Who left The Beatles first?
An Agatha Christie plot where everyone is a suspect
Going the full Bill Clinton parse-every-word route, that depends on how what we understand by the The Beatles and how we define ‘left’.
Legally, The Beatles were an entity until the group was formally dissolved on 29 December 1974. Until that point John, Paul, George and Ringo were still technically Beatles. That said, it is clear that from the summer of 1968, three of the four had one eye on the exit.
Cracks had been apparent, even at the outset of Beatlemania. The public smiles remained fixed in place but the relentless pressure of an exhausting touring and recording schedule took its toll. By 1965 touring became the focus of band disquiet, with both George and John lobbying for it to end.
The death of Brian Epstein in August 1967 intensified internal band tension — see here. Within a year, The Beatles story became an Agatha Christie plot, with all four on manoeuvres.
Ringo briefly walked out in 1968, George did an even shorter flounce in January, 1969. John announced to all and sundry he wanted out after his Plastic Ono Band gig in Toronto in 1969.
John later claimed to have been persuaded to delay his departure by a desperate Paul. But by this point, even Mr Beatle was lawyering up for the coming divorce.
In fact, it was McCartney who would be thought of as the man who ended The Beatles. His press release in April 1970, stating that he was no longer working with the group, was the de facto moment in which The Beatles were pronounced dead.
That Paul ultimately pulled the plug sent his songwriting partner into a Monty Pythonesque rage. This ran along the lines of “I walked out first and now your claiming the credit? So typical!”
If all The Beatles were there at the end, then we need look further back to find the first leaver.
A case could be made for Pete Best. He signed contracts with Brian Epstein and Parlophone Records and was considered a core member by fans in Hamburg and Liverpool. He might have had a case for legal compensation following his firing in August 1962.
Best was not, however, the first Beatles bailee because he did not voluntarily leave the band. Pushed out head first would be a more accurate description. In August 1962 he was a drummer in a promising group with a record contract. After his meeting with Brian, Best was heading for that job in the bread slicing factory and decades of public humiliation.
The reluctant Beatle
If we understand The Beatles to be the band renamed in 1960 — and ignoring various stand ins — then the the first to leave Stuart Suctliffe. He was actively involved in the naming process and — in conjunction with his girlfriend Astrid Kirchherr was influential in establishing the early image.
Always a reluctant bass player, Suctliffe became increasingly unhappy in the band. Perhaps the final straw was an on stage fist-fight with Paul McCartney in Hamburg in July 1961. He left The Beatles soon after, sportingly selling his bass guitar to McCartney, who would replace him.
Stuart Suctliffe stayed behind in Hamburg, to live with Astrid and work on his art. Tragically, he died the following year.
