Introducing Stu
Stuart Fergusson Victor Sutcliffe was born on June 23, 1940 in Edinburgh. His family moved to Roby, east of Liverpool, in 1943. He grew no taller than 5’7” and his friend Jon Hague described him as “very skinny, weak, and sick looking.”1 Always a good student and with a keen interest in painting, Stuart enrolled at Liverpool College of Art in 1956. In his second year he would meet a new student by the name of John Lennon. John called him “Stu,” though it was pronounced more like “Shtyew.”
John and Stu were opposites. John was loud, extroverted, and could be quite obnoxious. Stu was quiet, introverted, and nice to everyone. John refused to wear his eyeglasses, even though he was practically blind without them. Stu never took his off. Despite these differences, there was a mutual respect that grew into the closest of friendships. Stu was impressed by John’s musicianship and rock and roll lifestyle, while John was in awe of Stu’s artistic abilities and his sense of “image.” By January of 1960, the pair were living together in a flat on Gambier Terrace in Liverpool along with three other Liverpool College of Art students.
In January of 1960, Stu was paid about £60 (different sources state slightly different amounts) for his work, Summer Painting, which had been on display as part of the John Moores Exhibition. It was bought by Sir John Moores himself (again, different sources state that Stu won the exhibition painting competition). Within a couple of weeks, either because of the glamorous idea of the image of the rocker, or just because of John’s insistence, Stu bought a Hofner President 500/5 bass guitar. It was almost as big as he was. He became a member of The Quarrymen, having never played a note. John, Paul, and George, with the help of Dave May, another art student who played bass with Ken Dallas and the Silhouettes, began teaching Stu how to play. They started with a basic 12-bar blues progression.
John, of course, was overjoyed to have his best friend join the band. George was also on board with the idea. The outlier was Paul. Two things bothered him. First, though Paul had not objected in the past to John bringing his unexperienced friends in, it now seemed that the group was starting to make some real progress and having a beginner would only slow them down. Second, he was unhappy about John and Stu’s relationship and felt that he was being bumped down to second best. As Cynthia Lennon said, “I think Paul was also a bit jealous of Stu; until then he had had most of John’s attention.”2
Nevertheless, the foursome got down to business. There were not many shows during the first half of 1960, but there was a lot of rehearsing and Stu tried very hard to learn his instrument. Friends noted that Stu almost completely stopped painting and as Cynthia Lennon said, Stu’s “every spare moment was taken up practicing.”3 This is quite noticeable on the two recordings that the group made between April and July 1960. On the April tape (sometimes known as the “Kirchherr Tape” if you look for the bootleg), Stu mainly plays root notes on the first beat of every measure. About right for someone who has played for not much more than two months. By July (on the “Braun Tape”), Stu’s playing is far more involved. There are some wrong notes here and there, but still very much in line for someone with just over five months of experience. Incidentally, if you don’t want to search out bootlegs, there are three songs from these sessions that appear on The Beatles Anthology. These songs are “Cayenne,” from April; and “Hallelujah, I Love Her So” and “You’ll Be Mine” from July.
In May, the group that was trying out the name “Silver Beatles” had an audition for promoter Larry Parnes, who was looking for bands to back his stable of singers. Several photos were taken that day, a couple of which may have been the spark for a myth about Stu that I remember hearing for many years. In the photos, Stu is standing with his back to the judges. Paul has said that it was his idea for Stu to look like he was “doing a moody,” as though he was just not interested, in order to distract the judges from Stu’s lack of ability. Unfortunately (at least I think so), the story escalated to the point to which I remember being a teenager learning about The Beatles, and it was given as “common knowledge” that Stu could never play and always stood with his back to the audience. Maybe you’ve heard this. It’s not the case, but we’ll talk about that later.
There is a lot more to say about Stuart Sutcliffe: the residencies in Hamburg, Germany; his relationship with the love of his life, Astrid Kirchherr; the introduction of the “Beatles haircut;” his not-so-great relationship with Paul; his time sitting in with another band (who must have thought he could play!); his decision to leave The Beatles in order to stay in Hamburg with Astrid and continue painting; and, of course, his tragic death from a cerebral hemorrhage at the age of 21. All of these things will be covered in future posts.
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Next week the subject will be Paul’s early instruments. Looking forward to that!
- Adamson
Photo: Andrew Martin Adamson, 22nd June, 2022. In this Hamburg sculpture at “Beatles Platz,” Stu is represented by the sculpture on the far right.
Quotes:
1) All These Years, Volume One: Tune In, Special Extended Edition, by Mark Lewisohn (Little, Brown; London; 2013), p. 577.
2) John, by Cynthia Lennon (Three Rivers Press, New York, 2005), p. 48.
3) A Twist of Lennon, by Cynthia Lennon (Avon, New York, 1978), p. 29.