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Sir Peter Blake Celebrates 80th By Recreating Sgt. Pepper Sleeve. Clapton, McCartney And Winehouse Featured.

2 Apr 12

In 1967, Sir Peter Blake famously created The Beatles’ album cover for Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. In celebration of his 80th birthday and for Wayne Hemingway’s Vintage Festival, Blake reimagined the image. Gone are cutouts of actress Marilyn Monroe, comedians Lenny Bruce, W.C. Fields and even The Beatles as a group. For the project, he’s chosen family, friends and "great people" including Eric Clapton, Amy Winehouse, Noel Gallagher, Kate Moss, John Peel, and Damien Hirst. The Fabs may not be there due to copyright issues with Apple, but there are three images of McCartneys … Sir Paul and his daughters – Stella, a fashion designer, and Mary, a well-known photographer.

Blake recently told the BBC that the original artwork is a bit of an "albatross" and "what vaguely depresses me still is that I’m known pretty much as ‘Peter Blake – who did the cover of Sgt Pepper’ when I’ve done so much else. Every so often I manage to forget it but it comes back all the time."

Eric Clapton is featured prominently at the front of the poster. Over the years, Sir Peter Blake has collaborated with Eric on several projects including the book 24 Nights: The Music of Eric Clapton, The Drawings of Peter Blake (Genesis Publications – 1991) and the album covers for 24 Nights (1991) and Me and Mr. Johnson (2004).

Wayne Hemingway’s Vintage Festival brings together fashion, music and art from the 1920s to the 1980s. Its being held at the Boughton Estate in Northamptonshire on 13-15 July 2012.

To view a larger image of the poster, click on it.