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George Harrison was born in February 1943 in Liverpool. There is some confusion over his actual date of birth - for many years George celebrated it on the 25th, but recently he has claimed he was actually born on the 24th. George grew up in a working-class family, consisting of his mother, Louise, his father, Harold, his brothers Harry and Peter, and his sister, also called Louise. He attended Dovedale Primary School at the same time as John Lennon, although he was a few years younger, and went on to the Liverpool Institute which was also Paul McCartney's school. George hated school and rebelled against it, constantly getting into trouble. George was one of millions of teenagers inspired to start playing the guitar by Lonnie Donegan skiffle music. He did not find it easy and sat up until late at night, practising the chords. His determination soon paid off and Paul, seeing that George knew more about the guitar than either himself or John Lennon, introduced him to the Quarrymen. George had been playing with the Les Stewart Quartet, but he idolized John and wanted to join his band. Because he was younger than the others, at first he was just allowed to sit in on their rehearsals but by the time he was sixteen he was an established member of the band. George travelled to Hamburg with the Beatles in 1960 but was deported when the police discovered he was only seventeen. George was usually the Beatles lead guitarist, although he was interested in all stringed instruments and played the sitar on the Lennon-McCartney song "Norwegian Wood". He wrote several songs for the "Rubber Soul" and "Revolver" albums, but it wasn't until "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" in 1968 that he began to catch up with John and Paul. This was followed by "Something" and "Here Comes the Sun" the following year. He married his first wife Pattie Boyd in January 1966, but divorced her in 1977 after discovering she was having an affair with his best friend, Eric Clapton. He married Olivia Arias in 1978 and they had one son called Dhani. Along with the other Beatles, George studied transcendental meditation with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and became interested in Indian philosophy and religion. The Indian influence is obvious in a lot of his music. After the break-up George had a hit with "My Sweet Lord"- he was then sued for plagiarism due to the song's resemblance to the Chiffon's "He's so Fine" George continued to help out his former bandmates, working on Ringo Starr's "Ringo" album and John Lennon's "Imagine". He also helped to organise the world's first major charity concert, "Concert for Bangladesh". With his friends Bob Dylan, Roy Orbison, Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne, he formed the Travelling Willburys and their debut album was an instant success. George was much quieter in later years - the Beatles Anthology in 1995 was his last major project. In December 1999, he and his wife Olivia were stabbed by an intruder who broke into their house in the middle of the night. Luckily, they survived, although George needed hospital attention. On November 29th, 2001, George lost a long battle with cancer. He died with Olivia and Dhani by his side. Taken from restless wind |
