Slice of Liverpool Beatles' history for sale

The entrance of 9 Percy Street.

A piece of Beatle history is up for sale. The Georgian house on Percy Street were Stuart Sutcliffe, one of the original members of The Beatles, had a flat, has come on the market. Number 9 Percy Street is were Stuart lived for a short time before moving to Gambia Terrace to share a flat with his friends from Liverpool College of Art, John Lennon and Rod Murray.

Stuart Sutcliffe is one of the contenders for the title “fifth Beatle” being the original bass player with the group. He was introduced to John Lennon by another art student, Bill Harry who went on to found the newspaper “Merseybeat”

John and Stuart became great friends, Paul McCartney has said that he became jealous of Stuarts friendship with John, as he had to take a back seat to Stuart. John Lennon spent a great deal of time with Stuart at 9 Percy Street discussing art and music.

According to retired Arts College Lecturer Reg Cox, “Stuart was a lovely lad, he lived at No 9 when my wife, Ina, and I lived at number 11. Stuart would borrow our sweeping brush to clean his flat when his mother was coming to visit”

Stuart’s parents lived at 37 Aigburth Drive in Sefton Park, which is now The Blenheim Hotel.

Reg went on to say “Stuart upset his Belgium Landlady Mrs Plant, when he painted all the furniture black and white, some people say that Stuart was evicted from 9 Percy Street, he wasn’t, he just left to share a flat with his friends”

“We had great parties in Percy Street” recalls Reg “It was very Bohemian and the cellars of the houses were inter-linked so we could go from number 11 to number 9 without having to go out into the street. The Liverpool Art set attended the parties, Fritz Spiegel, Adrian Henry and Roger McGough, to be honest I can’t remember if Paul and George were ever at any of the parties, remember they were not famous, but I know John did, he always wanted to be the centre of attention”

John did not do well at Liverpool College of Art and the staff were planning to put up a blue plague over his desk stating “John Lennon Slept Here” as John did so little work. This did not happen as John left the Art College to go to Hamburg, helping himself to the amplifiers from the College bar before he went.

Stuart was a very good artist and sold one of his paintings for £65 to John Moores, the Pools magnate, the painting had been in the John Moores Art Exbition in 1959 and may possibly have been painted at 9 Percy Street.

John persuaded Stuart to spend this windfall on a Hofner President Bass guitar, as his group “The Quarrymen” needed a bass guitarist.

It was Stuart who asked John why the group was still called “The Quarrymen” as by this time John was the only member who had attended Quarrybank High School. This led ultimately to the group adopting the name “The Beatles”

In August 1960 The Beatles, at this time consisting of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Stuart Sutcliffe and Pete Best on drums went to Hamburg. It was while the group were playing at the Kaiserkeller in October 1960 that Stuart met and fell in love with Photographer Astrid Kirchherr.

Astrid is credited with developing The Beatles trademark hairstyles. When he got engaged to Astrid, Stuart decided to leave The Beatles and to take up his Art studies again at Hamburg College of Art.

For a long time Stuart had been suffering from headaches, Doctors had been unable to establish the cause. Stuart collapsed and died of an aneurysm in April 1962, he was 21, he died in Astrid’s arms in the ambulance on the way to hospital.

The Beatles arrived at Hamburg Airport the following day to take up a seven-week engagement at The Star Club. The group were met by Astrid with the news of Stuarts tragic death, John was devastated by hias friends death.

Stuart was mentioned by name in the original lyrics of “In My Life”, this was changed when E.MI. Executives were worried about Stuart’s family being upset and possibly suing. John changed the lyric to

With lovers and friends, I still can recall
Some are dead and some are living
In my life, I've loved them all

Stuart was the subject of the film “Backbeat” released in 1994, with Stephen Doof playing Stuart and Liverpool born actor, Ian Hart playing John Lennon. Stuart also features on the cover of The Beatles album “Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band”

If you would like to purchase a little piece of Beatle history number 9 Percy Street is on sale with local estate agents Keppie Massie for £599,950.

John Lennon and the significance of the number 9 in his life.

The number nine was very significant in John Lennon’s life and he wrote several songs with 9 in the title. He regarded 9 as his lucky number and it did play a great part in his life as this list shows.

He was born on the 9th October 1940
He lived at 9 Newcastle Road,
Ringo was born at 9 Madryn Street.
The Beatles played The Cavern for the first time on the 9th February 1961
Brian Epstein first saw The Beatles perform on the 9th November 1961
They signed their contract with E.M.I. on the 9th May.
Made their first appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show on the 9th February 1964
John met Yoko on 9th November 1966,
The Beatles broke up after 9 years.
His son Sean was born on the 9th October 1975.
John died in the Roosevelt Hospital on 9th Avenue 9 years after he had moved to New York
When he died, it was the 9th of December in his birthplace Liverpool, which has 9 letters, as does the name McCartney

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