The Beatles were no strangers to in-fighting. The end of their career was rife with spats, eventually leading to the band’s breakup. Though fans might not be aware, that affinity for a row was present throughout the entirety of their career–publicly too. Learn more about an early Beatles show that saw Paul McCartney get into a brawl with a bandmate on stage, below.
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The Early Beatles Show That Saw Paul McCartney Fight a Bandmate on Stage
Stuart Sutcliffe was the Beatles’ original bassist. Prior to McCartney taking over the duty, Sutcliffe led the rhythm section to success during their Hamburg residencies. Though he would eventually leave the band to focus on other artistic pursuits, it’s a wonder one on-stage fight with McCartney didn’t send him packing earlier.
As the story goes, McCartney committed the cardinal sin of talking about Sutcliffe’s girlfriend. Naturally, the bassist wasn’t too pleased with Macca.
“Paul was saying something about Stu’s girl–he was jealous because she was a great girl, and Stu hit him, on stage,” John Lennon once explained. “And Stu wasn’t a violent guy at all.”
“Stuart and I once actually had a fight on stage,” McCartney added. “I thought I’d beat him hands down because he was littler than me. But he was strong and we got locked in a sort of death-grip, on stage during the set. It was terrible. We must have called each other something one too many times: ‘Oh, you…’ – ‘You calling me that?’ Then we were locked and neither of us wanted to go any further and all others were shouting, ‘Stop it, you two!’ – ‘I’ll stop it if he will.’”
“Of course, all the big gangsters round there were all laughing at us because they were used to killing people,” Macca continued. “Here were me and Stu – neither of us big fighters. None of this helped my relationship with Stuart or Pete [Best].”
In the end, that fight didn’t matter much in the Beatles’ trajectory to success. They managed to do quite well after leaving Hamburg behind. But, nevertheless, it is an interesting pit stop in an era of their career that doesn’t get discussed much. Check out a clip from a Beatles Hamburg performance, below.
(Photo by Mark and Colleen Hayward/Redferns)
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