‘I played with Beatles in Hamburg – they loved a drink and perfromed to gangsters’ | Music | Entertainment
Cliff Bennett said The Beatles stars ‘loved a drink’ (Image: Jonathan Buckmaster)
The Luger pistol that Gene Vincent was pointing at Cliff Bennett was real, but the rockabilly legendâs eyes looked colder and meaner.
âIâd walked into the dressing room in Hamburgâs Star-Club and the first thing Gene said was âWho the **** are you?â,â Cliff, 85, recalls. âThen he whipped out his gun and asked if Iâd been sleeping with his wife Margaret, although not so politely.
âIt wasnât exactly how Iâd expected my idol to be.
âLuckily Peter Grant [Led Zeppelinâs future manager] disarmed him and told him to sit down; I was shaking.â
Be Bop A Lula star Vincent later pulled the same stunt on Jet Harris of The Shadows.
Sixties legends Cliff Bennett & The Rebel Rousers, fondly remembered for Top Ten hits Got To Get You Into My Life and One Way Love, performed regularly at the Star-Club where they shared bills with The Beatles. But Cliff says the famous German venue was more villainous than glamorous.
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âIt stayed open until 6am and was heaving at weekends. We did two one-hour sets at night, one for a young audience and the later one for an older audience who were all gangsters. They used to send up trays of drinks with requests. It was a scary place, just off the Reeperbahnâ â Hamburgâs red-light area.
In his memoir, Cliff recalls seeing the waiters swindle customers. If anyone objected, co-owner Horst Fascher, an ex-boxer who had served time for manslaughter, would knock them out.
âYou witnessed things like that nearly every night. It was very violent.â
In 1998, Bennett backed George Harrison and testified against Fascher in the High Court, to stop the sales of bootlegs of live Beatles shows recorded at the club.
âThe Beatles were wild at the start,â says Cliff. âThey were good kids but they liked to drink. I was impressed by them, especially when Paul McCartney told me they were writing their own songs and played I Saw Her Standing There. I got on well with Paul.â
Macca loved Cliffâs soulful voice and the bandâs R&B prowess so much that he convinced Beatles manager Brian Epstein to manage them.
âI had respect for Epstein, he told it like it was. He took 25%, but for that he did everything,â says Cliff.
One night, Brian came into their dressing room in Essen, Germany, with Paul and John Lennon.
Cliff Bennett back in 1960 (Image: Redferns)
âHe said, âThe boys have written your next big record. It was Got To Get You Into My Life. John played it and Paul sang it. Even in its infancy, it sounded great. Paul said it was tailor made for our brass treatment.â
Epstein booked them into Londonâs Abbey Road studio to record it. âPaul lived nearby. He used to turn up to our recording sessions in pyjamas and a leather jacket and ended up producing it for us. It reached No 6 in August 1966.â
The Beatlesâ version appeared on Revolver that same month. A little later, the Fab Four were recording Sgt Pepperâs Lonely Hearts Club Band.
âWe were all at Abbey Road and Paul invited me to come to hear Strawberry Fields Forever. The door opened and Brian Epstein walked in. Lennon who was sitting with Yoko Ono turned and said, âWhat the **** do you want? **** off!â
âI felt sorry for Brian. He said to Paul, âIâll catch you laterâ and left. It was so embarrassing. John could be a nasty piece of work if he wanted to be.â
Cliff got to meet his rockânâroll heroes in Hamburg, including Jerry Lee Lewis, later a good friend. âThe only one I never met was Elvis.â
Rock n roll legend Bo Diddley borrowed Cliffâs rhythm section one night and was so impressed by their prowess that he had the second set recorded so he could tell his own drummer and bassist âThis is how youâre supposed to play!â
Clifford Bennett was born in Slough, Berkshire, on June 4, 1940, the third son of a steelworker father and a seamstress mother who were champion ballroom dancers. He grew up in Iver Heath, Bucks, before the family relocated to Shepherds Bush, west London.
Cliff, whose first musical influence was Lonnie Donegan, formed the Acme Skiffle Band at 16. His father suggested they get a residency at his local pub and within three weeks the place was packed. As rockânâroll overtook skiffle, they became the Rebel Rousers taking the name from Duane Eddyâs 1958 hit Rebel-âRouser.
By1961, theyâd wowed eccentric producer Joe Meek who co-wrote their first single, You Got What I Like, with Cliff, leading to an appearance on TVâs Juke Box Jury. Several Ready Steady Go bookings followed.
Starting out as rockers, the band branched into R&B and soul adding a brass section and covering James Brown numbers.
âOne particular fan called Reg would always help us with our gear when we played the Harrow Weald Social Club,â Cliff recalls. âSid Phillips, our tenor sax player, nicknamed him the Milky Bar Kid because of his glasses. He also told him, âDrop this and Iâll drop youâ.â
Cliffâs next band, prog rockers Toe Fat opened for Eric Clapton and Elton John at Chicagoâs Auditorium Theatre in 1970. âAfterwards Elton asked me, âDo you remember the Milky Bar Kid? That was me!â
Other fans included Deep Purple star Ian Gillan who spent decades trying to replicate Cliffâs tone in his vocals. In the foreword to new book, Cliff Bennett & The Rebel Rousers, The Whoâs Pete Townshend recalls, âThey were hugely respected, immensely tight and super cool â nobody could understand why they didnât break bigger.â
(L-R) Sid Phillips, Maurice Groves, Mick Burt, Cliff Bennet, Bobby Thomson, Roy Young and Dave Wende (Image: TV Times/Future Publishing via Getty Images)
It wasnât for lack of effort; the band played constantly, one night Leeds, the next Cardiff, travelling in a six-seater Ford Galaxie Cliff had bought from Lonnie Donegan. They broke into the university circuit, then dominated by trad jazz bands.
At one stage the notorious Don Arden, âaka the Al Capone of Popâ, wanted to sign them but Peter Grant advised Cliff, âHeâll stiff you.â Peeved, Arden refused to let Cliff backstage when Jerry Lee Lewis played the Ricky Tick club in Windsor in 1964.
âWhen Jerry heard about it, he came out without a shirt on and said, âIf Cliff donât come in, I donât go onâ.â Arden relented.
The book details the Rebel Rousersâ many personnel changes. Over the years, their ranks included Chas & Daveâs Chas Hodges, Frank Allen (The Searchers), Nicky Hopkins (the Rolling Stones) and Roy Young (Bowieâs Low album).
In 1968, the group â jealous of Cliffâs many European TV appearances â left him to form the less successful Roy Young Band.
Bennett formed a new line-up and was performing four shows a week for BBC radio shows until they played the Beebâs 1969 Eurovision reception at the Royal Garden Hotel, Kensington. âAll of the âgodsâ of the BBC were there, unfortunately they were sitting right under a speaker. First Sir Huw Wheldon and then Sir Hugh Fraser asked us to turn down the volume.â
But Cliffâs stand-in trumpet player told Fraser forcibly where to go. âThat was the end of my BBC career,â he says. âThey sent a memo banning us and we disbanded. I thought âThatâs it, Iâll have to get a proper job. Iâd served an apprenticeship at a foundry and hated every minute of itâŚâ
Instead, he joined Toe Fat, half of whom later formed Uriah Heep. Broken by management chicanery, Cliff released a solo album and then joined blues rockers Shanghai. Finally quitting the music business circa 1980, he formed a shipping company with his son-in-law.
Guitarist Mark Lundquist persuaded him to reform the Rebel Rousers in 1988. They played their farewell show at the Beck Theatre, Hayes, in 2022.
âI got fed up with the travelling, thatâs why I stopped,â Cliff recalls. He and Ann, his wife since 1961, now live in Somerset âaway from the hustle and bustleâ enjoying the company of their nine grandchildren.
Mark persuaded him to write his book â âI did the basics, then [writer] Gemma Barnes cleaned it upâ.
He has no regrets. âIâve worked with really nice people,â he says. âIâve met my idols and made good friendships. Iâve had my time.â
*Cliff Bennett & The Rebel Rousers â Pioneers of the British Music Industry is available from Amazon.