Stuart Sutcliffe

Stuart Fergusson Victor Sutcliffe (born June 23, 1940 in Edinburgh , Scotland , † April 10, 1962 in Hamburg ) was a British musician . He was briefly a member of the Beatles and painters, whose style was based on abstract expressionism . He and Pete Best were among those who are known as the fifth Beatles and were active as musicians in the band.

Time with the Beatles

Sutcliffe took piano lessons early on and played some guitar. He joined the band because of his friendship with John Lennon , whom he had met at the Liverpool College of Art, in January 1960 (according to Paul McCartney it was Christmas 1959). John Lennon moved him from a portion of the money he had earned by selling one of his paintings at an exhibition of John Moores in Liverpool, an electric bass type Höfner to buy 500/5.

At the beginning of 1960, the group now consisted of the four permanent members John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Stuart Sutcliffe as well as changing drummers. On stage they mostly wore dark clothes or leather suits. Stuart Sutcliffe also wore dark sunglasses and often turned away from the audience.

In May 1960, the Silver Beetles (from July 1960 they called themselves Silver Beatles ) accompanied the singer Johnny Gentle on a tour of Scotland , which was arranged through the agency of the manager Larry Parnes. Sutcliffe gave himself the stage name Stuart de Staël , after the painter Nicolas de Staël . But the hoped-for breakthrough turned into a fiasco . During the week-long trip, the as yet unknown group had to deal with a sparse audience, hunger and exhaustion. One of the partially neglected hotels had to be abandoned head over heels due to lack of money. In addition, the then drummer Tommy Moore was injured in a car accident. From August 1960, the group renounced the addition of Silver in their name and called themselves from then on The Beatles .

The Indra Club : The Beatles played there from August 17th to October 3rd, 1960

Music clubs Kaiserkeller and Große Freiheit 36 . The Beatles played there from October 4 to November 30, 1960

Memorial plaque in front of the Kaiserkeller

Former Top Ten Club , today moondoo : The Beatles played there from April 1 to July 1, 1961

On August 17, 1960, the group gave their first concert under the name The Beatles in Hamburg's red-light district St. Pauli with their new drummer Pete Best . From now on they played every day at Indra , a strip club on the infamous Große Freiheit . Gradually, the group members adapted to the tense environment of violence, alcohol, drugs and sex. The work days, which lasted up to nine hours, increased the repertoire, spontaneity and self-confidence.

The club owner's request to do a “show” resulted in wild stage performances that attracted the audience and made the band the hippest insider tip of the Große Freiheit. Because the Indra Club had to be closed due to disturbance of the peace , the Beatles moved to the Kaiserkeller on October 4, 1960 .

Sutcliffe wrote in his letters: “We have improved tremendously since we arrived.” “Since I've been here, one thing has become clear to me, I hate brutality. There is so much of it around here. "

During his stay in Hamburg, Stuart Sutcliffe met the student Astrid Kirchherr , to whom he became engaged in November 1960.

On November 30th, the Beatles had their last appearance in the Kaiserkeller and then returned to Liverpool. Sutcliffe decided to stay in Hamburg with his girlfriend Astrid Kirchherr after McCartney and Best had been deported a week after the last appearance in the Kaiserkeller , the Hamburg police had given Lennon and Sutcliffe a work ban and Lennon had driven back to England. He himself was suspected of setting fire to Bruno Koschmider's cinema .

Sutcliffe wrote: “The Kaiserkeller ended last week. The police stepped in because we did not have a work permit. Paul and Pete, the drummer, were handcuffed to the airport and deported. I was accused of arson, allegedly setting fire to the cinema where we slept. […] So, with Astrid at my side, I stood smiling at the police. […] All my things, including my glasses, were taken from me and I was locked in a cell where I had to sit on a wooden bench for six hours without eating or drinking. Then I had to sign a statement in German saying that I had nothing to do with the fire, and they released me. […] The next day John drove back […]. "

On December 27, 1960, the Beatles played a concert at Liverpool's Litherland Town Hall , at which the group cemented their status as "the best band in town" and saw the first signs of rising popularity. In this and three other appearances, Sutcliffe was represented on bass by the student Chas Newby, as he stayed in Hamburg until January 20, 1961 (other sources: until the end of February 1961). From April 1 to July 1, 1961, the Beatles had another engagement in Hamburg, this time in the Top Ten Club . Stuart Sutcliffe only played with the Beatles there occasionally and left the group during their stay in Hamburg and stayed in Hamburg.

From June 1961, Sutcliffe concentrated on his studies at the Hamburg University of Fine Arts , for which he was supported by the Hamburg Senate with a small scholarship ; his professor was Eduardo Paolozzi.

Sutcliffe did not feel very comfortable on stage because of his limited musical skills. His highlight at every performance was singing the song Love Me Tender . During the recordings with Tony Sheridan ( My Bonnie etc.) on June 22nd and 23rd, 1961, he was not involved musically. Paul McCartney, initially one of three guitarists, replaced Sutcliffe on bass. Klaus Voormann , friend of the band and later cover designer of the album Revolver , bought Sutcliffe's instrument with the intention of joining the band himself. But this failed because McCartney had already bought a bass guitar.

From January 1960 to June 1961, the Beatles consisted of five band members. After Sutcliffe left, they remained four Beatles until they broke up in 1970 , including one last substitution in August 1962 ( Pete Best by Ringo Starr ).

Shortly before his death, he performed several times in the Hanseatic city with the Hamburg band The Bats .

Sutcliffe's importance to the Beatles lay less in his musical talent than in his personality. He was the first to wear the mushroom head hairstyle typical of the Beatles . His style, supported by his girlfriend Astrid Kirchherr, contributed a lot to the early "Beatles look".

Stuart Sutcliffe was featured on the Beatles album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band alongside various other personalities.

Sutcliffe's time with the Beatles and his relationships with Kirchherr and Lennon are the subject of the feature film Backbeat .

By participating in some of the recordings that were published on CD Anthology 1 , his family received millions.

Sutcliffe as a painter

As a painter he showed considerable talent from an early age. The few remaining works show influences from both English and European abstract artists as well as the American movement of abstract expressionism . His rather figurative works are strongly reminiscent of the Kitchen Sink School and especially of John Bratby . His later works can be compared to John Hoyland and Nicolas de Staël because of the more soulful style .

Paul McCartney said: "[...] he would certainly have become a great painter, you could already see that in his sketches."

death

At the end of 1961, after suffering from severe headaches before, Stuart Sutcliffe collapsed for the first time in college, and he had another collapse in February 1962. On April 10, 1962, Sutcliffe died of one in the ambulance on the way to the hospital Cerebral hemorrhage . Astrid Kirchherr was sitting next to him when he died.

Stuart Sutcliffe was buried in Huyton Cemetery, east of Liverpool .

Commenting on Stuart Sutcliffe's death, John Lennon said, “I looked up at Stu. I relied on his opinion. When he said something was good, I believed him. "

Paul McCartney: “Stuart's death was a real shock for us. And I also felt a little guilty about not being very friendly with him before. In the end we became very good friends, but there were a few tussles, partly out of jealousy, because we were both vying for John's friendship; all vied for John's friendship. "

George Harrison: “Shortly before his death he came back to Liverpool, visited us and spent a lot of time with us, as if he had suspected that we would never see each other again. […] His visit to Liverpool was a very warm affair. In retrospect, I think he wanted to finish something. "

Sutcliffe's younger sister Pauline published a book in 2001 with her memoirs , in which she argued that John Lennon was to blame for the death of her brother because the two had an argument in Hamburg in which Lennon is said to have kicked Sutcliffe in the head. Other sources attribute Sutcliffe's death to a head injury sustained in a fight after a Beatles concert in Liverpool's Lathom Hall in January 1961, in which Lennon and Pete Best rescued him from the hands of the attacking thugs. Sutcliffe was injured in the head, Lennon broke his little finger. At that time Sutcliffe refused any examination and only went to the doctor in Germany when the headache became unbearable. (This theory would not be tenable if, as Mark Lewisohn claims in his book The Complete Beatles Chronicle [p. 31], Sutcliffe had not returned from Hamburg until the end of February 1961.) According to Kirchherr, Sutcliffe suffered from a rare disease, the grew his brain. This led to the pain, temporary blindness, and ultimately his death.

Recordings by and with Stuart Sutcliffe

In the spring of 1960 (according to Paul McCartney: April 1960) the Beatles recorded several music tracks on a tape recorder in the cast of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Stuart Sutcliffe in the McCartney family home on Liverpool's Forthlin Road. These are the only known recordings of Stuart Sutcliffe with the Beatles.

The following tracks were officially released on the album Anthology 1 in November 1995:

1. Hallelujah, I Love Her So
2. You'll be mine
3. Cayenne (McCartney)

So far, other titles have only appeared as bootlegs :

1. Matchbox
2. One after 909
3. I'll follow the sun
4. Well, darling
5. Hello little girl
6. That's When Your Heartaches Begin
7. Wild cat
8. I'll Always Be in Love with You
9. Some days
10. The World Is Waiting for the Sunrise
11. You Must Write Every Day
12. Movin 'and Groovin'
13. Ramrod

Also various untitled instrumental versions.

In 2011 the song Love Me Tender sung by Sutcliffe was released as a download . According to Stuart Sutcliffe's sister, Pauline, the recording was probably made in Hamburg in 1961 and comes from a Polydor acetate pressing or a tape.

literature

• Thorsten Knublauch and Axel Korinth: Come on, give me your hand. The Beatles in Germany 1960–1970 . Books on Demand, Norderstedt 2008, ISBN 978-3-8334-8530-5 .
• Arne Bellstorf: Baby's in black. The Story of Astrid Kirchherr and Stuart Sutcliffe . Graphic Novel , Reprodukt, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-941099-12-8 (German).
• Mark Lewisohn: The Complete Beatles Chronicle. ISBN 0-600-61001-2 .
• Richie Unterberger: The Unreleased Beatles: Music and Film. ISBN 0-87930-892-3 .

Web links

• Stuart Sutcliffe at Discogs (English)
• The story of Stuart Sutcliffe
• Stuart Sutcliffe and The Beatles exhibition at the Museum of Liverpool (Engl.)
• Literature by and about Stuart Sutcliffe in the catalog of the German National Library

Individual evidence

1. ^ The Beatles: The Beatles Anthology . ISBN 3-550-07132-9 , p. 49.
2. ^ The Beatles: The Beatles Anthology . ISBN 3-550-07132-9 , p. 53.
3. ^ Brian Roylance, Nicky Page, Derek Taylor : The Beatles Anthology (Chronicle Books, San Francisco 2000) . Ullstein, Munich 2000, ISBN 3-550-07132-9 . , P. 55.
4. ^ The Beatles: The Beatles Anthology . ISBN 3-550-07132-9 , p. 55.
5. ↑ Klaus Voormann in an interview: "I would have been better than Paul". In: sueddeutsche.de , May 17, 2010
6. ↑ ^{a b c d} The Beatles: The Beatles Anthology . ISBN 3-550-07132-9 , p. 69.
7. ↑ Gravestone illustration
8. ^ Philipp Norman: John Lennon. The Life. Harper, London 2009, ISBN 978-0-00-719742-2 , pp. 263 f.
9. ^ Philipp Norman: John Lennon. The Life. Harper, London 2009, ISBN 978-0-00-719742-2 , pp. 224 f., 244.
10. ^ Bob Spitz: The Beatles: The Biography . 2005, p. 240 f.
11. ↑ Booklet for CD Anthology 1 , p. 8.
12. ^ Richie Unterberger: The Unreleased Beatles Music & Film. P. 6.
13. ↑ Information on Love Me Tender by Sutcliffe
14. ↑ Further information on Love Me Tender by Sutcliffe