Beatles fans invited to wear a Fab hat and get on TV as part of Statues Redressed

Beatles fans and hat lovers are being invited to put on their most flamboyant Fab Four headwear this Bank Holiday Monday and take part in a unique TV show being made in Liverpool.

‘Hats Off to The Beatles’ is part of Statues Redressed – a project where statues across the city have been given a temporary new look by artists and designers to celebrate and debate their place in the city today.

As part of the project, which is being turned into a special for Sky Arts, Merseyside milliner Stephen Jones created four spectacular song-themed hats for The Beatles statue at the Pier Head.

Each Beatle was given his own hat – Penny Lane for Paul, Here Comes the Sun for George, Yellow Submarine for Ringo and Help! for John.

Culture Liverpool wants to bring together a crowd of fans in fabulous Beatles themed hats to help celebrate the Beatles and also to create a special moment for the TV broadcast.

There’s no need to apply in advance, and there’s no limit on numbers – the more hat creations with a Beatles theme the better!

Eliza Willis from Culture Liverpool explains:

“We’re calling on the public to come down on Bank Holiday Monday, from 11am, wearing their own Beatles hats. They can be flamboyant and bright or subtle and simple! This will be part of the Sky Arts show and so it is a chance to get on TV.”

The date coincides with the end of Beatles Week so as well as Liverpool-based fans they are expecting lots of visitors to join in the celebration too.

“We would love for people to gather around the statue and fill the waterfront with colour and joy,” she adds. “And the end result will feature on the finale of the Sky Arts show.”

Picture – Phil Silverman / Shutterstock.com

The Beatles bronze, which is one of the most photographed statues in the city, was specifically chosen by Hoylake-born Stephen Jones, who is one of the UK’s leading milliners.

All of the artists and designers involved in Statues Redressed were allowed to pick a statue from more than 200 around the city.

The results have been stunning and, just as intended, they’ve caused plenty of discussion among everyone who’s seen them.

“The future of statues has become a global debate in the last 12 months,” says Eliza, ‘The aim of this project is to move that discussion onwards and ask us to consider these statues in a range of different ways.’

“Outside London, Liverpool has the most statues in the UK and Statues Redressed is about grappling with some of the issues around them. This is an artist-led project to start interesting conversations about the purpose of statues today.”

The Redressing’s aren’t permanent, they’ll be there for a maximum of a month.

“Some are in and out on the same day, but the weather plays a massive part,” says Eliza “For instance with Disraeli on St George’s Plateau, Daniel Lismore created the most incredible outfit for him.  The piece asked us to consider the vicious homosexuality laws that were imposed under his watch by Britain across the Empire. Daniel wanted the artwork ‘’ Will the real Empress of India please stand up?’’ to consider these extreme laws for the LGBTQ+ community throughout history and present day.

“We wanted to keep it in, not only because the colour he brought to the plateau but because of the important conversation it brought to the forefront. After only seven days of being installed, we had an odd spell of really warm weather and really strong winds and sadly it was all a bit too much for the artwork!

“So the transformations are all very temporary, for as long as the weather is kind to them anyway.”

Statues Redressed is part of a bigger summer campaign called Very Public Art which features installations in different parts of the city.

Find out more about Statues Redressed on the website here.