Beatle Stuart Sutcliffe: 'An average boy with little evidence of future distinction'

THE promising artist and so-called fifth Beatle Stuart Sutcliffe would have been 76 today and to mark the occasion, a damning school report card has gone on show in Liverpool, denouncing his future abilities.

The Prescot School, where Sutcliffe was a pupil from 1951-1956, has loaned the recently discovered archive document to The Beatles Story. In it, teachers doubt Sutcliffe's academic abilities describing him as an average boy possessing "some imagination but little evidence of future distinction". 

Sutcliffe, who died of a brain haemorhage at the age of 21, spent the last months of his life studying under renowned sculptor Eduardo Paolozzi at Hamburg Art College. In a somewhat contrasting "school report" Paolozzi wrote: "Sutcliffe is very gifted and very intelligent. In the meantime he has become one of my best students".

Stuart Sutcliffe self portrait

Sutcliffe was born in Edinburgh on 23^rd June 1940 before the family relocated to Liverpool when he was three. He attended Park View Primary School before moving on to Prescot Grammar School, which is now The Prescot School academy.  

The fifth Beatle was persuaded to buy a bass guitar after John Moores paid him £65 for his 'Summer Painting' which had been on show at the Walker in the JM Exhibition. The sum was equivalent to 6-7 weeks' wages

At the age of 16, Sutcliffe was accepted into Liverpool College of Art, where he met John Lennon. Lennon encouraged him to purchase a Hofner bass guitar with money made from the £65 sale of one of his paintings to John Moores, which was then equal to 6–7 weeks' wages for an average working man. Despite the instrument dwarfing him, he set about learning how to play the instrument. 

Stuart travelled with the band to Hamburg, where they began to hone their performing skills. While in Germany, Stuart met photographer Astrid Kirchherr, fell in love, and the pair were engaged within two months of meeting one another. 

Martin King of The Beatles Story said, “We are delighted to introduce the school report to the exhibition. The notes provided by a former teacher on the back of the report card make it clear that while Stuart wasn’t necessarily the most academic pupil, from an early age he was considered to have an artistic streak and was happily involved with the arts. It is a truly interesting piece and will sit along many other artefacts from the band’s younger years.”

You can scrutinise the report card up close the Albert Dock attraction until May 2019.