Episode #158 | 1.23.24

Stu Sutcliffe: Reeperbahn Debauchery, Gangs, and the Birth of the Beatles

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In this episode

Stu Sutcliffe was rock ‘n roll’s original Sid Vicious. Just like Sid, Stu was a bass player. But also like Sid, Stu could hardly play. What he did have in spades was style and attitude. He was by far the coolest looking member of the Beatles, back when the Fab Four were still a fab five (minus Ringo). These were the days of the Reeperbahn in Hamburg, Germany, a violent landscape of gangsters, thugs, prostitutes, and vindictive club owners who ran their depraved joints with an iron fist. It was here that the Beatles played marathon sets at some of Hamburg’s rowdiest bars. It was where they first popped pills, were arrested for the first time – but also where they learned how to be great, and how to be effortlessly cool. That last one thanks to their bass player Stu Sutcliffe, whose days on this earth were finite, but whose impact would live forever.