Star-Club co-founder Horst Fascher, who booked the Beatles, dies at 90

Death and conflicting reports

Horst Fascher, co-founder of Hamburg's Star-Club in the Große Freiheit, died at the age of 90, NDR learned from the family circle. His brother Uwe Fascher confirmed the death to Bild.

“He fell asleep peacefully in the care home on 31 October.”

Reports differ on the place and day of death. DPA said he died in hospital after a long stay in a care home, while his brother's account places the death in the home. Some early reports gave a different day, but the brother's account names 31 October.

From boxer to club founder

Born in Hamburg in 1936, Fascher trained as a shipwright and boxed in the 1950s, becoming a Hamburg featherweight champion, according to Die Welt. In 1962 he persuaded Manfred Weissleder, owner of several bars and striptease clubs, to turn the Stern-Kino on Große Freiheit 39 into a music club. The Star-Club opened on 13 April 1962, with the Beatles on stage that first evening. Stern reports the band had signed a contract with manager Brian Epstein in January 1962 for a fee of 500 Marks per musician per week, and that they played the club 78 more times by the end of that year, according to the Hamburger Morgenpost. Fascher had first seen the Beatles in 1960 and was unimpressed, saying in a Deutschlandfunk interview:

“They're just too much racket for me.”

He later booked a long list of acts, including Bill Haley, Chuck Berry, Jimi Hendrix, Fats Domino and the Everly Brothers.

Brawls, charges and prison

Fascher worked as booking manager and managing director, and he helped remove unwanted guests from the club, according to Die Welt. The venue was already under police scrutiny, and Die Welt reports several bodily-harm complaints against him, followed by a prison term and a ban from St. Pauli. Spiegel, citing the authorities, wrote that 23 people were brutally mistreated at the club within four years. Police came to his door on 8 January 1964, and about three and a half months later he sat in the dock at the first St. Pauli trial, charged with dangerous bodily harm in eight cases. He was sent to prison in 1965, and after his release on probation he was barred from the Kiez. Die Welt also lists a earlier run-in with the law for bodily harm resulting in death after a brawl with sailors.

Vietnam, Lennon's dedication and later years

Spiegel reports that Fascher volunteered for Vietnam and returned in 1969 as a different man to a different Kiez. Stern reports that on 26 June 1966, while he was in prison for bodily harm, the Beatles played Hamburg and John Lennon dedicated 'If I Needed Someone' to him from the stage. In 1976 he opened Star-Club II at Großneumarkt, which never matched the original's success. Spiegel, citing the Hamburger Morgenpost, says he later lived in a care home in Marienthal, where his earlier flat was said to resemble a personal museum. A 2010 book about his life is called 'The Guy, who brought', and he titled his own autobiography 'Let the good times roll'.