One of These Beatles Could’ve Been the Next Jackson Pollock (No, Not Pete Best)
Newly enrolled at the Liverpool School of Art, a young and hungry musician named John Lennon was beginning to survey the landscape for like-minded talent. He was immediately taken with a dashing young Scot; a gifted painter with miles of style and a piercing James Dean stare.
The future rock legend knew right away that this lad was the real deal. The two immediately became flatmates, and Lennon enlisted the young man to play bass for a band they had agreed to call “the Beatals” (and then eventually, the Beatles, as a reference to Buddy Holly’s band, “the Crickets”.)
Stuart Sutcliffe wasn’t much of a musician. Though he’d only had basic musical training, Lennon insisted he join the band because, in the words of George Harrison, Stuart “looked so cool.”
Sutcliffe did happen to be a talented artist though, and he will be having a posthumous show of his artwork at Harper’s Apartment on East 74th Street, a new branch of the East Hampton bookstore, Harper’s Books.
“People always wonder what would’ve happened if Sutcliffe had lived,” said Harper’s owner, Harper Levine via email. “He wasn’t going back to the Beatles, this much is clear. As far as his art goes, who knows? His work was already fully-formed; he had clearly found his voice.”
By: Ryan Steadman
Source: The Observer
