1. Stuart Fergusson Victor Sutcliffe was a British painter and musician from Edinburgh, Scotland, best known as the original bass guitarist of the Beatles.
47 Facts About Stuart Sutcliffe
1. 2.
Stuart Sutcliffe earned other praise for his paintings, which mostly explored a style related to abstract expressionism.
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Stuart Sutcliffe was the eldest child of Martha, known as Millie, a teacher at an infants' school and Charles Stuart Sutcliffe, a senior civil servant.
4.
Stuart Sutcliffe had two younger sisters, Pauline and Joyce; three older half-brothers, Joe, Ian, and Charles; and an older half-sister, Mattie, from his father's first marriage to a woman named Martha.
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Stuart Sutcliffe was born at the Edinburgh Royal Maternity Hospital and Simpson Memorial Maternity Pavilion in Edinburgh.
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Stuart Sutcliffe attended Park View Primary School, Huyton, and Prescot Grammar School from 4 September 1951 to 1956.
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Stuart Sutcliffe helped Lennon improve his artistic skills, and with others, worked with him when Lennon had to submit work for exams.
8.
Stuart Sutcliffe shared a flat with Murray at 9 Percy Street, Liverpool, before being evicted.
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Stuart Sutcliffe moved to Hillary Mansions at 3 Gambier Terrace, home of art student Margaret Chapman, who vied with Sutcliffe to be the best painter in class.
10.
In May 1960, Stuart Sutcliffe joined Lennon, McCartney, and George Harrison.
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Stuart Sutcliffe started acting as a booking agent for the group, and they often used his Gambier Terrace flat as a rehearsal room.
12.
Stuart Sutcliffe's playing style was elementary, mostly sticking to root notes of chords.
13.
Best recalled Stuart Sutcliffe was usually good-natured and "animated" before an audience.
14.
Stuart Sutcliffe's profile grew after he began wearing Ray-Ban sunglasses and tight trousers.
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Lennon started to criticise Stuart Sutcliffe, joking about his size and playing.
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Lennon returned home, but as Stuart Sutcliffe had a cold, he stayed in Hamburg.
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Stuart Sutcliffe later borrowed money from his girlfriend Astrid Kirchherr so he could fly back to Liverpool on Friday, 20 January 1961, although he returned to Hamburg in March with the other Beatles.
18.
In July 1961, Stuart Sutcliffe decided to leave the group to continue painting.
19.
However, Stuart Sutcliffe specifically asked McCartney not to change the strings around or restring the instrument, so McCartney had to play the bass as it was.
20.
In 1967, a photo of Stuart Sutcliffe was included on the cover of Sgt.
21.
Stuart Sutcliffe met Astrid Kirchherr in the Kaiserkeller, where she had gone to watch the Beatles perform.
22.
Stuart Sutcliffe had been brought up by her widowed mother, Nielsa Kirchherr, on Eimsbutteler Strasse, in a wealthy part of the Hamburg suburb of Altona.
23.
Stuart Sutcliffe showed them her bedroom, which she had decorated in black including the furniture, with silver foil on the walls and a large tree branch hanging from the ceiling.
24.
Stuart Sutcliffe wrote to friends that he was infatuated with her, and asked her German friends which colours, films, books and painters she liked.
25.
Kirchherr and Stuart Sutcliffe got engaged in November 1960 and exchanged rings, as is the German custom.
26.
Stuart Sutcliffe later wrote his parents that he was engaged to Kirchherr.
27.
Stuart Sutcliffe wore her leather trousers and jackets, oversized shirts and long scarves, and collarless jackets.
28.
Stuart Sutcliffe borrowed a corduroy suit with no lapels to wear on stage, which prompted Lennon to sarcastically ask if his mother had lent him the suit.
29.
One of Stuart Sutcliffe's paintings was shown at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool as part of the John Moores exhibition, from November 1959 to January 1960.
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The picture Moores bought was titled Summer Painting, and Stuart Sutcliffe attended a formal dinner to celebrate the exhibition with another art student, Susan Williams.
31.
Stuart Sutcliffe was turned down when he applied to study for an Art Teacher's Diploma course at Liverpool Art College, but after meeting Kirchherr, he decided to leave the Beatles and attend the Hamburg College of Art.
32.
Stuart Sutcliffe's few surviving works reveal influence from British and European abstract artists contemporary with the Abstract Expressionist movement in the US His earlier figurative work is reminiscent of the kitchen sink school, particularly of John Bratby, though Stuart Sutcliffe was producing abstract work by the end of the '50s including Summer Painting purchased by Moores.
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Stuart Sutcliffe's works bear some comparison with those of John Hoyland and Nicolas de Stael, though they are more lyrical.
34.
In February 1962, Stuart Sutcliffe collapsed during an art class in Hamburg.
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Stuart Sutcliffe continued living with the Kirchherrs, but his condition soon worsened.
36.
On 13 April 1962, Kirchherr met the Beatles at Hamburg Airport, telling them Stuart Sutcliffe had died a few days earlier.
37.
Stuart Sutcliffe's mother flew to Hamburg with Beatles manager Brian Epstein and returned to Liverpool with her son's body.
38.
Oh, Mum, he is in a terrible mood now, he just can't believe that darling Stuart Sutcliffe never comes back.
39.
The cause of Stuart Sutcliffe's aneurysm is unknown, although authors of books on the Beatles have speculated it was caused by an earlier head injury.
40.
Stuart Sutcliffe may have been either kicked in the head, or thrown head first against a brick wall during an attack outside Lathom Hall after a performance in January 1961.
41.
Stuart Sutcliffe sustained a fractured skull in the fight and Lennon's little finger was broken.
42.
Stuart Sutcliffe refused medical attention at the time and failed to keep an X-ray appointment at Sefton General Hospital.
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Stuart Sutcliffe is buried in Huyton Parish Church Cemetery in the Metropolitan Borough of Knowsley, Merseyside in North West England.
44.
In 2011, Stuart Sutcliffe's estate released a recording claimed to be Stuart Sutcliffe singing a cover of Elvis Presley's "Love Me Tender", recorded in 1961 and donated to the estate in 2009.
45.
The cover art shows a Stuart Sutcliffe painting entitled Homage to Elvis.
46.
Stuart Sutcliffe was portrayed by David Nicholas Wilkinson in Birth of the Beatles and by Lee Williams in In His Life: The John Lennon Story.
47.
The Stuart Sutcliffe Estate sells memorabilia and artifacts of Sutcliffe's, including poems written by him and the chords and lyrics to songs Lennon and Sutcliffe were learning.