Stuart Sutcliffe

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Stuart Sutcliffe was a British painter and the first bass player of the Beatles. He was born in Edinburgh in 1940 and grew up in Liverpool. At the Liverpool College of Art he met John Lennon, through a mutual friend, Bill Harry. Sutcliffe was regarded as one of the stars of the school, and he helped Lennon with his coursework for examinations. In early 1960 Lennon moved in with him in the attic flat at Gambier Terrace.

Music and breakthrough

Lennon and Paul McCartney persuaded Sutcliffe to buy a Höfner bass guitar. He did not have much experience: he had had piano lessons and had played a little guitar. In May 1960 he joined Lennon, McCartney and George Harrison, who were then performing as the Silver Beatles. Together with Lennon he came up with the band name, inspired by Buddy Holly's Crickets and by a double meaning of the word. In Hamburg the group played long nights in clubs such as the Kaiserkeller. There Sutcliffe met the photographer Astrid Kirchherr, to whom he became engaged.

Influence

In July 1961 he left the band to paint. He studied at the art academy in Hamburg with Eduardo Paolozzi, who called him one of his best students. His work was in line with Abstract Expressionism. Sutcliffe suffered from severe headaches and died in April 1962 of a cerebral haemorrhage, before the Beatles became famous. For that reason he is sometimes called the fifth Beatle. His influence lay above all in the early years: in his style, in his friendship with Lennon and in the band he helped to name.

Listening

In School of Rock

The chapters, maps and magazine stories of School of Rock are currently available in Dutch only.

• Mixtape 3: The Beatles^NL Reader