“I never, ever - and I was married a couple of times - met another man who was so fascinating, so beautiful, and so soft and well-mannered. “He was, and still is, the love of my life,” she told NPR in 2010.
Both marriages ended in divorce, and she would long say that she never got over Sutcliffe’s death. Kirchherr later married twice, including to the British drummer Gibson Kemp. Sutcliffe collapsed and died of a cerebral hemorrhage in April 1962, at age 21. Her love affair with Sutcliffe was tragically brief. The others, after some resistance, followed along. Kirchherr loved his new style, what became the Beatles “mop top” - hair brushed forward, without gel, a look favored by other young German artists - and Sutcliffe soon wore his hair that way. Meanwhile, Voormann had been so self-conscious about his large ears that he grew his hair longer to cover them. The collarless jackets the Beatles favored in the early days of Beatlemania were inspired by Kirchherr’s wardrobe Sutcliffe, who was around the same height as she, had begun wearing her collarless tops. Kirchherr had an indirect influence on the Beatles’ transformation. Condolences to family and friends, Pete (Petey) /lNduJ8EHHC We shared some wonderful memories and the most amazing fun times. Self-portraits captured Kirchherr’s own distinctive looks - her high cheekbones anbestd closely cut blonde hair.Ībsolutely stunned to hear the news of Astrid passing. She took indelible black and white portraits, including John, Paul and George in leather and cowboy boots on a rooftop all five with their instruments on an abandoned truck and a moody closeup of John in an open fairground with Sutcliffe looming like a ghost in back. Kirchherr was liked and trusted by all of them, and her photographs captured a group still more interested in looking cool and “tough” than in being lovable. (Best was replaced in 1962 by Ringo Starr, and McCartney moved over to bass when Sutcliffe left and became engaged to Kirchherr). The James Dean lookalike Pete Best was the Beatles’ drummer, and Paul McCartney was playing guitar, along with Lennon and George Harrison. The rock group favored black leather and greased back hair and gave wild, marathon performances. The Beatles in the early 1960s were nothing like the smiling superstars the world would soon know, and they seemed to have little in common with Kirchherr and her friends, young existentialists dubbed “Exies” by John Lennon.
So I learned a lot from him and because in the ’60s we had a very strange attitude towards being young, towards sex, towards everything.” “You know as far as intelligent and artistic feelings are concerned, he was miles ahead. “Stuart was a very special person and he was miles ahead of everybody,” she told NPR in 2010. They quickly fell in love, even though she spoke little English and he knew little German. Kirchherr had dreamed of photographing “charismatic” men and found her ideal subjects in the Beatles, especially their bassist at the time, Stuart Sutcliffe, a gifted painter. All I wanted was to be with them and to know them.” “My whole life changed in a couple of minutes. “It was like a merry-go-round in my head, they looked absolutely astonishing,” Kirchherr later told Beatles biographer Bob Spitz. As she later recalled, Voormann then spent the next few days convincing Kirchherr to join him, a decision which profoundly changed her. Kirchherr was a photographer’s assistant in Hamburg and part of the local art scene in 1960 when her then-boyfriend Klaus Voormann dropped in at a seedy club, the Kaiserkeller, and found himself mesmerized by a young British rock group: The five raw musicians from Liverpool had recently named themselves the Beatles. Olivia #AstridKirchherr /5Dt7OmuGS8 - George Harrison May 15, 2020 I am truly saddened but honoured to have known her. Our family loved her and none more than George.
Astrid is and was the sweetest woman, so thoughtful and kind and talented, with an eye to capture a soul.