Former Beatles bassist Chas Newby is dead “You’ll always be my angel”: Paris Hilton mourns her dog

British musician Charles “Chas” Newby has died. The bassist, who performed with the Beatles in the 1960s, has died at the age of 81. Details about the circumstances of the death are not yet known. The brother of former Beatles drummer Pete Best and longtime friend of the deceased confirmed the news on Tuesday.

“Both Pete and I and the entire Best family are absolutely devastated by the sad news that one of the family’s best friends, Chas Newby, passed away last night. Many of you will know him as the bassist for The Beatles and The Quarrymen , but to us he was the relaxed Chas with the big smile. We will really miss him,” Roag Best wrote on Facebook with a collage of an old and a new photo of the musician.

The announcement sparked a wave of grief on social media. “It is with great dismay that we learned of Chas Newby’s death,” wrote the Cavern Club Liverpool, where the Beatles began their career. Band biographer and historian Mark Lewisohn tweeted, “Rep Chas Newby, temp Beatle and fine fellow.”

Chas Newby was a member of the Beatles for only a short time, filling in for a few gigs in late 1960. When the band first returned from West Germany, they were missing a bass guitarist. Stuart Sutcliffe stayed in Hamburg to concentrate on his artistic career. Pete Best suggested Chas Newby, who was actually studying but agreed due to the semester break.

He attended the legendary Beatles concert at Litherland Town Hall in Liverpool on December 27, 1960 and shared the stage with them three more times. John Lennon asked him to stay for the Beatles’ second trip to West Germany, but Newby preferred to go back to university.

A little later, Paul McCartney finally took over as bass player and the Beatles became a four-piece band. “Sometimes people don’t believe me when I say I don’t regret it. But I really don’t. I’ve lived my life to the fullest,” Chas Newby told The Sunday Mercury in 2012. “I wanted to do chemistry. John, Paul and George just wanted to be musicians.”

After graduating, Chas Newby taught high school math and lived in Alcester where he played in a charity band called The Racketts. In 2016 he started performing again with the reformed Quarrymen, John Lennon’s first band. (t-online, jdo)