A MUSIC fan has made sure the 'forgotten' fifth Beatle Stuart Sutcliffe is remembered.

Colin Unwin, from Rochdale, has paid to have Sutcliffe's neglected headstone restored.

He said gold lettering on the grave had chipped off and the stone was in danger of being taken down because it was a health and safety risk.

When attempts to get the local authority to pay for the work fell on deaf ears, lifelong Beatles fan Colin dug into his own pocket to get the job done.

The 62-year-old father of two, of Thornham Lane, Royton, said it cost him £50 to get a stonemason to fix the headstone and touch up the lettering.

Colin, a janitor at Rochdale fire station, said: "If it had been £300 I still would have paid it.

"Stuart Sutcliffe is a very famous person and was a big influence on The Beatles in the beginning. He was a poet, painter and the original bassist of The Beatles for eighteen months - and was even credited with coming up with the name of the band.

Safety

"He was a key part of the band. It would have been wrong to let his grave go to ruin."

Sutcliffe, who died from a brain haemorrhage in 1962, is buried at Huyton Cemetery in Knowsley, Merseyside.

Colin, former custodian of the childhood homes of John Lennon and Paul McCartney, added: "I have watched the decline of this site since I first visited it three years ago.

"Then recently I noticed that the headstone was really leaning forward but when I asked what would happen to it I was told that they would just push it into the ground due to health and safety reasons.

"When I went on the 40th anniversary of his death my flowers were the only ones on his grave and no one else had been so I decided enough is enough."

Colin has a history of restoring historic Beatles sites.

In April, he repainted the gates of the Strawberry Fields Salvation Army house in Liverpool.

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