Star-Club

The Star-Club was a music club in Hamburg, Germany, that opened on Friday 13 April 1962, and was initially operated by Manfred Weissleder and Horst Fascher. In the 1960s, many of the giants of rock music played at the club. The club closed on 31 December 1969 and the building it occupied was destroyed by a fire in 1987. The address of the club was Große Freiheit 39 in the St. Pauli quarter of Hamburg. Große Freiheit is a side street of the Reeperbahn. The club had a capacity of 2,000 people, and cinema-style seating.

The club achieved worldwide renown through the performances of the Beatles, who played three residencies there between April and December 1962. An amateur tape recording of one of the performances (or parts of several performances) during their December engagement was remixed and released in 1977 as Live! at the Star-Club in Hamburg, Germany; 1962. The club remained a popular venue for British and American rock and roll acts through the mid-1960s; its success was such that it spun off a record label bearing the Star Club name that operated from 1964 to 1966, often recording acts who performed at the club.