Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

A friend of mine owns a web business that deals in rare records and video. Occasionally, he finds himself doing business with various minor musical celebrities. One of his regular customers is a former member of a highly regarded 60's surf band called The Challengers. I'm not into surf music, so I don't know much about this guy. I've seen his name listed on various websites as Randy Nauert/Neuart/Nuart. This guy claims to be one of the faces on the 'Sgt. Pepper' cover. The face he claims as his own was identified in 'Sixteen' magazine at the time of the album release as "Dion - American Singer". On his website he shows a similar identification chart but his name appears as "Randy Neuart - Surfer/Musician". I have found this same chart posted on other websites. It doesn't match older charts appearing in such books as 'Beatles Forever'. I'm wondering whether this guy modified the chart to include himself to back up his claim, and other people have copied it. I find it hard to believe that The Beatles would have thought to include an bass player from a surf band (who wasn't Brian Wilson). Do you believe him?

The question is, where is his face on the cover? Mean, there are several different faces on the cover, which one is his? If he can point at his face there, then it's a different story... however, with modern technologies, you can add any picture to the original "Sgt Pepper" cover and say "It always was here!" (albeit it's not hard to prove it wasn't), i have one "example", may send it offline if you're interested...

Sheena: It's all very confusing. His chart is slightly different from several older versions I've seen. All of these charts use different numbers to identify each face. Any chart showing his name seems to delete Dion's name. Although I found his website a few weeks ago, I can't seem to locate it now. I would like to get another look. I don't know if he is claiming to have been wrongly identified as Dion or if he modified the picture with his own face and then changed the identification chart.

I had owned the album for less than a week, fascinated by all the junk inside and loving the music--what a landmark!

I received two phone calls in one day. One was from a (female) cousin, asking if I owned the album, and pointing me to a face in the upper left corner. She said, "it looks exactly like you!". There was a good resemblance, I decided after a few seconds with a mirror. Then my best buddy called with the same news.

It's the Stu Sutcliffe photo (although I didn't know who it was at the time). I guess I looked a lot like him at the time, and my hair was identical, too. But in other photos of Stu (the more common ones) I didn't resemble him at all. It was just that one.



Nowadays? Why, Paul's grand-dad, of course, played by Wilfred Bramble--the original old Dad on Steptoe and Son.

.

Or perhaps Victor Meldrew..

Paul: I know you're into surf music. Is the face with the cheek partially covered by Tom Mix's white hat Dion or the surf-musician? And who is the guy just above Dion with the sunglasses. The surfer claims to be one of those two people.

So, he even has a sort of a duality to his personality?! Naah... now i really DON'T believe it!

The guy with the sunglasses is Terry Southern, Author of "Candy" and "The Magic Christian" (ref. Ringo, Badfinger).

In both IDs I have seen of the photo, Randy Nauert is given as the other guy. I don't trust either ID. I think he's been tweaking history.

The Challengers were very popular in So Cal, managed at one time by proto-surf-promoter, dance show host and raconteur Lloyd Thaxton. He actually produced one of their albums, "Lloyd Thaxton Goes Surfing with the Challengers".

They were not well-known anywhere but the West Coast, though...

Wikipedia lists him as "Dion (Di Mucci)--singer". That makes much more sense. Dion was part of the East Coast/Joizy bunch that the Beatles dethroned in 1964.

Here are two shots of Dion from the early '60s:





You be the judge, but to me it looks like Mr. Nauert is attempting to create New Art.

Here's Randy with his ever-present Weimarainer:

Paul: I suspect that Mr. Nauert has attempted to rewrite history. His version of the ID chart is popping up in other places. I'm sure The Beatles knew who Dion was, but I doubt they had ever heard of The Challengers. If they wanted to feature a surf musician, I'm sure it would have been Brian Wilson. Nauert's website also shows him in photos with many better known personalities. One photo shows him standing beside European royality, and it looks fake. I wish I could find the website again. I'll have to get the link from my friend...

Nauert is an odd bird by all accounts. He travels everywhere with his dog, and that means special hotel arrangements.

He as made a name for himself in the IT area, specifically in Apple computers. He comes to SF every year for the big Apple Convention. A couple of years ago he called a press conference to complain about unequal treatment for animals--the hotel he'd booked wouldn't let him keep his dog in the room.

The bottom (blue) Dion picture looks especially like the SPLHCB cover photo, IMO.

Travelling with your dog in tow is not so odd. I do most of the time. Many of my friends and peers in the industry that I work in, also travel with theirs.

Claiming to be featured in a significant part of the Beatles history and being stupid enough to pick an album cover that is so well documented is plain lunacy. IMO

There are a whole lot of luntics out there... and 96.4% of them are lurking on the internet. IMHO.

So now you think I'm a lunatic Kent? Jeepers, I never thought that about myself. LOL