Prior to a late night recording session at Abbey Road, The Beatles visited Michael Cooper’s London photographic studio where the cover photographs for Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band were taken.
The shoot took place at 4 Chelsea Manor Studios, 1-11 Flood Street, just off King’s Road in Chelsea. The studios opened in 1902, and Cooper established his studio from 22 July 1966.
The Beatles arrived in the late afternoon. The soon-to-be-famous collage, designed by Peter Blake and his wife Jann Haworth, had been assembled in the studio during the preceding eight days.
A contract dated 14 April 1967 described the various fees for the session, including a misspelling of the album title:
Hire and use of Michael Cooper Studios for 8 days including personnel (3 fulltime assistants) plus overtime and expenses to staff for additional work during Easter weekend: £625.0.054 copy negatives @ 10/6 each: 28.7.0
54 20″x16″ prints @ 17/6 each: 47.5.0
Photography fee (SGT. PEPPER’S LONELY HEARTS BAND set and centre spread, closeup): 250.0.0
Art direction fee (Layout and co-ordination of sleeve and inserts, cutouts, song sheets, production of mechanical rough and artwork by Al Vandenberg for Michael Cooper Studios, including co-ordination and supervision of all aspects of design and artwork from Peter Blake and Simon & Marekka; supervision and co-ordination of printing, retouching and blockmaking): £350.0.0
Special fee to Peter Blake: £200.0.0
In addition to the front cover shot, The Beatles also posed for the images used on the back cover and the gatefold sleeve.
The cover had come about after Paul McCartney came up with the album title. He took some ideas to his art dealer friend Robert Fraser, who suggested they use Blake, Haworth and Cooper to realise the concept.
We had an original meeting with all four Beatles, Robert Fraser and Brian Epstein; most of the subsequent talking was done with Paul at his house and with John there sometimes.
McCartney’s initial idea was to stage a presentation featuring a mayor and a corporation, with a floral clock and a selection of photographs of famous faces on the wall behind The Beatles.
He asked the others to list their choices for the photographs; the original list, complete with misspellings, was given to Fraser and Blake:
Yoga’s; Marquis de Sade; Hitler; Neitch; Lenny Bruce; Lord Buckley; Alistair Crowley; Dylan Thomas; James Joyce; Oscar Wilde; William Burroughs; Robert Peel; Stockhausen; Auldus Huxley; H.G. Wells; Izis Bon; Einstein; Carl Jung; Beardsley; Alfred Jarry; Tom Mix; Johnny Weissmuller; Magritte; Tyrone Power; Carl Marx; Richard Crompton; Tommy Hanley; Albert Stubbins; Fred Astaire.
McCartney took the list and sketches to Peter Blake, who developed the concept further. Further names were added and others fell by the wayside.
Jesus and Hitler were among John Lennon’s choices, but they were left off the final list. Gandhi, meanwhile, was disallowed by Sir Joseph Lockwood, the head of EMI, after he told them they would have problems having the sleeve printed in India.
Also on this day...
- 2019: Paul McCartney live: Estádio Couto Pereira, Curitiba
- 2010: Paul McCartney live: Hollywood Bowl, Los Angeles
- 1970: Mixing: For You Blue
- 1967: Recording: With A Little Help From My Friends
- 1965: Recording: That Means A Lot, You’re Going To Lose That Girl
- 1965: Filming: Help!
- 1964: Brian Epstein commissions Derek Taylor to ghostwrite A Cellarful Of Noise
- 1963: The Beatles live: Guildhall, Portsmouth
- 1962: The Beatles live: Cavern Club, Liverpool (evening)
- 1962: The Beatles live: Cavern Club, Liverpool (lunchtime)
Want more? Visit the Beatles history section.
Apologies if this is the wrong place to be asking this…
I’m wondering if anyone can help me with a project I’m doing about the cover art of Sgt. Pepper?
I’m trying to find the original images that were made into cut-outs – most of these were tracked down on a forum:
https://www.britmovie.co.uk/…/108828-sgt-peppers-lonely-hear…
Which seems to have become defunct, meaning that some of the pictures the members found are no longer visible.
The original pictures I’m missing are:
Fred Astaire
Richard Merkin
Wallace Berman
Aldous Huxley
William Burroughs
Tyrone Power
Issy Bonn
Albert Einstein (largely obscured by George Harrison) on the cover)
and the unknown “Legionnaire” (behind the Diana Dors wax figure)
I’m also interested if anyone has any ideas about the George Bernard Shaw and David Livingstone figures – several people have speculated that they may actually be wax heads – or even photos of wax works – I’ve looked at most(?) of the photos of the cover shoot being set up haven’t seen a cut out of Shaw or Livingstone – they do look different to the others.
Thanks for any info.
Have you tried the art directors and photographers themselves? Peter Blake, Michael Cooper are a great place to start if you can track them down. Fanzone
I might be a tad late but this site seems pretty accurate : https://www.fab4art.com/sgt_pepper_shoot.htm
I know there is a photo missing as I have seen it. Dyring the Pepper’s shoot John is sitting with his his feet in a hole that looks like a grave. Where is it?
Hello Beatles-fans, I was wondering: where have all the flowers came from, for this cover for Sgt. Pepper? Are they British or maybe Dutch? Who was the flower-dealer?
The flowers were nicked by Mal Evans from the forecourt of a Texaco petrol station just south of Sloane Square, John.
I was curious as to what happened to the photos used for this cover. I know the wax statues sold at auction but can’t seem to find where the photos ended up. thanks for any info
See my article in June MOJO for my story on the photo session. I was on the camera and heavily involved in the set creation. Apart from Peter Blake and Jann Haworth, I’m the only one left of the team. The mojo article is heavily edited.
Hi Nigel, amazing story. Did Paul ever pose with his bass guitar in any of the unused cover photos? There is one that looks real but is said to be a photoshop of his Rick bass from the Hello Goodbye shoot. Thankyou
Hi Nigel,
Fantastic stuff. Very interesting as regards what various people specifically did.
I’m trying to find out who to contact for permissions to use of one of the excellent production photos in a book I’ve just written for Tate publishing: ‘How Art Made Pop’. Could you help?
Thanks
Mike Roberts
i beleive the drum was my dads,jack patten of kings lynn he was in the boys brigade
Hi,
I would like to share my collection of Sgt Pepper pictures taken that day.
I have been tracking them down for awhile and i was surprised of how many of them exist out here (is there more that we don’t know of ? i’d say yes despite all the research and obscure ones i found), so far i have found 24 taken for the front album cover, 26 taken for the inside cover (the one with the yellow backround) and a bunch of other ones taken during the preparation of the photoshoot. (and i’m not even including all the fakes that have been made).
The full abbey road photoshoot has been publicly available for a while, so why not the Sgt.Pepper one ?
I found a picture of the cover that included three policemen approaching the boys (their backs to the viewer). Does anybody know what this was about?
Thanks!
The wax heads Livingstone and George Bernard Shaw were from Tussauds…like the wax figures of the Beatles , Diana Dors and Sonny Liston…Further Mel didn’t steal the flowers Robert Fraser ordered them from a florist. Jann Haworth
Thanks for the info Jann! Great to see you here.