Some of them are fairly well-known by now, like the one about the creation of the prism cover for Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon and the one about creating the cover shot for the band's Animals album, with a giant inflatable pig rigged to float high above the Battersea Power Station-and breaking off from its tether and blowing away in the wind. ![]() Powell and Thorgerson (in archive footage) are chatty and charming in relating their stories. Gilmour liked their enthusiasm, gave them the go-ahead, and Hipgnosis was launched.ĭirected by veteran rock photographer Anton Corbijn (who's shot many videos for U2 and Depeche Mode, and also made the 2007 biopic Control about Joy Division frontman Ian Curtis), Squaring the Circle is an affectionately crafted compendium of classic-rock lore, numbering among its talking heads Powell (Thorgerson died in 2013), Gilmour, Waters, Floyd drummer Nick Mason, and Led Zeppelin's Robert Plant and Jimmy Page (who says the Hipgnosis cover for his band's In Through the Out Door LP was "better than the album itself"). After moving to London and opening an office so squalid it didn't even have a toilet (inquiring visitors were told, "We pee in the sink"), Powell and Thorgerson approached their old pal Gilmour about letting them design the cover for the second Floyd album, the 1968 A Saucerful of Secrets. Powell and Thorgerson started out with a leg up in the business, being friends already with future Pink Floyd founders David Gilmour, Roger Waters, and Roger (Syd) Barrett. Finally, a vet had to be called in to tranquilize the irritated beast. Then, after lugging the couch out to a beach and down into the waves, it was discovered that the sheep had no interest in reclining on it (which was the idea that had been cooked up back in London). Arriving in Hawaii, Powell could locate only one sheep, and he had to have a psychiatrist's couch custom-built. There were further difficulties with this particular project (which was for a 10cc album). As Andrew Ellis, another of the company's graphic designers, recalls in the new documentary Squaring the Circle (The Story of Hipgnosis), "Po would come down and say, 'I need a sheep, I need a psychiatrist's couch, I'll probably need a vat-and I'm shooting in Hawaii, so can you book me a flight on Friday?' And I'm thinking, 'It's Monday, and all I've got is a dial-up telephone with a curly wire and the Yellow Pages.'" The intoxicating amounts of music-biz money sloshing around back in that time allowed Powell (known as Po) and Thorgerson to execute even the wildest ideas for their well-heeled clients. Rex, Bad Company, or Emerson, Lake & Palmer, among many other acts, has probably gazed upon a sleekly surreal Hipgnosis album cover at one time or another. These two started a London-based boutique design company called Hipgnosis, and anyone who ever bought an LP by Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Peter Gabriel, Wings, Genesis, 10cc, Electric Light Orchestra, T. Among these lucky folks were two young graphic designers: Englishmen Aubrey Powell, an imaginative photographer, and Storm Thorgerson, a complete loon with an endless supply of brilliant ideas for eye-grabbing album art. Inevitably, many non-musicians started getting rich off all this abundance, too. Their final performance was a headlining slot at the Ahmet Ertegun Tribute benefit in 2007 (with John Bonham’s son, Jason, boldly keeping the beat) as chronicled in the extraordinary concert film Celebration Day.By the 1970s, the rock music business was minting so much money that touring bands found themselves awash in, among other things, pharmaceutical-grade drugs, luxury-loving female idolators, and their own private jets, some of which, like Led Zeppelin's, featured onboard piano bars. ![]() Reunions of the remaining members have been few, mainly a 1985 Live Aid performance and a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony a decade later. Together, this legendary troupe amassed an estimated 200-300 million albums sold worldwide, thanks in part to raucous rockers like “Stairway to Heaven,” “Whole Lotta Love,” “Kashmir,” and “Black Dog.” Their reign as the world’s biggest rock band ended all too soon, however, as drummer Bonham succumbed to a tragic alcohol-related death in 1980. Much of their mystical power came from the uncanny chemistry of the blue-eyed soul wailer Robert Plant, guitar great Jimmy Page, whip-smart bassist John Paul Jones, and heavy-hitter John Bonham. ![]() Ken Settle Kees Tabak Allan Tannenbaum Barrie Wentzell Neil Zlozowerįormed in London in 1968, Led Zeppelin painted a smoldering picture of hard rock’s future while maintaining reverence for its Delta blues and British folk past.
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