Guitarist George Harrison, 'the quiet Beatle', had died, leaving just two survivors of rock music's first and best loved superband.
Harrison, who joined the Beatles as a fresh faced 13-year-old in his native Liverpool, died of cancer, aged 58.
Queen Elizabeth and British Prime Minister Tony Blair last night headed the flood of tributes. Buckingham Palace said the Queen "is very sad to hear of the death of George Harrison".
In Dublin, Mr Blair hailed him as a figure who had marked his generation, saying his death was greatly saddening. "The generation of Bertie (Ahern, the Irish Prime Minister) and myself, we grew up with the Beatles," said Mr Blair, 48.
Flags were at half mast in Liverpool and Paul McCartney - who with Ringo Starr survive Harrison and John Lennon, murdered in New York 21 years ago - was pleading for space.
"I remember all the beautiful times we had together and I'd like to remember him like that, because I know he would like to be remembered like that," McCartney said. "He was a great guy, full of love for humanity, but he didn't suffer fools gladly. He'll be sorely missed by everyone."
Harrison, although vastly wealthy from his time with the Fab Four, had struggled mentally and physically with the trappings of fame.
He was diagnosed with throat cancer in 1997 and in 1999 survived a knife attack in his Oxfordshire home by a deranged man.
It wasn't a life half lived. The Beatles were the boys who defined the 1960s: the hairdos, the music, the dancing and the drugs. When they tired of all that, they turned the Western world on to transcendental meditation.
For Harrison, the journey began in 1958 when he befriended Paul McCartney at school.
McCartney introduced him to Lennon, who had formed a band called the Quarrymen, but Harrison was only allowed to play if one of the regulars didn't show up. With Ringo Starr as drummer, they became the Beatles.
Harrison's guitar work, modelled on Chuck Berry and Carl perkins, was credited with giving the Beatles their melodic, joyous sound, yet his songwriting ability - which produced songs such as "Here Comes The Sun" and "Don't Bother Me" - was overshadowed by the Lennon-McCartney team.
Fellow pop star Bob Geldof said Harrison knew his place in popular culture was absolutely secure.
"He was very curmudgeonly about the fame thing and everything else. He was the one who wrote "Taxman", another Beatle classic, moaning about how much supertax they had to pay. But he was very gentle."
It was Harrison who, craving peace and quiet, went to India and there met sitar master Ravi Shankar. Through this association, he introduced the Beatles in 1967 to the teachings of the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi - a discipline embraced by the group, but then discarded, to Harrison's despair.
By the late 1960s the band was fraying, with Harrison tiring of being a star rather than a musician. He poured scorn on Beatlemania: the screaming girls, the hair tearing mobs, the wild chases from limos to gigs and back to limos.
When the Beatles broke up in 1970, Harrison, who was 27, went solo with a much lauded album called All Things Must Pass.
A spiritual man, he became a Hari Krishna and pioneered the concept of huge outdoor fundraising events with the concert for Bangladesh in New York City.
He then produced films, including Monty Python's The Life Of Brian, before teaming up with old friends Bob Dylan and Roy Orbison, as the Traveling Wilburys.
Harrison's death comes just days after he sought emergency chemotherapy in the US and months after trying alternative therapies. He died in Los Angeles with wife Olivia and son Dhani, 23, by his side.
Looking back on his years with the Fab Four, in a 1992 interview with The Daily Telegraph in Britain, Harrison confided he loved it despite the lows: "We had the time of our lives; we laughed for years."