Immersive Sgt Pepper experience in Liverpool

A special Sgt Pepper celebration is being staged in Liverpool this Christmas.

The unique and atmospheric immersive experience is a collaboration between Tate Liverpool and National Museums Liverpool and is taking place inside the Dr Martin Luther King Jr building on the Royal Albert Dock.

Tickets for the ‘world first’ event, which runs from December 19 to January 9, were snapped up within hours of going on release.

Tate Liverpool and NML have come together with Apple Corps Ltd to present a remixed version of The Beatles’ pioneering 1967 album, played in Dolby Atmos - an immersive sound environment that feels as if the band is performing live in the space.

Forty listeners sit on comfy sofas for each of five daily sessions in the old dock office, as the music created in EMI's studios at Abbey Road half-a-century ago is broadcast in a superb 360 degree setting, making it feel as fresh and immediate as the day it was recorded.

Giles Martin, son of the late Beatles producer Sir George Martin and a Grammy Award winning producer in his own right, created this mix of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band from the original tapes.

He said: “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band is one of the most important and ground-breaking albums of all time. In many ways it changed how records could be made. The Beatles stopped just simply making music and started painting pictures with sounds that hadn’t been heard before.

“Experiencing this Dolby Atmos mix allows us to fall into the record and to totally immerse ourselves in the fantastical world that was so beautifully created at Abbey Road Studios over 50 years ago.”

The record was complemented by one of the most iconic album covers of all time created by Sir Peter Blake and Jann Haworth. Blake’s influence can still be felt across Liverpool’s waterfront today, with his Dazzle Ferry operating on the Mersey and Dazzle Flags in Tate Liverpool’s café, alongside his long-term connection to the John Moores Painting Prize at the Walker Art Gallery, as junior prize winner (1961), juror (2006) and in his current status as patron.

The event runs from December 19 to January 9 and visitors will need to book timed slots. Free tickets are available HERE