How a Hitchhiking Trip Nearly Destroyed The Beatles — and Predicted George Harrison's
Paul McCartney and John Lennon took a hitchhiking trip in the early 1960s. Their fun nearly destroyed The Beatles before they reached fame.
When the early Beatles — John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Pete Best, and Stuart Sutcliffe — were first beginning to see success as performers, they nearly destroyed it. Lennon and McCartney took an impromptu hitchhiking trip together. The rest of the band was so upset to have been left behind that they began looking for other groups to join.
After playing shows in Hamburg, Germany, The Beatles returned to Liverpool triumphant. While they were not yet mainstream successes, they were on their way to fame. This all almost fell apart, though.
Lennon invited McCartney on a hitchhiking trip through France and Spain using his birthday money. To go, they ditched several Beatles gigs and seriously angered their bandmates.
“Accordingly the two just took off together, wearing matching bowler hats — the Nerk twins reincarnated,” Philip Norman wrote in his book Paul McCartney: The Life. “George and Pete Best were so disgusted at being left in the lurch that both started looking around for other bands to join while Stu Sutcliffe in Hamburg told Astrid [Kirchherr] and several other people that The Beatles had broken up.”
Source: Emma McKee/cheatsheet.com
