IT is one of the most famous and influential albums ever recorded, and its cover has become part of pop music history.
Forty years ago this week, The Beatles released Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band to instant worldwide acclaim.
And almost as iconic as the anthems within was its eye-catching pop art cover featuring the Fab Four alongside a collage of life-sized cardboard models including famous writers, musicians, film stars and Indian gurus.
To celebrate Sergeant Pepper’s 40th birthday, here DEREK BROWN gives the classic montage a modern-day makeover.
Who's who ... see which icons of yesterday have been replaced with today's icons
1. Indian mystic Sri Yukteswar Giri replaced by Buddhist leader the Dalai Lama.
2. Sinister occult leader Aleister Crowley replaced by Scientology founder L Ron Hubbard.
3. Bawdy hellraising actress Mae West replaced by rehab hellraiser Lindsay Lohan.
4. Offensive stand-up Lenny Bruce replaced by edgy stand-up Ricky Gervais.
5. Pioneer of electronic classical music Karlheinz Stockhausen replaced by electro-wizard Moby.
6. Comedian and actor WC Fields replaced by pint-sized funnyman Danny DeVito.
7. Founder of analytical psychology Carl Jung replaced by hypnotist Paul McKenna.
8. Dark crime writer Edgar Allan Poe replaced by darker crime writer Ian Rankin.
9. Dancing movie legend Fred Astaire replaced by Dirty Dancing’s Patrick Swayze.
10. Leading artistic chronicler Richard Merkin replaced by graffiti commentator Banksy.
11. Painting of air force icon Varga Girl replaced by Forces beauty Nell McAndrew.
12. Big-faced actor Huntz Hall replaced by big- faced actor Nicolas Cage.
13. Genius builder and designer Simon Rodia replaced by architect Sir Norman Foster.
14. Cutting-edge beat poet Bob Dylan replaced by a crustier but still cool Bob Dylan.
15. Fifth Beatle Stuart Sutcliffe replaced by fifth Arctic Monkey Andy Nicholson.
16. Controversial cartoonist Aubrey Beardsley becomes Simpsons creator Matt Groening.
17. Old mannequin replaced by Topshop mannequin.
18. Police founder Robert Peel replaced by Sting, the founder of The Police.
19. Drug-dabbling writer Aldous Huxley replaced by off-his-head writer Will Self.
20. Poet Dylan Thomas replaced by Irish rhymer Seamus Heaney.
21. US screenwriter Terry Southern replaced by Goodfellas director Martin Scorsese.
22. Doo-wop singer Dion DiMucci replaced by R&B star Usher.
23. Comedy actor Tony Curtis replaced by funnyman Adam Sandler.
24. Cutting-edge artist Wallace Berman replaced by shark-pickler Damien Hirst.
25. Radio favourite Tommy Handley replaced by gobby radio 1 DJ Chris Moyles.
26. Blonde bombshell Marilyn Monroe replaced by platinum starlet Scarlett Johannson.
27. Drug-inspired writer William S Burroughs replaced by serial-caner author Irvine Welsh.
28. Spectral yogi pin-up Sri Mahavatar Babaji replaced by Celeb BB pin-up Shilpa Shetty.
29. One half of comedy double act Stan Laurel replaced by Dec’s other half Ant McPartlin.
30. Painter of heroic figures Richard Lindner replaced by Spider-Man creator Stan Lee.
31. Tubbier half of comedy double act Oliver Hardy becomes Ant’s pal Declan Donnelly.
32. Creator of the Communist Manifesto Karl Marx replaced by Cuban leader Fidel Castro.
33. Time Machine author HG Wells replaced by 2001 creator Arthur C Clarke.
34. Yoga guru Sri Parama-Hansa Yogananda replaced by yoga obsessive Madonna.
35. Desert hero Lawrence of Arabia replaced by Gulf War veteran Andy McNabb.
36. Psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud replaced by Sun Agony Aunt Deidre Sanders.
37. Mannequin replaced by New Look mannequin.
38. Pin-up cartoon of a Petty Girl replaced by cyberbabe Lara Croft.
39. Wise-cracking stage man Max Miller replaced by cheeky pop star Robbie Williams.
40. Another Petty Girl replaced by cartoon sexpot Jessica Rabbit.
41. Moody actor Marlon Brando replaced by grumpy thespian Russell Crowe.
42. Cowboy actor Tom Mix replaced by spaghetti western gunslinger Clint Eastwood.
43. Writer, poet and wit Oscar Wilde replaced by writer and comic Stephen Fry.
44. Zorro actor Tyrone Power replaced by Mask of Zorro star Antonio Banderas.
45. Modern artist Larry Bell replaced by unmade bed artist Tracy Emin.
46. African explorer David Livingstone replaced by British adventurer Sir Ranulph Fiennes.
47. Tarzan actor Johnny Weissmuller replaced by King Of The Jungle Phil Tufnell.
48. Writer Stephen Crane replaced by Da Vinci Code author Dan Brown.
49. Music hall comedian Issy Bonn replaced by stand-up Jimmy Carr.
50. Legendary Irish writer George Bernard Shaw replaced by modern Irish writer Roddy Doyle.
51. 3D artist and designer HC Westermann replaced by iPod designer Jonathan Ive.
52. Liverpool FC legend Albert Stubbins replaced by former Everton star Wayne Rooney.
53. Indian spiritualist Sri Lahiri Mahasaya replaced by spoonbender Uri Gellar.
54. Alice In Wonderland writer Lewis Carroll replaced by Harry Potter creator JK Rowling.
55. Boxer Sonny Liston replaced by British Olympic silver medallist Amir Khan.
56. Waxwork of George Harrison replaced by waxwork of Arctic Monkey Alex Turner.
57. Waxwork of John Lennon replaced by waxwork of Arctic Monkey Jamie Cook.
58. Waxwork of Ringo Starr replaced by waxwork of Arctic Monkey Nick O’Malley.
59. Waxwork of Paul McCartney replaced by waxwork of Arctic Monkey Matt Helders.
60. Albert Einstein replaced by Brief History Of Time genius Stephen Hawking.
61. John Lennon replaced by son Sean.
62. Ringo Starr replaced by son Zak.
63. Paul McCartney replaced by daughter Stella.
64. George Harrison replaced by son Dhani.
65. Child star Bobby Breen replaced by off-the-rails Home Alone star Macaulay Culkin.
66. Hollywood actress Marlene Dietrich replaced by Aussie screen star Nicole Kidman.
67. Legionnaire from the Order of the Buffalo replaced by anonymous British soldier in Iraq.
68. Shapely actress Diana Dors replaced by curvy Kelly Brook.
69. Child star Shirley Temple replaced by Britney Spears in Disney TV show.
70. Japanese Fukusuke doll replaced by Teletubby toy.
71. Snow White figurine replaced by Toy Story’s Buzz Lightyear.
72. Statue from home of John Lennon replaced by statue of Bobby Moore.
73. Plastic doll replaced by Bratz doll.
74. Doll with Rolling Stones jumper replaced by ITV Digital Monkey with Arctic Monkeys T-shirt.
75. Figurine of Hindu goddess Lakshmi replaced by Barbie doll.
The Grammy Award-winning album packaging was art-directed by Robert Fraser, designed by Peter Blake and his wife Jann Haworth, and photographed by Michael Cooper. It featured a colourful collage of life-sized cardboard models of famous people on the front of the album cover and lyrics printed on the back cover, the first time this had been done on a British pop LP.[16]day-glo colours. The suits were designed by Manuel Cuevas.[17] Among the insignia on their uniforms are: The Beatles themselves, in the guise of the Sgt. Pepper band, were dressed in custom-made military-style outfits made of satin dyed in
MBE medals on McCartney's and Harrison's jackets. MBEs had been awarded to all four Beatles.
Art director Robert Fraser was a prominent London art dealer who ran his own gallery and sponsored exhibitions at the Indica Gallery, through which he had become a close friend of McCartney, and it was at his strong urging that the group abandoned their original cover design, a psychedelic painting by The Fool. The Fool's design for the inner sleeve was, however, used for the first few pressings.
Fraser was one of the leading champions of modern art in Britain in the 1960s and after. He argued strongly that the Fool artwork was not well-executed and that the design would soon be dated. He convinced McCartney to abandon it, and offered to art-direct the cover; it was Fraser's suggestion to use an established fine artist and he introduced the band to a client, noted British "pop" artist Peter Blake, who, in collaboration with his wife, created the famous cover collage, known as "People We Like".
According to Blake, the original concept was to create a scene that showed the Sgt. Pepper band performing in a park; this gradually evolved into its final form, which shows the Beatles, as the Sgt. Pepper band, surrounded by a large group of their heroes, rendered as lifesized cut-out figures. Also included were wax-work figures of the Beatles as they appeared in the early '60s, borrowed from Madame Tussauds.
In keeping with the park concept, the foreground of the scene is a floral display incorporating the word "Beatles" spelt out in flowers. Also present are several affectations from the Beatles' homes including small statues belonging to Lennon and Harrison, a small portable TV set and a trophy. A young delivery boy who provided the flowers for the photo session was allowed to contribute a guitar made of yellow hyacinths. Although it has long been rumoured that some of the plants in the arrangement were cannabis plants, this is untrue.
At the edge of the scene is a Shirley Temple doll wearing a sweater in homage to the Rolling Stones (who would return the tribute by having the Beatles hidden in the cover of their own Their Satanic Majesties Request LP later that year).
A photo also exists of a rejected cardboard printout with a cloth draped over its head; its identity is unknown. Even now, co-creator Jann Haworth regrets that so few women were included.[18]List of images on the cover of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. The entire list of people on the cover can be found at
The collage created legal worries for EMI's legal department, which had to contact the people who were still living to obtain their permission. Mae West initially refused — famously asking "What would I be doing in a lonely hearts club?" — but she relented after the Beatles sent her a personal letter. Actor Leo Gorcey requested payment for inclusion on the cover, so his image was removed. An image of Mohandas Gandhi was also removed at the request of EMI (it was airbrushed out), who had a branch in India and were fearful that it might cause offence there. Lennon had asked to include images of Jesus Christ and Adolf Hitler, though neither was included through fear of causing offence. Nonetheless a cutout was made of Hitler and can be clearly seen leaning against the wall in pictures of the photographic session. Most of the suggestions for names to be included came from McCartney, Lennon and Harrison, with additional suggestions from Blake and Fraser (Starr demurred and let the others choose). Beatles manager Brian Epstein had serious misgivings, stemming from the scandalous US Butcher Cover controversy the previous year, going so far as to give a note reading "Brown paper bags for Sgt. Pepper" to Nat Weiss as his last wish.
The collage was assembled by Blake and his wife during the last two weeks of March 1967 at the London studio of photographer Michael Cooper, who took the cover shots on 30 March 1967 in a three-hour evening session. The package was a "gatefold" album cover, that is, the album could be opened like a book to reveal a large picture of the Fab Four in costume against a yellow background. The reason for the gate fold was that the Beatles originally planned to fill two LPs for the release. The designs had already been approved and sent to be printed when they realised they would only have enough material for one LP.
Originally, the group had wanted the album to include a package with badges, pencils and other small Sgt. Pepper goodies but this proved far too costly to realise. Instead, the album came with a page of cardboard cut-outs carrying the description:
SGT. PEPPER CUT-OUTS
Moustache
Picture Card
Stripes
Badges
Stand Up
The special inner sleeve, included in the early pressings of the LP, featured a psychedelic pattern designed by The Fool.
The final bill for the cover was £2,868 5s 3d (equivalent to £38,823 today), a staggering sum for the time. It has been estimated that this was 100 times the average cost for an album cover in those days.[19]
In the song "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," Paul sings that it was "20 years ago today…" and to those convinced of a Satanic Beatles conspiracy of course Paul here is referring to the death, 20 years prior, of Satan's earthly fall guy Aleister Crowley, to whom the Fab Four dedicated that groundbreaking LP. From there, one can easily connect the dots, and 20 or 30 entirely rhetorical and totally tenuous connections later, we find that the Beatles were part of a Hollywood-area Satanic coven established by Crowley, and frequented by other devil-worshippers including the Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin.
Lansing-Dreiden is a multi-media company founded in Miami, FL and is currently based in New York. Its output includes artwork in the form of drawings, collages, sculpture and video, as well as the production of music recordings and Death Notice, a free newspaper containing fictional stories and images. All Lansing-Dreiden projects are fragmentary, mere stones in a path whose end lies in a space where the very definition of "path" paths.
Great Plates Weekly Salado O'Dalas
Much like his fathers interest in creating a sort of ornament for the natural plates, his son’s innovations in sectional ship ornamentation paved the way for how we thought of adding to what had already been created.
The son wants to fulfill his father’s dreams, but instead has found himself a builder and designer of vessels and vessel ornamentation. The son dies not ever reaching the top of his father’s spike, instead the aged vessels produced by dad’s factory are recycled into dwellings near Wellington. An entire town created out of large old floaters. Orally Core understandings were taken from the father’s tales, and the town celebrates after completing the Plates. All conditions after completion were controlled from the Core.
Another example of newer engineering is a marvel made possible by the earliest water floaters. Decades of research into the systems of creation and deletion advise the most current shifters. As times before, all who grew on board were taken abroad to discuss the nature of our regions tectonics. These very individuals, some of them overlapping, compiled the now known Great Plates.
The earliest of floaters used what was learned through tales of past people, they were long and would be gone long. The systems were air based, and they needed a lot of water. It was not long until they found the shore converted to shelter. In these barracks lay eggs from the sphere’s core, and at that core stand Walted Rarter, and the center of middle tale studies. His understandings of the floaters created a method for going, and the stories he told from the bounce were a simple fire. One tale that clamped to the students memory was a favorite of Rarter. It starts out with great hope and is titled "Great Place," which is really a secondary title for "A town of Dusk" where when the night falls the atmosphere thickens, becoming too thick with particles for even one breath. Later the people of the town hide below the tides eye. Moist and damp, the townsmen sleep on tiny floaters docked to the land tie. Most listeners to "A town of Dusk" find it hard to understand exactly why the night brings more dust, but to the teller the tale seems as natural as the ears interpretation. The dust in the tale you learn is the result of conditions meeting the Great Rock. Conditions that, as Rarter put it, "could be changed."
Rarter is the last of the tale teachers found at the Center. His career and life revolve around the core. Several students of Rarter have tried to tale, but are forced by creed not to practice while a Core member is at center of the middle studies. Creeds of this nature are all convoys from Wellington, the regions very own center. As it happens Rarter is from Wellington, and his ancestors assembled most of the governing in the form of letters. Rather Rarter refers to them as notes, and keeps all of them near Center. Most notes describe the total growth and outline the path of Wellington before its creation. All documents can be viewed by any middle studies member, but can be seen only at the Center.
Rarter’s public journal wows readers. The cover logo was one from his son, which became an icon for local ornament merchants. All merchants were forced into middle studies thanks to Wellington. Some riddled with their chaps, and they add more to the middle with monthly issues. Rarter’s best student starts his tale at the middle, which perplexes the merchant readers. Mostly because of his always adding to the floaters, almost pushing sinking.
At the commencement Rarter speaks of the core and tells his final tale. The program outlines the three parts. All three parts, just a sentence long each. The following day a new merchant resumes his family practice, and reads the weekly with Rarter’s last tale. In the photo the merchant’s icon is embroidered into Rarter’s tassel. It’s as big as his head, and at the page bottom an ad for the monthly.
The 60's Straight Ahead Jazz is definitely cool, and I can listen to it all day, but let me quote the ever so insightful words of Gwen Stefani when I say "This my Shit!" (Sorry, I won't do that again). One of the biggest contributers to Hip Hop, Roy Ayers is one of the greatest musicians that the world has ever seen. This is one of those covers that you look at and say to yourself, "Man, I know this is heat" (maybe not in those exact words) Anything with "Roy Ayers" and "197-" is some of the illest shit ever, heres just one joint. Don't trip, I'll post more later!
When American Born singer/songwriter Irvin Mowrey came to London in the early 70’s “to check the scene out”, he ended up playing in the subway to pay his rent, and soon met a classically-trained local violinist named Malcolm Watson, fresh from concerts in Abidjan (Ivory Coast) with a trio. They jammed in the subway and started adapting Mowrey’s songs to a duo format. The duo’s sound was rather unusual, mixing an acoustic eerie violin with a 12-string guitar, mixed with a great voice and intriguing lyrics. They returned to the subway to play out the three songs and a radio-producer walked by and proposed them a live appearance on the radio. After that, the duo went to the Borders (next to Scotland) for a week and turned up with over 90 minutes worth of material, worked from existing songs from Mowrey.
Visa problems made that Mowrey had to leave England for France (Daevid Allen anyone?) and headed for Paris, finding an open stage show and clinching a gig two weeks later. Calling Watson to the rescue, the duo practiced in the Paris subway (Watson making more cash by playing classical music interludes between the duo’s repertoire), and wouldn’t you know it, a record producer walked by and immediately offered to record them in one of Paris’s best studios. The duo then naturally called themselves Subway and after recording toured with SupertrampBahendel and a few radio shows before disappearing, later briefly resurging as Busker.
Released in 72 on the Epic label with only 200 copies pressed, it seems that most were destroyed once the unsold copies were returned to the label. This made Subway’s only record one of acid-folk’s most sought-after rarity.
Both musicians now live in the USA, Watson playing in a jazzy/new age duo and Mowrey works for a computer game company and still writes the odd song. Musically the group/duo sounds like a quiet Comus, Jan Dukes De Grey’s debut album, Mormos’ first album (as well) and Spirogyra’s quiet moments. and
The impact that a Festival like Paralelo has on the community is primarily due to the possibility offered to all citizens to be active in this cultural melting pot. This is an event of the highest artistic level and it involves everyone. Paralelo brings artists and music closer to the public, with the ultimate purpose of musical creation in a much less rigid structure.
Parelelo takes advantage of public and private spaces, to use them as auditoriums that revitalize the city and free the music from clichés. Paralelo is directly involved with and participates in the cultural and artistic development of the neighborhoods that are chosen, regardless of their economic status. Paralelo brings the artists and the public closer together. Paralelo is a cultural meeting point where artists of all nationalities find the right setting for artistic creation.
Paralelo presents concert cycles that take place in un-conventional venues, with the main objective of stimulating and welcoming all citizens to enjoy the music of our time. Paralelo offers the public an unusually broad repertoire and premieres a significant number of new works. Paralelo constantly searches for a public that is stimulated by an attractive, dynamic and innovative offering.
Paralelo not only presents different musical trends, but it also fosters interaction with other artistic disciplines which encourages creation.
The Sociedad Artística Daniel is in charge of Paralelo's programming. The Sociedad, founded in New York City almost one hundred years ago, has been responsible for the promotion of classical music in North and South America as well as in Europe. NYC composer Patrick Grant, founder of sTRANGEmUSIC, and Indonesian musician Ananda Sukarlan, pianist responsible for the premier of more than 100 works, are co-directors of Paralelo.
The Hedonist - Feb. 1998 Hedonist (Bob) - In the first interview we did with you, you said that you loved Gospel because you felt it was pure and hadn't been co-opted by anything. I was just wondering if you felt whether you or your music had been co-opted in any way and if you do/don't, what weapons do you use against this co-option? I - Well, number one, we are part of the music industry, just because some group is on some minor-league label, it's still business. There is money changing hands and product being made. I don't see anything inherently noble about running a small business. But at the same time we try to present our ideas. It's the nature of the medium, the magazine, it literally flattens you, people don't think about this. You can look at a horrible picture of yourself, and you'll say "I don't look like that" and other people will say "You do, you look just like that". But no-one looks like a picture-- a picture is flat. Film is a little closer, think of a film, an enormous projection of life on a screen, it's not real, that is not what people really look like. People take it as a representation of reality, but it's not at all, it's a complete abstraction. So it's like speaking into a microphone, it's not your real voice, it's an electrical amplification of your voice. It has very little to do with the reality of the thing. Just as oratory on the page is very different from oratory live. Fidel Castro is a great public speaker, other people are not. I doubt Morrissey would be a great public speaker, if he was speaking in Revolution Plaza in Havana, I doubt he would get his point across very well. In the interview format, quipping is like a different medium. They're almost like different forms of music, quipping, bluster, rhetoric. In the magazine you are thoroughly a characiture, it's an obscenity, but what are you to do? Marshall MacLuhan has a lot of interesting ideas about type, about the Gutenburg press and the revolution it had on people sensibilities. The way it changed the space people acted in, people used to be much more touchy-feely orientated, but once type was invented people became much more visual; he says TV is kind of a return, a step-backward from printing induced social systems. H - I understand what you mean by a magazine though, in that whatever you say will never represent you as the 3-D person that you really are. I - But you can't get worried about that, in fact I would never, that's why we never talk about our personal lives. I mean most performers pontificate about the tawdry details of their lives. H (Ewa) - Like what their favourite colour is, joke!! H (Bob) - Yeah, actually we are going to get personal, I just wanted to know what motivated you to do this? I - Well you know I'm more or less a savage... I don't know, a lot of people are . . . to me it's just that congregational thing, the power that music has and the medium of music, how it is essentially the only oratorical or idea thing. It's the only living art, it's the only real form of expression available to most people. It's not just totally corrupt don't you think? H - No, not really, not at all. I'm most interested in why you aren't something like a painter for example? (--My Favorite Part--) I - Well, in America, painting is more of a ghetto, even more than music, it's way more driven by money. Basically, you look at the relationship between different art-forms and business and government. And of course the government is just the judicial wing of business. If you look at art, in the 40's the socialist world, the Communist partisans had led the resistance against the Nazis and had earned the sympathies of the people through that. When America and the UK went into these countries, they killed off the socialist resistance and installed people who had been Nazi collaborators, thus ensuring that capitalism prevailed. You notice that the big 3 after the war were Germany, USA and Japan, the fascist powers. In Italy for example, the Communist partisans won the war basically against the Germans and the Allies took over and installed Victor Immanuel, the King under Mussolini, they made pacts with the Mafia. And they basically made sure that capitalist interests would prevail. But the point is, that in the post-war period, socialism was gaining ground and it had a lot of support, especially among the intelligentia and the artists. What the USA had to do was prove that a capitalist, free market country could support an Avant-Garde movement. So the CIA introduced abstract expressionism, through (art critic/theorist) Clement Greenberg. Greenberg basically told abstract expressionists and Jackson Pollock how to paint. And then they constructed a formula in which notably socialist art, socialist realism or Constructivism and anything that had a political programme was excluded. You'll notice that before the 1940's art was very political, whereas Abstract-Expressionists, like Pollock, De Kooning, etc. had no politics, and art that had content was declared to be adolescent, and that's prevailed ever since and that is why Art today is not so interesting to me.
The Beatles' 1967 album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band has a widely-recognized album cover which depicts several dozen celebrities and other images. 
