The Seniors were very popular at the club and Koschmider contacted Williams to ask him to send over another group. Williams asked Rory Storm & the Hurricanes, but they were already booked for a summer season at Butlin's. He next approached Gerry & the Pacemakers, but they turned him down. Almost in desperation he turned to the Silver Beetles. Their drummer Tommy Moore had left them; they had found another drummer, Norman Chapman, but after appearing on three gigs with them he was called up for National Service and had to leave. (He died in July 1955). They then approached Pete Best, son of Casbah club owner Mona Beat, to join them.

Williams intended to travel to Hamburg with his wife, brother-in-law Barry Change and an associate, Lord Woodbine. His prime mission was to get Koschmider to agree to him becoming sole booking agent for British bands for the club. Since the impecunious Beatles didn't have the cash to travel over themselves, he hired a mini-van to enable the entire party to travel together.

On arrival in Hamburg the Beatles were told that they wouldn't be playing at the Kaiserkeller. Koschmider had decided to turn the Indra, a small strip club in the unfashionable end of the Grosse Freiheit, into a music venue. The Beatles were to be the first group to perform there.

They were billeted in a dismal area to the rear of the Bambi-Filmkunstheater, a cinema owned by Koschmider, which only had three beds, although there were five members of the band. The accommodation was so dire that they asked Williams to talk to Koschmider and do something about it, but he never did.

In the meantime, they began to play at the Indra on Wednesday 17 August, 1960, playing four and a half hours a night for a total of 48 nights.

Koschmider was pleased with Derry & the Seniors at the Kaiserkeller, who were packing them in. Derry Wilkie, a black Liverpool vocalist who fronted the group, was a dynamic performer. Pete Best was to call him 'a showman extraordinaire.' Koschmider wanted the Beatles to entertain the audience and be more active on stage, so he urged them to 'mach shau', just like Derry Wilkie did.

The Kaiserkeller was doing so well that Koschmider decided to drop the interval where a jukebox played records and bring in an extra band, so he split up the Seniors and took Stuart from the Beatles to make up a third entity. The hybrid outfit comprised Howie Casie on sax, Stuart on bass, Stan Foster on piano and a German drummer.

Complaints from the police about the noise from the Indra resulted in Koschmider reverting the club back to a strip club and moving the Beatles to the Kaiserkeller on Monday 3 October where he had them alternate with the Seniors. The Seniors then left and Rory Storm & the Hurricanes, fresh from their season at Butlins, arrived to become the bill toppers.

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