Buskin with The Beatles #117 - Along for the Ride - Barry Chang's Memories of The Beatles' First Trip to Hamburg

When, on Monday, 15th August, 1960, The Beatles left Liverpool en route to their first stint in Hamburg, West Germany, the five of them—John, Paul, George, Stu and the newly recruited Pete—were joined by five others: their manager/agent Allan Williams, Trinidadian calypsonian Harold Philips (a.k.a. Lord Woodbine), Austrian translator Herr Steiner, Allan’s wife Beryl… and her 19-year-old brother Barry Chang. 60 years later, Barry shared his memories of that fateful trip: in a van, on a boat and inside the Indra Club during The Beatles’ inaugural week there.

It was Barry who snapped the now-iconic photo of the travellers, mid-journey, posing at Holland’s Arnhem Oosterbeek War Cemetery, in front of a memorial bearing the legend Their Names Liveth For Evermore. Half of them have now passed on; he’s here to recount how his routine vacation became the stuff of legend.

The Music

• I’ll Follow the Sun
• The One After 909
• I’m Gonna Sit Right Down and Cry (Over You)
• Roll Over Beethoven
• Youngblood
• Ain’t She Sweet
• That’s All Right (Mama)
• Nothin’ Shakin’ (but the Leaves on the Trees)
• Catswalk

© Richard Buskin, 2026