The men who couldn’t become the Beatles. Stuart Sutcliffe

favorite_borderLast updated:2022/6/28

• a die-hard Beatles fanWada Shinji
  From Osaka Prefecture. I’ve been a Beatles fan for decades. I’ve tried many hobbies, but this is the only one that has stayed with me. As a storyteller of the Beatles, I want to pass on their greatness to future generations. A blog that explains the Beatles in a way anyone can understand.

The Man Who Didn’t Become a Beatle

To be precise, this person is not a “man who couldn’t become (it)” but a “man who chose not to become (it).”

Because he left the Beatles of his own volition.

When it comes to the Beatles’ bassist, Paul McCartney comes to mind, but in fact he was the second; the first was Stuart.

That said, he didn’t have any musical talent and actually aspired to be a painter.

At the time of the band’s formation, the three members—John, Paul, and George—were all guitarists, and there was no bassist.

So John more or less strong-armed his best friend from his school days, Stuart, into joining the band, telling him, “You just have to stand there holding the bass.”

This is a precious photo taken together with the members.

From the left edge it's Stuart; the one with his arm around him is John; then, after one person, George Harrison, Paul, and Pete Best.

As you can see from the photo on the next page, he was quite handsome.

John thought he could gain more female fans just by standing there holding a bass.

Originally, I aspired to be a painter.

Although he lacked musical talent, he was blessed with talent as a painter and had already attracted attention at a young age, winning prizes at various exhibitions here and there.

Even John felt threatened by his talent.

John also attended the same Liverpool Art College as him, and he had artistic talent.

And besides, Stuart had things in common with John, including in terms of ideas, and they recognized each other’s talents.

This is one of his early works.

It evokes the raw, vigorous brushwork of the French master Rouault and suggests a rare, exceptional talent.

What’s astonishing is that this is a work he made when he was 21.

Unlike music, oil paintings generally take many years to be appreciated.

The two men depicted in this picture are John and Stuart in their younger days.

Not this painting, but his painting already had a price and was sold.

I bought a bass from that picture.

The person who named the Beatles

There is one more noteworthy thing about Stuart.

It was that I came up with the historic band name “the Beatles” together with John.

He and John, inspired by Buddy Holly and the Crickets—who were already successful professional musicians (a cricket is an insect)—came up with the name the Beatles from another insect, the beetle.

“Cricket” means “koorogi” (a cricket insect) in Japanese, but here it’s a play on words referring to the sport of cricket.

So John and Stuart gave The Beatles a double meaning: both “beetles” (the insects) and “beat.”

Stuart said he got the idea from the film The Wild One, starring Marlon Brando, in which Lee Marvin referred to the girls who rode motorcycles as 'beetles.'

This is a scene from the movie.

Around 1 minute and 21 seconds, the line "beetles" appears.

That said, it seems it didn’t go over very well at first.

The reason is that while the word kabutomushi might sound cute in Japanese, in English the nuance tends to evoke an image of a creepier, more unpleasant kind of insect.

So I changed one letter in the spelling and made it “Beatles.”

Back then, many band names were long-winded ones like 'XX & the YYs.'

Because it was often structured with one lead vocalist and the rest as a backing band.

Compared to that, how simple the name “the Beatles” is!

It's clear that a catchy name is one important factor for making something sell.

This is just my personal speculation, but wasn’t it The Beatles who first deliberately altered the spelling to create a coined word for a band name?

And this not only represented the band’s name; it also came to carry an important message that, from now on, bands would no longer be one-man acts centered on a single lead vocalist, but groups in which all the members together make up one band.

After them,Led ZeppelinBand names using various coined words were born, such as Aerosmith, ABBA, TOTO, U2, and Guns N’ Roses.

Falling in Love in Hamburg

And he, too, joined the tour in Hamburg, Germany.

And there, he met a woman named Astrid Kirchherr and fell in love with her at once.

She was not only beautiful but also had exceptional taste as a professional photographer.

The early photographs of the Beatles that she took have now become valuable assets.

And so, the two exchanged a promise to marry, and when the other members returned to England, he stayed behind in Germany and left the group, saying he would pursue a career as a painter.

The first in the Beatles to get a mop-top

Another noteworthy point is that, among the Beatles, Stuart was the first to change his hairstyle to a moptop.

He hated the pompadour, liked the hairstyle Astrid’s coworkers already had—that is, the mop top—and asked her to cut his hair that way.

Yes, he was the one who first brought that distinctive hairstyle to the Beatles.

Eventually, all the members except Pete switched to this hairstyle.

Suddenly stricken by illness

Everyone thought he would become a great painter in the future.

However, a sudden misfortune befalls him.

At some point, he began to be troubled by headaches of unknown cause.

The headaches gradually worsened, and there were times when I lost consciousness and collapsed.

Astrid was very worried and took him to the hospital, but for some reason he stubbornly refused to get an X-ray.

Even after being examined at various hospitals, the cause remained unknown, and before we knew it, he had another seizure and passed away on Astrid’s lap while being transported to the hospital by ambulance.

Upon examining the body, we discovered that the skull had, in fact, been fractured.

It’s said that the injuries may have been caused by getting caught up in a fight on the street, but it isn’t clear.

Astrid was grief-stricken, causing those around her to worry that she might take her own life.

And he told the Beatles the truth when they visited Hamburg again, unaware of that fact.

John, though shocked, laughed loudly and said, “Even if we cry, Stu (short for Stuart) won’t come back. In that case, let’s laugh.”

But in truth, he was the one who was most shocked and wanted to scream and cry.

The awareness that I am a leader might have held me back from doing it.

Much later, John would marry Yoko Ono, and he reportedly often said of her, “She was another me. Her inner world, her leadership…”

Years later, a film was made with Stuart as the protagonist, depicting his life.

Astrid, after watching the movie, was surprised that the actor playing the protagonist resembled the real person not only in appearance but also in mannerisms and way of speaking.

This is the trailer for that movie.

His photo was used as a collage on the cover of that masterpiece album, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

This jacket cover features people who have ties to the Beatles.

The third one from the top on the far left of the photo is Stuart.