| Beat-Club | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Genre | Music |
| Created by | Gerhard Augustin and Mike Leckebusch |
| Presented by | Gerhard Augustin (1965) Eddie Vickers (1965–1966) Uschi Nerke Dave Lee Travis (1966–1969) Dave Dee (1969–1970) |
| Opening theme | Mood Mosaic: "A Touch of Velvet - A Sting of Brass" |
| Composer | Mark Wirtz (theme) |
| Country of origin | Germany |
| Original language | German |
| No. of episodes | 83 |
| Production | |
| Producers | Radio Bremen, WDR (1969–1972) |
| Production locations | Bremen, Germany (unless stated below) Tiles Club, London (episode 11) Hamburg, Germany (episode 16) Marquee Club, London (episode 18) Berlin, Germany (episode 24) |
| Camera setup | Studio Hamburg |
| Running time | 30–60 minutes |
| Original release | |
| Network | ARD (Radio Bremen) |
| Release | 25 September 1965 (1965-09-25) – 9 December 1972 (1972-12-09) |
Beat-Club is aGerman music programme that ran from September 1965 to December 1972. It was broadcast fromBremen,Germany onErstes Deutsches Fernsehen, the national public TV channel of theARD, and produced by one of its members,Radio Bremen, later co-produced byWDR following the 38th episode.
Beat-Club was co-created byGerhard Augustin and Mike Leckebusch. The show premiered on 25 September 1965 with Augustin andUschi Nerke hosting. GermanTV personality Wilhelm Wieben opened the first show with a short speech. After eight episodes, Augustin stepped down from his hosting role and was replaced by British DJDave Lee Travis.
The show immediately caused a sensation and achieved cult status throughout Germany among the youth, while the older generation hated it.[1] The show's earlier episodes featured live performances, and was set in front of a plain brick wall. It underwent a revamp in 1966, when a more professional look was adopted with large cards in the background displaying the names of the performers, who now mimed to their hit records (the standard practice on most music shows from the era) in front of the studio audience. (A companion series,Beat Beat Beat, continued to run live performances.) Around this time, a troupe of young women billed the "Go-Go-Girls," were introduced to dance to songs when their performers could not appear.[citation needed]
In early 1969, Travis was replaced byDave Dee, ofDave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich. On 31 December 1969,Beat-Club switched to colour and again featured live performances, but without an audience. Dee departed in 1970, leaving Nerke as the lone host.
In the later years of its run, the series was known for incorporating psychedelic visual effects during many performances, many concentrating on images of the performers in the background. When the show switched to colour, the effects became much more vivid.
The Grateful Dead performed on the show on 21 April 1972, halfway through their European Tour (selections of which would make up the live albumEurope '72). The band played a shorter set than usual, but still included crowd favourites such as "Truckin'".[2] The set is believed to be the last professionally filmed appearance ofRon "Pigpen" McKernan, who retired from the band following his final gig at theHollywood Bowl inLos Angeles shortly after the end of the tour owing to medical reasons and he later died in March 1973. In 2014, the footage had its first theatrical screening in theatres across the US.[3]
In its seven-year run before being replaced byMusikladen the show featured artists such as the following:
Performances from the show were seen onVH1 Classic, and reruns air in several European countries. SeveralDVD collections have also been released.
 | This section needs to beupdated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.(October 2016) |
Beat-Club is now broadcast on Sunday afternoons between 1 and 3 pm as a weekly radio programme on Radio Bremen 1 and on a web channel offered by the radio station. The radio show is still hosted, rather nostalgically, by Nerke, reprising her role as presenter for the series.
The 2008Video on demand web portal launched forBeat-Club andMusikladen was replaced by aYouTube channel in 2010.
