A famous Liverpool statue photographed by tourists hundreds of times each day used to go "unrecognised" before receiving a makeover in the late 1990s.
Said to be one of the most photographed statues in the city, the now unmistakable figure of John Lennon on Mathew Street used to look very different. The sculpture of the ex-Beatle casually leaning against the wall opposite the Cavern Club has been a fixture for over 25-years.
Created by artist David Webster, it was unveiled in 1997 to mark the 40th birthday of the club. Webster, who frequented the famous Cavern as a teenager, modelled the original statue on a photo of John Lennon that appears on the cover of his 1975 album, Rock 'N' Roll.
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Unlike the mop-topped statue we've come to know and love today, the original head of the '90s version sported a completely different hairstyle. A 2019 post by the Cavern Club Liverpool Facebook account recounted a brief history of the "legendary" statue.
Part of the post read: "However, with the original head on the statue (featuring his duck-tail quiff) nobody recognised it as John Lennon. In fact, many people would feel quite scared by the figure, which was originally set in the door way to the right of The Cavern Wall of Fame.
"After the original head was vandalised, David Webster replaced it with one of seven spares that he has (from many stages of John's life) and created the most photographed statue in Liverpool."
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And it was this new and improved version of the statue that its creator had wanted all along. In a story about the statue receiving its new head in the Liverpool Daily Post on December 13, 1999, David Webster said: "It's how I wanted him to look in the first place.
"But the Cavern owners wanted the '50s version. It was always a possibility that the look could be changed later.
"I always wanted to cast Lennon as most people remember him in The Beatles with his mop top haircut."
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The new head was made in just two weeks out of bronze impregnated fibreglass to match the rest of the sculpture. It was put in place just in time for a "Millennium party" concert ex-Beatle Paul McCartney was playing at the Cavern Club the following day; It was the first time he had played the club in 36-years.
But it wasn't the first time Webster had been called to make changes to the statue. A previous incident had seen the artist called out to make repairs after vandals had taken a hammer to it damaging the eyes.
So while the statue sports the newer head based on the Beatles' later mop top era, the body with its leather jacket, roll-neck sweater, denim jeans and boots is based on an earlier photograph taken from Lennon's time with the band in Hamburg.
Do you remember when the statue first appeared on Mathew Street? Let us know in the comments section below.
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