Robyn Hitchcock - Covers Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Three Kings, Clerkenwell, London, Britain, 7-1-2007

From 2003 until 2011, Robyn Hitchcock held annual benefit concerts at the Three Kings pub in London where he played one of his favorite albums by other artist in their entirety. I've already posted his versions of "Revolver" by the Beatles, "Hunky Dory" by David Bowie, and "Naff 70's Hits," a collection of cheesy 1970s songs. Next up in this series is the all time classic from 1967, "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," by the Beatles.

Once again, this is completely unreleased. I don't know if the recording was an audience boot or a soundboard boot, but the bottom line is it sounds very good, though maybe not excellent. I did a little remixing of all the songs to hopefully make them sound a little better.

The only song I had a problem with was "With a Little Help from My Friends." That's because someone else in his band sang the lead vocals, while Hitchcock sang the main harmony part. (As an aside, his backing band included Kimberly Rew and Morris Windsor of the Soft Boys, so this was close to a Soft Boys reunion.) The problem was, Hitchcock's microphone volume was much louder than whoever was singing lead. So I manually went in and boosted the lead vocals wherever I could. The backing vocals are still too prominent, in my opinion, but at least it's less than before. That's why that one song has "[Edit]" in its title.

After the Sgt. Pepper's album finished, Hitchcock went on to mainly play other songs the Beatles released in 1967, as well as "Hey Bulldog," recorded in early 1968. But additionally they played two songs by the Kinks from that time period ("Sunny Afternoon" and "Waterloo Sunset") and one by Jimi Hendrix ("Are You Experienced"). Furthermore, there was one song Hitchcock originally first did with the Soft Boys, "Kingdom of Love," probably a nod to the fact he was playing with some of his old Soft Boys band mates.

As usual, Hitchcock plays cover versions pretty close to the originals, in terms of the arrangements. However, they end up having his personals stamp anyway. And sometimes he does veer off, such as breaking into "In the Midnight Hour" in one of the songs. Plus, there's a lot of his typically strange banter between the songs that is always entertaining.

This album is an hour and 32 minutes long.

01 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
02 Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Robyn Hitchcock)
03 With a Little Help from My Friends [Edit] (Robyn Hitchcock)
04 Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds (Robyn Hitchcock)
05 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
06 Getting Better (Robyn Hitchcock)
07 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
08 Fixing a Hole (Robyn Hitchcock)
09 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
10 She's Leaving Home (Robyn Hitchcock)
11 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
12 Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite (Robyn Hitchcock)
13 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
14 Within You, Without You (Robyn Hitchcock)
15 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
16 When I'm Sixty-Four (Robyn Hitchcock)
17 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
18 Lovely Rita (Robyn Hitchcock)
19 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
20 Good Morning, Good Morning - In the Midnight Hour (Robyn Hitchcock)
23 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
21 Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band [Reprise] (Robyn Hitchcock)
22 A Day in the Life (Robyn Hitchcock)
24 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
25 Strawberry Fields Forever (Robyn Hitchcock)
26 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
27 Penny Lane (Robyn Hitchcock)
28 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
29 Sunny Afternoon (Robyn Hitchcock)
30 Waterloo Sunset (Robyn Hitchcock)
31 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
32 Are You Experienced (Robyn Hitchcock)
33 Hey Bulldog (Robyn Hitchcock)
34 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
35 Kingdom of Love (Robyn Hitchcock)
36 talk (Robyn Hitchcock)
37 All You Need Is Love (Robyn Hitchcock)

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The cover appears to be promotional art made for this very concert. However, it was repurposed from a cover of a Sgt. Pepper's tribute album put out by Mojo Magazine. A commenter named Carlos helped me find the best version of this. I made a change to the bottom, replacing some text in the red area with more fitting text of my own.