Live Performances
In 1967, Jimi Hendrix played the song live at the Saville Theatre in Shaftesbury Avenue, which was leased by Brian Epstein, only three days after it had been released on record, with McCartney and George Harrison in the audience. Another live version by Hendrix recorded at the Isle of Wight Festival was included on a posthumous live album, Blue Wild Angel: Live at the Isle of Wight.
"Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" was never performed live by the Beatles. It was performed by three of The Beatles (McCartney, Harrison, and Starr) plus Eric Clapton on 19 May 1979, at Clapton's wedding party. Paul McCartney played it live on the 1989/1990 Paul McCartney World Tour. On subsequent tours he would play the reprise version and use that as a segue into "The End". When the performance is released, it usually is listed as "Sgt. Pepper's/The End," shortening the name of the song. When Paul performs it, he usually adds the count-in after the drum part begins, as opposed to Paul's count-in preceding the drum opening.
McCartney and U2 played the song at the start of the Live 8 concert in Hyde Park, London on 2 July 2005. The song, starting with "It was twenty years ago" was chosen amongst others to commemorate that Live 8 took place approximately twenty years after Live Aid. The single was released for charity on iTunes, and set a world record for the fastest-selling online song of all time.
In 2007, Bryan Adams and Stereophonics recorded the album's two versions of the song for It Was 40 Years Ago Today, a television film with contemporary acts recording the album's songs using the same studio, technicians and recording techniques as the original.
On 4 April 2009, McCartney performed the song during a benefit concert at New York's Radio City Music Hall and segued it into "With A Little Help From My Friends", sung by Ringo.
In 2009, Cheap Trick released a live album and DVD called Sgt. Pepper Live, which is a live performance of the entire original album, including the title song and reprise.
In 2011, Robbie Williams performed the song on Take That's Progress tour, replacing "Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" with "Robbie Williams and the Take That Band", and "Mr Martin told the Band to play", a reference to Take That's manager in the 90's Nigel Martin-Smith.
Read more about this topic: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (song)
Famous quotes containing the words live and/or performances:
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