Edge Hill celebrates Sgt Pepper’s 50th
SENIOR lecturer in media Carl Hunter and writer and Edge Hill honorary graduate Frank Cottrell Boyce have come together to celebrate 50 years of The Beatles’ album Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.
The pair are collaborating on a documentary as part of Sgt Pepper at 50: Heading For Home – a city-wide festival to mark half a century since the release of the groundbreaking record.
The festival brings together world renowned artists and Liverpool-based talent for a series of events around the city, each inspired by a track on what is widely regarded as the best rock and roll album of all time.
Shot over 24 hours on June 1 – the actual anniversary of Sgt Pepper’s release – A Day In The Life: 24 Zero Hours aims to capture a day in the life of modern Liverpool as seen through the windows of the number 86 bus – the one Paul McCartney would have taken to school.
Produced by Liverpool-based Hurricane Films, the film will be premiered at Woolton Picture House.
The festival, which runs from Thursday, May 25 until Friday, June 16, features 13 exclusive events, including performances, installations, live spectacle and moments of surprise, to celebrate Liverpool’s most famous sons in a way befitting of a record which broke the mould and changed music forever.
Carl and Frank’s film collaboration will appear alongside new commissioned work by international names such as GroupeF (the organisation behind several Olympic and Paralympic closing ceremonies), Mark Morris Dance Group (one of the world’s leading dance companies), Judy Chicago (American feminist artist), John Cage (one of the American greats of experimental music), Jeremy Deller (Turner Prize winning conceptual artist), DJ Spooky (American composer) as well some of the very best Indian musicians in the world, including Grammy award winner Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt.
A Day In The Life continues a flourishing artistic partnership between much-loved author and creator of the London 2012 Olympic opening ceremony, Frank Cottrell Boyce, and Edge Hill University.
Frank has collaborated extensively with media staff on a range of projects including two feature films, an award winning children’s book – The Unforgotten Coat – and an online narrative project.
A Day In The Life: 24 Zero Hours is screened on Friday, June 16.