Photograph Credit score: Nick FewingsFormer “fill-in” Beatles bass participant Chas Newby — who was additionally a member of John Lennon’s first band, The Quarrymen, has died at age 81.
Chas Newby, a British musician who briefly performed as a fill-in bassist for the Beatles throughout a number of gigs in 1960, has died aged 81. The Beatles’ first left-handed bassist, Newby additionally performed in John Lennon’s first band, The Quarrymen. A reason for loss of life has but to be introduced.
“It’s with nice unhappiness to listen to concerning the passing of Chas Newby,” wrote The Cavern Membership Liverpool, the place the Beatles started their profession. Different tributes to the musician have included posts from the brother of former Beatles drummer Pete Finest and Beatles historian Mark Lewisohn.
“Each Pete and I and the entire Finest household (are) completely devastated to listen to the very unhappy information on the subject of one of many (household’s) closest pals, Chas Newby, passing final night time,” wrote Roag Finest. “A lot of you’ll know him for enjoying bass guitar for each the Beatles and the Quarrymen, however to us, he was laid-back Chas with the massive smile. We’ll really miss him.”
“He deputized for Stuart (Sutcliffe) on a couple of dates when the Beatles returned from Hamburg the primary time, end-1960, together with the momentous Litherland date,” writes Lewisohn on Twitter. “Latterly, he’s been one of many Quarrymen too. A captivating man, all the time a pleasure to satisfy.”
A local Liverpudlian just like the Fab 4, Chas Newby is most well-known for his transient run with the group in 1960 after Stuart Sutcliffe, their bassist on the time, returned to Hamburg to give attention to his artwork profession. Early Beatles drummer Pete Finest urged Newby, who had been taking part in with Finest’s group, the Black Jacks.
Newby performed with the Beatles for 4 exhibits in December 1960: the Casbah Membership in Liverpool on the seventeenth, Grosvenor Ballroom in Liscard on the twenty fourth, Litherland City Corridor on the twenty seventh, and once more on the Casbah Membership on the thirty first. John Lennon requested him to stay with the group for his or her second journey to West Germany, however Newby selected to return to school.
“Music was by no means going to be a dwelling for me,” mentioned Newby throughout a 2012 interview. “I needed to do chemistry. John, Paul, and George, they simply needed to be musicians.”
Solely after Lennon and George Harrison declined to modify to bass guitar did Paul McCartney, who beforehand performed guitar and piano, reluctantly grow to be the band’s bass participant — the instrument for which he would arguably grow to be finest recognized within the group.
Newby went on to show highschool arithmetic and performed in a charity band known as the Racketts. In 2016, he started performing with the reformed Quarrymen.