Beatlemania

However, few have perhaps drawn quite as much inspiration from the gently weeping, sexy Sadie-celebrating double album as New York-based artist Rutherford Chang.

Chang has amassed a collection of more than 1000 first edition presses of the record, which features an all-white cover designed by Richard Hamilton.

This week, Chang will be coming to Liverpool (where else?) to exhibit his collection at the Fact gallery’s loading bay space, with a view to expanding it while taking up residence in the fab four’s home city.

The records will be displayed as though in a record store, though while visitors can listen to the records, they are not for sale. Instead, Chang will be looking to buy more copies from visitors to add to his hoard, which is said to be the largest collection the White Album (official title The Beatles) in the world.

Fact says, ‘Unlike other collectors, he is only interested in the scruffy, weathered copies as it is the “journey” that the album has been on that excites him!’

The artist will also be presenting a vinyl album which he created by layering 100 different copies from his collection, ‘exploring the sonic and visual differences between the aged vinyl discs and covers’, says Fact.

Chang says, ‘The character of each copy is distinctly shaped by their individual histories, so this collection of identical yet unique multiples together forms a story of the past half-Century.

The exhibition has been times to coincide with International Beatleweek.

We Buy White Albums runs from  15 August – 14 September at Fact, 88 Wood Street, Liverpool, L1 4DQ