Church Plans Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band Worship service
Pastor Dale Morgan
Church Plans Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts
Club Band Worship service
Church props up Beatles album
By Graham RockinghamThe Hamilton Spectator
(May 28, 2007)
Christopher Clause is a Beatles nut. He's also worship pastor at James Street Baptist Church in downtown Hamilton. This weekend, he intends to combine his love for the church with his passion for his favourite band.
To mark the 40th anniversary of the release of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Clause and about 20 other local musicians will perform the entire record in the 128-year-old church.
They'll do it Friday night, since that's when the album -- often described as the greatest of all time -- was released on June 1, 1967, in England, and again on Saturday to mark its North American debut one day later.
And just to give it the right feel, Clause -- with a little help from his friends -- will attempt to recreate the cover of the Sgt. Pepper's album in the middle of the church's sanctuary.
Members of the congregation began attaching life-size cut-outs of many of the more than 70 faces from the album cover to a large blue backdrop behind the organ yesterday. They've even got a drum skin with the famous band logo. On Friday, a local nursery will donate a truckload of plants to complete the montage. Clause is hoping they'll have enough to recreate the famous Beatles' flower bed.
It won't be exactly the same, of course. Clause has had a tough time, for example, finding a life-size wax figure of former heavyweight boxing champion Sonny Liston.
There will, however, be at least one added face in the church's album cover crowd that would put a smile on John Lennon's face. According to Beatles lore, Lennon originally wanted an image of Christ included on the cover. The band's management -- still reeling from Lennon's controversial 1966 remark comparing the Beatles' popularity to that of Christ's -- talked him out of it.
"Jesus will actually be in it this time," laughs Clause, an accomplished guitarist with four CDs to his credit, including Blue Suburban Skies, an album of Beatles' covers.
Clause has won two Hamilton Music Awards for other live Beatles' shows he has produced, including tributes to John Lennon and George Harrison. But nothing has been as ambitious as the Sgt. Pepper's celebration. He even plans to put the church's 1939 pipe organ to use in Being For the Benefit of Mr. Kite (sung by Tom Wilson) and A Day in the Life (sung by Clause).
As an added bonus, the musicians will also perform Magical Mystery Tour, ending the 9 p.m. shows at about midnight each night with All You Need is Love.
Tickets are $10 each with all proceeds going to help pay the church's heating and hydro bills.
The church also plays a key role in the Out of the Cold program, providing hot meals and beds to the homeless during the winter.