Alan Johnson's Sgt Pepper pilgrimage: ‘The album put me on a musical high from which I’ve yet to descend’

In May 1967, Johnson was 17, playing in a band and waiting for the Beatles’ new album. Fifty years after Sgt Pepper’s release, the retiring MP heads to Liverpool to join the city’s celebration of the LP

I am standing “beneath the blue suburban skies” of Penny Lane on a gloriously sunny day in Liverpool; outside the barber’s shop, opposite what used to be the tram terminal, not far from the bank and the fire station. I watch as a constant stream of tourists seeks out these landmarks from the song. Some arrive on a big Magical Mystery Tour bus, others in the Beatles’ taxis driven by scousers of a certain age well versed in the minute details of the lives of John, Paul, George and Ringo.

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