Summer of love

In 1967, the Beatles released their eighth studio album, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, and to coincide with the new psychedelic theme of the music, John Lennon had his Valentine Black Rolls-Royce Phantom V repainted in a complementary colour scheme. With the work entrusted to Surrey coachbuilders JP Fallon, the car was painted in an unconventional but suitably Lennon-like fashion — yellow with bright red and blue swirls and squiggles, as well as a floral Romany scroll design, typically used on gypsy caravans and canal barges, and a zodiac symbol on the roof. Now, 50 years later, after living in America, ferrying around such rock stars as The Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan, the Phantom V has left its permanent residence in the Royal British Columbia Museum in Canada to be exhibited for the British public as a part of Bonhams’ The Great Eight Phantoms – A Rolls-Royce Exhibition. As the Beatles once said, “We hope you will enjoy the show. Sit back and let the evening go…”

Photos: Rolls-Royce