Sutclliffe left the band, moved in with Astrid, and McCartney was finally free to take over the bass, a position he had been lobbying for.
While there, Sutcliffe fell in love with local Astrid Kirchherr, an artist and photographer who helped create the Beatles' look, influencing their wardrobe and cutting and styling their hair. Their local fame earned them an offer to play in Hamburg, and off they went, spending the next three years honing their touring skills, drinking, carousing, and occasionally getting into trouble with the law. They became regular fixtures at Liverpool's Cavern Club, frequently pulling in over 500 people to see them in the 200-person capacity club. His future bandmate, John Lennon, also lost his mother at a young age - a connection that would create a close bond between the two musicians.īy 1960, the group had settled on a new moniker, the Beatles, and Harrison, Stuart Sutcliffe and Pete Best rounded out the line-up. Tragically, when McCartney was only 14 years old, his mother died of complications after a mastectomy. The young McCartney was raised in a traditional working-class family, much the same as his future fellow Beatles Ringo Starr and George Harrison. His mother was a maternity nurse, and his father a cotton salesman and jazz pianist with a local band. James Paul McCartney was born on June 18, 1942, in Liverpool, England, to Mary and James McCartney. He is also one of the most popular solo performers of all time, in terms of both sales of his recordings and attendance at his concerts. Paul McCartney's work as a singer/songwriter with the Beatles in the 1960s helped transform popular music into a creative, highly commercial art form, with an uncanny ability to blend the two. Sir Paul McCartney was a member of the Beatles and is still one of the most popular solo performers of all time.