'Although Lennon said Henry was just the name he gave the horse for musical reasons, Fanque was renowned for training his horses to actually waltz in time to the music, something few other horses in Britain could do, as the band usually had to keep an eye on the horse's hooves and keep changing the tempo to match its steps. Ten Somersets he'll undertake on solid groundĪnd tonight Mr. Kite flies through the ring don't be lateĪnd of course Henry The Horse dances the waltz!

Performs his feat on Saturday at Bishops GateĪs Mr. There will be a show tonight on trampoline 'He was born William Darby in Norwich, but we have no idea why he changed his name to Pablo Fanque, and there's evidence to suggest he and his children used both names interchangeably as a surname.īeing for the Benefit of Mr. 'Pablo Fanque was a remarkable guy,' says Mike Dash, a historian and writer for The Smithsonian Magazine who first wrote about the story behind the poster behind the song in 2011, 'although we know almost nothing about Fanque's childhood or parents, or even his date of birth - it could have been 1796, or 1810. On 31 January that year, John Lennon walked into a Sevenoaks antique shop where a poster advertising a February 1843 benefit for Mr Kite - 'celebrated somerset thrower, wire dancers, vaulter, rider etc etc', pictured balancing on his head on a 12-foot-tall pole, playing a trumpet, of course - by Pablo Fanque's Circus Royal caught his eye.

The story behind the song is even more curious and astonishing. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.Īmong the many classics on the album, one of the most intriguing and haunting is the dreamy, psychedelic Being for the Benefit of Mr Kite, which promises a 'production second to none' on trampolines, with 'somersets through hoops and garters and hogsheads of REAL FIRE' and with dancing by a colourful cast of characters, including the talented Mr Kite, the Hendersons and Henry the waltzing horse. It was 20 years ago today Sergeant Pepper taught the band to play and it will be 50 years ago this year that the Beatles first recorded their epic concept album Sgt.

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