Celebrating Sgt Pepper - Live; Echo Arena Liverpool’s 10th birthday and Liverpool 2018

The award-winning Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and the nation’s premier Beatle group The Bootleg Beatles are delighted to announce that they will team up again on Saturday 13 January 2018 at Echo Arena Liverpool to reprise their performance of  The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.   

Following a sold out tour to prestigious UK venues in 2017, marking the fiftieth anniversary of arguably the most influential album of all time, this unique production is back, bigger and better than ever.

★★★★★

‘Celebrating the 50th anniversary of Sgt Pepper, the real band would have struggled to fake it as well as this…. it was as exhilarating as that remarkable album itself.’ 

The Times, June 2017, Liverpool Philharmonic Hall

During Echo Arena Liverpool’s tenth birthday year, the show will be at the start of Liverpool 2018 – a year long, city-wide celebration of the extraordinary cultural offer the city boasts a decade since being European Capital of Culture. 

The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra performed the first ever concert at Echo Arena Liverpool in 2008 and so it is a perfect tribute that they will deliver this one off event 10 years to the day in the heart of this UNESCO City of Music.

It Was 10 Years Ago Today features the Bootleg Beatles (‘fastidiously authentic’ – Daily Telegraph) with the full power and drama of the 70-piece Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra performing the iconic album, arranged by Nigel Osborne live in its entirety, along with many other songs from The Beatles’ ‘flower power’ era including Strawberry Fields, Penny Lane and the anthemic All You Need is Love. 

Osborne describes the show as being like ‘Sgt. Pepper in HD.’ The show will be presented as before, by legendary Liverpool poet and ex-member of Scaffold, Roger McGough and conducted by Richard Balcombe. 

It will include new visuals not seen on the 2017 tour, introduced especially for the arena’s tenth birthday and Liverpool 2018, offering an unprecedented look back on a master work that Rolling Stone magazine claimed to be ‘the number one greatest album of all time’. 

Michael Eakin, Chief Executive of Liverpool Philharmonic said:

“We’re delighted to reunite the Orchestra with our good friends the Bootleg Beatles and Roger McGough performing Nigel Osborne’s incredible arrangements of The Beatles’ iconic Sgt. Pepper album at the start of the arena’s tenth birthday year.  

“Liverpool Philharmonic provided ‘the soundtrack to the year’ during 2008 so we’re proud to play our part in getting the Liverpool 2018 celebrations underway, as we did in January 2008, for the start of European Capital of Culture year and the opening of Echo Arena.”

Bob Prattey, Chief Executive of The ACC Liverpool Group, which includes Echo Arena Liverpool, said: “2018 is set to be a magnificent year as the whole city joins together to reflect on its numerous achievements over the past decade - and to look ahead at how we continue to develop this legacy, particularly around cultural events.

“It is therefore fitting that we will welcome back the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, 10 years after they performed at Echo Arena’s opening night, and that they will play such an iconic Beatles album.  We are honoured to host them for a spectacular evening of celebration.”

Mayor of Liverpool, Joe Anderson, said: “The winning combination of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and the Bootleg Beatles has already proved to be a massive success this year and I’m delighted their reunion will be taking place in what is set to be a watershed year in the history of Liverpool.

“As we mark 10 years since our tenure as European Capital of Culture, it feels right that this concert takes place in Echo Arena – a venue which played such a pivotal role in staging our incredible opening ceremony and acting as the launch pad for 2008’s unforgettable year in the spotlight.”

NOTES TO EDITORS

Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, The Bootleg Beatles and Liverpool Echo Arena proudly present:

 ‘It Was 10 Years Ago Today’ Celebrating Sgt. Pepper, the 10th Birthday of Liverpool Echo Arena and Liverpool 2018

 Saturday 13 January 2018 7.30pm

Echo Arena Liverpool

Tickets: £39 / £54 / £61.50 / £71.50

 On sale: Friday 22 September

 Box Office: 0844 8000 400

www.echoarena.com

 Further information, photos and interview requests from Jayne Garrity, Head of Communications, Liverpool Philharmonic

Tel: 44 (0) 151 210 3791 or 07967 364241, email jayne.garrity@liverpoolphil.com

www.liverpoolphil.com