- Rolls-Royce celebrates the enduring hyperlinks between Phantom and the
world of music - Spanning each period of recent music, from jazz and rock to rap and R&B
- Embraced by artists from Marlene Dietrich to Sir Elton John, John
Lennon and 50 Cent - Explores Phantom as a canvas for private expression and an icon
of icons - Click on
here
to view Rolls-Royce I Behind The Scenes: Diving into Rock ‘n’ Roll Legend
“From the Golden Age of Hollywood to the rise of hip-hop, over
the final 100 years, music artists have used Phantom to mission their
identification and problem conference. Their motor automobiles typically grew to become
icons in their very own proper, with a long-lasting place within the historical past of
trendy music. This enduring connection reminds us that Rolls-Royce
and the extraordinary people who find themselves a part of the marque’s story are
united by one ambition: to make their presence felt.”
Chris Brownridge, Chief Government, Rolls-Royce Motor Automobiles
The connection between Rolls-Royce and the world of
common music is sort of as outdated because the recording trade itself. Lengthy
earlier than icons like John Lennon, Elvis Presley and Pharrell Williams
wrote themselves into Phantom’s story, artists together with Duke
Ellington, Fred Astaire, Depend Basie, Ravi Shankar, Edith Piaf and Sam
Cooke all travelled by Rolls-Royce, recognising the model because the
definitive image of success and artistry. Personalities for whom the
time period ‘music mogul’ was created, together with Brian Epstein, Berry Gordy
and Ahmet Ertegun, had been additionally among the many marque’s most notable house owners.
Throughout genres, geographies and generations, Rolls-Royce stays the
final reward for inventive brilliance and a canvas for private expression.
Of all fashions, Phantom – the head of the marque – is the
Rolls-Royce most intently related to the world of music. Over
eight generations and 100 years – a centenary the nameplate celebrates
in 2025 – this extraordinary motor automobile has been constantly chosen by
among the most inventive and influential figures in musical historical past.
Phantom’s attraction to those people endures; it retains its standing
because the world’s pre-eminent luxurious product, comprised of the perfect
in engineering excellence, nice supplies and beautiful, extremely
expert craftsmanship. It additionally gives its proprietor the liberty to outline
their identification – a high quality that has helped many Phantoms owned by
musical luminaries obtain legendary standing in their very own proper.
MARLENE DIETRICH: FALLING IN LOVE AGAIN
Most actors journey to Hollywood searching for stardom.
Marlene Dietrich arrived already a part of the constellation. Contemporary from
her breakout function in The Blue Angel, and having launched
the world to what would change into her signature tune, Falling in Love
Once more, she travelled to California in 1930 to start filming
Morocco. Her welcome was as dramatic as her display screen presence:
at Paramount Studios, she was greeted not solely with flowers, however with
the reward of a inexperienced Rolls-Royce Phantom I. Morocco earned
Dietrich an Academy Award nomination – and her Phantom additionally took its
share of the highlight, showing within the movie’s closing scenes and
publicity pictures.
ELVIS PRESLEY: ALL SHOOK UP
In 1956, a self-titled album by a promising younger
singer named Elvis Presley grew to become the primary rock ‘n’ roll album to high
the Billboard chart, the place it remained for 10 weeks. In 1963, on the
top of his fame, ‘The King’ purchased a Midnight Blue Phantom V with a
host of Bespoke options. In what might have been an early model of
in-car karaoke, the options included a microphone, a writing pad in
the rear armrest – prepared for flashes of inspiration – together with a
mirror and garments brush to make sure Elvis was at all times able to make an
entrance. In a captivating home element, the unique mirror-polished
paint famously attracted the eye of Elvis’s mom’s chickens,
which might peck at their reflection within the coachwork. The motor automobile
was refinished in a lighter Silver Blue that didn’t present the chips.
JOHN LENNON: LOVE ME DO
In December 1964, John Lennon rewarded himself for
The Beatles’ A Laborious Day’s Night time by commissioning a Phantom V.
The motor automobile was solely black, together with the home windows, bumpers and
hub caps; it additionally boasted a cocktail cupboard and a tv, as effectively
as a fridge within the boot. Nevertheless, like Elvis’s Phantom V,
Lennon’s would additionally endure an entire transformation. In Might 1967,
simply earlier than Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Membership Band was
launched, the motor automobile was resprayed yellow, then hand-painted with
swirls of crimson, orange, inexperienced and blue, with floral facet panels and
Lennon’s star signal, Libra, finishing the motor automobile’s new persona.
For the youthful era, Lennon’s Phantom completely captured
the temper of the carefree ‘Summer time of Love’ that yr. To their elders,
it was an outrage, memorably summed up by a lady who, on seeing the
Phantom driving down London’s Piccadilly, shouted, “How dare you do
that to a Rolls-Royce!” earlier than swatting on the paintwork along with her
umbrella. When the motor automobile was offered in 1985, it reached $2,299,000,
virtually 10 occasions the reserve value. It was each the costliest
piece of rock ‘n’ roll memorabilia on the time, and the very best value
ever achieved for a motor automobile offered by public sale.
This Phantom is arguably essentially the most well-known Rolls-Royce related
with Lennon, however he owned one other. Lennon bought a white
Rolls-Royce Phantom V in 1968 to coincide with the launch of the
White Album and to mark a brand new section of his life with Yoko
Ono. This was characterised by his sporting white garments, adorning
the inside and exterior of his Berkshire residence in vivid white, and
pursuing a distinctly minimalist aesthetic.
Initially commissioned in a two-tone black-over-green by Wing
Commander Paddy Barthropp, a wartime Spitfire pilot turned chauffeur,
Lennon individualised this motor automobile in keeping with his private model
on the time. He paid £12,000 – equal to the value of a sizeable
home on the time – to have the motor automobile reworked to white inside
and out, and had it fitted with a sunroof, Philips turntable, 8-track
participant, phone and tv. It might later seem within the Beatles
movie Let It Be, in addition to Efficiency, which
starred Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger. In September 1969, Lennon
offered the automobile to Allen Klein, founding father of ABKCO Data and The Beatles’
supervisor on the time, for a reported $50,000.
LIBERACE: I’LL BE SEEING YOU
One other musical iconoclast was Władziu Valentino
Liberace. Flamboyant and multi-talented, Liberace was the world’s
highest-paid entertainer within the Nineteen Fifties and ‘60s because of his TV exhibits
and lengthy residencies in Las Vegas. Among the many extravagances that earned
him the soubriquet ‘Mr Showmanship’ was a 1961 Phantom V coated in
tiny mirror items that he would use to drive on stage throughout his
long-running residency on the Las Vegas Hilton. The motor automobile appeared
within the award-winning Liberace biopic, Behind the Candelabra,
through which Michael Douglas recreated its quick however well-known journey.
SIR ELTON JOHN: A RIDE FOR THE ROCKETMAN
Liberace’s taking part in model influenced a era of
performers, together with a budding pianist named Reginald Dwight, as we speak
often known as Sir Elton John, who would later take inspiration from his
hero by proudly owning a number of Phantoms. In 1973, en path to a live performance in
Manchester in his white Phantom VI, Sir Elton noticed a more moderen instance in a
showroom window. He instructed his chauffeur to cease, purchased the automobile,
and used it to finish his journey to the venue.
Later, he would replace the Phantom with black paintwork, a black
leather-based inside, tinted home windows, a tv, a video participant, and
even a fax machine. Probably the most important addition, nonetheless, was a
bespoke audio system that was so highly effective that the again windscreen had
to be strengthened to forestall it from shattering when the amount was
turned up.
Sir Elton additionally owned a Phantom V, for which he commissioned a
placing pink-and-white exterior paint end and matching inside.
Following a tour of the USSR, the place he was paid in coal, somewhat than
money, Sir Elton was unable to pay his musicians. As an alternative, he gave the
Phantom to his percussionist, Ray Cooper, in lieu of a money price.
Cooper later used the motor automobile to select up a younger Damon Albarn from
faculty, who went on to seek out stardom of his personal with Blur. Historical past got here
full circle in 2020, when Albarn and his digital band, Gorillaz,
recorded The Pink Phantom, with Sir Elton showing as a
visitor vocalist.
KEITH MOON: WON’T GET FOOLED AGAIN?
Legend has it that, whereas celebrating his twenty first
birthday, the gifted however fatefully self-destructive drummer of The
Who, Keith Moon, plunged his Rolls-Royce into the swimming pool on the
Vacation Inn in Flint, Michigan, creating considered one of rock ‘n’ roll’s most
enduring legends.
Accounts of what actually occurred that evening differ wildly. In an
interview with Rolling Stone in 1972, Moon acknowledged the motor
automobile was a Lincoln Continental belonging to a different resort visitor; he
mentioned he let off the handbrake and rolled the automobile into the pool. Different
get together visitors keep that no motor automobile ended up within the pool in any respect.
Whether or not a automobile ended up within the pool or not, the parable is so potent that
it has change into the definitive picture of rock ‘n’ roll indulgence – and
as such, the automobile within the pool may solely be a Rolls-Royce.
To mark Phantom’s centenary and the motor automobile’s place in rock
‘n’ roll mythology, Rolls-Royce introduced legend to life by submerging
an Prolonged physique shell – a retired prototype destined for recycling –
in a swimming pool. The chosen location was Tinside Lido in Plymouth,
England, a celebrated Artwork Deco landmark subsequent to the English Channel.
Linked to John Lennon, considered one of Phantom’s most well-known purchasers, the Lido
served as a backdrop to {a photograph} of The Beatles taken on 12
September 1967 throughout their go to while filming for The Magical
Thriller Tour. That very same yr, Lennon unveiled his yellow,
hand-painted Phantom V, additional cementing the nameplate’s place in
music legend.
HIP-HOP STAR
Since transferring to Goodwood, the place manufacturing started in
2003, Rolls-Royce has solely strengthened its ties with up to date
music. By 2016, it had change into essentially the most name-checked model in tune
lyrics, pushed partly by the meteoric rise of hip-hop. The style was
a cultural powerhouse by the Nineties, and a family staple on the flip
of the century, coinciding with Rolls-Royce’s Goodwood renaissance and
the launch of Phantom VII in 2003.
A yr later, Pharrell Williams and Calvin ‘Snoop Dogg’ Broadus
Jr, would famously characteristic a Phantom VII within the 2004 music video for
Drop It Like It’s Scorching, which might high the US Billboard Scorching
100 for 3 weeks and start Phantom’s lasting reference to the
style’s most influential artists. Curtis ‘50 Cent’ Jackson appeared in
the TV sequence Entourage in a Phantom VII Drophead Coupé – a
scene that may go on to change into a extensively shared meme; Tha Carter
II by Dwayne ‘Lil Wayne’ Carter is considered one of many albums to characteristic
Phantom on its cowl. The style has additionally performed a key function in
popularising one of many marque’s most distinctive options: Starlight
Headliner. The phrase ‘stars within the roof’ – and its variations –
recurs in rap lyrics and has change into a suitably poetic shorthand for
Rolls-Royce possession.
ENCORE: PHANTOM’S LASTING LEGACY
Phantom has maintained a relentless, evolving presence
within the story of recent music. In every period, it has provided artists and
innovators a method of self-expression, aspiration and identification. As
Phantom enters its second century, it continues to symbolise success,
individuality, and the ability of human creativeness.
Click on
here to
view Rolls-Royce I Behind The Scenes: Diving into Rock ‘n’ Roll Legend.
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