Stuart Sutcliffe travels to Hamburg

Stuart Sutcliffe flew to Hamburg without the other Beatles on this day to spend time with his fiancee Astrid Kirchherr.

While there he and Kirchherr cleared some administrative paperwork to enable The Beatles to return to the city to perform. They had left under a cloud in late 1960 after George Harrison was deported for being underage, and Paul McCartney and Pete Best were arrested for alleged arson.

Sutcliffe and Kirchherr paved the way for the group’s return to Hamburg on 27 March 1961. They began their longest Hamburg residency – 92 nights at the Top Ten Club – from 1 April 1961.