Q&A with Pauline Sutcliffe

Interview, London, 1 July 1990

RH:   What was Stuart like at school

PS:   He was an exceptionally clever little boy.  Some of that was because he had an early start, because our mother taught - he used to go with mother, sometimes, to her school, so he was being educated from a very early age.  I mean he did his Eleven Plus [exam] at something like nine, so he was an exceptionally able, bright, child. …

RH:   At what stage did the Quarrymen or the Beatles and John Lennon come on the scene?  This was soon after he [Stuart] went to art school?

PS:   Yes.  But Stuart was a year ahead of John, so Stuart must have been in at least his second year - at art school - and George and Paul went to the Institute, which is a grammar school, which is in fact next door to the art school.  So the proximity was just quite extraordinary, because John came to art school and next door - literally next door - were George and Paul who were the Quarrymen, who in no time at all became Johnny and the Moon Dogs and, the transition from one name to the other I never quite get the order of that correct, because for me - my memories are of them being the Silver Beatles, which is the name that they were when Stuart joined them - and Stuart was still at art school, so was John - and George and Paul used to come in an rehearse in the art school canteen and they eventually went on tour for Larry Parnes just as Stuart finished his MDD - as the Silver Beatles.

RH:   And did you ever go to the Cavern?

PS:   Mm.  Three times a week!  One and sixpence to go in and a coca-cola and it blew your pocket-money [laughs]  I mean the perspiration used to run off the ceiling.  You know, it was a vault or cellar, but it’s the best one and sixpence worth I’ve ever had in my life.  The excitement in there was just amazing - packed, obviously. …

RH:   What sort of political views did he [Stuart] have?

PS:   Well, it’s interesting, ’cos he was raised by  a socialist mother and a Tory father [laughs]  These schisms!  And I think he would have described himself then as quite radical and he was certainly involved in CND [Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament].

I’ve certainly never doubted his [John Lennon’s] sincerity on political issues although he seems not to have been able to articulate them very well.  So [buying] the white Rolls-Royce [for world peace in 1970] - we mustn’t forget he had a marvellous sense of humour. …

RH:   Do you remember him [Stuart] being injured in a fight?

PS:   Well, I can remember it, he certainly was beaten up, after a Liverpool gig.  This wasn’t in Hamburg - so it was well before they went to before they went to Hamburg.  And, I mean, the real story is it was John Lennon who rescued him and where [Albert] Goldman got his ideas from that, you know, John Lennon killed him [laughs] it’s nuts really.