The Beatles’ 1st Manager Was Convinced John Lennon Would Get Them Arrested Before Their Residency in Germany 

In the early 1960s, The Beatles cut their teeth playing a residency in Hamburg, Germany. The members of the band expressed how important their time in Germany was. It bolstered their musical skills and taught them how to be performers. Their first manager worried they’d be in legal trouble before they’d even had an opportunity to play a show, though. John Lennon’s behavior convinced him that they’d be arrested.

The Beatles played a residency in Hamburg, Germany

In 1960, Lennon, George Harrison, Paul McCartney, Stuart Sutcliffe, and Pete Best, The Beatles’ original lineup, traveled to Hamburg. They’d play for several hours a night, which helped them grow as performers. 

“We had to learn millions of songs because we’d be on for hours,” Harrison said, per the LA Times. “Hamburg was really like our apprenticeship, learning how to play in front of people.”

He said that they became united as a band through playing shows there.

“When we went there, we weren’t a unit as a band yet,” he told Guitar World in 1992. “When we arrived in Hamburg, we started playing eight hours a day — like a full workday. We did that for a total of 11 or 12 months, on and off over a two year period. It was pretty intense.”

Allan Williams worried John Lennon’s behavior would get them arrested

The band’s first manager, Allan Williams, brought them to Hamburg because he believed in their strength as a band, even early on.

“I had confidence in the band, even though they weren’t rated in Liverpool,” he told The Guardian. “It was mainly their personalities because most of the groups were a bit on the thick side, whereas they all had good educations; they were a bit posher and more articulate. So I thought, ‘No, I will take a chance,’ and that’s when I drove them over to Hamburg.”

Williams worried that Lennon’s behavior could have gotten sent back to England before they had the opportunity to play these foundational shows. Before they were even in Hamburg, Lennon was breaking the law.

“I took a wrong turning and we finished up in Arnhem in Holland,” he said. “We had time to kill so we went round the town center and into a music shop, and when we came out they were all laughing their heads off. I said: ‘What’s the joke, lads?’ and John pulled out a mouth organ — he’d stolen a bloody mouth organ! I thought, ‘Christ, we’re never even going to get to Hamburg, we’ll all be in jail.’ The first time abroad and he had the audacity to rob a shop!”

The Beatles were eventually deported from Germany

Williams’ fears weren’t entirely unfounded; the band was deported from Germany, though not because of Lennon. German authorities deported Harrison because he was only 17, not legally old enough to play shows.

Not long after, McCartney and Best landed in hot water, too. They nailed a flaming condom to the wall of the place where they were staying and used it as a light source. The owner wasn’t amused. 

“He’d told them that we’d tried to burn his place down and they said, ‘Leave, please. Thank you very much but we don’t want you to burn our German houses,'” McCartney said in the book Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now by Barry Miles. “Funny, really, because we couldn’t have burned the place even if we had gallons of petrol — it was made of stone.”

Though they didn’t get in legal trouble, Lennon and Sutcliffe left the country shortly after.