It was a golden summer – and now it’s a golden anniversary.
The Summer of Love of 1967 was a time to break free, to celebrate creativity, to revel in a counter-culture, to – as Timothy Leary famously suggested – ‘turn on, tune in, drop out’.
In America, Scott Mackenzie implored his listeners to ‘be sure to wear flowers in your hair’, while in London Pink Floyd headlined the 14 Hour Technicolor Dream at Alexandra Palace.
And on June 1, 1967 the Beatles added their own voice to the musical mix with the release of Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, It's one of the best British music in history.
The album was unlike anything that had gone before – and its power and impact transcended that one heady period of time so that 50 years on, it is widely regarded as the most important rock and roll album ever made.
To mark this special anniversary, Liverpool has commissioned 13 never-before-seen events, influenced by each track on the album.
Internationally-renowned artists are working in partnership with the city’s homegrown creative talent to bring to life this series of incredible reimagined pieces of work.
Expect dance, music, art, theatre and sheer magical spectacle on a large – and small – scale, as our very special celebration unfolds.
The adventure takes place from May 25 to June 16, as the city pays tribute to its own four musical pioneers and the piece of ‘art’ they produced in the only way it knows how – by pushing artistic boundaries and celebrating creativity in all its forms.
This is just one of the inspiring and visionary events created by Culture Liverpool and our partners, to find out more about what else is planned in 2017 check out Plan Your Visit.
A truly memorable journey, 25 MAY – 16 JUNE 2017, and here is My Memory of Liverpool.
Contents
- Pepperland by Mark Morris Dance Group
- With a Little Help From My Friends
- Suspended Time by GroupeF
- Getting Better?
- Fixing a Hole
- She’s Leaving Home
- Mr Kite’s MUSICIRCUS!
- Beatles Ragafest & Indian Festival Village
- When I’m Sixty-Four
- Rita Riot/ Rita Dreaming/ Rita Requiem
- Good Morning, Good Morning
- Let’s Not Be Ourselves, Thank You Beatles
- A Day in the Life (24 Zero Hours)
Pepperland by Mark Morris Dance Group
Inspired by Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
Liverpool's Royal Court
Mark Morris Dance Group, Merseyside Dance Initiative
Liverpool loves a world premiere, and Pepperland launches our Sgt Pepper at 50 celebrations in style. The ‘overture’ for our three-week festival is brought to the city in a very special commission by the Mark Morris Dance Group.
Internationally-renowned for his ingenuity, musicality, wit and humanity, acclaimed choreographer Mark Morris and his New York-based Mark Morris Dance Group debut in Liverpool with Pepperland, a captivating performance of dance and music. This original work for 15 dancers features a score by American composer Ethan Iverson with arrangements from Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, including the title track plus “With a Little Help from My Friends”, “A Day in the Life”, “When I’m Sixty-Four”, “Within You Without You”, and “Penny Lane”, intermingled with six Pepper-inspired compositions.
An unprecedented chamber music ensemble of piano, voice, soprano sax, trombone, organ, harpsichord, theremin, and percussion will tease out and elaborate on Sgt. Pepper’s non-rock n’ roll influences, performing live with the Dance Group in a “rethinking of this profound cultural artifact with all of the imagination, surprise, humor, and bizarrity intact.” (Mark Morris).
Formed in 1980, the Mark Morris Dance Group (MMDG) has received “highest praise for their technical aplomb, their musicality, and their sheer human authenticity.” (Bloomberg News). With only four performances of this must-see show in the UK, Pepperland promises to be one of the highest points of Liverpool’s “Sgt Pepper at 50” celebration.
STOP PRESS:
Mark Morris Dance Group will lead a masterclass at the Liverpool Institute for the Performing Arts on Friday the 26th of May 11am-1pm to include technique and repertory (Pepperland). Open to professional dancers and recent graduates, the company dancers teaching class will be Sam Black and Lesley Garrison and will have live accompaniment.
With a Little Help From My Friends
Presented by Metal, With A Little Help from My Friends is a new work by Turner Prize winning artist Jeremy Deller. Inspired by the Beatles’ best friend Brian Epstein, the work is about friendship, loneliness and love.
By 1967 The Beatles were the most famous people in the world no doubt a totally alienating experience considering their youth, naturally they depended greatly on each other and on a few trusted friends for support.
The relationship between the individual and society is a powerful theme in the work of Jeremy Deller and in his response to this song, he has made two public art commissions that examine the nature of friendship and self-sacrifice, not just with those we know but also between strangers.
Suspended Time by GroupeF
Christophe Berthonneau, Groupe F, The Lantern Company, Circo Rum Ba Ba, Caustic Widows
Lucy, the girl with kaleidoscope eyes, has inspired this enchanting light festival which will transform Camp Hill into a magical land for one memorable night.
Part-performance, part-storytelling, part-pyrotechnic display, Suspended Time will be unlike any event staged in Liverpool before.
Pyrotechnic genius Christophe Berthonneau and Groupe F are the French team behind the opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympics, the Eurovision song contest and Bastille Day.
Here they are working with American-born Scott Gibbons, one of the most exciting electronic music composers around, to create a unique and magical evening to celebrate the surreal beauty of John Lennon’s song.
Liverpool Lantern Company and Circo Rum Ba Ba will animate the park with weird and wonderful street theatre from 8pm, as the event builds up to the final performance at 10.30pm.
Bring the whole family, pack a picnic and something warm in case it’s parky, and settle down for a stellar storytelling experience.
Liverpool Lantern Company
From before dusk through to nightfall, audiences can experience a visual theatrical feast from the Lantern Company, whose illuminated tribe of surreal and wonderful walkabout characters and giant puppets will create gentle, humorous and downright bizarre interactions and experiences for all the family, as they meander through the Camp Hill site throughout the evening.
Lantern Company’s recent work includes creating a spectacular city wide opening event for Aarhus, European Capital of Culture 2017. They have thrilled audiences from here to Hong Kong with their unique offering of mysterious, beautiful and absurd theatrical encounters.
The Birdcage by Caustic Widows
In a wonderland of illuminations stands a giant golden gilded birdcage, birdsong fills the air as aerial creatures swoop and soar overhead. Caustic widows present a magical illuminated aerial spectacle with costumed characters, aerial hoop, soundscapes and birdsong. Performances between 8 -10pm
Performed by Stephanie Greer and Gemma Bond Concept, direction and design by Katy-Anne Bellis
The Cabin – by Anna Mulhearn
What happens when Twin Peaks’ black lodge meets the animals of farthing wood on the way to an underground Berlin club?
‘The Cabin’ is a comedic, surreal and voyeuristic installation accompanied by performances that see a small abandoned wooden lodge in the woods become inhabited by numerous curious creatures – an insane asylum for animals who have collided with the human world, inheriting some of our more eccentric traits.
Witness a disgruntled goat lose endlessly to the world champion of Guess Who, see the grooming rituals of an all star Zebra drag queen and dance along to her disco sound track.
L’HOTEL – The smallest hotel in the world
L’ Hotel has parked ceremoniously at its latest destination…….The only hotel to come to you!
The “smallest hotel in the world ” is shrouded but watch as it comes alive: beds are made, tables laid, chamber maids roused, bell boys leap into action and finally the special guests arrive and are ushered up the red carpet to their luxury accommodation.
Watch amazed as this charming, eccentric, tiny venue erupts into glittering cabaret, dances into dream filled slumber and wakes to clattering kitchen choreography.
Acrobatics, globe walking, dead celebrities, French finesse, trumpeting and mime mayhem make this an enchanting show to delight an audience of any age or nationality.
Please plan in advance your travel arrangements to Camp Hill, there are a number of options available to you which we have listed below.
It is possible to walk to the site from a number of South Liverpool locations less than 45 mins away including Allerton Road, Belle Vale Shopping Centre, Booker Avenue, Childwall ‘Triangle’, Garston Village, Gateacre, Halewood, Netherley, Smithdown Road and Speke.
Free car parking will be provided at Simpsons Ground adjacent to the site – access will be clearly signposted from Menlove Avenue. Please park responsibly only in designated car parks and off road parking spaces. Please be mindful of local residents and not to park in residents parking bays or block residents access.
The 76, 166 and 188 bus routes offer access to the site with additional services available to Woolton Village including the 75, 78, 81, 89 approximately 15 minutes from the site. However, please note that the last buses on these routes will depart between 23.10 hrs and 23.30hrs, so there will be limited opportunities to travel home by bus from the event.
The nearest train station is Liverpool South Parkway (approximately 30 minutes walk) please note that the last services from Liverpool South Parkway will be at 23.21, 23.45 and 00.27hrs to the city centre.
Due to the late finish of this event (approximately 23.00hrs) a limited number of additional buses will be available to provide a link to Liverpool South Parkway and then non-stop to the City Centre, at 23.15. These will depart from close to the junction of Woolton Road and Hillfoot Road.
Getting Better?
We’re living in interesting times.
But is it, as Paul McCartney sang, getting better all the time? Or is it a case, as the laconic John Lennon responded, that it “couldn’t get no worse”? That’s what Paul D Miller, aka DJ Spooky, sets out to answer.
The Washington DC-born composer, artist and author will explore the question through a mixture of performance and an audio-visual installation.
DJ Spooky will take to the stage at the Philharmonic Hall’s Music Room with the Liverpool String Quartet to remix a number of Beatles’ classics including Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds, A Day in the Life, Penny Lane, Strawberry Fields and, of course, Getting Better itself.
Hosted by Radio 6 DJ Stuart Maconie and joined by a group of emerging Liverpool creatives who will tackle the same theme through music, visual art and film.
Main guest vocalist will be Bridget Barkan (USA) and artists will include music producer LUCA, singer-songwriters Astles and LUИA, local Hip Hop, Dub, Garage and Grime artist Nicky Talent, spoken word artist SPXKEN, and visual artist Totti.
In addition, DJ Spooky, in collaboration with multimedia artists The Holladay Brothers, has created a dynamic digital installation at FACT featuring a multi-screen video and sound piece.
Join the conversation on 5 June with a special Q&A with DJ Spooky and Grammy Award-winning producer Steve Levine at Fact at 12pm and a post-show Q&A at the Phil.
Fixing a Hole
The White Tomkins and Courage Grain Silo, Stanley Dock
(viewing is advised from Regent Road or the Titanic Hotel terrace)
Judy Chicago is renowned for her large-scale, collaborative installations.
Here, the icon of American art responds to the lyrics of Fixing a Hole with a spectacular mural on the walls of the monumental Grain Silo.
The celebratory work is Chicago’s largest painting to date, and will engage the local art community in a colourful celebration of the four famous lads from Liverpool.
The artist explains: “In creating this image, I tried to honour the incredible path that took four lads from Liverpool to stardom, and allowed me to link my natural colour sense to the psychedelic hues that dominated so much of 1960s popular art.”
Chicago has enjoyed a career as an artist and activist spanning more than half-a-century, and in the 1970s she coined the term feminist art.
In 2012 she held an exhibition of work at the Black-E in Liverpool’s Chinatown.
Meanwhile from Monday May 29 to Saturday June 10 visitors to Tate Liverpool are invited to take part in workshops where they can create their own image and text based art in response to the song Fixing a Hole to add to a collaborative wall work. At Tate Liverpool Studio and Tate Liverpool Exchange.
She’s Leaving Home
This is one of the most moving songs ever written and recorded by the Beatles and its voice will be brought to life in a series of breath-taking but intimate performances inside real Liverpool homes. Expect a very special experience.
The play, written by Keith Saha and performed by young Liverpool actress Brodie Arthur, explores themes around housing, what home means, and the feeling of being without a home.
It has been researched and developed with young adults in Liverpool, and will feature the company’s trademark fusion of performance, specially commissioned live music played by Semay Wu and puppetry by Alison Duddle performed by Zoe Hunter
20 Stories High is a Toxteth-based, award-winning young people’s theatre company. Phelim McDermott is a founder and co-artistic director of Improbable.
In addition to public performances, members of the community are hosting private shows for family, friends and neighbours from 10 – 18 June. L8 residents are invited to apply to host a performance using the link above.
The public venue will be confirmed when you buy a ticket.
Suitable for ages 13+.
CAST
Brodie Arthur
CREATIVE TEAM
Written by – Keith Saha
Directed by – Julia Samuels
Associate Artist – Phelim McDermott
Puppet Director – Alison Duddle
Puppetry – Zoe Hunter
Cellist – Semay Wu
Design consultant – Miriam Nabarro; Dramaturg- Philip Osment; Production Manager- Richard Owen; Producer- Amy Fisher
Mr Kite’s MUSICIRCUS!
Mr Kite’s MUSICIRCUS! promises to be one of the biggest and most ambitious events of the entire programme – and yes, a splendid time is guaranteed for all the family.
Expect an audacious fairground ride of sights and sounds creating an immersive sensory spectacular performance.
This whirligig celebration of Beatles’ music involves thousands of musicians, choirs, soloists, dancers, circus performers, poets and even chess players. Bring the whole family and immerse yourselves in an inspiring, joyful and happily anarchic afternoon.
John Cage was one of the greats of experimental American music, and while the Beatles were recording Sgt Pepper in Britain, across the Atlantic he was creating his own ground-breaking musical masterpiece.
Now, 50 years on, Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and Cage’s MUSICIRCUS! are being entwined in one original performance.
Beatles Ragafest & Indian Festival Village
What drew George Harrison and The Beatles to Indian music and culture?
Milapfest will rekindle and showcase the amazing creative and spiritual connection with India with a festival of music and culture. A ‘Ragafest’ featuring four specially curated concerts with meals will match the changing mood of the day, along with an Indian Festival Village with food, arts and crafts.
The Ragafest will feature some of the world’s best Indian artists, as they explore Indian music’s relationship with the world, with improvised, composed and collaborative concerts.
Beatles Ragafest Concerts – 08:30, 13:00, 17:30 and 21:30 (please see below for details of each concert)
Festival Village – Open from 11:30 – 21:00 (free admission)
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The Morning Ragafest and Indian Breakfast
The Beatles Ragafest begins the day with the soul stirring sounds of the Sarod, an amazing lute-like instrument played by renowned world class musician, Pandit Ranajit Sengupta. Set the tone for a wonderful day ahead with the meditative, spiritual and energizing moods created by Hindustani Ragas.
Pandit Sengupta will be accompanied by the highly acclaimed Tabla Maestro Kousic Sen.
A taster of a typical Indian Breakfast will be served one hour before the start of the concert.
The meal comes with your concert ticket; we suggest you give yourself at least an hour to enjoy this delicious start to a great day!
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The Afternoon Ragafest with a South Indian Lunch
Raga Seasons, featuring internationally renowned violinist Jyotsna Srikanth and the Crystal Quartet, is an Indian violin concerto where the six seasons of India are experienced through harmonic arrangements, orchestration and rich embellishments featuring Ragas with a generous sprinkling of Western harmony and arrangements. A unique ‘never-before’ exciting musical collaboration, bringing together the beauty of pure Western and Indian classical music, culminating in a major collaborative piece set to delight audiences.
The six seasons of India are represented by six movements in the concerto: Spring, Summer, Monsoon, Autumn, Winter and Snow. Raga Seasons is conceptualised and composed by Jyotsna Srikanth and arranged by Shadrach Solomon.
A taster of South Indian food will be served by Mayur Indian Restaurant and is included as part of your concert ticket. Please give yourself at least 60 minutes before the concert to enjoy your meal!
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The Evening Ragafest
with a North Indian Dinner
The evening Ragafest presents one of the most acclaimed and accomplished musicians of India. Grammy award Winner, Padma Vibhushan awardee Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, appearing for the very first time in Liverpool with his very talented son, Salil Bhatt, and renowned tabla artist Ramkumar Mishra.
Vishwa Mohan Bhatt is a senior disciple and collaborator of Pandit Ravi Shankar, and is also a prolific composer and performer on the world stage.
His music ranges from folk and popular music to classical and jazz, and transcends across generations of music lovers. Tonight this amazing trio will present traditional as well contemporary music that will leave a lasting musical legacy to our city.
North Indian style taster food will be served as part of your concert ticket by Liverpool’s own Mayur Indian Restaurant; please give yourself at least 60 minutes before the concert to enjoy your meal!
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The Late Night Ragafest
With Masala Chai, Kumbakonam Degree Coffee & Nibbles
The Beatles Ragafest concludes with a very special, unique candlelight concert featuring two fantastic musicians bringing together the grand piano and Bansuri, the North Indian bamboo flute.
Two highly acclaimed and very popular world musicians, Anil Srinivasan (Piano) and Rakesh Chaurasia (flute) recreate a unique concert they played together for the first time in 2014 at the Indika Festival here in Liverpool. They will be accompanied by two fantastic British percussionists, Pirashanna Thevarajah, and Kousic Sen.
This unique occasion will also feature the launch of a new CD featuring Anil and Rakesh called ‘Melody on the Mersey’.
A fitting climax to this musical feast, the concert will mesmerize you with the lilting sound of the bamboo flute interwoven with the piano sounds, capturing the essence of how the spirit of all music is universal and unifying.
Candlelight with coffee and chai will bring a beautiful musical journey to its end, unifying many hearts through arts today!
When I’m Sixty-Four
Music and poetry combine to take a 21st century look at growing older in response to Paul McCartney’s When I’m Sixty-Four.
A celebration of one of the most upbeat Beatles songs, a mass sing-along will be broadcast live on Radio Merseyside from the world heritage Pier Head.
Sixty-Four choirs around Merseyside perform together in a special Beatles tribute at 10.30am on Thursday 8 June.
Choirs at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital, in supermarkets, in schools and in flash mobs on the streets join together to sing When I’m Sixty-Four as part of Liverpool’s Sgt Pepper at 50 celebrations.
Thousands are taking part and one of the biggest gatherings takes place on Liverpool’s UNESCO World Heritage waterfront, when hundreds of people congregate near the statue of the Beatles to perform the track at 10.30am prompt.
Organised by BBC Radio Merseyside in partnership with the Sgt Pepper team, the track is being broadcast live on the station (95.8FM). Those who can’t be there in person are encouraged to take part and are asked to post a video of themselves singing on Radio Merseyside’s Facebook page.
The Poets’ Project
In response to ‘When I’m Sixty-Four’, a special anthology of 13 poems (one for each track on the Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album) has been commissioned, with contributions from 13 international poets.
The poets range from those with international reputations (two are T S. Eliot prize winners), to some in the early stages of their careers. They are John Kinsella, Tracy K. Smith, Sinead Morrissey, Yasuhiro Yatsumoto, Owen Sheers, Kim Hyesoon, Don Paterson, Angelica Freitas, Lavinia Greenlaw, Kei Miller, Nikola Madzirov, Ulrike Almut Sandig and Zaffar Kunial.
And of course, no anthology of poems celebrating The Beatles album would be complete without a contribution from Liverpool Poet Roger McGough, who has penned a special response to being 64.
Rita Riot/ Rita Dreaming/ Rita Requiem
Hope Street, Metropolitan Cathedral, Oratory, Anglican Cathedral and St James Burial Ground
Meow Meow, Jherek Bischoff, Jethro Woodward, Andrea Lauer
We may not always love them when we’re on the receiving end of a parking ticket.
But Paul McCartney turned an encounter with a ‘meter maid’ close to London’s Abbey Road Studios into an exuberant and jaunty love letter.
Lovely Rita and Liverpool’s own traffic wardens are the inspiration for this inventive performance project by international performance artist Meow Meow.
Known for pushing boundaries, Meow Meow works with her Sleepless Beauties – acclaimed musician, composer and producer Jherek Bischoff, sound designer and composer Jethro Woodward, and award-winning designer Andrea Lauer – to produce a unique and glorious procession down iconic Hope Street to start the weekend.
Setting off from the Metropolitan Cathedral at 9.30am on 10 June, it will involve musicians and traffic wardens, with a little help from The Kazimier and culminates in an uplifting performance outside the Oratory.
Good Morning, Good Morning
Are you a morning person? If not, make an exception just this once and start the new day with some tasty culture as surprise performances take place across the city, inspired by John Lennon’s song.
Meet kazoo-wielding cultural cockerels and bands of musicians playing a Good Morning fanfare as you wend your way to work.
Enjoy Rapid Response Unit’s theatrical review of the General Election and rehearsed readings of new plays ‘Lonely Hearts Club Band’ by Luke Barnes and Sour Cherries’ by Stuart Crowther brought to you by the Unity Theatre ‘on tour’, at The Crack pub and LIPA.
Enjoy yoga, Indian music and a 1967 DJ set at the Bluecoat. Learn more about Tara Browne – who “blew his mind out in a car” – at Tate Café.
Paul McGann reads Herman Melville at The Athenaeum. Baritone Marcus Farnsworth sings morning songs by Schubert, Wolf and others at the Phil’s Music Room. Chill and enjoy breakfast and boogie in the Kazimier Gardens.
Young artists from LIPA and LIMF perform on Church Street ahead of a grand, feather-filled noon finale, where you can join a Spirit of ’67 ‘love in’.
Don’t go to work on an egg – go to work on a high on this ‘Good Morning’.
Let’s Not Be Ourselves, Thank You Beatles
Mark & Stuart explore the influence of Sgt Pepper and the Beatles on the musical legacy of the city over the last five decades.
Among the guests are The Coral’s frontman James Skelly, local singer-songwriting folk hero Mick Head of Shack and The Selecter’s Pauline Black. With live music from legendary Merseyside electronic pioneers ‘Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark’ and local indie psych-pop four-piece ‘She Drew The Gun’
A Day in the Life (24 Zero Hours)
