Eric Griffiths

Eric Ronald Griffiths (born October 31, 1940 in Denbigh , Wales, †  January 29, 2005 in Edinburgh , Scotland) was the guitarist of the band The Quarrymen . He was a founding member of the band in 1956 and later also a member of the newly formed band.

Life

Griffith's father was a Royal Air Force pilot and died fighting during World War II . Then Eric moved with his mother to his grandparents in Liverpool in 1945 . When he was 11, he got a scholarship that allowed him to attend Quarry Banks High School . There he met John Lennon , Pete Shotton and Rod Davis . With these he later founded The Quarrymen .

After both Paul McCartney and George Harrison joined the band, there was no place for Griffiths as guitarists, although the other two weren't there when the band formed. The rest of the band asked him to buy an electric bass , but Griffiths was unable to comply with this request for financial reasons. As a result, he was not invited to the next band rehearsal. When he called there during this rehearsal, which was taking place at McCartney's house, John Lennon informed him that he was no longer a member of the band.

Griffiths then dropped out of his engineering studies and became a navigator in the British Merchant Navy . He tried to keep in touch with Lennon and McCartney, but eventually lost contact.

In 1964 he married his wife Relda and left the army. With Relda he moved to Scotland, where he stayed until the end of his life. With Relda he had three sons.

In 1997 he was invited to the 40th anniversary of the Cavern Club in Liverpool, where he had performed with The Quarrymen in the 1950s . There he met other members of the former group who had reunited three years earlier and who then also invited him.

Griffiths died on January 29, 2005 in Edinburgh of complications from cancer .

Web links

• Griffiths' autobiography on the Quarrymen official homepage
• Obituary of The Independent (Engl.) ; Retrieved April 14, 2011