1. Eric Ronald Griffiths was a British musician and dry cleaner, he was best known as the rhythm guitarist in the original lineup of the Quarrymen until he left the group in the summer of 1958.
16 Facts About Eric Griffiths
1. 2.
In 1950, the family moved to Halewood Drive, Woolton and at the age of 11 Eric Griffiths won a scholarship to Quarry Bank High School where he met John Lennon, Pete Shotton and Rod Davis.
3.
Lennon and Eric Griffiths attended some guitar lessons, but found it too slow to learn and dropped the lessons when Lennon's mother taught them to play easier banjo chords.
4.
Eric Griffiths befriended a novice drummer, Colin Hanton, with whom he would practice.
5.
When Lennon formed the Quarry Men with Shotton and Davis, Eric Griffiths was invited to add his rudimentary skills because he had a new guitar.
6.
Eric Griffiths left school in the summer of 1957 with GCE passes in English, Mathematics and History and became an engineering apprentice whilst continuing to play as rhythm guitarist while Lennon plays as lead guitarist in the band.
7.
The other band members decided that neither McCartney nor Lennon were suitable lead guitarists, so when George Harrison joined the band they suggested that Eric Griffiths buy an electric bass and an amplifier, but he could not afford this.
8.
Eric Griffiths was not invited to McCartney's house for the next rehearsal and when he coincidentally phoned them during the practice session, drummer Colin Hanton had to let him know he was no longer in the band.
9.
Eric Griffiths decided to abandon engineering too and he joined the Merchant Navy as a cadet navigating officer.
10.
Eric Griffiths continued to meet his old friends from the band when he was on leave but he lost contact with Lennon and McCartney after they first recorded with EMI.
11.
Eric Griffiths left the navy in 1964 and married Relda at Woolton Parish Church.
12.
Eric Griffiths spent the next thirty years working in the prison service modernising prisoners' working practices.
13.
In January 1997, Eric Griffiths returned to Liverpool to meet some of his former band members at the Cavern Club's 40th anniversary.
14.
Eric Griffiths then toured widely with the Quarrymen until his last performance at the SAS Royal Garden Hotel, Trondheim, Norway on 27 November 2004.
15.
Eric Griffiths had been complaining of back pain and it became so acute that he had a hospital check-up and pancreatic cancer was diagnosed.
16.
Eric Griffiths died at his Edinburgh home from pancreatic cancer on 29 January 2005.