg there was a steep learning curve
“I was…intrigued to find out why a completely unknown disk had been asked for three times in two days… On Monday morning… two girls came in and asked for the same record.” Brian Epstein
The record was by a group called The Beatles. The name was vaguely familiar to Epstein, having appeared on local posters and in the pages of The Mersey Beat — but not in the list of currently available UK singles.
Only an obscure German release seemed to match what the girls had asked for. It was called My Bonnie and was by Tony Sheridan and The Beat Brothers.
Tony Sheridan began life as Anthony Esmond Sheridan McGinnity. His early life had many parallels with that of John Lennon. Both were born in 1940 and experienced early paternal abandonment. This emotional disturbance apart, neither was particularly deprived in material terms
Both attended prestigious grammar schools but essentially sabotaged the academic opportunities these offered. In their teens they shared a reputation for physical aggression and wayward behaviour.
It was Sheridan — he would adopt his mother’s maiden name — who experienced the most extreme contrasts. At one point his mother (an aspirant classical pianist) left him in the care of a children’s home. Later, she sent him to the City of Norwich Boys’ Grammar School, where his musical talent was recognised and nurtured.
Like Lennon, Sheridan, caught the skiffle bug in 1956. When his school skiffle group, the Saints, won a local talent contest, he promptly abandoned school and Norwich. Soon The fifteen-old was playing gigs in the famous Soho coffee bar the 2i’s.
In 1958 Sheridan first came to the attention of the future Beatles by becoming the first individual performer to play electric guitar on British television. By 1960 his Oh Boy! appearances had earned him a place on a UK tour featuring American rock royalty, Gene Vincent and Eddie Cochrane.
The tour (literally) rocked up in Liverpool and for the last night, April 16, in Bristol. After the show Vincent and Cochrane hired a car to take them to London for a night on the town. Sheridan tried to tag along but was perhaps too young and too far down the bill for such an honour. “Sorry, buddy, we can’t give you a ride. There’s no room in the car.”
Sheridan drowned his sorrows with his first bottle of whisky. The next day he learned that the snub had proved his luckiest break yet. The car had not reached the bright lights, crashing just outside Cheltenham. Cochrane was killed Vincent seriously injured.
Hamburg, 1960–61
In his telling, the tragedy does not appear to have affected Sheridan unduly. Other reports suggest that in the following months his already volatile behaviour ‘went haywire’. Bookings were drying up when he received an invitation to play in Hamburg, Germany.
In Hamburg, with its drunken sailors, gangsters and prostitutes, ‘haywire’ behaviour was less frowned upon — though even in this permissive environment Tony pushed his luck
Very soon ‘the mad Englishman’ was a major celebrity in the small septic pond that was the Reeperbahn club scene. That Sheridan was in situ was a major draw for The Beatles who pitched up in the port city a couple of months later. Within hours of his arrival, an awestruck sixteen-year-old George Harrison was having a guitar tutorial with the first ‘famous’ person he had ever known.
Though the same age as John and Ringo — Sheridan became a mentor to his Liverpudlian peers. Much more technically accomplished, he taught them key aspects of musicianship, song selection and stagecraft. He also was a role model for dealing with the less salubrious aspects of the club scene: including the use of amphetamines to deal with all night sessions.
During their second period in Hamburg, The Beatles began performing with Sheridan, who generally worked with pick-up bands. This undoubtedly improved their musicianship but there was a downside. The intensity of Sheridan’s approach exacerbated intra-band tension. This frequently erupted into fist fights.
Even during performances, Sheridan’s temper could not be held in check. He would regularly leap into the audience to take on patrons ‘looking at his bird’. That said, he did have a finely attuned antenna for which underworld figures to steer clear of. On one occasion he warned Paul against cosying up with one particularly dangerous individual.
Independently, Ringo had a brief unhappy experience performing unrehearsed songs as a Sheridan sideman.
Recording
Amidst the mayhem, famed producer Bert Kaempfert came to see Sheridan and The Beatles at The Top Ten Club. Impressed by the energy on display Kaempfert invited Sheridan to record a single for Polydor (Hamburg).
Early in the morning of 22 June 1961 the young English musicians trooped out to a suburb of Hamburg. Having stayed up all night, they were on what Sheridan called a ‘preludian high’ as they set up in a school concert hall.
At Kaempfert’s suggestion they recorded My Bonnie (with Sheridan’s arrangement). This was popular at the Top Ten and regularly sang in German schools. They also covered When the Saints Go Marching in and a couple of rock and roll standards.
Of the recordings, My Bonnie is the pick of a lacklustre bunch. The Beatles are in the background in every sense of a competent if uninspiring performance. Their sound is more recognisable on Ain’t She Sweet (recorded without Sheridan) is much clearer — but the outcome is unsatisfactory. It has a subdued, tentative feel — with Lennon seemingly unsure as to the best way to sing it.
In the week after the recording, the Beatles Hamburg era effectively came to an end. Stuart left and Paul switched to bass. Recording contracts were signed with Polydor (Germany) under the vague mistaken impression that Ain’t She Sweet would be released as a single.
The Beatles returned to Liverpool. Sheridan stayed in Hamburg but as Lewisohn suggests
His influence on The Beatles would endure…through his guitar techniques, his steely intensity and in John’s case the way he stood at the microphone.
That said, they were not entirely unhappy to be leaving the more brutal aspects of the Sheridan Academy in the rear mirror
Next Stop Vietnam
After their final Hamburg residency in 1962, Tony Sheridan would be forever linked to those of his ‘pupils’. This proved profitable enough during the Beatlemania period but ferociously independent he soon grew to resent his place in the shadows.
Their followed some career moves as unpredictable as his set lists. The most dramatic was a period of militant anti-communism, which found him joining the US army in Vietnam. At one point he was declared MIA, before he eventually reappeared in Germany.
In his final years, he became an avuncular guide his old Hamburg haunts — this mini-documentary provides a fascinating insight into an important but often overlooked character in the The Beatles story.
Tony Sheridan 1940–2013 — Sheridan tells his story for RTE here
