band were numbered. It was a good thing, too. The closer Stu got to Astrid, the more the other boys seemed to dislike him. An enormous antipathy had developed between Stu and the others. From the start Stu had always been John’s friend, but now passive tolerance had turned into malignant disapproval. Paul in particular found a lot to be critical of in Stu. He picked on the way he played, the way he dressed, even the way he said things. Everyone was on edge a lot, partly as a side effect of the constant diet of amphetamines, and tempers were short. But now, even John, Stu’s perpetual champion, seemed to be taking his bad temper out on Stu with the rest of them. One night on stage at the Top Ten the boys were goading Stu unmercifully, until Paul finally went too far and said something nasty about Astrid. In front of a packed house, Stu tore off his guitar and jumped on Paul. Paul, much bigger and stronger, easily brought Stu to the ground and gave him a good walloping before the others pulled him off.
Stu also suffered from frequent terrible headaches, which sometimes manifested themselves in irrational fits of jealousy over Astrid, who if anything, was inordinately loyal. Sometimes his headaches were so painful he would bang his head against the wall in frustration. With all this it was decided that Stu would officially leave the Beatles at the end of their engagement at the Top Ten. He was going to marry Astrid and stay in Hamburg with her, where he would get a grant from the Hamburg City Council and study art at the state art college.
Stu, however, graciously took it upon himself to do a last dirty deed for the boys, since he wouldn’t be with them any longer to take the blame. He wrote to Allan Williams in Liverpool, telling him that the Beatles no longer felt he was responsible for their employment in Hamburg, since they had met Peter Eckhorn on their own and acquired the job themselves. Therefore, they would be withholding his 10 percent of their salary. The only contract Williams had with them had been lost in a fire, and he was legally helpless to force them to pay. Williams went on to become their long-term detractor. He spoke out against them for years to come, and when they became successful, he wrote a bitter book called The Man Who Gave the Beatles Away, describing their Hamburg days in detail. It must be of some comfort to him that a portion of his income is still derived by speaking at Beatle conventions, recounting his personal adventures with them.
7
When Cynthia returned to Liverpool after her Easter trip, her mother had surprising news for her; she was leaving England to live with Cynthia’s married cousins in Canada, where she would work as a nanny to their children. The house in Hoylake was being rented out to strangers, and Cynthia needed to find her own place to live. Her only alternative was to move in with an aging aunt who lived on the far side of Liverpool. Then she got what she thought was a brilliant idea; John’s Aunt Mimi was already boarding students at Mendips for a little extra income and there was still room for one more. It didn’t seem very hard to convince Mimi to let her move in. Cynthia even found a job on Saturdays working at the Woolworth’s in the nearby shopping district, Penny Lane. Once she had moved into her room at Mendips, she tried to help Mimi out with the household chores, hoping to fit in like a daughter. Then, when John came home in July, Cynthia plotted, she would already be living with him under the same roof. Could marriage be far away?
Not many days went by before Cynthia discovered that living in the same house with Mimi Smith was far from the perfect arrangement. Mimi was a stickler for having the house run exactly the way she wanted it run and what’s more she was impossibly possessive of John. Mimi acted as if they were rivals for John’s affections and made it more than clear that Cynthia Powell was nothing but a stranger to her, just another boarder.
Stu also suffered from frequent terrible headaches, which sometimes manifested themselves in irrational fits of jealousy over Astrid, who if anything, was inordinately loyal. Sometimes his headaches were so painful he would bang his head against the wall in frustration. With all this it was decided that Stu would officially leave the Beatles at the end of their engagement at the Top Ten. He was going to marry Astrid and stay in Hamburg with her, where he would get a grant from the Hamburg City Council and study art at the state art college.
Stu, however, graciously took it upon himself to do a last dirty deed for the boys, since he wouldn’t be with them any longer to take the blame. He wrote to Allan Williams in Liverpool, telling him that the Beatles no longer felt he was responsible for their employment in Hamburg, since they had met Peter Eckhorn on their own and acquired the job themselves. Therefore, they would be withholding his 10 percent of their salary. The only contract Williams had with them had been lost in a fire, and he was legally helpless to force them to pay. Williams went on to become their long-term detractor. He spoke out against them for years to come, and when they became successful, he wrote a bitter book called The Man Who Gave the Beatles Away, describing their Hamburg days in detail. It must be of some comfort to him that a portion of his income is still derived by speaking at Beatle conventions, recounting his personal adventures with them.
7
When Cynthia returned to Liverpool after her Easter trip, her mother had surprising news for her; she was leaving England to live with Cynthia’s married cousins in Canada, where she would work as a nanny to their children. The house in Hoylake was being rented out to strangers, and Cynthia needed to find her own place to live. Her only alternative was to move in with an aging aunt who lived on the far side of Liverpool. Then she got what she thought was a brilliant idea; John’s Aunt Mimi was already boarding students at Mendips for a little extra income and there was still room for one more. It didn’t seem very hard to convince Mimi to let her move in. Cynthia even found a job on Saturdays working at the Woolworth’s in the nearby shopping district, Penny Lane. Once she had moved into her room at Mendips, she tried to help Mimi out with the household chores, hoping to fit in like a daughter. Then, when John came home in July, Cynthia plotted, she would already be living with him under the same roof. Could marriage be far away?
Not many days went by before Cynthia discovered that living in the same house with Mimi Smith was far from the perfect arrangement. Mimi was a stickler for having the house run exactly the way she wanted it run and what’s more she was impossibly possessive of John. Mimi acted as if they were rivals for John’s affections and made it more than clear that Cynthia Powell was nothing but a stranger to her, just another boarder.
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