ALAN JOHNSON, Education Secretary
Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band was life-enhancing and life-changing. I
was 17 and bought it as soon as it was released. It is one of the few
Sixties albums that I still listen to. Rubber Soul set a new standard,
Revolver astounded us, but Pepper – you had to live through the period to
understand the impact that it had. For the first time the Times music
critics reviewed a “pop” record. Bernstein said that She’s Leaving Home was
equal to anything Schubert wrote. Suddenly the Establishment was recognising
the music of young people. Bliss it was to be alive in the summer of 1967.
On the cover I’d put Nelson Mandela, one of my political heroes, and Diana,
Princess of Wales, for being one of the most photographed people on the
plane and Sir Paul McCartney – Sgt Pepper helped make him an icon.
KATHY LETTE, author
I’d like to see Jane Austen, Mae West and Emmeline Pankhurst. As you can see
I’m a heroine-addict. There were hardly any women on the original cover,
except for glamourpusses. The 1960s were supposed to be about sexual
liberation, but the men were just laughing all the way to the sperm bank. Of
course the blokes were all for free love, because they didn’t have to pay
for it.
Unfortunately I just missed the Beatles, but of course I did discover them
when I was older. It’s testament to how good the album is that I still like
it, because it does bring back a few bad memories. My first true love, a
surfie called Bruce, used to play it all the time in his van when we were
making love on the mattress in the back. Well, I thought that love was in
the air . . . but it was just the exhaust of his van as he sped off into the
sunset with my best friend, Louise.
If an album can survive those memories, it can survive anything.
JON SNOW, presenter of Channel 4 News
Peter Blake . . . because, hell, he’s still alive, still brilliant and still
himself the essence of Pepper. Mandela because he has been our hope for love
and peace ever since, and a handful of session players (the LSO strings, I
think), without whom there would have been no Pepper.
It was our coming of age. I can remember the stench of my Afghan coat, the
clank of my beads, my lank hair and flared trousers.
Lucy was more than in the sky with diamonds. It remains the defining artefact
of our age. I still have my original album somewhere and bought a CD of it
when CDs became available.
JARVIS COCKER, singer
I would use my options to right the errors of yesteryear. One glaring omission
from the original was Ken Kesey, given that he arguably did more than anyone
else to spark the countercultural wave.
The others would be Lieutenant Pigeon and Scott Walker – both iconic
20th-century pop-culture giants, in my world if not the world.
ANDREW MARR, presenter of Sunday AM
Well, since it’s heroes and villains, I would put in Margaret Thatcher; Van
Morrison, because he’s still the coolest fat man on two legs; a Dalek,
because this is a great British album; Adrian Mitchell, a great poet who’s
never lost the faith; David Hockney, because he would pose with a cigarette;
Robbie Williams, because the album’s so much about vaudeville and he's an
old-time music-hall man, really; and Rosie Boycott, because you need an old
hippie with guts.
TONY HALL, chief executive of the Royal Opera House
William Cobbett, radical journalist and publisher of The Political Register,
would be on the cover because he was a paid-up member of the awkward squad.
It is the best Beatles album by a mile. I bought it for 30 shillings from
Nems Record Shop in Liverpool, and it wiped out my National Savings Account.
I loved the cover and I am thrilled that recently I saw the drum kit in a
friend’s house, and even better that I sat next to Peter Blake at a dinner
recently. Thirty-three and a third vinyl is the only place for such art.
Back then, When I’m Sixty Four seemed a long way off.
RICHARD HAWLEY, singer
Shane Meadows is a serious film-maker. His films maybe “political” with a
little p, but he’s a breath of fresh air. Tony Benn is also someone who is
fearless. And what can you say about Chairman Humph? His sense of humour is
second to none. He could make a cat laugh.
I own Sgt Pepper on vinyl and CD. I was given my first copy as a tenth
birthday present by my Dad. I’d been brought up on country and blues and was
more into
1950s rock’n’roll at the time, so it was a real eye-opener. There’s a lot of
humanity in that record. She’s Leaving Home still stops me in my tracks.
It’s a benchmark for classic songwriting.
JILLY COOPER, author
David Attenborough, because of his wonderful work, Simon Rattle and Desert
Orchid because he’s so sweet.
GILES COREN, Times food critic
I own not merely the original album but a factory sample sent out two months
before it was released only to music critics. My dad was the jazz critic of
Punch in 1967, but there wasn’t a pop critic in those days so it was sent to
him.
This album of mine has the original cut-out and dress figures free giveaway
with their separate uniforms, as well as the “factory sample” sticker on the
central label. Possibly worth money? It would be if I hadn’t played it and
played it at boarding school so that it’s quite worn (though perfectly
listenable), and also, I fear, roached at some corners for ill-advised
16-year-old spliff-making. Though all in tune with the spirit of the album.
As for a reconception of the cover: frankly, celebrity has gone to p**s these
days. You could put almost anyone on from a half-a***d TV chef to some rank
spit-roasting footballer. I’d like to see Updike, Roth, Rushdie, Garcia
Már-quez and Shane MacGowan.
JAMES NAUGHTIE, presenter of Today
Alan Bennett, because for those of us who were teens in the 1960s he’s
captured our age. Mick Jagger because he’s an icon of our age and proves
that all men can still do it.
Of course I bought it, I was 16, I couldn’t not have bought it. My teens began
the year of Love Me Do and the Beatles rose and fell with my teenage years.
There are those who rate the White Album and Revolverover Sgt Pepper, but
Sgt Pepper was of its time, it was other-worldly and captured the hedonism,
along with the funny smells wafting over from San Francisco, in the air.
JUDE KELLY, artistic director of the South Bank
I’d like to see Patti Smith, for being the most exciting example of what it is
to be a rock artist – she’s the female Bob Dylan. Bridget Riley, for
inventing a new form of art. She’s a forensic, brilliant painter. And
Victoria Wood for challenging comedy and consistently creating new ideas for
herself.
CAITLIN MORAN, Times columnist
Mae West. She was on the original, but John Lennon included her only because
she was a bird with big t**s. She should be on there for the right reasons:
she was a pioneering feminist; she was an early pioneer for gay rights
(“Don’t you know you’re hitting a woman in a man’s body?” she told a
policeman during a raid of a transvestite bar in the 1930s); and she came up
with the peerless line: “Is that a gun in your pocket, or are you just
pleased to see me?”
George Martin should be on there really, shouldn’t he? In a crumpled suit,
drinking a cup of tea, with a speech bubble coming out of his mouth saying:
“The boys had this idea . . .”
And Oprah Winfrey: titanic struggle, genuine compassion, fluctuating weight.
I’ve never had to buy a copy of Sgt Pepper, because anyone I’ve ever loved or
lived with has always had a copy. I mean, you wouldn’t move in with anyone
who didn’t, would you? It’s the Beatles.
VIC REEVES, comedian
I know Peter Blake. Twelve years ago he was going to remake the cover, he was
going to include me but didn’t end up doing it because Apple wouldn’t let
him. So, I’ll put myself on there and Jimi Hendrix. I’d also include
Terry-Thomas because I like his caddishness. Paul McCartney lives near me;
we bumped into each other at the pictures the other day. We had a nice chat
about the weather, it was raining. I did own Sgt Pepper, but lost it. I
prefer Wings.
ANDREW COLLINS, broadcaster
Sarah Beeny, to replace Marilyn Monroe: the constantly-ignored Property
Laddersiren is emblematic of our times perhaps more than anyone else on TV.
She should be pregnant, as she seems to exist in a permanent state of
prenatal radiance on the telly, and holding a large mallet, if possible.
Having been continually harassed by a frightened Blair Government at his
permanent peace camp opposite Parliament, it would be great to see Brian Haw
on there.
I can’t believe Tony Hancock wasn’t included at the time. The best comedian
Britain has ever produced, a tragic clown and an icon of postwar Britain.
And, if room, Mahatma Gandhi, because he was intended to go on the original
but apparently EMI was worried that his presence would offend the Indian
market.
I was 2 when the album came out, but I remember buying it on CD in 1999
because new music had become so sterile and useless,
EUGENE HUTZ, singer
Nick Cave, Manu Chao, Gogol Bordello. The reason for all three is the same,
Success of originality against all odds! Party!
TOBY YOUNG, author
I’ve never bought it. I’d nominate Sayyid Qutb, the Egyptian intellectual
generally credited with founding Islamism, the ideology that has fuelled
various Islamist movements around the world, including the UK. I’d also
nominate Friedrich Nietszche. His particular brand of nihilism is
all-pervasive in Western societies, whether people realise it or not.
Finally, I’d stick in Tim Berners-Lee, the man who created the world wide web.
IAN RANKIN, novelist
Instead of the Stones, there’d be Arctic Monkeys. We’d probably also have
Beckham or Rooney; and Tracey Emin instead of Salvador DalÍ. Johnny Depp
would stand in for Brando.
I wasn’t even in my teens when the LP was released, but my big sister bought
it and I got to play with the cardboard cut-out accessories (badges and a
fake moustache). It’s had a huge influence, but more for the studio wizardry
than the overall quality of the songs. These days Revolver tends to be
preferred in “greatest ever” polls, and I’d go along with that.
ROD LIDDLE, columnist
I was 5 or 6 years old when the record came out. I bought a record by Pinky
and Perky that year, I think. Later it became an article of faith with me
that Sgt Pepper was one of the most overrated records in the history of
popular music – and not on the same planet as Abbey Road or Revolver or even
the White Album.
Having listened to it again recently, I feel that even more strongly. It’s odd
how it is often a band’s less compelling work that becomes the focus of mass
adulation. It happened to Pink Floyd with Dark Side of the Moon and R.E.M.
with Out of Time,Neil Young with Harvest – and the Beatles with Sgt Pepper.
Lyndon B. Johnson should be on the cover somewhere.
DAVID LAMMY, minister for culture
The Beatles split up a few years before I was born so I don't really have a
'Sgt Pepper moment' like many people. But that said, there's no denying that
it was part of the cultural furniture for anyone growing up when I did. For
the cover, I would put forward Bob Marley, he was a huge figure in popular
music when I was growing up and, although he died when I was just nine, he
continued - and continues - to exert an incredible influence. For me, he's
forever associated with all day summer festivals on Broadwater Farm, and I
love how even now you hear his stuff booming out of windows and being
enjoyed by young and old alike. Alicia Key's is a brilliant role model for
inner city kids, not just because she's found success after a really tough
beginning, but because she's rooted her work in a classical background. She
shows what a very broad church black music has become. Finally, the artist
Sonia Boyce, I've enjoyed the way her work has developed with shades of
Chris Ofili blending with the hard edges of early pop art. I'm lucky enough
to have her Devotional on the wall in my office. It's a floor to ceiling
graphic piece on a sheet of aluminium, providing a wonderful zappy-coloured
tribute to all the black British women who have ever got to No. 1 in the UK
charts.
Who would you put on the cover?
