Moustaches

By the summer of 1966, the Beatles had grown weary of the worldwide phenomenon they had become, the claims that such unprecedented levels of fame made upon them, and the dehumanising effects of touring in particular. They played their last live concert on 29th August 1966 in San Francisco and vowed never again.

Tired of being four fresh-faced mop-top caricatures to be screamed at, chased, mauled and treated like public property everywhere they went, following their return to England they decided to disappear for a while, distance themselves from the maelstrom of Beatlemania, and reset.

Step one was to grow moustaches (see below). Acquiring facial hair was a straightforward and symbolic move away from their cute boyband image. They were all in their mid-twenties by now anyway, and the current interest in and vogue for Edwardiana clothes and styling made the adoption of this more mature look an obvious one. 

moustaches on parade

It's telling that all four of them made the same move, as did many in their close support group, and then many of their male fans. It became a badge of Beatle brotherhood for a period of a few months in 1966 going into 1967.

Step two was to pretend - at least to themselves - that they weren't The Beatles anymore but an entity that became known as Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, based on the brass bands that had played at weekends and on special national occasions in those municipal bandstands that had sprung up in Britain's parks through Victorian and Edwardian times.

The new LP was to be a concept  album of sorts, a very loose one in musical terms, allowing Lennon, McCartney, Harrison and Starkey to adopt personae, literary and musical masks that freed them to an extent from what had gone before. In reality, only the title track, its reprise and a few connecting snippets lived up to that initial vision. 

They were photographed for the album artwork in March 1967 decked out in band regalia and sporting moustaches just as their Edwardian musical predecessors may have done (though The Beatles had longer hair). They appeared on the front cover of the LP not as The Beatles but as members of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, clutching a variety of appropriate brass and woodwind instruments. There was even a sheet of cardboard cut-outs included with the LP that fans could snip round and put on, including badges, epaulettes and a moustache. (Its tabs got rather soggy after a couple of wears.)

part of a photoshoot for the Sergeant Pepper LP cover

The LP was released at the beginning of June. For a brief, shining moment in the summer of 1967 we could all play along with the game. It was the Summer Of Love and happiness reigned all around. 'Sgt. Pepper...' was hailed as a revelation and a revolution. It was proclaimed a masterpiece. It went on to become one of the most famous and iconic records of all time. It certainly freed The Beatles from their past - though I still prefer its predecessor 'Revolver' for sheer ground-breaking genius.

What is interesting to me is that by the time of the press launch party for the album, at Brian Epstein's London mews flat in May, weeks before the LP hit the shops, Paul McCartney had already shaved his moustache off (see below). He had been the first to grow one (ostensibly to hide a scar from a riding accident he had in1966) and then to encourage the others, for reasons explained above. But why to jettison it so soon while the other three retained theirs for months? Maybe Jane Asher held the key.

May 1967 Pepper press launch party

John was the next to shed his and by the time of filming Magical Mystery Tour that autumn, only George and Ringo were still sporting the moustaches to which they'd obviously become very attached.

After the four of them went to India in 1968, then there was stubble and beards - but that's another story.

While I've been working on this blog, my lovely eight year old Dell Inspiron laptop has been encountering problems: no space left on the C drive even after I've moved all my pictures and documents to detachable pen drives and run disk clean-up and space optimisation software. I put it down to all the increasingly complex functionality that has been arriving in recent Windows updates.

Anyway, long story short (and nothing to do with moustaches), I decided to turn to the wisdom of the interweb to see if there were any other tricks to identify and then uninstall unnecessary files. I typed into Google 'How to get rid of...' and before I'd got any further it bounced straight back with what are clearly the top two searches, in a kind endeavour to save me typing anything more.

Those top two searches?  1. How to get rid of cellulite and 2. How to get rid of your wife.

I thought wow! There's a poem in that. And here it is. I nearly called it 'Trouble And Strife' but it's now:

Meet The Googles*

Want to know the main concerns

of modern married folk in their forties?

Same as always, it seems.

I typed 'How to get rid of...'

into my trusty search engine and presto...

the top two most frequent requests are:

'How to get rid of cellulite'

and 

'How to get rid of your wife'

If ever there was a contemporary 

encapsulation

of that age old divide

the battle of the sexes

and how it's plied -

you have it right there.

* in that honourable tradition of Meet The Beatles, Meet The Fokkers etc.

As a musical bonus, here's a link to a Beatles song that might have been on the Pepper LP except it got released as a single. Of course it references barbers and shaving and the video has those moustaches. . Just click on the song title: Penny Lane

Thanks for reading, S ;-)