GEORGE HARRISONdied on 29 November, 2001, aged 58.
He was a pivotal member of the Beatles who also had a successfulsolo career after the group’s demise.Besides singing, he was also a fan of Monty Python, whose classic film The Life of Brian he famously helped finance by founding Handmade Films. The company later went on to produce further box-office hits such as Time Bandits and Withnail and I.
He was ranked number 21 in Rolling Stones’ 2003 list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time.
Born on 24 February, 1943, in Liverpool, George Harrison displayed a remarkable talent for music at a very early age. Reportedly playing the guitar all night until his fingers bled, it was thanks to winning a scholarshipto the Liverpool Institute for Boysthat he met fellow pupils and future Beatles, Paul McCartney and his friend John Lennon.
Their first group together, The Quarrymen, was formed during the late 1950s and, while he was working as an apprentice electrician, began playing lead guitar. It was not long before the newly-renamed Beatles, along with drummer Ringo Starr, became a global phenomenon.
While John Lennon and Paul McCartney were responsible for most early Beatles material, one day in 1963 Mr Harrison first decided “to see if I could write a song.” Don’t Bother Me was the result and gave rise to a series of hits, including I Need You and While My Guitar Gently Weeps.
A turning point in his song-writing came in 1965 when friend and member of the Byrds, David Crosby, introduced him to Indian classical music, particularly that of sitar maestro Ravi Shankar. Fascinated with the instrument, he became the first Western popular musician to play the sitar on a pop record, Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown) and later became friends with Shankar himself.
His interest in Indian culture further expanded to him embracing Hinduism and, later, the Hare Krishna tradition, something he would remain associated with until his death. It also influenced his music, producing the Indian-influenced Something, Here Comes the Sun, and the last Beatles recording, I Be Mine.
After the Beatles finally split in 1970, Mr Harrison, still at the tender age of 26, released a series of triumphant solo efforts including the first triple album by a single artist in rock history, All Things Must Pass. He also became the first rock star to organise a major charity concert with his Concert for Bangladesh in 1971, drawing over 40,000 people to two shows in New York’s Madison Square Garden where stars such as Eric Clapton, Ravi Shankar and Bob Dylan performed with the aim of aiding starving refugees in Bangladesh.
Further albums including Living in the Material World and Cloud Nine were hits on both sides of the Atlantic, as well as releases with his group, the Travelling Wilburys. Meanwhile, he became involved in film production too with the comedy group Monty Python and particularly Eric Idle, in whose cult Beatles spoof The Rutles he made a memorable cameo.
A former heavy smoker, the 1990s saw him battle with lung cancer and even survive a knife attack by an intruder in his home. In 2001 the cancer was found to be terminal, culminating in his death on 29 November, 2001, aged 58.
On the first anniversary of his death, a host of stars, including Eric Clapton, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and Jools Holland, gathered to commemorate his memory at the Concert For George at the Royal Albert Hall in London. All profits from the event were donated to Harrison’s charity, the Material World Charitable Foundation.
He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist in 2004 and the Madison Square Garden Walk of Fame two years later.
His first school, Dovedale Road Infants and Juniors School, was based just off Penny Lane, the later inspiration for one of the Beatles best-loved songs.
Frank Sinatra, who later covered Mr Harrison’s hit Something, famously declared it to be “the greatest love song of the last 50 years".
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