Remembering The Fifth Beatle

This week marked what would have been Stuart Sutcliffe's 80th birthday. The 'fifth Beatle' was remembered by Paul McCartney in a tweet saying:

"Our original bass player Stuart would have been 80 today! So many great memories of our time together. Happy birthday Stu! Love Paul"

A fellow art school student and close friend of John Lennon, Stuart Sutcliffe was invited to join The Beatles as bass player for a series of gigs in Hamburg in 1960. Stuart's passion for his art led him to leave the band and concentrate on his painting, staying on in Hamburg with fiancée, Astrid Kirchherr.

The late Astrid Kirchherr, a much-missed Genesis author, contributed to Genesis' limited edition, Stuart: The Life & Art of Stuart Sutcliffe. The book remembers his incredible talent, containing an illustrated biography of Stuart, as well as a facsimile reproduction of one of his sketchbooks, filled with paintings and drawings from Liverpool and Hamburg. Many art critics have maintained that, had Stuart had lived beyond his 21 years, he would likely have become one of the foremost British painters of our time.

Copies of Stuart are still available to buy here.