In 1997, it was thirty years since The Beatles recorded their influential LP, Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Bluecoat gallery staff worked with a group of artists and designers to recreate the record's iconic sleeve as a gallery installation based on the original design by Peter Blake and Jann Haworth.

Over 80 artists, poets and musicians associated with Bluecoat were invited to nominate their cultural heroes, and images of these formed a large tableau of life-sized cut-out figures. The assemblage was an eclectic mix that included Frida Kahlo, Karl Marx, Malcolm X, Billie Holiday, Lee Perry, Yoko Ono, Germaine Greer, Captain Beefheart, Posh Spice, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Duke Ellington, Minnie the Minx, Bo Diddley, Gandhi, Tommy Cooper and eco-activist 'Swampy'.

The team that put the tableau together included Bryan Biggs, Alan Dunn, South Atlantic Souvenirs (Steve Hardstaff, Rick Walker and David Crow) and John Young. The installation was accompanied by an exhibition of Pepper pastiches on record and CD covers, greetings cards, posters and adverts, and a workshop programme We Can Be Heroes (and Heroines), with Tate Liverpool/Young Tate and Merseyside Youth Association.