Beatles fans making a pilgrimage to the Liverpool headstone to the group's original bassist Stu Sutcliffe were shocked to find the memorial gone. Sutcliffe was in the Beatles between May and December 1960. He died at age 21 on April 10th, 1962 from a cerebral hemorrhage. Although he was an amateur bassist at best, Sutcliffe was considered on his way to a successful career as a painter at the time of his death.
The Liverpool Echo reported that according to a source close to the family, the headstone had been temporarily removed “for restoration work.”
Original drummer Pete Best along with John Lennon and Paul McCartney had flown to Hamburg on April 13th, 1962 — just three days after Stuart's death. Expecting to find Stuart and his fiancee Astrid Kirchherr at the airport to greet them they were devastated to learn from Astrid that Stuart was in fact dead. Pete Best recalled the emotional scene: “Very upsetting — that's the only way I can put it. I don't wanna dwell on (or) try to describe the scene or. . . It upset John tremendously, and Paul and I were also deeply upset by, y'know, the tragedy, which had befallen Stuart.”
