40 years in the life

I was watching this on BBC2 earlier. So it's Sergeant Pepper's 40th anniversary. I'd be moved to congratulate the boys if it wasn't for the fact that, well, it's not like since recording it, they've done anything to get it this far. 40 years married - now that's an achievement. 40 years in a job is too, especially in these modern days but the Beatles just made the record and quickly moved on too wives, more drugs and solo careers. You do get the feeling that these celebrations are the brainchild of lazy tv and radio producers. I was watching Paul McCartney being interviewed on The Culture Show tonight and got to thinking that he really must get sick of all these questions about the past.. Lauren Lavern has a very watchable quality but, by her own admission, she lost the run of the interview. Tell us again about meeting John Lennon.. I can tell that bloody story as well as he does.. Right down to the check shirt, Lennon's beery breath and the rendition of 20 Flight Rock that so impressed the sneering, teenage Lennon.

Anyway, where was I? Yes - Sgt Pepper's anniversary (which, by the way, isn't its anniversary. I read earlier that it was actually released on May 24th 1967 so the schedulers are a week off). In tonight's show, the record's engineer, Geoff Emerick, was drafted in to record the album again with the cream of 2007's recording crop using the same equipment that was used on the original. Ignoring the fact that the cream of 2007's crop threw up some uninspiring names - Travis, Bryan Adams, Stereophonics, Kaiser Chiefs and a Johnny Borrell-less Razorlight (which really isn't something worth dwelling on), to name a few, you had to wonder why they bothered. The idea seemed to be to not only record the songs using the same equipment but also to record them as close as possible to the originals. So let's get the bass right up in the mix on With a Little Help from My Friends, let's get the comb and paper out so Travis can recreate the garbled ad-libbing in Lovely Rita. It all added up to a big nothing. The bands seemed a bit hamstrung by the technology and the end product was what you'd expect it to be: a bunch of people singing Beatles songs but nowhere near as well as The Beatles did. There's a lot of it going on.

I was wondering earlier what would have happened if they tried somthing like this in 1987 when the record was 20 years old. Who were the cream of 1987's crop that might have been involved. And then I remembered that they did do this in 1987! Remember Wet Wet Wet and BIlly Bragg's double A side number 1? Turns out there was an album with it that I'd forgot about called SeargeantPepper Knew My Father. Included in the line-up that time were: The Christians, Hue and Cry and Frank Sidebottom. I'd have to admit that, in fairness, it's getting better, but can't they just it leave it alone?

Anyway, I wonder will they be celebrating the 40th anniversary of this in 2047..