'The Beatles are coming! The Beatles are coming!' While the chant will be familiar to any Beatles fan, there was a time before the band took the world by storm, when they were little more than an inexperienced, though talented, semi-professional group of musicians in dire need of practice. Their agent Allen Williams first sent them to Germany in August 1960 and through their experiences and difficulties in Hamburg, the Beatles not only became proficient musicians, but more importantly began to build the reputation that would eventually make them the most popular band in the world. The Beatles in Hamburg is the first detailed, objective analysis of the events and personalities that shaped the Beatles as performers, composers and musicians, and the role that Hamburg itself played in their remarkable story. Ian Inglis illuminates this obscure period in Beatles history, providing a revealing view of a crucial, formative period for the group. Written by one of the world's leading scholars of the Beatles and their music, the book will be of immense interest to fans of the group, as well as those interested in the history of popular music and the social history of the 1960s.