The Story Behind Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band

People may not have heard of Peter Blake, but everyone recognises the album cover artwork he created for The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. However most people do not know the story behind the image, that in fact Sgt. Pepper's was not a collage but a full-scale 3-d set that Blake created and then had photographed.

Unlike most fine artists, Blake has always accepted commercial assignments and believes in the importance of graphic design in his work. Blake believes that these projects pushed him to expand his subject matter and develop new techniques. Of course commercial work also fitted into the essential ethos of Pop Art: that mass culture and commercial imagery could become part of fine art.

Blake and his then wife (Jann Haworth) collaborated on Sgt. Pepper's. The commission came to Blake via his then art dealer, Robert Fraser, who was well known in the London music scene. He was paid  a flat fee of £200, which is obviously a minute amount considering the success of the album, but at least it brought his work to the attention of millions. The concept for the image came from Paul McCartney's request that the group be presented as if accepting some sort of civic award, and Blake decided to make the crowd surrounding the four members of the band full of famous folk. The juxtaposition of unexpected people from diiferent eras and locations is an idea which has always pleased Blake and crops up in much of his work, and here we see it in full flow. Blake actually asked each of the Beatles to make a list of the people (living or dead) that they would like to surround them on the cover.

The Beatles were placed centrally, posing in colourful marching band outfits, with instruments in hand. Beside them stand life-sized wax work figures of their younger selves in their 'mop top' incarnation. Blake and Haworth had life-sized photographic cut outs made of the personalities that would make up the crowd (seeking permission from the ones that were still living- apparently Mae West put up a bit of a fuss about being in a lonely hearts club). These include Karl Marx, Oscar Wilde, Marilyn Monroe, Bob Dylan, Marlon Brando, W.C. Fields etc. (Can anyone out there in the blogospere name them all?). These cardboard cut outs were then arranged in a photographic studio. Haworth created the sculpture of the little girl with the Rolling Stones jumper that sits on the right-hand side, and all the foliage in the foreground is absolutely real and painstakingly arranged by Blake.

The final image is from a photograph of this surreal scene taken by Michael Cooper. To get further fascinating insight into the making of Sgt. Pepper please visit the CCA YouTube channel where you can see a video of the work in progress.

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