Stuart Sutcliffe

Stuart's passion was Art, and then Astrid so he stayed in Hamburg, music was just what kept him tied to his friendship w/ John.

However John talked him into using award money to buy the amp the group needed! Stuart also purchased a bass to flesh out the band line-up and sound.

 

A guy puts on some sunglasses and that's all it takes for some of you to go "Omg he's so cool."
He never would have lasted 8 months into The Beatles rise to success. His heart obviously wasn't in it. And frankly, I think things worked out for the best anyway. Short of his premature death, of course.

 

Was that why, or was it because they had to be a five-piece band to get the gig in Hamburg? (They also had to supply their own drummer, that's how Pete got hired.)

 

He took one for the team, twice. By joining the band when they needed him, and then by leaving the band when they no longer needed him.

 

Stu may have been a good singer (I do not know) and he could have morphed into an energetic front man if given the chance, I suppose........

 

Yes but no. It's easy to be the coolest if you're the only one with shades. For me Macca is the coolest person in this photo.

 

Obviously John loved music more than Art, but he didn't leave his own passion for Rock & Roll after Stu chose to leave the group and instead paint and stay in Hamburg, John took a big break in 1975, - not after Stuart died. Astrid was still quite close to The Beatles through the big climb of music and fame.

 

I think most of the Stuart-couldn't-play-and-turned-his-back-on-the-audience thing tends to be The Beatles' memories of the Larry Parnes audition and subsequent tour of Scotland. He'd been learning bass for, what, three weeks at that point? But all those hours onstage at the Indra, Kaiserkellar, and Top Ten Club would have seasoned him in a hurry.

 

Clearly, Seth McFarlaine ripped him off when he created the baby character on Family Guy.

 

You're very picky, don't you?

 

Where is all of Stuart's original artwork these days? Paintings, drawings, etc. I would love to see them in an exhibition and I wonder why they are not in a museum or art gallery in Liverpool, London or somewhere else.

 

I'm sure Stuart wasn't feeling all warm and fuzzy being one of two bass players in the band.

 

It seems very few survive -- IIRC John owned two.

There's a full length BBC doc on Stu S if you need more info

 

I gues he would do what Klaus Voormann did later; design some covers of (Beatles) albums and stay an influence on Lennon's life....

 

Is it true that he sang 'Love Me Tender' at a few Hamburg gigs? Or was it just fiction specially written for the Backbeat film?

 

When I was a kid I heard rumors that Stu was tone deaf and that Pete Best was an upper class snob.

 

Was that photo taken just an hour before Stuart officially left the group?^^
Looks a bit odd that Paul chose to use his bass on stage, too, instead a guitar here.

 

She gave them their "mop top" haircuts, which arguably changed the world.

 

And tightened up their trousers too, which arguably changed the fate of the band ...

 

Yeah I knew that- meant more so did she stay in contact after they became famous? I suppose as Klaus did Astrid probably did too

 

Yes, Astrid always stayed in touch. For example, Astrid and Klaus vacationed with 3 of the Beatles (George, Paul, and Ringo) in 1963 in the Canary Islands:

 

Astrid also took this 1968 photo of George, which was part of the Wonderwall soundtrack album art: