Introduction: Hamburg
In early October 1960 Allan Williams returned to Hamburg to oversee the prolongation of the original contract between the Beatles and Bruno Koschmider of the Kaiserkeller. He was also eager to see how his latest export to Hamburg, Rory Storm & the Hurricanes, were getting along and maybe also to see if he could find more jobs for some of the other acts in Liverpool.

When Williams arrived in Hamburg, he was surprised to find that the Beatles had improved tremendously since he had last heard them. The long nights at the Indra Club and the Kaiserkeller, and the influence from the more experienced Londoners The Jets (which included Tony Sheridan) had turned them into, if not brilliant entertainers, to at least competent musicians. Rory Storm & the Hurricanes, who had replaced Derry & the Seniors at the Kaiserkeller earlier the same month, had also after a slow start begun to get the hang of things. They too, after a more luxurious time spending the entire summer at the Butlins Holiday Camp at Pwllheli in North Wales, seemed to have what it took to make it in the rough clubs of the St. Pauli district of Hamburg.

Akustik Studio - Studio Fur Tonband Und Schallplatten Aufnahmen
Whilst in Hamburg Williams arranged for a private recording session to be staged at the Akustik Studio. The Akustik Studio, run by a certain Mr. Breul, was a private studio located in an office on the fifth floor in the large seven-story high Klockmann House building at Kirchenalle 57, close to Hamburg's central station.

As lead singer Williams had picked Lu Walters, the bass player with the Hurricanes, and to back him chose John Lennon, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, the latter at the time still drummer with the Hurricanes. The lead guitarist at the session was either George Harrison or Ty Brien of the Hurricanes.

The session took place on Saturday afternoon, October 15 1960. Attending the session were, besides the participating musicians, Allan Williams and Johnny 'Guitar' Byrne of the Hurricanes. Whether Rory Storm of the Hurricanes and/or Pete Best and Stuart Sutcliffe also attended the session is not known.
According to Johnny 'Guitar' Byrne the Akustik Studio wasn't much better than the private studio Percy Phillips ran in his home at 38 Kensington in Liverpool, a studio both Johnny and the Quarry Men had visited on separate occasions in the late 1950s to make records.

Memories Of The Session
The first mention of the Akustik Studio session was printed in Mersey Beat, Vol. 3, No. 63. According to the article Allan Williams heard Lu Walters singing with the Beatles in October 1960 in Hamburg during an informal session at the Indra club. The article continues: "At the recording session, Lu recorded 'Fever' (Davenport, Cooley) with John, Paul and George but he had the drummer from his own group, Ringo Starr, playing with them. The next title he recorded was 'Summertime' (Gershwin) and he was again backed by the Beatles, who also played on the third disc 'September Song' (Anderson, Weill)."

When it comes to the question about which songs were recorded at this session the testimonies from those present differs. A brief run through of what has been said about the matter over the years is listed below:

Allan Williams: "Wally's (Lu Walters) favourite songs were 'Fever' and 'Summertime'...there were, if I remember rightly, four demo discs made by the Akustik engineers...I mislaid mine at a party, pissed again." (The Man Who Gave The Beatles Away, 1975).

Johnny 'Guitar' Byrne: "It was Allan Williams who wanted our group to record three songs with our brilliant vocalist Lu Walters: 'Fever', 'Summertime' and 'September Song.'...But Allan didn't think that our band was good enough and got the Beatles to help us...I sat there watching when in the end six or seven copies were made of 'Summertime'. (Beatles Unlimited, No. 84, 1989)

"...we went to this studio which was behind the station in Hamburg and they did 'Summertime', 'Fever' and 'September Song.'...Afterwards Allan said 'Who wants to buy the record?'...the sum total sold was six copies..." (The Beatles - From Cavern To Star Club, 1997).

Ringo Starr: "I recorded with Rory over in Hamburg. Somewhere out there is an amazing acetate which I'd like a copy of. We did 'Fever' and another track.' (Anthology, 2000).
George Harrison: "We also recorded with Lu Walters...He was a guy who thought he was a singer. He paid to have a record made of himself..." (Anthology, 2000).

Paul McCartney: "We helped out on a recording of 'Fever', with Lu of Rory Storm & the Hurricanes. That was done in a little demo studio in Hamburg..." (Club Sandwich, No. 72, 1994).

Comments About The Session
Neither the discs nor any original documents seem to have survived from the Akustik Studio session. This forces us to rely on the rather conflicting information given in hindsight by those present at the session, and the information to be found in the article published in Mersey Beat in late 1963.

Mersey Beat claims that three acetates, carrying three different recordings were made. This information has never been verified elsewhere. Instead, all other sources state that originally there were only one, possibly two recordings cut onto disc.

In principle, all sources accounted for agree that 'Fever' was cut at the session, but whether this recording finally made it on to disc is uncertain. The evidence that a version of 'Summertime' was waxed is much more substantial. The proof is a photo published exclusively in the US edition of the Williams/Marshall book 'The Man Who Gave The Beatles Away.' The photo shows a 78-rpm record with the words 'Beatles and Wally' 'Demo' and 'Summertime' written across the label.

Lu Walters told Mersey Beat in 1963 that he recorded a version of 'September Song' at the Akustik Studio session. Johnny 'Guitar' Byrne also backed up this claim. These claims remain to be verified by an independent source. The same goes for a claim made by Mersey Beat that a disc of this recording should exist, or at least existed when the article was published in 1963.

The 'B' side of the acetate contained no music. Instead it comprised commercials for goods sold by the Klockmann Company who had a leather bag store in the bottom floor of the building where the studio was located.

As opposed to the recordings of the Quarry Men and Byrne in Percy Phillips' studio in Liverpool where the recordings were made directly to disc, the Akustik Studio recordings appear to have been taped first before acetates were cut. The information given by Byrne about multiple copies being made after recording would support this theory. If this were the case, it might also explain why different sources disagree on the number of songs recorded at the session. Although Walters and the Beatles originally may have cut three songs, it is possible that not all of them made it on to disc.

Finally, there is in my opinion, no reason to doubt Byrne's claim that each of the participating musicians bought themselves copies of the disc/discs and that Allan Williams himself got one. This leaves us with six copies, of which not one seems to have survived.

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