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Stuart Sutcliffe

Stuart Sutcliffe Stuart Fergusson Victor Sutcliffe ( June 23, 1940 – April 10, 1962) a painter and the least mentioned member of the Beatles. Stuart was the band's original bassist from January 1960 - June 1961) and is credited, (along with lennon), as the originator of the band's name. Sutcliffe and Lennon were roommates at the Art College in Liverpool, it was here that Lennon persuaded him to buy a bass guitar and join the band which at the time was called Johnny and the Moondogs. The Moondog name soon changed to Long John and the Silver Beetles, which gave way to The Silver Beetles, and finally The Beatles. One story has it that the Beatles name came from the Marlon Brando movie "The Wild Ones", where the rival motorcycle gang, lead by "Chino", (Lee Marvin), is called The Beetles, with Lennon suggesting the spelling change. There may be some truth to this, given the movie's popularity at the time and the group's preference for motorcycle jackets during this early period in their career.

Sutcliffe had some music training, his mother having arranged piano lessons for him when he was younger, but playing the bass guitar was another animal altogether. The bass guitar that Stuart bought was a Höfner President 500/5 model bass guitar, which for Sutcliffe was somewhat of an unwieldy monster, being very large in comparison to Stuart's stature. He tended to play it in a very minimal manner, only staying within the root structure of whatever chord was being played, and since he seldom practiced outside of rehearsals, his fingers never became accustomed to playing for any length of time, it was somewhat of a curious mismatch when coupled with his tendency toward shyness. In nearly all the early photos of the band, Stu can be seen in the background, usually with his side or back to the audience, and even his taking to wearing dark sunglasses may have been his way of hiding from the audiences, although the glasses had quite the opposite effect, and actually increased Stu's popularity in the group.

While in Hamburg Stuart met Astrid Kircherr at one of their performances at the Kaiserkeller club, where she had gone to see the Beatles and do a short photo session on the band. Stuart and Astrid fell in love, becoming engaged in November, 1960. As a result of the minor fiascos occurring at this time, the band members were expelled from Germany for various reasons with the exception of Sutcliffe.

Stuart and Astrid Kircherr Stuart stayed behind at Astrid's home and returned to England a short while later in early January of '61. On the second trip to Germany in March of '61 and with a little encouragement from Astrid, Stuart decided to leave the Beatles and return to art school, enrolling in the Hamburg College of Art in June '61, where he was considered to be one of the more talented and promising students. His leaving the band put McCartney into the bass player position using Stuart's right handed bass ,until Paul could get the money for purchasing his own custom made "left handed" bass.

Throughout his time with the Beatles, Sutcliffe had continually suffered from severe headaches, believed to be a direct result of a head injury received in a fight outside Lathom Hall after a performance in January 1961. These headaches were likely the primary reason Stuart took to wearing dark glasses. During an art class in Hamburg Sutcliffe collapsed and at the insistence of Astrid, and her mother Stuart was examined by the German doctors who performed various tests, but were unable to determine the exact cause of the collapse and headaches. The headaches grew steadily worse, and after another collapse at the Kircherr's home, where he was staying, Stuart was rushed to the hospital, but died in the ambulance on the way with Astrid at his side. The cause of death was determined to be cerebral paralysis, from the undiagnosed, and therefore untreated hemorrhage in his brain, which was likely the result of the earlier head trauma. On 13 April 1962, Kirchherr met The Beatles at the Hamburg airport and told them that Sutcliffe had died a few days before.

The death of Stuart was for obvious reasons devastating to Astrid, but also had an equally devastating effect on Lennon, the two had been extremely close friends from their early art school days, until Stuart's death, and Yoko, John's wife has said that John would constantly talked about this friendship on an almost daily basis. Lennon later hung a pair of Sutcliffe's paintings in his house, and some of the few remaining paintings by Stuart Sutcliffe can be seen at StuartSutcliffeart.com, which is the only official Stuart Sutcliffe Art and Memorabilia web site with original works available for purchase through Stuart’s sister, Pauline Sutcliffe, the Sole Executrix and Owner of Stuart Sutcliffe Estates.

Stuart Stu's Hofner Bass Guitar Audition