When I was at school I had a Saturday job in Woollies in Oxford Street. It is not there any more, it used to be next to a very boring middle of the road store, Bourne & Hollingworth, also long gone, razed to the ground. I worked there every week for the princely sum of £1.10s.0d in the days when the stores closed at 1 pm on a Saturday.
This particular Woollies was five minutes walk away from Berwick Street Market and in that area was a record shop which I used to visit all the time. I would save up my money religiously and when I had enough would go and buy the latest Beatle LP there - they always seems to have them a few days before anybody else. As the LPs used to cost £1.12s.6d I had to save for a few weeks before I had the requisite amount, this was pre-credit card days. Oh, the anticipation of knowing that when the store closed I was going to get my hands on the latest Beatles release. I bought them all and have them all in their original vinyl state locked away in a cupboard at home. I bought each Beatle LP as they came out and one of these days when I am old and decrepit I will sell them on EBay and perhaps they will be worth a bob or two. If I an bear to part with them of course.
And then came Sargent Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band with its by now, iconic cover. It was a open out LP with a flap and ontained a cut out pair of moustaches and hat that you could wear. There was John, Paul, George and Ringo dressed up in red, pink and yellow coats surrounded by all these famous and not so famous luminaries. Competitions were run to see how many we could all name. I rushed home and put the LP on my record player, turned up the volume knob as loud as it would go and was totally overwhelmed by the first chords of Sargent Pepper with that huge sound of guitars, orchestra and drums. I was in heaven, I was totally overwhelmed, I could not believe what I was hearing. Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, When I'm 64, Lovely Rita Meter Maid, each gem poured out one after the other. I played it so often it began to resemble a lace doily and I saved up my money and bought a second copy which is still in its wrapper totally pristine.
I had been a Beatle fan since day one, I went to the Finsbury Park Empire to see them perform. Also on the bill Cilla Black, Tommy Quickly (whatever happened to him?), Gerry and the Pacemakers and Billy J Kramer and the Dakotas. The compere was Rolf Harris believe it or not. I was in the front row but could not hear a thing as the screaming, yelling and shouting was overwhelming. The Fab Four could have been singing nursery rhymes for all I knew as I could see their mouths opening and closing but that was it. Same year I went to the New Musical Express (NME) poll winner's concert, then one of the coolest things around, at Wembley. First half was closed by the Rolling Stones and the Beatles topped the bill. When a four part biography of the Beatles was shown on TV a few years ago, they showed part of this concert and I was able to point to where I had been sitting. My two daughters thought this was really 'cool mum'.
It is difficult to convey just how sensational and stunning this album was when it was released. We had never heard anything like it before. We were still in the times of Bobby Vee, Ricky Nelson, Sandra Dee, Connie Francis, they were contemporaries. Alma Cogan was singing. After Sargent Pepper nothing was ever the same, pop music changed for ever.
A writer in the Times in the 1960s wrote an article in which he stated that McCartney-Lennon's songs would be remembered as long as those of Schubert. Of course, he was excoriated on all sides and scorn heaped upon him, but he was right. There were some crappy songs in there at times, Lennon was a tad pretentious and Paul could be a tad precious, but just think of Fool on the Hill, Yesterday, When I'm 64, Here Comes the Sun, Eleonor Rigby and many many others and you have to admit that the body of their work is simply stupendous. One of the most beautiful songs that emerged from this group was 'Something' which was written by George Harrison. He mainly produced songs for the albums that were Indian based and, quite frankly, they could be tedious. This one was a gem and is still being played and recorded now.
If I listen to any track from this album I am transported back to 1964. I was at school and the nuns hated anybody listening to this album with a vengeance. I always remember a girl called Ellen Smith, a very studious girl, a favourite with the nuns, arriving very late one morning and when Mother Patricia asked her the reason for her lateness was taken aback when Ellen smiled sweetly and said 'Oh I was listening to Sargent Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club band and I forgot I had to come to school...'
You know what I did this morning - I went into Virgin Records and I have just bought Sir Paul McCartney's latest CD. Forty years later and still going strong.
O Happy Happy Days.
Thank you John, Paul, George and Ringo for the good times.
