The man who drove The Beatles to Hamburg

This month marks 65 years since The Beatles first played in Hamburg. Hear, in his own words, the story of their journey from Barry Chang – the man who drove them there in August 1960.

Full video transcript:

“My name is Barry Chang, and I was co-driver with Allan Williams when we drove The Beatles on their inaugural trip to Hamburg in August 1960.

I was a co-driver because of Allan Williams, the then manager of The Beatles, was the husband of my sister Beryl Chang, and I was on my holiday from work as a trainee civil engineer. So, I went along more or less as a summer holiday.

The plan for the journey was that we would all meet, it was the 15^th Aug 1960, we’d all meet outside The Jacaranda – probably around about 10 in the morning, which we did.

Eventually we all loaded up all our personal belongings, and all the musical equipment and speakers. And you can see that on some of the photographs that there are in existence.

From there, we drove down to London to meet Herr Steiner, who was going to be an interpreter for when we arrived in Hamburg. From there we drove down to – I think we stayed in Colchester for the night, which is quite near Harwich – where the ferry was going to depart from.

Early on the morning of the 16^th the van was loaded up from the quay at Harwich by crane and dropped onto the ship, and a long ferry ride to the Hook of Holland. From there we went directly to Arnhem, the Commonwealth War Grave Cemetery, which is actually in the place called Oosterbeek, which is near Arnham. Well, that’s where we paid our respects to the fallen from World War Two.

And from there we went directly to Hamburg, and we arrived in Hamburg I guess about 9 or 10 o’clock at night. And then met there Koschmider (owner of The Indra.)

© Barry Chang

Well, there are actually only three photographs in existence currently. The first one was of the minibus when it was first lifted from the ground to a height of about 6 foot. And in the bottom left-hand corner of that photograph is a side view of a profile of a person, which many people believe to be John Lennon.

© Barry Chang

The second photograph was the same vehicle, this time at height about to swing over onto the ferry.

© Barry Chang

The third photograph is the one that is probably, well, it is the most world-famous photograph out of the three, and it’s an image of most of The Beatles grouped around the cenotaph in Arnhem, the Commonwealth War Grave Cemetery. And a point to note on this is the inscription that they’re standing by reads “Their name liveth forever more.” So, how prophetic has that phrase become, the way things have turned out?

When we set off from the Quay at Hook of Holland on our way to Arnhem, the Commonwealth War Cemetery, I realised that there was nothing on the bus that advertised who was inside the bus, i.e. The Beatles. So, I suggested we stop at a newsagents, buy some Dutch newspapers, rip out uppercase letters that spelt The Beatles and stick them on the inside of the minibus on the windows. And this is what we did, and we used spit to stick them on the windows.”