One Version of Events

January 30, 1961

Nobody can seem to agree 50 years after the fact.  There are many dissenting voices.  I'll just present the most likely scenario as I see it.

Today, a Monday, is the day that Stu Sutcliffe is beaten up by a gang of toughs after a show at Lathom Hall in Seafort, a borough of Liverpool.  Frequently, tough teenagers, know as Teddy boys because of their penchant for pseudo-Edwardian style clothes, would use the dance halls to exhibit their testosterone fueled agressive impulses.  Band members were natural targets for them, as they would frequently be the focus of attention of the "birds", who are, after all, the people the Teddy boys want to impress in their caveman-like way.  It's one of the hazards of the job of being a musician in that time and place.  All of the Beatles are of  rather slight build, and Stu is positively wispy. (In Hamburg, he would share clothes with his girlfriend Astrid.)  He doesn't stand a snowball's chance in hell against a bunch of jealous thugs.  All he can do is to cover up as best he can while they knock him to the ground and go to work on him with their boots.

His friends, John and Pete, come running when the word reaches them and wade in to the melee, but only after poor Stu is bleeding profusely.  John sustains a broken finger in the cause of the defense of his best friend.

Does it have a bearing on the early death of Stu a little more than a year later?  No one can be sure.