When Art Met Pop

The Illustrated Beatles is a week-long event planned for Dublin venue, the Grand Social. It will feature 40 artworks inspired by 40 classic Beatles songs.

The song list, compiled by leading advertising industry creatives, broadcasters and writers, has been “visualised” by a line-up of award-winning illustrators. The show will open a week-long series of events hosted by the Grand Social to celebrate the 50th anniversary of The Beatles’ first recordings for EMI and will take in a Beatles film night, Beatles tribute band The Mersey Beatles and ‘60s themed club events.
The exhibition is organised and co-ordinated by illustrator Peter Donnelly.
“I just happened to be the promotions officer for Illustrators Ireland,” he explains, “which strives to foster links between all of the professional illustrators working in this country. We have over 50 full-time members and usually put on one big group-show every year. I was looking for something more high-concept to raise us to a bigger platform, as some of the shows in the past were a bit insular. Back in 1970 there was a British illustrator called Alan Aldridge who had the idea of illustrating the lyrics of Beatles songs. With the timing of the 50th anniversary of the first Beatles studio recording, I thought it a good idea to do something similar.”
Donnelly decided to expand the concept to include broadcasters and writers. “It helped, in that I could use those contacts to promote the exhibition, especially if I could involve them in the creative process early on.”
He gave everyone on the list a choice of two songs. Rather than commission specific illustrators to “visualise” particular Beatles songs, he opted to do so lottery-style.
“The songs and the artists were literally picked from a hat by my nine-year-old daughter,” he laughs. “It was the fairest way to do it as there would have been obvious songs that would have gone to obvious illustrators. We didn’t want them all fighting over ‘Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds’. Some of the illustrators had to go and research the songs and it got them listening to The Beatles again – which was great. It was good that people chose some of the earlier songs, which are more linear and flat. We didn’t want to end up with 40 psychedelic pictures of later-era Beatles material.
“I got ‘Help’ and I thought ‘What do you do with that?’ In my situation I saw it as a cry for help rather than the jaunty toe-tapper we’re all familiar with. So I approached it that way.”
The Beatles and their estate are notoriously protective of the brand – did he have to seek permission from say, Apple Records or any of the remaining Beatles to stage the project?
“We’re not using anything of theirs, apart from the song titles. There’s no copyright issue. It was suggested to me to get in touch with them. I’m not so sure. My hope for the show is that it will travel, initially in Ireland and hopefully to the UK. The works are for sale on the night. We also went to a company called Fire, which does high end print work. Even if stuff sells, we’ll have a high-quality copy which can be used for the exhibition.”
Today FM’s Paul McCloone was one of the broadcasters asked to submit a couple of favourite Beatles song for the project. “It’s an interesting idea, especially when you think that The Beatles were the first band to encompass the arts and to elevate pop music to that level,” he muses. “It’s such a rich topic: the music, the look, the personality of the band and what it all led to. So yeah, it’s kind of apposite that in the year of their 50th birthday of their first recording that something like this should happen. Anything to get music fans into art and to get art fans into the Beatles,,, it can’t be a bad thing.”
McCloone chose ‘Hey Bulldog’ and ‘Lady Madonna’. “I love ‘Lady Madonna’. I think it’s in their top three singles and is just such a great example of McCartney knocking out a great song with a wee bit of controversy. ‘Hey Bulldog’ is a Lennon song with an amazing riff… They were always breaking new ground. They were geniuses.”
For McCloone, The Beatles’ influence will always be there and not just in terms of the music. “They will not go away. I’ve just been talking to friend of mine about Magical Mystery Tour, which is a kind of an art film and we were wondering, ‘How long is this going to go on for?’ Probably as long as jazz or even Michelangelo or something like that.”
Phantom FM’s Pearl picked ‘Here Comes The Sun’ and ‘Day Tripper’. “I think it’s a brilliant idea, as the songs lend themselves so well to illustration. It’s great to give them a new interpretation,” she enthuses. “The Beatles have been around such a long time, you can take them for granted – but hopefully a new generation will be inspired by this show. ‘Here Comes The Sun’ is a song that tends to cheer me up a lot and there aren’t many of those songs on my list. I’m really looking forward to seeing what they come up with for it. It’ll be fantastic.”

The Illustrated Beatles will run until October 30 at the Grand Social, 35 Lower Liffey St. Dublin.