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Downloaded from
YTS.MX
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Official YIFY movies site:
YTS.MX
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Hipgnosis is what it says.
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Hip, cool and groovy.
Gnostic, meaning wise.
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What I love
about vinyl is the artwork.
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Great photography,
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and graphic design,
and great imagination.
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Incredible songs.
Incredible albums.
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But synonymous
with so many of those records
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is the artwork of Hipgnosis.
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It was the
people who the work was for.
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The megastars of the late '60s,
early '70s, Hipgnosis,
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they were, in a way, a kind of
a lens of fascinating excess.
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I'd been kicked out of school
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and both my mother and father
lived abroad.
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So I found myself
footloose in Cambridge
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and I went to live in a house
in Clarendon Street.
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And I kept seeing
these very cool-looking people
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going in and out
of this one house.
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And I thought, "Now they're
people I should get to know."
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I went across the street,
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went upstairs and went into
this extraordinary room.
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I'd never seen anything
like it.
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It was Bohemian,
to say the least.
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It was full of graffiti.
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You know, Nietzsche,
"God is dead".
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A pair of army boots
drawn by Syd Barrett.
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I didn't even know
who Syd Barrett was then.
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Everybody was smoking dope,
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sitting around,
listening to music.
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John Coltrane,
something like that.
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And I was introduced
to this guy with long hair
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who was very brash.
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"Hello, man." That was Storm.
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Storm was, like,
the leader of this pack
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of very nice boys and girls.
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Um, but Storm
just wouldn't stop talking.
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He had been freely educated,
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and so he was very loud
and very free.
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He was also very bright.
Very chirpy.
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And he played rugby very well.
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We played in the same rugby 15.
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After the pub, we used to go
back to Storm's mother's house.
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We used to pile in, about
eight or nine or ten of us.
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Sometimes drunk, sometimes not.
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Storm's mother, Vanji,
was very liberal
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and didn't seem to mind
what we all got up to.
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So, Pink Floyd were there,
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but they weren't
called Pink Floyd.
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And, well, we were all there
getting a bit drunk,
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I don't know, or very stoned.
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So, I sat around,
and we smoked some joints.
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And the conversation
was full of laughter.
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I felt at home there somehow.
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I was kind of a loner, bit lost,
in a way. I was only 16.
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Anyway, couple of hours in...
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...big bang at the front door,
and it's the police.
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Everybody ran out of the room,
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shovelling pills, grass,
hash in their pockets.
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Out the back door.
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I stayed put.
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Anyway, the police got in
the house and found nothing.
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And we got a scolding.
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And Storm sat there
and he said to me,
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"Why didn't you leave
with the others?"
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And I said, "I don't believe
in dumping a sinking ship."
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"I believe in fighting it out
till the end."
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And from that moment on,
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we were in each other's company,
and never left.
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And became like brothers.
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Storm and Po worked for the
greatest artists in the world.
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Whether that was Pink Floyd,
whether it was Led Zeppelin
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whether it was Paul McCartney.
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People that could have worked
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00:06:45,697 --> 00:06:48,242
with whomever
they wanted to work with.
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00:06:48,826 --> 00:06:52,204
And Storm was
a really difficult guy.
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I'm described by some
as difficult to work with,
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by others as a ponce,
by some as a narcissist
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with an ego the size
a small planet,
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by some as really awkward,
argumentative,
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00:07:08,720 --> 00:07:10,514
by others yet as grumpy.
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Very few as handsome and sexy,
which is the way I see myself.
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Somehow there was
a bonding between us.
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And because he was bright
and so intellectually sharp,
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I immediately gravitated
to that.
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I thought this man...
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I can learn something
from this man.
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None of us were aware
at the time
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that Pink Floyd
would come out of it,
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or so much creative talent
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would suddenly arrive
from that scene.
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But there was definitely
the undercurrent
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that we were
part of the hipsters.
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Pink Floyd were
getting a lot of attention.
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And suddenly everyone
was moving to London.
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Storm would go into
the Royal College of Art.
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And I thought, "Oh no,
I'm gonna be left behind."
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And he said,
"Well, just come with me
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in the autumn term and enrol,
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like you're one of the students
in the photographic school."
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I said, "I don't know anything
about photography."
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He said, "Well, come on.
I'll teach you."
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I said, "Well, what do I do?"
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He said, "You point, shoot,
reload and repeat."
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"Point, shoot,
reload and repeat."
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And Storm was aggressive
like that. I thought, "OK."
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Went down to the darkroom.
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And I stood next to him
and watched the picture
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I'd taken
some half an hour earlier
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come through
on this white piece of paper
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of this beautiful photograph
of a car.
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And I got goosebumps
all over me.
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I absolutely went,
"Oh, my God, this is alchemy."
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And I knew instantly
that's what I had to do.
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I need to be a photographer.
I wanna be a photographer.
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I don't care what it takes,
that's what I have to do.
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This is magic.
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So, for six months, I attended
the Royal College as a student.
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So already we're starting
to see the ducking and diving
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that was to characterise
Storm and Po's
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very successful artistic
business relationship.
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OK, Po. How did Hipgnosis
first get involved
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in sleeve design?
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Er, through the back door,
really. Um...
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We knew the Pink Floyd
in Cambridge. Um...
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And when we came to London,
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Floyd were starting
to do some things then.
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Well, they were starting, flat,
and they came along,
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and I suppose
because we'd been friends,
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it was sort of the natural thing
to say, "You're in visuals,
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why don't you have a go
at the album sleeve?"
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And that was
the first thing we did.
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Storm asked me.
He said... We're old friends,
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even then, when I was 22
and he was 24,
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if I could persuade the others
to let them do the album cover.
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And they were young,
and I guess you'd say vital.
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And that's what
I thought we needed.
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Something a bit more unusual
and wilder, I guess.
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We wanted to create an image
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for Pink Floyd at that time
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that was based on
what they called space rock.
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We tried to simulate
on the picture
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a kind of swirling cosmos
of images
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that were supposed to represent
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a kind of kaleidoscopic feeling
of a simulated drug experience.
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Storm had the idea.
He said,
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"Let's take a picture
out of this alchemical book,
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let's take a picture out of a
Marvel comic of Doctor Strange."
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"Let's do this,
let's do that. OK."
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I got the Pentax,
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and I shot these things
all in black and white.
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Processed the film
in the darkroom,
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00:11:04,831 --> 00:11:07,668
and started to create,
through the enlarger
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00:11:07,751 --> 00:11:10,337
by shielding off different parts
of the paper,
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and then changing the negative
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and then doing it again, and
then this montage of pictures.
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There were dozens
of different versions.
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But then there was one
that just zinged out.
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So then I knew how to hand tint
and hand colour.
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00:11:27,646 --> 00:11:30,482
But there was pressure
from the record company
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to actually have a picture
of the band somewhere.
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We then went to Hampstead Pond,
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where we photographed the band
in infrared film.
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And we placed a little picture
of the band
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in infrared in there
from that session.
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And that was the very,
very first album cover,
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really, that we did.
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There was some genius in there,
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but there were times when
they weren't that professional.
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But they were learning
as they went along,
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and they had to work everything
out from the beginning.
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It was such a simplistic
artwork, but it worked for them.
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And it started Storm's
and my career.
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00:12:09,271 --> 00:12:12,899
They represent the golden age
of the music business
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where people believed
that music was art
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and it could change the world.
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00:12:18,280 --> 00:12:20,490
Whereas now,
music is a commodity
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00:12:20,574 --> 00:12:23,577
and it changes the share price
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00:12:23,660 --> 00:12:25,912
of whatever company
it's attached to.
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Whereas back in the '60s,
rock stars were artists
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and graphic designers
were artists.
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All that work
has stood the test of time.
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The name "Hipgnosis"
came from Syd Barrett.
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He was living in our flat
at the time,
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and one day, Storm and I
came up in the elevator.
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And we had this beautiful
white painted door,
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and somebody had written in biro
"hipgnosis".
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Exactly the same spelling.
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00:13:03,742 --> 00:13:06,828
"Oh, somebody's written...
We gotta paint the door now."
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00:13:06,912 --> 00:13:10,123
Walked in, and there's Syd.
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00:13:10,207 --> 00:13:12,375
And Storm said,
"Did you write that?"
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00:13:12,459 --> 00:13:15,712
And Syd shuffled and looked very
sheepish, and sort of nodded
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00:13:15,796 --> 00:13:19,257
and sort of walked away
as he normally did at that time.
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It wasn't Syd, who did all sorts
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of extraordinary,
wonderful things.
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00:13:23,303 --> 00:13:26,431
Dave Henderson came up
with the idea of Hipgnosis.
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00:13:26,515 --> 00:13:29,768
A friend called Adrian Haggard,
he wrote on the wall
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00:13:29,851 --> 00:13:32,646
the word "hipgnosis"
with a "G" in it.
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00:13:32,729 --> 00:13:34,940
And if anyone says
anything else,
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00:13:35,023 --> 00:13:38,109
it was Adrian Haggard
that came up with the name.
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We admired this pun
on gnostic knowledge
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00:13:41,696 --> 00:13:43,281
and being hip,
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00:13:43,365 --> 00:13:44,741
and Storm seized it.
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00:13:44,825 --> 00:13:49,204
Storm went,
"Hip, cool, gnostic, wise."
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00:13:49,287 --> 00:13:51,706
"Let's call ourselves
Hipgnosis." That was it.
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00:14:04,886 --> 00:14:08,181
We lived in a flat
that became fairly notorious
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00:14:08,265 --> 00:14:09,808
called Egerton Court,
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00:14:09,891 --> 00:14:13,061
which was in an area of London
called South Kensington.
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00:14:14,062 --> 00:14:16,731
And this is the height
of psychedelia,
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00:14:16,815 --> 00:14:19,901
height of the so-called
hippie revolution.
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00:14:29,995 --> 00:14:32,956
Now, Egerton Court
had its own history.
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00:14:38,169 --> 00:14:41,464
Roman Polanski had just made
Repulsion in it.
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00:14:41,548 --> 00:14:45,302
And I remember one day
Storm had all these...
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00:14:45,719 --> 00:14:47,762
theatrical lights in his room.
215
00:14:47,846 --> 00:14:50,223
And he said, "They were
abandoned on the stairs."
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00:14:50,307 --> 00:14:54,477
Which was the beginning
of Hipgnosis's lighting
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00:14:54,561 --> 00:14:56,813
and camera equipment.
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00:14:58,773 --> 00:15:01,735
We started to hear
about this drug called LSD.
219
00:15:01,818 --> 00:15:03,945
And we started to take it.
220
00:15:04,029 --> 00:15:06,281
At this point, things
accelerated considerably.
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00:15:15,248 --> 00:15:17,459
When I first took LSD
at Egerton Court,
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00:15:17,542 --> 00:15:19,419
I thought,
"Well, I've gotta try this."
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00:15:19,502 --> 00:15:22,047
So one night, I'm with Storm
and a couple of other people.
224
00:15:22,130 --> 00:15:23,506
You know, we dropped a tab.
225
00:15:25,008 --> 00:15:28,803
Taking LSD
completely changed my life.
226
00:15:28,887 --> 00:15:32,223
I could sort of see that nothing
was actually solid,
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00:15:32,307 --> 00:15:36,895
that the table was just all
colour, all sort of atoms.
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00:15:36,978 --> 00:15:42,317
I didn't experience any fear
at that time. Later I did.
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00:15:42,400 --> 00:15:44,152
And I just remember laughing.
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00:15:44,235 --> 00:15:46,279
Laughing and laughing
and laughing.
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00:15:46,363 --> 00:15:49,074
Everything was so funny,
so intense.
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00:15:49,157 --> 00:15:51,534
It was kind of magical.
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00:16:01,503 --> 00:16:03,672
At Egerton Court, we were
taking quite a lot of LSD.
234
00:16:03,755 --> 00:16:07,467
And I began to notice there was
a change in the atmosphere
235
00:16:07,550 --> 00:16:09,260
with the people
in the apartment.
236
00:16:10,637 --> 00:16:12,430
In the Cambridge group,
237
00:16:12,514 --> 00:16:14,724
it occasioned a great split,
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00:16:14,808 --> 00:16:19,062
LSD being the dangerously
powerful substance that it is.
239
00:16:19,145 --> 00:16:21,564
First of all, Syd Barrett
came and joined us.
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00:16:21,648 --> 00:16:23,733
He'd been booted out of
Pink Floyd by that time
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00:16:23,817 --> 00:16:26,528
because he was
just too difficult.
242
00:16:26,611 --> 00:16:30,198
He was frightening.
His eyes were black.
243
00:16:30,281 --> 00:16:32,492
LSD had done him in.
244
00:16:32,575 --> 00:16:35,286
And he lived in the room
opposite me.
245
00:16:35,370 --> 00:16:40,417
And... there was a fear
that emanated from him.
246
00:16:40,500 --> 00:16:43,461
And when you've taken
quite a lot of LSD,
247
00:16:43,545 --> 00:16:46,464
you feel your senses
in overdrive.
248
00:16:46,548 --> 00:16:49,342
So, I began to pick up on that.
249
00:16:49,426 --> 00:16:52,095
It was horrible. And then other
people began to pick up on it.
250
00:16:52,178 --> 00:16:53,930
And then we started
to get paranoid.
251
00:16:54,014 --> 00:16:55,598
You couldn't look somebody
in the eye.
252
00:16:59,227 --> 00:17:02,022
I began to have hallucinations
where I didn't want them.
253
00:17:02,105 --> 00:17:03,481
I couldn't smoke dope any more.
254
00:17:03,565 --> 00:17:08,028
It began to affect my brain and
set me back into an LSD mode,
255
00:17:08,111 --> 00:17:09,154
which I didn't want.
256
00:17:09,237 --> 00:17:12,657
You know, I was working.
I didn't have time for this.
257
00:17:13,700 --> 00:17:16,578
Storm also had
some upsetting experiences.
258
00:17:16,661 --> 00:17:19,664
And we both finished up
going to psychiatrists.
259
00:17:19,748 --> 00:17:22,333
And it worked.
I talked through a lot of shit.
260
00:17:22,417 --> 00:17:25,462
And I realised that, in one way,
261
00:17:25,545 --> 00:17:27,756
LSD had given me
lateral thinking.
262
00:17:27,839 --> 00:17:30,258
I could think out of the box.
It was really easy.
263
00:17:30,341 --> 00:17:32,761
And I think that was part
of the success of Hipgnosis,
264
00:17:32,844 --> 00:17:36,056
that both Storm and I
could easily adapt
265
00:17:36,139 --> 00:17:39,350
to moving away from the norm.
266
00:17:42,604 --> 00:17:44,606
Once I'm trying to do a design,
267
00:17:44,689 --> 00:17:47,734
I don't mind where
the inspiration comes from.
268
00:17:47,817 --> 00:17:51,154
So I will plunder any artist
I can possibly find.
269
00:17:51,237 --> 00:17:53,114
I don't really care.
270
00:17:53,198 --> 00:17:57,243
I don't feel thieving
is what I do, it's borrowing.
271
00:17:58,119 --> 00:18:00,163
So, in that sense, you plunder
272
00:18:00,246 --> 00:18:03,083
the art world willy-nilly,
as it were.
273
00:18:04,542 --> 00:18:07,337
After the success
of Saucerful of Secrets,
274
00:18:07,420 --> 00:18:11,007
Pink Floyd went on tour,
and they wanted some posters.
275
00:18:11,091 --> 00:18:13,676
I took a photograph
of a cosmic scene
276
00:18:13,760 --> 00:18:15,303
of stars and stuff like that.
277
00:18:15,386 --> 00:18:17,430
And then I took a photograph
of a clock.
278
00:18:17,514 --> 00:18:19,641
And then I took a photograph
of Storm's ear.
279
00:18:19,724 --> 00:18:22,227
And then Storm
started to mix and match
280
00:18:22,310 --> 00:18:24,395
and suddenly we had this poster.
281
00:18:24,479 --> 00:18:27,899
These three posters,
they were impressive.
282
00:18:27,982 --> 00:18:29,901
I was so knocked out with them.
283
00:18:29,984 --> 00:18:32,237
It was an important
stepping stone because, again,
284
00:18:32,320 --> 00:18:34,948
it was a second commission
from Pink Floyd.
285
00:18:35,031 --> 00:18:37,867
And then other work
started to come in.
286
00:18:51,214 --> 00:18:54,467
Storm and I then decided
to make a go of it.
287
00:18:54,551 --> 00:18:56,886
We'd started a business.
We hadn't intended to.
288
00:18:56,970 --> 00:18:59,681
If you'd said to me, "Were you
going to go into album covers?"
289
00:18:59,764 --> 00:19:02,976
Absolutely no way at all.
I never even thought about it.
290
00:19:03,059 --> 00:19:04,269
But we had.
291
00:19:05,687 --> 00:19:08,731
We don't have particular roles.
I mean, they vary.
292
00:19:08,815 --> 00:19:12,569
I would say that Po
is better at photography.
293
00:19:12,652 --> 00:19:15,155
But I probably have
a few more ideas.
294
00:19:15,655 --> 00:19:18,074
I tend to be much more
sentimental, romantic,
295
00:19:18,158 --> 00:19:21,202
slightly old-fashioned.
296
00:19:22,036 --> 00:19:25,123
Storm and I worked so well
together, we really did.
297
00:19:25,206 --> 00:19:26,833
We sort of had a synergy.
298
00:19:37,343 --> 00:19:39,637
Storm said,
"Let's just do a cover
299
00:19:39,721 --> 00:19:42,932
that's completely meaningless,
has no meaning whatsoever."
300
00:19:43,016 --> 00:19:45,685
"What's the most meaningless
thing we can do?"
301
00:19:45,768 --> 00:19:47,395
"We'll just get
a picture of a cow
302
00:19:47,478 --> 00:19:48,688
and we'll stick it on there."
303
00:19:48,771 --> 00:19:50,607
All I did was
I drove out of London.
304
00:19:50,690 --> 00:19:52,775
This is the first cow I saw.
305
00:19:52,859 --> 00:19:54,944
We jumped over a fence,
took a picture of a cow,
306
00:19:55,028 --> 00:19:56,821
got in the car and came home.
307
00:19:56,905 --> 00:19:59,157
Lulubelle III, she was called.
308
00:19:59,574 --> 00:20:01,534
And we photographed that,
309
00:20:01,618 --> 00:20:04,120
showed the band,
and Roger went, "That's it."
310
00:20:04,204 --> 00:20:07,707
"That's it." And Storm said,
"There's one proviso:
311
00:20:07,790 --> 00:20:10,293
No name on the cover
and no title."
312
00:20:10,376 --> 00:20:12,212
He went, "Perfect."
313
00:20:12,295 --> 00:20:16,466
I was probably one of a great
chorus of voices that went,
314
00:20:16,549 --> 00:20:18,343
"Oh, how fucking cool is that?"
315
00:20:18,426 --> 00:20:20,970
"Putting a cow on
a record cover. That's weird."
316
00:20:21,471 --> 00:20:23,681
When I showed it
to the managing director
317
00:20:23,765 --> 00:20:26,726
of the record company,
he went apoplectic.
318
00:20:26,809 --> 00:20:28,394
The veins in his neck stood out.
319
00:20:28,811 --> 00:20:30,480
And he kept scratching his head
320
00:20:30,563 --> 00:20:32,607
and getting redder and crosser,
and saying to me,
321
00:20:32,690 --> 00:20:34,442
"What has a cow got to do
with Pink Floyd?"
322
00:20:34,525 --> 00:20:36,027
"Are you fucking mad?"
323
00:20:36,110 --> 00:20:39,030
So I said, "It's not my fault.
It's their fault. Blame them."
324
00:20:39,113 --> 00:20:41,741
So this is another example of
getting away with blue murder,
325
00:20:41,824 --> 00:20:43,117
getting away
with a hell of a lot
326
00:20:43,201 --> 00:20:45,954
because what has a cow
got to do with Pink Floyd?
327
00:20:46,037 --> 00:20:47,830
They're one of the few bands
who, at the time,
328
00:20:47,914 --> 00:20:49,832
could get away with
this kind of rubbish.
329
00:20:49,916 --> 00:20:52,627
They were so overwhelmed
by it...
330
00:20:54,087 --> 00:20:56,714
...that, I mean, they were
absolutely surprised.
331
00:20:56,798 --> 00:20:58,633
They said, um,
you know, "Great."
332
00:20:58,716 --> 00:21:01,135
"We've gotta have multi-million-
dollar spending on this."
333
00:21:01,219 --> 00:21:05,682
And they promoted it with large
inflatable pink cow udders
334
00:21:05,765 --> 00:21:07,433
that went out
to all the dealers,
335
00:21:07,517 --> 00:21:09,269
the record shops,
I mean, in thousands.
336
00:21:09,352 --> 00:21:11,980
And I always remember
going to LA
337
00:21:12,063 --> 00:21:15,441
and walking down Sunset Strip,
and there was the cow.
338
00:21:15,525 --> 00:21:16,943
And I remember people saying,
339
00:21:17,026 --> 00:21:19,862
"Have you seen that picture
of the cow on the Strip?"
340
00:21:19,946 --> 00:21:21,364
Of course, it's a failure
341
00:21:21,447 --> 00:21:24,242
because the cow itself
becomes iconic.
342
00:21:24,325 --> 00:21:26,369
And it's not a nothing cover
in the end.
343
00:21:26,452 --> 00:21:30,748
It seems like it has some sort
of special meaning or something.
344
00:21:30,832 --> 00:21:32,583
It was very nice sometimes
345
00:21:32,667 --> 00:21:35,461
just to make sure there was
something there that just said,
346
00:21:35,545 --> 00:21:39,382
you know, this isn't really a
hundred percent full-on serious.
347
00:21:39,465 --> 00:21:42,302
It's very difficult to tell
whether you're,
348
00:21:42,385 --> 00:21:44,178
you know, doing art,
349
00:21:44,262 --> 00:21:46,222
like, whether the picture
is what you want
350
00:21:46,306 --> 00:21:49,017
or whether it's something that's
proscribed by something else,
351
00:21:49,100 --> 00:21:50,685
ie, a client that's come along
and said,
352
00:21:50,768 --> 00:21:53,938
"Can I have picture for
this jacket, for this record?"
353
00:21:55,606 --> 00:21:59,569
The vitriolic quality
of reaction has,
354
00:21:59,652 --> 00:22:02,905
to me, been a testament
of how effective it is.
355
00:22:03,865 --> 00:22:05,533
- OK, Po.
- OK, Dave.
356
00:22:05,616 --> 00:22:08,036
Being provocative
got us noticed.
357
00:22:08,119 --> 00:22:09,996
We were keen to have a career.
358
00:22:10,079 --> 00:22:12,874
We wanted to make it.
We were ambitious.
359
00:22:12,957 --> 00:22:15,293
We started looking
for premises.
360
00:22:15,376 --> 00:22:18,421
And what came up
was Denmark Street.
361
00:22:18,504 --> 00:22:20,423
6 Denmark Street.
362
00:22:20,506 --> 00:22:22,800
Oh, it was appalling.
It was terrible.
363
00:22:22,884 --> 00:22:25,345
They didn't have a toilet.
I think they just had a sink.
364
00:22:25,428 --> 00:22:27,513
You'd think,
how did such polished work
365
00:22:27,597 --> 00:22:28,890
come out of such a dump?
366
00:22:29,265 --> 00:22:31,976
It was a mess. Always was.
367
00:22:32,060 --> 00:22:33,895
Disgusting place,
quite honestly.
368
00:22:33,978 --> 00:22:36,731
I remember The Shadows
came there once
369
00:22:36,814 --> 00:22:38,566
and said,
"Do you have a toilet?"
370
00:22:38,649 --> 00:22:42,362
We said,
"No, we pee in the sink."
371
00:22:42,445 --> 00:22:44,322
So they said,
"OK, if you pee in the sink,
372
00:22:44,405 --> 00:22:45,573
we'll pee in the sink."
373
00:22:45,656 --> 00:22:49,410
The studio was a shithole.
374
00:22:49,494 --> 00:22:51,329
It was a dance studio.
375
00:22:51,412 --> 00:22:54,457
And there was a guy there
living with a woman.
376
00:22:54,540 --> 00:22:58,252
And they got a big grand piano
in the middle of the room.
377
00:22:58,336 --> 00:23:02,215
And he said, "I need to get out
of here, now."
378
00:23:02,298 --> 00:23:05,385
And he said, "Give me some
money, and we'll be gone."
379
00:23:05,468 --> 00:23:07,220
And he said,
"And I don't want the piano."
380
00:23:07,303 --> 00:23:12,558
So, literally, within two weeks,
Storm and I had a studio.
381
00:23:13,351 --> 00:23:15,144
I didn't know what to do
with this piano.
382
00:23:15,228 --> 00:23:17,480
So I walked up the road
to Heal's,
383
00:23:17,563 --> 00:23:19,315
to their piano department,
and said,
384
00:23:19,816 --> 00:23:21,150
"Are you interested in this?"
385
00:23:21,234 --> 00:23:23,820
They said,
"This is a very valuable piano."
386
00:23:23,903 --> 00:23:26,030
And they gave us enough money
for it
387
00:23:26,114 --> 00:23:28,658
to buy all our first
camera equipment,
388
00:23:28,741 --> 00:23:30,284
all our first
lighting equipment,
389
00:23:30,368 --> 00:23:33,746
and to build a darkroom,
and all the darkroom equipment.
390
00:23:33,830 --> 00:23:35,873
It was a gift from God.
391
00:23:35,957 --> 00:23:38,167
And the biggest mistake we made
392
00:23:38,251 --> 00:23:40,795
was we still used a bath,
393
00:23:40,878 --> 00:23:43,464
a proper bath,
to wash the prints in.
394
00:23:43,548 --> 00:23:46,426
And, of course, that was
a disaster, because...
395
00:23:46,509 --> 00:23:49,804
not long after we'd been there,
the prints clogged up the bath,
396
00:23:49,887 --> 00:23:51,806
it overflowed
over a long weekend,
397
00:23:51,889 --> 00:23:55,309
and flooded the antique
Greek bookshop underneath us,
398
00:23:55,393 --> 00:23:58,563
causing tens of thousands
of pounds' worth of damage.
399
00:23:59,730 --> 00:24:01,941
Luckily we were insured.
400
00:24:02,024 --> 00:24:05,445
They were rascals.
Yes, definitely.
401
00:24:05,528 --> 00:24:09,031
Well, a little bit...
little bit shady.
402
00:24:11,451 --> 00:24:14,954
Po did all sorts of things
untoward.
403
00:24:15,037 --> 00:24:17,290
He sold a car that fell to bits.
404
00:24:18,499 --> 00:24:22,003
London was lawless.
It really was in the late '60s.
405
00:24:22,462 --> 00:24:26,174
And one was just part
of that whole lawlessness.
406
00:24:26,257 --> 00:24:29,510
I remember throwing a sofa
off a roof
407
00:24:29,594 --> 00:24:31,471
because it wouldn't fit
in the apartment,
408
00:24:31,554 --> 00:24:34,682
and it landed on a taxi.
Nothing ever happened.
409
00:24:34,765 --> 00:24:37,101
He did all sorts of things.
No, he's a crook.
410
00:24:38,519 --> 00:24:39,854
I could hotwire a car.
411
00:24:39,937 --> 00:24:41,898
I could hotwire a Mini
and steal it for somebody,
412
00:24:41,981 --> 00:24:42,982
then sell it.
413
00:24:43,065 --> 00:24:45,109
It was just extra money
and it was fun.
414
00:24:45,193 --> 00:24:46,777
I'm sure Po
wouldn't mind me saying
415
00:24:46,861 --> 00:24:49,363
that he would sell his
grandmother for the right price.
416
00:24:50,239 --> 00:24:53,576
And he had lots of
laundered money!
417
00:24:54,994 --> 00:24:56,454
When the '60s exploded,
418
00:24:56,537 --> 00:24:58,498
people were getting rich
suddenly.
419
00:24:58,581 --> 00:24:59,957
Everything was game.
420
00:25:00,041 --> 00:25:02,919
Storm wasn't motivated
by money at all,
421
00:25:03,002 --> 00:25:05,713
which must have been
a massive irritation to Po.
422
00:25:06,130 --> 00:25:09,509
I just wanted to
make money and be successful
423
00:25:09,592 --> 00:25:12,595
and do the things I loved to do,
which were creative things.
424
00:25:12,678 --> 00:25:14,180
And Storm was the same, really.
425
00:25:16,015 --> 00:25:18,142
We would get the number 50 bus
into town
426
00:25:18,226 --> 00:25:19,852
to buy these records
when they came out
427
00:25:19,936 --> 00:25:21,979
by The Smiths or The Jam.
428
00:25:22,063 --> 00:25:25,608
And we'd sit and stare...
429
00:25:26,442 --> 00:25:28,277
at the artwork all the way home,
430
00:25:28,361 --> 00:25:30,655
and read it all before you
got home and even played it.
431
00:25:30,738 --> 00:25:32,657
Where was it recorded,
who played on what,
432
00:25:32,740 --> 00:25:34,867
what the sleeve notes were.
433
00:25:34,951 --> 00:25:37,787
The lyrics to the album if they
happened to be on there.
434
00:25:37,870 --> 00:25:41,207
And there's a great quote
from someone.
435
00:25:41,290 --> 00:25:46,045
"Vinyl is like
the poor man's art collection."
436
00:25:46,128 --> 00:25:49,090
You get these posh people
who've got art on the wall.
437
00:25:49,173 --> 00:25:51,509
Working-class people
have got art on the floor,
438
00:25:51,592 --> 00:25:52,969
stacked against the wall.
439
00:25:53,052 --> 00:25:54,887
And I thought
that was a great quote.
440
00:25:54,971 --> 00:25:57,390
It's so good, it must have been
mine, but I don't think it was.
441
00:25:59,267 --> 00:26:03,521
The first time that we
really got publicity
442
00:26:03,604 --> 00:26:08,317
about what we were doing was
when we did The Nice Elegy.
443
00:26:18,953 --> 00:26:21,414
Elegy came directly
from the music.
444
00:26:21,497 --> 00:26:24,417
I'd been playing the music
just prior to going to bed.
445
00:26:24,875 --> 00:26:28,838
In my mind I saw this desert
populated with red footballs.
446
00:26:28,963 --> 00:26:33,593
And when I told Po, he said,
"That's absolutely insane."
447
00:26:33,676 --> 00:26:35,219
"What's it got to do
with anything?"
448
00:26:35,303 --> 00:26:37,388
I said, "It's something
that felt like the music."
449
00:26:37,722 --> 00:26:40,433
And somehow we managed
to persuade Keith Emerson
450
00:26:40,516 --> 00:26:42,143
that it was a great idea.
451
00:26:42,226 --> 00:26:44,437
I then went to the record
company who were Charisma,
452
00:26:44,520 --> 00:26:46,606
and it was run by a guy
called Tony Stratton-Smith
453
00:26:46,689 --> 00:26:48,983
who was a real character.
And he looked at us.
454
00:26:49,066 --> 00:26:50,443
He was highly educated,
455
00:26:50,526 --> 00:26:52,153
and he said,
"This is an amazing image."
456
00:26:52,236 --> 00:26:54,071
"It's a piece of landscape art."
457
00:26:54,155 --> 00:26:55,823
"But where
are you gonna do this?"
458
00:26:55,906 --> 00:26:58,034
"Saunton Sands or something?"
459
00:26:58,117 --> 00:27:01,370
So we both said, "Sahara,"
being the only desert we knew.
460
00:27:01,829 --> 00:27:03,623
And that's what we did.
461
00:27:03,706 --> 00:27:07,418
Storm and I had to get
60-ish footballs, deflated.
462
00:27:07,501 --> 00:27:09,629
It was the only way
to ship them by plane.
463
00:27:09,712 --> 00:27:12,131
And I tried to pump up
one of these balls.
464
00:27:12,214 --> 00:27:15,676
It took 20 minutes.
And we had 60 of them.
465
00:27:22,642 --> 00:27:24,018
But it made a stir.
466
00:27:24,101 --> 00:27:25,978
And suddenly people realised
467
00:27:26,062 --> 00:27:28,481
you could do anything
on an album cover
468
00:27:28,564 --> 00:27:30,066
if it was interesting.
469
00:27:30,149 --> 00:27:34,487
And to me, it's the
tipping point of Hipgnosis
470
00:27:34,570 --> 00:27:38,574
whereby we realised we could do
a piece of land art
471
00:27:38,658 --> 00:27:40,910
and sell it as an album cover.
472
00:27:40,993 --> 00:27:42,453
And we learned from this
473
00:27:42,536 --> 00:27:45,456
not only that we could do
something outlandish
474
00:27:45,539 --> 00:27:49,126
but also that
if the musician liked it,
475
00:27:49,210 --> 00:27:52,213
this was an absolutely
pivotal, crucial point.
476
00:27:54,715 --> 00:27:56,550
Once you got into
Rolling Stone,
477
00:27:56,634 --> 00:27:58,469
which everybody read
at that time,
478
00:27:58,552 --> 00:28:00,763
it was the biggest-selling
rock paper there was,
479
00:28:00,846 --> 00:28:02,807
people began to
sit up and take notice.
480
00:28:09,605 --> 00:28:13,567
1973 was the tipping point
because during that year,
481
00:28:13,651 --> 00:28:15,861
we worked for many big bands.
482
00:28:15,945 --> 00:28:18,698
And suddenly
we were the go-to studio.
483
00:28:27,957 --> 00:28:31,377
I have to say, when you get
a call from a Beatle,
484
00:28:31,460 --> 00:28:34,130
it was a bit like a call
from God.
485
00:28:42,638 --> 00:28:45,933
Admiring their work
that I'd seen with Pink Floyd,
486
00:28:46,016 --> 00:28:47,601
I just rang 'em up,
487
00:28:47,685 --> 00:28:49,979
and just said,
"I've got an album coming up,
488
00:28:50,062 --> 00:28:52,273
and I've got a rough idea
for it."
489
00:28:52,356 --> 00:28:54,442
"Are you interested
in working with me?"
490
00:28:54,817 --> 00:28:59,196
"I like the idea of, um,
a group of escapees
491
00:28:59,280 --> 00:29:02,491
escaping out of the prison.
What would you stage it like?"
492
00:29:02,908 --> 00:29:06,078
I'm trying to think of those
things, those tableaus
493
00:29:06,162 --> 00:29:09,749
they used to have
of ancient Greece, you know.
494
00:29:09,832 --> 00:29:12,918
Anyway, this was, like, staged,
it was a prison escape.
495
00:29:14,712 --> 00:29:17,131
He gave us a list
of people that he wanted
496
00:29:17,214 --> 00:29:18,758
to be part of the prison break.
497
00:29:18,841 --> 00:29:21,260
Hollywood celebrities
and stuff like that.
498
00:29:21,343 --> 00:29:23,345
This is it. This is the cover.
499
00:29:23,429 --> 00:29:26,140
Forget the prison outfits,
this is it.
500
00:29:27,975 --> 00:29:29,477
He did also say,
501
00:29:29,560 --> 00:29:31,729
"I'd like the people
in the photo
502
00:29:31,812 --> 00:29:33,606
to be people you knew
503
00:29:33,689 --> 00:29:35,649
but just people
you could pick out
504
00:29:35,733 --> 00:29:38,527
and, "Ah, yeah,
that's that boxer, John Conteh."
505
00:29:38,611 --> 00:29:41,155
Or, "Oh, that's that that guy,
you know..."
506
00:29:41,530 --> 00:29:43,324
Which way are we
trying to escape?
507
00:29:43,407 --> 00:29:44,617
We're all going thataway.
508
00:29:44,700 --> 00:29:46,786
The light is coming
from the top of that lamp.
509
00:29:46,869 --> 00:29:48,412
Some of you
will be looking up there.
510
00:29:48,496 --> 00:29:50,998
Some will be more concerned
about getting away.
511
00:29:51,081 --> 00:29:53,000
But you will be caught
in a position...
512
00:29:53,083 --> 00:29:55,544
The whole thing had
a great sense of camaraderie
513
00:29:55,628 --> 00:29:57,338
and fun about it.
514
00:29:57,421 --> 00:30:00,925
Storm took on the role
of kind of maître d'
515
00:30:01,008 --> 00:30:03,886
and bossing people about,
which he was good at.
516
00:30:03,969 --> 00:30:06,305
Linda, can you go down?
Denny, can you go down?
517
00:30:06,388 --> 00:30:08,599
Crouching. Like we're crouching
to get away.
518
00:30:08,682 --> 00:30:09,975
Are we all up against the wall?
519
00:30:10,059 --> 00:30:11,268
OK, we're reloaded now.
520
00:30:11,352 --> 00:30:13,270
If you can all adopt
the same positions again.
521
00:30:14,188 --> 00:30:18,025
You really must stay very still
for that one second, please.
522
00:30:18,108 --> 00:30:20,569
It was the idea I'd had,
523
00:30:20,653 --> 00:30:23,781
but brought to life
by Hipgnosis.
524
00:30:23,864 --> 00:30:26,242
So, yeah, I was very happy
with what they'd done.
525
00:30:26,575 --> 00:30:30,454
It was a very, very good
beginning of a relationship.
526
00:30:30,538 --> 00:30:32,832
We like to do pictures
we get off on, primarily.
527
00:30:32,915 --> 00:30:35,417
So that's what I was saying
earlier about relationships
528
00:30:35,501 --> 00:30:37,002
between the music and the image
529
00:30:37,086 --> 00:30:39,755
is that the relationships may be
private because they're ours.
530
00:30:39,839 --> 00:30:41,757
And if people are gonna hire us,
or employ us,
531
00:30:41,841 --> 00:30:44,385
or they like what we do,
it's because they also get off
532
00:30:44,468 --> 00:30:47,555
on our private relationships
between the music and a picture.
533
00:30:47,638 --> 00:30:49,139
The difference between us
534
00:30:49,223 --> 00:30:53,102
is that you can put out
a wider variety of styles.
535
00:30:53,185 --> 00:30:55,145
I mean, basically,
if a band comes to me,
536
00:30:55,229 --> 00:30:56,605
they have to like what I do.
537
00:30:56,981 --> 00:31:00,234
I thought they made a good team.
I mean,
538
00:31:00,317 --> 00:31:04,363
in a way, Storm would go in
and set off a bomb
539
00:31:04,446 --> 00:31:07,408
and Po would come along
and pick up the pieces.
540
00:31:07,491 --> 00:31:09,493
That's how I thought
that relationship worked.
541
00:31:09,577 --> 00:31:11,745
They came as a double act,
you know.
542
00:31:11,829 --> 00:31:13,747
Between themselves,
they were like
543
00:31:13,831 --> 00:31:15,583
kind of cussed brothers,
I think.
544
00:31:25,593 --> 00:31:27,511
I don't know whether
we met them on the street.
545
00:31:27,595 --> 00:31:29,430
There was a drug deal.
546
00:31:29,513 --> 00:31:32,016
Maybe they actually
threw money at us.
547
00:31:32,099 --> 00:31:34,685
I have not the slightest clue
how we came upon them.
548
00:31:34,768 --> 00:31:37,313
Personally, I'd seen something
of Wishbone Ash
549
00:31:37,396 --> 00:31:39,940
which was quite minimalist,
but it was like a Viking.
550
00:31:42,318 --> 00:31:44,820
The challenge for anybody
to come forward
551
00:31:44,904 --> 00:31:49,617
with any kind of artistic nuance
was to actually brave a meeting.
552
00:31:50,284 --> 00:31:53,287
So a meeting was set up.
We went at the appointed time,
553
00:31:53,370 --> 00:31:55,164
climbed up these
old rickety stairs
554
00:31:55,247 --> 00:31:57,416
and walked into quite
a scuzzy office, you know.
555
00:31:57,499 --> 00:31:59,835
Considering this was
the biggest band in the world,
556
00:31:59,919 --> 00:32:00,961
I was quite surprised.
557
00:32:01,420 --> 00:32:05,633
And in the corner, barely lit,
was this enormous man.
558
00:32:05,716 --> 00:32:08,802
This is G. Peter Grant to you.
559
00:32:08,886 --> 00:32:11,305
It was quite intimidating
to meet him
560
00:32:11,388 --> 00:32:13,349
because his reputation
went before him.
561
00:32:13,432 --> 00:32:15,935
Don't fucking talk to me.
It's my bloody act.
562
00:32:16,018 --> 00:32:17,394
I'll leave you any time.
563
00:32:17,478 --> 00:32:19,313
You couldn't even get
on the starting line.
564
00:32:19,396 --> 00:32:21,273
You don't know
your fucking concession here.
565
00:32:21,357 --> 00:32:23,192
Your mate's selling the T-shirt.
566
00:32:23,275 --> 00:32:25,152
He was the gatekeeper
of Led Zeppelin.
567
00:32:25,235 --> 00:32:26,820
You never approached
Led Zeppelin
568
00:32:26,904 --> 00:32:28,322
without going through him.
569
00:32:28,781 --> 00:32:30,491
I think it was
Robert Plant kicked it off.
570
00:32:30,574 --> 00:32:31,867
Said, "So, what have you got?"
571
00:32:31,951 --> 00:32:34,453
Right? So I had a book
by Arthur C Clarke
572
00:32:34,536 --> 00:32:35,579
called Childhood's End.
573
00:32:35,663 --> 00:32:37,831
And at the end of the story,
574
00:32:37,915 --> 00:32:40,125
all the children of the Earth
go up to heaven
575
00:32:40,209 --> 00:32:43,545
in this massive, fiery
sort of explosion.
576
00:32:43,629 --> 00:32:45,839
They said, "Where are you
thinking about doing this?"
577
00:32:45,923 --> 00:32:48,676
And I said "Well, I thought
about Giant's Causeway
578
00:32:48,759 --> 00:32:50,719
because it's a very interesting
place to be."
579
00:32:50,803 --> 00:32:53,055
And Robert Plant said,
"Why not the Isle of Staffa?"
580
00:32:53,138 --> 00:32:54,223
"It's the other end."
581
00:32:54,306 --> 00:32:56,725
So it seems like by some
cosmic means or another,
582
00:32:56,809 --> 00:32:59,103
we both hit on this great idea.
583
00:32:59,186 --> 00:33:01,814
So, we bat and balled it
for a few hours.
584
00:33:01,897 --> 00:33:04,108
And there was lots
of chat and laughter
585
00:33:04,191 --> 00:33:05,275
and it was all very good.
586
00:33:05,359 --> 00:33:09,113
But nothing from Peter Grant.
Not a single word.
587
00:33:09,196 --> 00:33:12,741
And then suddenly this
stentorian voice said,
588
00:33:12,825 --> 00:33:18,122
"All right, that's enough.
Don't fuck up." That was it.
589
00:33:18,455 --> 00:33:21,166
And that's how my relationship
with Peter Grant
590
00:33:21,250 --> 00:33:22,918
and Led Zeppelin started.
591
00:33:25,879 --> 00:33:27,923
We cast for models and we chose
592
00:33:28,007 --> 00:33:30,759
Stefan and Samantha Gates,
brother and sister,
593
00:33:30,843 --> 00:33:34,096
and their mother
who would chaperone them there.
594
00:33:34,179 --> 00:33:36,515
We had to get these kids up
early in the morning.
595
00:33:36,598 --> 00:33:39,727
And the idea was to spray them
with this hairspray.
596
00:33:39,810 --> 00:33:43,022
Different colours. So we'd have
the cars all getting warmed up
597
00:33:43,105 --> 00:33:45,399
because they'd have to lie
on the beds and be sprayed
598
00:33:45,482 --> 00:33:48,402
and then we'd have to wait
for the paint to dry,
599
00:33:48,485 --> 00:33:50,404
and then wrap them in blankets
when it was dry,
600
00:33:50,487 --> 00:33:52,865
and put them in a warm car
and drive them to the Causeway.
601
00:33:52,948 --> 00:33:57,619
I wanted them
covered in gold and silver.
602
00:33:57,703 --> 00:34:01,123
Really to have a feeling
of alien, an alien race.
603
00:34:01,623 --> 00:34:04,585
And I think the original
idea was to shoot it in colour.
604
00:34:04,668 --> 00:34:06,003
But that was never gonna happen.
605
00:34:06,086 --> 00:34:08,756
It was just pouring with rain.
It was just miserable.
606
00:34:08,839 --> 00:34:10,466
The weather was appalling.
607
00:34:10,549 --> 00:34:14,553
And on the north coast
of Ireland, it rains, it pours,
608
00:34:14,636 --> 00:34:16,388
it howls with wind.
609
00:34:16,472 --> 00:34:20,934
And after about three or four
days, we'd run out of paint.
610
00:34:21,018 --> 00:34:25,856
I realised, in a flash, that I
was never, ever going to get
611
00:34:25,939 --> 00:34:28,525
the picture
that I'd originally envisaged.
612
00:34:29,068 --> 00:34:30,694
Now, we were
in desperate straits,
613
00:34:30,778 --> 00:34:32,446
I had to get this picture.
614
00:34:36,366 --> 00:34:38,535
So, all the rocks
were octagonal.
615
00:34:38,619 --> 00:34:41,622
And I realised
that if I took a photograph
616
00:34:41,705 --> 00:34:43,957
of an individual on each rock
617
00:34:44,041 --> 00:34:46,460
I could actually cut round
the shape of the rock
618
00:34:46,543 --> 00:34:48,337
and create my own collage
619
00:34:48,420 --> 00:34:50,547
of what I believed
it would look like.
620
00:34:50,631 --> 00:34:53,175
And I did it literally
in half an hour.
621
00:34:53,258 --> 00:34:54,343
Bang, and we were done.
622
00:34:54,635 --> 00:34:56,845
It was an epiphany
that I had about it.
623
00:34:56,929 --> 00:34:58,639
And I thought,
we're gonna hand tint this,
624
00:34:58,722 --> 00:35:00,641
and try and do something
with it.
625
00:35:07,940 --> 00:35:09,608
We then went to Dunluce Castle,
626
00:35:09,691 --> 00:35:11,235
which was further down
the coast.
627
00:35:11,318 --> 00:35:12,486
And I had this image,
628
00:35:12,569 --> 00:35:14,822
you know, giving-to-the-gods
kind of posture.
629
00:35:15,489 --> 00:35:17,908
And I never sort of felt
in any way
630
00:35:17,991 --> 00:35:19,743
this was a sacrificial image,
631
00:35:19,827 --> 00:35:21,453
but it looked so bloody good,
you know.
632
00:35:21,537 --> 00:35:23,539
So I just thought,
I'm gonna hand tint that too.
633
00:35:23,622 --> 00:35:25,999
So we made the collage,
stuck it all together.
634
00:35:26,083 --> 00:35:29,294
And then I sent it off
to a guy called Phil Crennell.
635
00:35:29,920 --> 00:35:31,255
He was an expert colourist
636
00:35:31,338 --> 00:35:33,882
who could do Victorian postcard
kind of colouring.
637
00:35:33,966 --> 00:35:36,468
But he lived on
an old motor torpedo boat
638
00:35:36,552 --> 00:35:38,846
way down the Thames
which he was restoring.
639
00:35:38,929 --> 00:35:40,722
And this valuable artwork
640
00:35:40,806 --> 00:35:42,599
I could see there
being retouched
641
00:35:42,683 --> 00:35:45,811
amongst oil cans
and dirty old cloths
642
00:35:45,894 --> 00:35:47,646
where he was fixing the engine.
643
00:35:47,729 --> 00:35:50,482
So then I got a phone call
from Peter,
644
00:35:50,566 --> 00:35:52,484
you know,
"Where's the artwork?"
645
00:35:52,568 --> 00:35:54,653
He said, "Look, the band's doing
a tour of England."
646
00:35:54,736 --> 00:35:56,905
"Pick us up
at St Pancras Station
647
00:35:56,989 --> 00:35:59,783
and drive us to Victoria,
and we'll look at the artwork."
648
00:35:59,867 --> 00:36:03,871
I had a Mini.
Peter Grant getting in a Mini,
649
00:36:03,954 --> 00:36:07,708
a man who was sort of six foot
five and weighed 130 kilos.
650
00:36:07,791 --> 00:36:10,127
He was an enormous man.
651
00:36:10,210 --> 00:36:13,714
The car just barely moved along.
And Jimmy squeezed in the back.
652
00:36:13,797 --> 00:36:15,841
And Jimmy was still
in his stage clothes.
653
00:36:16,425 --> 00:36:20,179
We got to Victoria Station.
I opened the trunk of the car.
654
00:36:20,262 --> 00:36:22,431
And I was completely
freaking out at this point.
655
00:36:22,514 --> 00:36:24,725
You know, were
Led Zeppelin going to like
656
00:36:24,808 --> 00:36:27,561
something that I
actually hadn't sold them on?
657
00:36:27,978 --> 00:36:30,814
Po had the artwork
in the boot of a car.
658
00:36:30,898 --> 00:36:34,109
And we saw it and I thought
it's absolutely magnificent.
659
00:36:34,193 --> 00:36:37,112
The whole concept
of what that cover was,
660
00:36:37,196 --> 00:36:41,575
relative to the music that was
inside it, was incredible.
661
00:36:41,658 --> 00:36:44,369
By this time, there was about
20 or 30 people round the car
662
00:36:44,453 --> 00:36:46,163
and they all gave me
a round of applause,
663
00:36:46,246 --> 00:36:47,831
which I thought was very sweet.
664
00:36:47,915 --> 00:36:50,417
They just made the grade.
They became a part of us.
665
00:36:57,591 --> 00:36:59,468
It was
a very clever combination.
666
00:36:59,551 --> 00:37:02,554
They obviously worked
really, really well together.
667
00:37:02,638 --> 00:37:04,848
But they were like
chalk and cheese.
668
00:37:04,932 --> 00:37:07,684
You were either, sort of,
drawn to one or the other.
669
00:37:20,447 --> 00:37:22,741
Peter Grant was
a very imposing man.
670
00:37:22,824 --> 00:37:24,910
I always called him
"the gatekeeper"
671
00:37:24,993 --> 00:37:28,080
because you never met
any of his artists
672
00:37:28,163 --> 00:37:30,123
without going through him.
673
00:37:30,207 --> 00:37:32,751
Did he take Po under his wing?
I would think so.
674
00:37:32,834 --> 00:37:35,629
And I should imagine that Po
was under there like a rocket.
675
00:37:36,129 --> 00:37:37,673
I worked
for a lot of his artists.
676
00:37:37,756 --> 00:37:41,009
They were all signed to
Led Zeppelin's Swan Song label.
677
00:37:41,093 --> 00:37:43,345
We designed the label.
678
00:37:43,428 --> 00:37:46,807
It was taken from an idea
from a pre-Raphaelite painting
679
00:37:46,890 --> 00:37:49,977
of Icarus
flying too close to the sun.
680
00:37:50,060 --> 00:37:52,312
In hindsight,
pretty appropriate.
681
00:38:00,279 --> 00:38:01,947
In some ways, it's flattering
682
00:38:02,030 --> 00:38:04,533
because people often ask me
about Dark Side of the Moon.
683
00:38:04,616 --> 00:38:05,951
And it was very much down
684
00:38:06,034 --> 00:38:08,161
to the keyboard player,
Rick Wright,
685
00:38:08,245 --> 00:38:09,288
who had said to me one day,
686
00:38:09,371 --> 00:38:12,124
"Storm, can we not have
one of your pictures?"
687
00:38:12,207 --> 00:38:14,418
I said, "That's what I do."
He said, "We've had those."
688
00:38:14,501 --> 00:38:16,044
"Can't we have something else?"
689
00:38:16,128 --> 00:38:19,381
"Can we have something cool
and graphic? Neat and tidy?"
690
00:38:19,464 --> 00:38:22,259
And he actually said,
"I'd really like it to look like
691
00:38:22,342 --> 00:38:24,469
a Black Magic
box of chocolates."
692
00:38:24,553 --> 00:38:26,430
Black Magic...
693
00:38:27,347 --> 00:38:29,725
because she is.
694
00:38:29,808 --> 00:38:32,936
This album was going
to be a big one for them.
695
00:38:33,020 --> 00:38:36,023
They'd all realised that they'd
made something very special.
696
00:38:41,570 --> 00:38:44,072
Storm and I were
actually depressed about it
697
00:38:44,156 --> 00:38:45,699
because it really
wasn't our style.
698
00:38:48,118 --> 00:38:49,745
One day, I was looking through
699
00:38:49,828 --> 00:38:52,164
this physics magazine
about light
700
00:38:52,247 --> 00:38:55,959
and about refraction of light.
And Storm was hovering over me.
701
00:38:56,043 --> 00:38:58,462
He looked at me and he said,
"I've got it, Po."
702
00:38:58,545 --> 00:39:01,256
And he went like that.
He made a sign like that.
703
00:39:02,049 --> 00:39:04,259
I said, "What? What is it?"
704
00:39:04,343 --> 00:39:06,178
And he said, "It's a prism."
705
00:39:07,929 --> 00:39:09,431
We submitted it to the band
706
00:39:09,514 --> 00:39:10,807
along with six other roughs.
707
00:39:10,891 --> 00:39:14,353
They stood around and went,
"No, no, no, no, yes."
708
00:39:14,436 --> 00:39:18,023
"No, no, no, yes."
And it took about two minutes.
709
00:39:18,106 --> 00:39:21,026
It was unanimous
and instantaneous
710
00:39:21,109 --> 00:39:23,987
and unequivocal and direct.
711
00:39:24,071 --> 00:39:26,198
It just shone out
above anything else.
712
00:39:26,281 --> 00:39:28,241
I think Storm wanted to
show us more things
713
00:39:28,325 --> 00:39:31,161
but we just saw that one.
"That's the one. Do it."
714
00:39:31,244 --> 00:39:36,792
Perfect. It has everything
and it's a great iconic image.
715
00:39:36,875 --> 00:39:38,251
And that was it.
716
00:39:38,335 --> 00:39:39,795
So they said,
"Go away. That's it."
717
00:39:39,878 --> 00:39:41,671
"We're fine. We love it.
Take it away."
718
00:39:42,089 --> 00:39:45,884
And Storm got the hump.
He said, "What do you mean?"
719
00:39:45,967 --> 00:39:47,677
"We've got these other ideas
to show you."
720
00:39:47,761 --> 00:39:50,138
And they all went,
"No, we don't wanna see those."
721
00:40:05,237 --> 00:40:07,864
The reason it looks
like that is that...
722
00:40:07,948 --> 00:40:10,200
I've got to get it from
723
00:40:10,283 --> 00:40:11,785
a school exercise book.
724
00:40:11,868 --> 00:40:14,830
Although there are plenty of
really quite good photographs
725
00:40:14,913 --> 00:40:17,040
of prisms with rainbows
in them,
726
00:40:17,124 --> 00:40:20,293
that don't have
that iconic look.
727
00:40:23,213 --> 00:40:25,465
When we saw
what we were being offered,
728
00:40:25,549 --> 00:40:27,467
we knew that that
was the right thing.
729
00:40:27,551 --> 00:40:30,387
It just was beautiful
and iconic.
730
00:40:33,390 --> 00:40:34,641
It was Roger's idea
731
00:40:34,724 --> 00:40:37,602
to turn the light beam
into a heartbeat.
732
00:40:41,189 --> 00:40:42,607
The individual
is able
733
00:40:42,691 --> 00:40:44,276
to project
their own reading.
734
00:40:44,359 --> 00:40:45,485
It can mean
735
00:40:45,569 --> 00:40:46,778
what you want it
to mean.
736
00:40:51,783 --> 00:40:55,954
There's a kind of
enigmatic sci-fi kind of charm
737
00:40:56,037 --> 00:40:57,497
to both of those images.
738
00:40:57,581 --> 00:40:59,958
They're scientific data.
739
00:41:00,041 --> 00:41:02,043
As such, it doesn't date.
740
00:41:03,795 --> 00:41:05,964
When I was
going through the archive,
741
00:41:06,047 --> 00:41:08,758
I came across this letter
from our friends in India,
742
00:41:08,842 --> 00:41:11,428
years before
Dark Side of the Moon.
743
00:41:11,511 --> 00:41:14,598
And halfway down, there was
a picture of a triangle,
744
00:41:14,681 --> 00:41:16,808
and underneath,
it said something like,
745
00:41:16,892 --> 00:41:18,602
"Remember this?"
746
00:41:36,995 --> 00:41:39,581
I remember
being on a train thinking,
747
00:41:39,664 --> 00:41:43,919
"This is not enough.
Well, it's not enough for me."
748
00:41:44,002 --> 00:41:47,464
So I suggested to the band
that we did a poster.
749
00:41:47,547 --> 00:41:48,882
A picture of the pyramids.
750
00:41:48,965 --> 00:41:52,260
I think Dark Side
was one of those lucky things
751
00:41:52,344 --> 00:41:54,304
that is hard
to actually explain
752
00:41:54,387 --> 00:41:56,515
because the band also
have never understood
753
00:41:56,598 --> 00:41:57,807
why it was so successful.
754
00:41:57,891 --> 00:42:00,018
We, of course,
know it was the cover, right?
755
00:42:00,101 --> 00:42:04,064
If Dark Side of the Moon
was on a band's cover
756
00:42:04,147 --> 00:42:07,234
that, say, sold 10,000 copies,
757
00:42:07,317 --> 00:42:09,277
no one would know
that cover today.
758
00:42:09,361 --> 00:42:13,323
Pink Floyd and Hipgnosis
made that a cultural landmark.
759
00:42:13,406 --> 00:42:15,200
Pink Floyd selling 65 million
760
00:42:15,283 --> 00:42:18,161
probably helped it
become the symbol that it is.
761
00:42:18,245 --> 00:42:20,747
Dark Side of the Moon,
I think it's important
762
00:42:20,830 --> 00:42:24,042
because it points
very, very directly
763
00:42:24,125 --> 00:42:26,461
and poignantly
at the predicament
764
00:42:26,545 --> 00:42:30,048
that the human race
found itself in in 1973,
765
00:42:30,131 --> 00:42:32,509
and still finds itself in now.
766
00:42:34,302 --> 00:42:36,846
It's come to be used
politically.
767
00:42:36,930 --> 00:42:39,516
It's come to be used
as a symbol for enjoyment.
768
00:42:40,892 --> 00:42:45,105
You find it in all sorts
of unsuspecting places.
769
00:42:45,188 --> 00:42:47,399
I often see it tattooed
on people's arms.
770
00:42:47,482 --> 00:42:50,026
Dark Side of the Moon
without any question
771
00:42:50,110 --> 00:42:51,695
changed the course
of history for us.
772
00:42:52,654 --> 00:42:54,489
Our career went stratospheric.
773
00:42:54,573 --> 00:42:56,324
Suddenly we started
to earn real money
774
00:42:56,408 --> 00:42:59,077
and that made a difference,
775
00:42:59,160 --> 00:43:00,954
and a confusing difference, too,
776
00:43:01,037 --> 00:43:04,124
because it pushed a wedge
in Pink Floyd.
777
00:43:04,207 --> 00:43:06,418
Things were never the same
for them.
778
00:43:06,501 --> 00:43:08,545
And the same thing sort of
happened to me and Storm.
779
00:43:08,628 --> 00:43:10,589
We were courted
by advertising agencies.
780
00:43:10,672 --> 00:43:12,090
The money was enormous.
781
00:43:12,173 --> 00:43:15,260
Storm loathed and detested
anything to do with advertising.
782
00:43:15,343 --> 00:43:16,761
He loved the money,
783
00:43:16,845 --> 00:43:19,180
but he didn't want to know
about the rest of it.
784
00:43:22,350 --> 00:43:25,729
My daughter, she was staying
at my house for the weekend.
785
00:43:25,812 --> 00:43:27,522
And I was late getting home
from work.
786
00:43:27,606 --> 00:43:30,317
And I said, "Sorry I'm late,
but I've been in a...
787
00:43:30,400 --> 00:43:32,193
I got caught at a meeting
at the office."
788
00:43:32,277 --> 00:43:33,486
And she's like, "Oh, right."
789
00:43:33,570 --> 00:43:35,864
And I said,
"Yeah, I've been in a, you know,
790
00:43:35,947 --> 00:43:38,116
meeting about the artwork
for my album."
791
00:43:38,199 --> 00:43:41,786
She's like,
"Artwork? What's that?"
792
00:43:42,203 --> 00:43:44,456
And I was like, "You know,
the artwork. The artwork."
793
00:43:44,539 --> 00:43:47,208
And she's like, "I don't know
what you're talking about."
794
00:43:47,292 --> 00:43:49,377
Because she's grown up
with the phone, right.
795
00:43:49,461 --> 00:43:51,880
And I was saying,
"Well, the cover of the record."
796
00:43:51,963 --> 00:43:54,466
And she's like, "A cover? What?"
797
00:43:54,549 --> 00:43:56,926
And the only way I could explain
it to her, I said to her,
798
00:43:57,010 --> 00:44:00,972
"You know the little tiny
little picture on iTunes?"
799
00:44:01,056 --> 00:44:03,141
She said, "Yeah." And I said,
800
00:44:03,224 --> 00:44:05,185
"Right. Well, I've been
in a meeting for that."
801
00:44:05,268 --> 00:44:07,937
And she went,
"They have meetings for that?"
802
00:44:08,021 --> 00:44:10,398
As I pulled out the cover,
and I said,
803
00:44:10,482 --> 00:44:13,234
"Yes, and it fucking costs
a hundred grand."
804
00:44:29,668 --> 00:44:31,002
Shall we dance?
805
00:44:35,965 --> 00:44:37,300
This is fun.
806
00:44:38,635 --> 00:44:40,845
I got another call
from Paul and he said,
807
00:44:40,929 --> 00:44:43,682
"I've got an idea.
I want you to do it."
808
00:44:43,765 --> 00:44:45,600
"Can you come to LA this week?"
809
00:44:45,684 --> 00:44:48,853
We were very, very excited,
I have to say. Again...
810
00:44:49,979 --> 00:44:52,899
it was working for a Beatle,
twice round. Amazing.
811
00:44:58,822 --> 00:45:01,241
So Storm and I
jumped on a plane to LA.
812
00:45:01,324 --> 00:45:05,245
We went to a studio
to see where he was recording.
813
00:45:05,328 --> 00:45:06,955
The atmosphere
was incredibly jolly.
814
00:45:07,038 --> 00:45:10,333
Lots of spliffs being
passed around, a few drinks.
815
00:45:10,417 --> 00:45:11,751
It was really upbeat.
816
00:45:11,835 --> 00:45:15,213
And then we got on to
talking about the album cover.
817
00:45:15,296 --> 00:45:16,798
Me and Linda
had this idea
818
00:45:16,881 --> 00:45:19,426
that we'd use
a couple of billiard balls.
819
00:45:19,509 --> 00:45:23,263
A red and a yellow,
as Venus and Mars.
820
00:45:23,888 --> 00:45:26,349
And, um, that would
kind of be the cover.
821
00:45:26,433 --> 00:45:29,018
So it would be a really
good graphic image.
822
00:45:29,310 --> 00:45:32,772
All right, you win.
I'm in love with you, yeah.
823
00:45:32,856 --> 00:45:35,191
So Storm said,
824
00:45:35,275 --> 00:45:38,194
"I'm not interested
in this, Paul."
825
00:45:38,278 --> 00:45:40,488
"I'm not interested
in your idea."
826
00:45:40,572 --> 00:45:44,284
"So I'm going to leave LA
and Po can do it."
827
00:45:44,367 --> 00:45:48,288
There was
a slight stunned silence.
828
00:45:48,371 --> 00:45:51,458
And then Paul said, "OK, man."
829
00:45:51,541 --> 00:45:54,002
"That's fine. You go home,
Po can deal with it."
830
00:45:54,085 --> 00:45:55,920
"He's the photographer anyway,
right?"
831
00:45:56,254 --> 00:45:58,548
And when we got back
to the hotel, I said to Storm,
832
00:45:58,631 --> 00:46:01,426
"Was that really the right sort
of approach we should have?"
833
00:46:01,509 --> 00:46:02,510
And Storm said,
834
00:46:02,594 --> 00:46:06,014
"If I can't do Hipgnosis ideas,
I don't wanna do it."
835
00:46:06,389 --> 00:46:07,932
I seem to remember at the time
836
00:46:08,016 --> 00:46:10,685
we had the slogan
"It's all balls".
837
00:46:11,186 --> 00:46:14,397
I think, in fact,
I know we had T-shirts made.
838
00:46:14,481 --> 00:46:16,232
"It's all balls."
839
00:46:22,489 --> 00:46:25,533
He was the rudest person
I've ever met.
840
00:46:25,617 --> 00:46:27,160
He's very bolshie.
841
00:46:27,243 --> 00:46:29,829
- He was very blunt.
- He was irritating.
842
00:46:29,913 --> 00:46:31,915
I mean, he really did set out
843
00:46:31,998 --> 00:46:33,792
to make life very difficult
for people.
844
00:46:33,875 --> 00:46:35,251
He was ever so rude.
845
00:46:35,335 --> 00:46:37,587
He was just so annoying.
846
00:46:37,670 --> 00:46:41,007
- Strutted. He was a strutter.
- Pain in the arse.
847
00:46:41,090 --> 00:46:44,093
- Exceptionally awkward.
- Cantankerous.
848
00:46:44,177 --> 00:46:47,722
- Difficult.
- He was pure, purely rude.
849
00:46:47,806 --> 00:46:50,433
He could be really crabby,
old Storm.
850
00:46:50,517 --> 00:46:52,936
"No, I don't think
that's any good."
851
00:46:53,019 --> 00:46:55,271
Well, we're having it, Storm.
So shut up.
852
00:46:55,355 --> 00:46:56,606
He's rude to everybody.
853
00:46:56,689 --> 00:46:58,775
Every single human being,
he's rude to.
854
00:46:58,858 --> 00:47:02,737
Storm Thorgerson was a man who
wouldn't take yes for an answer.
855
00:47:02,821 --> 00:47:06,199
Well, he was very lovable
in spite of all of that.
856
00:47:06,282 --> 00:47:09,786
- Highly intelligent.
- Full of ideas.
857
00:47:09,869 --> 00:47:12,705
- One in a million.
- Total genius.
858
00:47:16,960 --> 00:47:18,586
Work was just pouring in,
859
00:47:18,670 --> 00:47:20,672
you know,
from all different quarters.
860
00:47:20,755 --> 00:47:23,341
And the studio, after '73,
expanded.
861
00:47:23,424 --> 00:47:26,344
We took another floor
upstairs in Denmark Street.
862
00:47:26,427 --> 00:47:28,513
We needed other people
to work with us.
863
00:47:28,596 --> 00:47:29,931
We were growing and expanding.
864
00:47:30,849 --> 00:47:33,017
Graphics. We needed style.
865
00:47:33,101 --> 00:47:35,228
So George Hardie delivered that.
866
00:47:35,311 --> 00:47:36,855
Jill Furmanovsky joined.
867
00:47:36,938 --> 00:47:40,483
And her first assignment was
to photograph Pink Floyd live.
868
00:47:40,859 --> 00:47:42,735
Peter Christopherson
joined Hipgnosis
869
00:47:42,819 --> 00:47:44,654
because he was brilliant
at lighting.
870
00:47:44,737 --> 00:47:46,739
And eventually,
he became a full partner
871
00:47:46,823 --> 00:47:49,242
because he was just
so damn good.
872
00:47:49,325 --> 00:47:52,370
Then a tall young man
came into our studio one day
873
00:47:52,453 --> 00:47:53,788
wearing a white linen suit.
874
00:47:53,872 --> 00:47:58,751
And he spoke with a kind of
effete, very polite accent.
875
00:47:58,835 --> 00:48:02,463
I went round various record
companies and said I could draw.
876
00:48:02,547 --> 00:48:05,008
And I've never
seen anyone
877
00:48:05,091 --> 00:48:06,426
look so uninterested.
878
00:48:06,509 --> 00:48:09,429
And then I went
to Hipgnosis
879
00:48:09,512 --> 00:48:11,264
and showed them my drawings.
880
00:48:11,347 --> 00:48:14,517
And, you know, they were,
there was a sort of...
881
00:48:15,560 --> 00:48:17,228
mild mutters of approval,
882
00:48:17,312 --> 00:48:19,647
which was quite a lot better
than what I'd had,
883
00:48:19,731 --> 00:48:21,482
you know, earlier in the day.
884
00:48:21,858 --> 00:48:24,777
He was the bass player
with Kilburn and the High Roads.
885
00:48:24,861 --> 00:48:27,572
But he'd also been trained
by Peter Blake at art school.
886
00:48:37,415 --> 00:48:39,334
So when it came to
Original Soundtrack,
887
00:48:39,834 --> 00:48:43,338
at the time, 10cc were very much
what I'd call a pop band.
888
00:48:43,421 --> 00:48:46,341
Storm and I wanted to do
something that was...
889
00:48:46,424 --> 00:48:47,634
based on the movies.
890
00:48:47,717 --> 00:48:51,054
We went down into
an editing suite in Soho.
891
00:48:51,137 --> 00:48:52,764
And I said,
"This is fine, you know."
892
00:48:52,847 --> 00:48:55,433
"Just leave me here for about
three weeks, or whatever."
893
00:48:55,516 --> 00:48:59,103
And they said, "No, sunshine,
this costs £1,000 an hour."
894
00:49:00,188 --> 00:49:02,148
I photographed
a whole load
895
00:49:02,231 --> 00:49:04,359
of interesting bits
of cinema equipment.
896
00:49:04,442 --> 00:49:07,111
Film cans, editing machines,
897
00:49:07,195 --> 00:49:09,739
splicers, all sorts of stuff,
in an attempt
898
00:49:09,822 --> 00:49:13,868
to sort of create an almost
impossible editing suite.
899
00:49:13,952 --> 00:49:17,705
And I just went home
and did these pencil drawings,
900
00:49:17,789 --> 00:49:19,666
funnily enough I learned...
901
00:49:19,749 --> 00:49:22,543
That's one of the things
I did learn at art school.
902
00:49:23,127 --> 00:49:24,545
The result was magnificent.
903
00:49:24,629 --> 00:49:25,880
It was absolutely beautiful.
904
00:49:25,964 --> 00:49:28,341
It mixed the ancient
and modern.
905
00:49:28,424 --> 00:49:29,968
He'd sort of got the atmosphere
906
00:49:30,051 --> 00:49:32,178
of what I call
old-time Hollywood there.
907
00:49:32,261 --> 00:49:35,056
And at the same time, it gave
it a very different look
908
00:49:35,139 --> 00:49:38,434
from something coming
out of the Hipgnosis stable.
909
00:49:38,518 --> 00:49:41,270
The only thing
I'd had difficulty on...
910
00:49:41,354 --> 00:49:43,106
real difficulty,
911
00:49:43,189 --> 00:49:45,650
was the glove hanging down.
912
00:49:45,733 --> 00:49:47,527
The, you know,
the editor's glove.
913
00:49:47,610 --> 00:49:49,821
It just looked like
a blancmange.
914
00:49:49,904 --> 00:49:52,115
Completely formless. I...
915
00:49:52,198 --> 00:49:55,326
Anyway, I managed to draw it in.
916
00:49:55,410 --> 00:49:57,453
I opened the drawing up
and everyone said,
917
00:49:57,537 --> 00:49:59,998
"Wow, that's wonderful."
918
00:50:00,081 --> 00:50:02,959
You know.
So I thought, ah, yeah...
919
00:50:04,002 --> 00:50:06,087
And Storm just came over
and said,
920
00:50:06,170 --> 00:50:08,715
"Yeah, shame about the glove."
921
00:50:15,263 --> 00:50:18,641
I had no thoughts
of the work lasting,
922
00:50:18,725 --> 00:50:22,854
or having any longevity
beyond the following the day.
923
00:50:22,937 --> 00:50:26,190
There was not a spare minute
in the day to think about
924
00:50:26,274 --> 00:50:27,984
what was gonna happen tomorrow.
925
00:50:28,067 --> 00:50:29,902
It was just,
"Let's get the next job done."
926
00:50:29,986 --> 00:50:31,320
And it was so exciting.
927
00:50:31,404 --> 00:50:34,032
Suddenly Peter Gabriel would
turn up and wanna have a chat.
928
00:50:34,115 --> 00:50:35,908
Or suddenly Wishbone Ash
would potter in
929
00:50:35,992 --> 00:50:38,077
because they were buying
a new guitar downstairs.
930
00:50:38,161 --> 00:50:40,621
It became a hub,
a meeting point for people.
931
00:50:40,705 --> 00:50:42,957
They were busy all the time.
There was shouting going on
932
00:50:43,041 --> 00:50:44,959
and people wanting things.
Cow Gum.
933
00:50:45,043 --> 00:50:46,878
It wasn't the days of Photoshop.
934
00:50:46,961 --> 00:50:48,588
Everything was stuck down
with Cow Gum
935
00:50:48,671 --> 00:50:51,716
and then put on a copy camera
and then retouched.
936
00:50:51,799 --> 00:50:53,384
It was a crazy place, actually.
937
00:50:53,468 --> 00:50:55,094
It was chaos.
938
00:50:55,178 --> 00:50:59,182
But out of that chaos came
the most extraordinary work.
939
00:51:08,608 --> 00:51:11,652
At first, I didn't want to be
on the sleeve. So I thought,
940
00:51:11,736 --> 00:51:13,071
"OK, if I'm gonna be on it,
941
00:51:13,154 --> 00:51:15,782
it's gonna be in an
interesting and unusual way."
942
00:51:16,199 --> 00:51:17,825
He said,
"I want to be on the cover,
943
00:51:17,909 --> 00:51:19,660
but I don't want to be
on the cover."
944
00:51:19,744 --> 00:51:22,997
So Storm came into the studio,
and he'd been in a taxi.
945
00:51:23,081 --> 00:51:24,499
And it had been
pouring with rain.
946
00:51:24,582 --> 00:51:27,126
And he'd observed the car
next to him
947
00:51:27,210 --> 00:51:30,922
having rain droplets on a highly
wax-polished surface.
948
00:51:31,005 --> 00:51:32,924
And he said to me,
"You know what?"
949
00:51:33,007 --> 00:51:34,842
"Supposing we put Peter in a car
950
00:51:34,926 --> 00:51:37,428
and yet we made more
of the surface
951
00:51:37,512 --> 00:51:40,807
of the body of the car
than Peter?"
952
00:51:40,890 --> 00:51:43,851
I took the photographs of him
sitting there. And then,
953
00:51:44,435 --> 00:51:48,314
Storm suggested that
we paint it fluorescent blue,
954
00:51:48,397 --> 00:51:51,651
and that we should scratch
every single water droplet
955
00:51:51,734 --> 00:51:53,319
to enhance the reflection.
956
00:51:53,402 --> 00:51:56,656
These little tiny kind of
crescent-shaped reflections.
957
00:51:57,573 --> 00:51:59,867
And then we decided to take
some more pictures
958
00:51:59,951 --> 00:52:00,952
around the car.
959
00:52:01,035 --> 00:52:03,329
And I moved round to the side
to take a picture of Peter
960
00:52:03,412 --> 00:52:05,957
through the side window,
and he opened his eyes.
961
00:52:11,504 --> 00:52:14,966
He'd got silver contact lenses
and they bounced out like that.
962
00:52:15,049 --> 00:52:17,718
It was really uncomfortable
to wear them,
963
00:52:17,802 --> 00:52:19,053
because it was sort of...
964
00:52:19,137 --> 00:52:22,723
they were hard contact lenses
and mirrored on the inside.
965
00:52:22,807 --> 00:52:25,560
But I used to put them on
sometimes on aeroplanes
966
00:52:25,643 --> 00:52:29,438
and that would freak people out.
So that would make me smile.
967
00:52:34,318 --> 00:52:36,904
The work was the
most important thing of all.
968
00:52:36,988 --> 00:52:40,324
To get the work out, get it
done, get it looking good
969
00:52:40,408 --> 00:52:42,702
and to the very best
of our abilities,
970
00:52:42,785 --> 00:52:45,454
and to go to the ends
of the Earth to get it.
971
00:52:45,538 --> 00:52:48,457
I would not give up
until I had a picture.
972
00:52:48,541 --> 00:52:51,043
I simply wouldn't.
I was relentless about that.
973
00:52:54,505 --> 00:52:57,842
That's how we were. Aggressive,
relentless, difficult,
974
00:52:57,925 --> 00:53:00,636
and obsessed, I suppose.
975
00:53:03,347 --> 00:53:05,641
When Storm was trying
to do a piece of artwork,
976
00:53:05,725 --> 00:53:07,810
there was just nothing
that would stop him.
977
00:53:07,894 --> 00:53:09,770
He just went until it was done.
978
00:53:09,854 --> 00:53:12,315
And people were collapsing
like flies all around him,
979
00:53:12,398 --> 00:53:13,983
including himself.
980
00:53:14,066 --> 00:53:16,110
I remember one year
we worked so hard,
981
00:53:16,194 --> 00:53:18,863
we were doing a cover
every fortnight. Crazy.
982
00:53:18,946 --> 00:53:20,698
We were very preoccupied
with the work.
983
00:53:20,781 --> 00:53:23,034
So especially preoccupied
that,
984
00:53:23,117 --> 00:53:26,454
according to my then wife,
it broke the marriage.
985
00:53:26,537 --> 00:53:27,997
So she ran off with a neighbour.
986
00:53:28,789 --> 00:53:33,669
He was devastated
when Libby left him.
987
00:53:33,753 --> 00:53:36,130
He found that very difficult.
988
00:53:37,048 --> 00:53:38,424
His wife left him
989
00:53:38,507 --> 00:53:40,885
and left him
with a very young child.
990
00:53:40,968 --> 00:53:44,889
Storm got custody,
so he took care of Bill, his son
991
00:53:44,972 --> 00:53:47,058
and didn't go away.
992
00:53:47,141 --> 00:53:51,812
So all the wonderful ideas
that we had going forwards,
993
00:53:51,896 --> 00:53:54,398
shooting all round the world,
doing different pictures.
994
00:53:54,482 --> 00:53:56,609
I always went away and did them
995
00:53:56,692 --> 00:54:00,738
very much to his brief, but to
my composition and my style.
996
00:54:00,821 --> 00:54:02,490
Come back, we'd review them,
997
00:54:02,573 --> 00:54:04,575
and then the arguments
would start.
998
00:54:04,659 --> 00:54:07,662
"I prefer this picture to that.
The sky is better here."
999
00:54:07,745 --> 00:54:09,330
"The composition
is better there."
1000
00:54:09,413 --> 00:54:11,916
To Storm,
it was all about the idea.
1001
00:54:14,335 --> 00:54:16,379
No one's interested
in the covers any more.
1002
00:54:16,462 --> 00:54:18,923
There's no thought
behind what the album means,
1003
00:54:19,006 --> 00:54:23,844
or the story of...
any of the songs,
1004
00:54:23,928 --> 00:54:27,181
which is why the stuff
for Hipgnosis is so important,
1005
00:54:27,265 --> 00:54:29,350
particularly the one for
Wish You Were Here,
1006
00:54:29,433 --> 00:54:31,102
which has got a great story
behind it
1007
00:54:31,185 --> 00:54:34,480
about people being burnt
in the music business.
1008
00:54:45,157 --> 00:54:47,368
I was in Hipgnosis's studio
one afternoon
1009
00:54:47,451 --> 00:54:49,412
and there was a knock
at the door.
1010
00:54:49,495 --> 00:54:51,789
And Richard Evans, who
worked there, opened the door,
1011
00:54:51,872 --> 00:54:57,086
and there stood this dumpy,
fat man with a shaved head,
1012
00:54:57,169 --> 00:54:59,046
which obviously had been
shaved by himself.
1013
00:54:59,130 --> 00:55:01,299
It was all kind of raggedy
and all over the shop.
1014
00:55:01,382 --> 00:55:03,050
He said,
"Oh, is Storm here?"
1015
00:55:03,134 --> 00:55:04,552
And I said,
"No, he's not."
1016
00:55:04,635 --> 00:55:08,639
"He's up at
Abbey Road with Floyd."
1017
00:55:08,723 --> 00:55:10,808
And I called Po,
and Po came through
1018
00:55:10,891 --> 00:55:14,395
and looked at him and said,
"Syd, is that you?"
1019
00:55:14,979 --> 00:55:17,148
I said, "What can I do for you?
Come in."
1020
00:55:17,231 --> 00:55:21,027
He said, "No, are band here?"
I said, "No, they're not."
1021
00:55:21,110 --> 00:55:23,279
I said, "Do you want to come in,
a cup of tea?"
1022
00:55:23,362 --> 00:55:25,948
He said, "No, no,"
and disappeared down the stairs.
1023
00:55:26,032 --> 00:55:28,868
And of course then he showed up
at Abbey Road Studios
1024
00:55:28,951 --> 00:55:30,578
and nobody recognised
who he was.
1025
00:55:30,661 --> 00:55:33,164
Dave looked at me
and grinned, and went,
1026
00:55:33,247 --> 00:55:35,082
"You haven't got it yet,
have you?"
1027
00:55:35,166 --> 00:55:38,044
And in that moment,
I went, "Fuck me, it's Syd."
1028
00:55:38,836 --> 00:55:41,881
"That fat bald bloke
with a brown paper bag."
1029
00:55:42,673 --> 00:55:44,467
And of course it was.
1030
00:55:48,095 --> 00:55:50,514
The last time I'd seen him,
he was this...
1031
00:55:50,598 --> 00:55:52,683
you know, dark-haired...
1032
00:55:53,642 --> 00:55:56,437
springy, springy guy.
1033
00:55:56,520 --> 00:56:01,734
And then, suddenly,
there's this large morose bloke.
1034
00:56:06,322 --> 00:56:09,700
People were tearful,
it was such a sad sight.
1035
00:56:09,784 --> 00:56:13,287
And he was obviously
extremely discombobulated
1036
00:56:13,371 --> 00:56:15,206
and didn't really know
what was going on.
1037
00:56:15,289 --> 00:56:16,374
But it was...
1038
00:56:16,457 --> 00:56:19,126
What was magical for Pink Floyd,
there was...
1039
00:56:19,210 --> 00:56:21,462
they were actually recording
Wish You Were Here
1040
00:56:21,545 --> 00:56:25,383
at the time he arrived,
and so that was pretty weird.
1041
00:56:27,885 --> 00:56:30,137
Taking LSD is very dangerous.
1042
00:56:30,221 --> 00:56:33,015
Some people certainly
fell by the wayside
1043
00:56:33,099 --> 00:56:36,060
because there were casualties,
for sure.
1044
00:56:36,894 --> 00:56:39,563
Wish You Were Here
very, very well demonstrates
1045
00:56:39,647 --> 00:56:42,691
the schism in, in Pink Floyd,
1046
00:56:43,317 --> 00:56:45,903
coming as it did after
Dark Side of the Moon,
1047
00:56:45,986 --> 00:56:47,071
when it was over.
1048
00:56:47,154 --> 00:56:50,699
And this was
Roger's sort of take
1049
00:56:50,783 --> 00:56:53,828
on us being together
as a pop group
1050
00:56:53,911 --> 00:56:56,288
who were not really
communicating with each other,
1051
00:56:56,372 --> 00:56:57,832
and the absence of Syd,
1052
00:56:57,915 --> 00:57:00,418
and a much more general theme
of absence.
1053
00:57:02,628 --> 00:57:04,255
There's certainly a connection
1054
00:57:04,338 --> 00:57:06,298
when you don't have
a father figure.
1055
00:57:06,382 --> 00:57:08,759
Storm and I
were both single children.
1056
00:57:08,843 --> 00:57:11,679
Roger Waters lost his father
in the war.
1057
00:57:11,762 --> 00:57:14,473
David Gilmour's parents
decamped to America.
1058
00:57:14,557 --> 00:57:17,852
And Syd Barrett's father
died when he was 15.
1059
00:57:18,477 --> 00:57:21,230
So, it gave us
a kind of camaraderie
1060
00:57:21,313 --> 00:57:23,774
and an understanding.
1061
00:57:23,858 --> 00:57:27,570
And Storm and I certainly,
as individual souls,
1062
00:57:27,653 --> 00:57:29,864
were joined at the hip
like brothers.
1063
00:57:29,947 --> 00:57:32,533
You know,
I loved him like a brother.
1064
00:57:32,616 --> 00:57:34,994
We also understood
that there was a lot of anger,
1065
00:57:35,077 --> 00:57:37,621
especially in Roger,
about the record business.
1066
00:57:37,705 --> 00:57:41,500
So, we were talking about
absence of sincerity,
1067
00:57:41,584 --> 00:57:44,420
about people being ripped off.
1068
00:57:44,503 --> 00:57:47,256
And I think it was George Hardie
who actually said,
1069
00:57:47,339 --> 00:57:49,675
"People get burned
in this business all the time."
1070
00:57:49,758 --> 00:57:52,553
And Storm said, "Why don't we
set a man on fire?"
1071
00:57:52,636 --> 00:57:53,637
"He's being burned."
1072
00:57:56,140 --> 00:57:58,434
And this is in
the days before computers.
1073
00:57:58,517 --> 00:58:01,020
So, there was no fakery here.
1074
00:58:01,103 --> 00:58:03,898
The only way to set a man
on fire,
1075
00:58:04,648 --> 00:58:07,026
and make it look for real,
was to set him on fire.
1076
00:58:09,028 --> 00:58:11,322
We went to a place called
Stunts Unlimited.
1077
00:58:11,405 --> 00:58:13,532
"Who wants to be
on a record cover
1078
00:58:13,616 --> 00:58:15,951
when we could be in
Towering Inferno?", they said.
1079
00:58:16,035 --> 00:58:18,412
Like we were a couple of hippies
who, like...
1080
00:58:18,496 --> 00:58:20,664
"Who?
Pink Floyd? What?"
1081
00:58:22,291 --> 00:58:24,418
But there was one guy,
Ronnie Rondell.
1082
00:58:24,502 --> 00:58:27,046
And he said to me, "I understand
exactly what you wanna do
1083
00:58:27,129 --> 00:58:29,089
and what you wanna do
is probably one of the most
1084
00:58:29,173 --> 00:58:31,300
dangerous fire stunts you can do
1085
00:58:31,383 --> 00:58:34,845
because you're standing still
and fire moves."
1086
00:58:42,645 --> 00:58:45,397
He did it about 15 times in all.
1087
00:58:45,773 --> 00:58:48,234
And I was begging him
to keep going because I need,
1088
00:58:48,317 --> 00:58:49,527
you know, you never stop.
1089
00:58:49,610 --> 00:58:51,529
You push, you push, you push
to get the better,
1090
00:58:51,612 --> 00:58:53,656
best, best, best shot.
1091
00:58:53,739 --> 00:58:55,449
And then the last time,
1092
00:58:56,200 --> 00:58:57,952
a breeze blew up
as he caught fire,
1093
00:58:58,035 --> 00:59:00,204
and the wind whipped round
his head like that,
1094
00:59:00,287 --> 00:59:02,122
enveloped him in ames,
and bang!
1095
00:59:02,206 --> 00:59:03,374
He was thrown to the ground.
1096
00:59:03,457 --> 00:59:05,501
They sprayed the fire
extinguishers, put him out.
1097
00:59:05,584 --> 00:59:08,546
He got up and said, "That's it.
I'm not doing any more of that."
1098
00:59:08,629 --> 00:59:11,048
"That is it." He was all singed
down the side of his face.
1099
00:59:12,841 --> 00:59:15,511
The interesting thing
about Ronnie Rondell,
1100
00:59:15,594 --> 00:59:17,930
he said, "I've done so many
fire stunts in movies
1101
00:59:18,013 --> 00:59:19,598
and nobody remembers me
for that,
1102
00:59:19,682 --> 00:59:22,268
but everybody remembers me
for Wish You Were Here."
1103
00:59:23,477 --> 00:59:25,854
It was also just
an amazing thought
1104
00:59:25,938 --> 00:59:28,524
of a man on fire shaking
the hand of another man
1105
00:59:28,607 --> 00:59:31,360
not being perturbed
that he was on fire.
1106
00:59:31,443 --> 00:59:34,321
So, therefore, the fire
must be metaphorical.
1107
00:59:34,405 --> 00:59:37,283
However, the fire wasn't
metaphorical, it was real.
1108
00:59:37,366 --> 00:59:40,536
So, there was always an inner
contradiction to this picture.
1109
00:59:42,079 --> 00:59:45,541
The guy who is upright
in Mono Lake,
1110
00:59:45,624 --> 00:59:49,211
he's really there. He held his
breath for three minutes.
1111
00:59:49,295 --> 00:59:52,715
And he went up and it was
the most perfect shot.
1112
00:59:52,798 --> 00:59:54,717
I even have goosebumps now
thinking about it.
1113
00:59:54,800 --> 00:59:57,761
It was the most perfect shot
imaginable.
1114
00:59:57,845 --> 01:00:00,097
Bang, and we had it.
1115
01:00:00,180 --> 01:00:02,391
It's one of the shots
of my life.
1116
01:00:03,350 --> 01:00:07,146
The album cover, the story,
the narrative is inside.
1117
01:00:08,314 --> 01:00:10,691
So we suggested to Pink Floyd
1118
01:00:10,774 --> 01:00:13,986
that perhaps we should put
a black shrink wrap round it.
1119
01:00:14,069 --> 01:00:17,656
You can imagine being a record
company having to deal with that
1120
01:00:17,740 --> 01:00:19,408
and having to negotiate that,
1121
01:00:19,491 --> 01:00:21,577
"All right, yes,
there'd be a small sticker on it
1122
01:00:21,660 --> 01:00:23,412
with the name Pink Floyd on it."
1123
01:00:23,495 --> 01:00:26,165
It's hardly going to sell
a lot records on that.
1124
01:00:26,248 --> 01:00:29,752
In fact, what's inside
is some of his best work.
1125
01:00:29,835 --> 01:00:32,838
He's always off the wall.
1126
01:00:32,921 --> 01:00:36,175
Always different. I mean,
always doing the unexpected.
1127
01:00:36,508 --> 01:00:39,470
And, um, I think
that was very good for us.
1128
01:00:39,553 --> 01:00:42,556
I think that's
sort of the peak of the work
1129
01:00:42,640 --> 01:00:46,727
that Storm and Po did
with Pink Floyd is that package.
1130
01:00:46,810 --> 01:00:48,937
It's really beautiful, I think.
1131
01:00:49,021 --> 01:00:54,026
There are people I hear who have
never torn the shrink wrap off.
1132
01:00:54,109 --> 01:00:55,694
They've simply slit it
down the edge
1133
01:00:55,778 --> 01:00:57,946
so they can get the album out
to play it.
1134
01:00:58,030 --> 01:01:01,325
Therefore haven't seen the cover
in 37 years.
1135
01:01:01,408 --> 01:01:03,494
And to my mind,
that's a real success,
1136
01:01:03,577 --> 01:01:05,371
in terms of trying
to represent absence.
1137
01:01:05,454 --> 01:01:07,581
"Thirty-seven years,
you've never seen the cover?"
1138
01:01:07,665 --> 01:01:10,000
I don't think Storm
was ahead of his time,
1139
01:01:10,084 --> 01:01:13,712
I just think
he was a totally original man.
1140
01:01:18,592 --> 01:01:20,427
Storm and 10cc
1141
01:01:20,511 --> 01:01:22,680
really got on
like a house on fire.
1142
01:01:22,763 --> 01:01:24,890
They had the same kind of...
1143
01:01:24,973 --> 01:01:28,519
cynical, silly,
adventurous humour.
1144
01:01:36,568 --> 01:01:38,404
When they were
coming up with ideas,
1145
01:01:38,487 --> 01:01:40,489
they'd have the album
playing over and over again
1146
01:01:40,572 --> 01:01:41,573
in the studio.
1147
01:01:41,657 --> 01:01:44,660
So they were kind of getting
steeped in the...
1148
01:01:44,743 --> 01:01:47,538
in the lyrics in particular
of the album.
1149
01:01:48,205 --> 01:01:51,583
One of my jobs
was transcribing lyrics.
1150
01:01:51,667 --> 01:01:53,460
So we'd get a C60 cassette
1151
01:01:53,585 --> 01:01:55,546
and I'd sit on the floor
of the studio
1152
01:01:55,629 --> 01:01:57,214
with the headphones jammed in
1153
01:01:57,297 --> 01:01:58,882
and handwrite out these lyrics.
1154
01:01:58,966 --> 01:02:02,177
And trying to work out what they
were saying, it was really hard.
1155
01:02:02,261 --> 01:02:04,847
They would pick up on things
that we didn't pick up on.
1156
01:02:15,983 --> 01:02:17,651
On the way
to the recording studio,
1157
01:02:17,735 --> 01:02:20,446
there was a sign saying
"deceptive bends".
1158
01:02:20,529 --> 01:02:23,407
And I remember
we actually drew up a rough.
1159
01:02:23,490 --> 01:02:27,286
But then we thought of bends
being about the diving bends.
1160
01:02:27,369 --> 01:02:29,079
And that was
the whole point, really.
1161
01:02:29,163 --> 01:02:34,001
Just like 10cc's lyrics,
what's the story in there?
1162
01:02:51,059 --> 01:02:55,063
And I don't really like it.
And the reason being because...
1163
01:02:55,147 --> 01:02:57,274
graphics were put all around
the outside
1164
01:02:57,357 --> 01:02:58,734
in a kind of porthole shape.
1165
01:02:58,817 --> 01:03:01,820
And this was very typical
of the arguments
1166
01:03:01,904 --> 01:03:03,697
that would happen
between me and Storm.
1167
01:03:03,781 --> 01:03:06,784
Because I liked
the picture plain.
1168
01:03:06,867 --> 01:03:09,328
He always threw the kitchen
sink at everything, Storm.
1169
01:03:09,411 --> 01:03:12,748
I think it was his insecurity
about his ideas.
1170
01:03:12,831 --> 01:03:17,085
His ideas were so good, but he
was never certain about them.
1171
01:03:17,169 --> 01:03:21,673
He still had a vision, or he'd
keep adding to it, you know.
1172
01:03:21,757 --> 01:03:24,384
"Yeah, like that, but we could
just do a bit more."
1173
01:03:24,468 --> 01:03:27,763
Without that sort of desire
for perfection
1174
01:03:27,846 --> 01:03:32,935
and without that sort of
battle of egos, in a way,
1175
01:03:33,018 --> 01:03:36,355
we wouldn't have got to the
picture we had at the end.
1176
01:03:46,698 --> 01:03:48,867
I received a call again
from Peter Grant.
1177
01:03:48,951 --> 01:03:51,829
"There's a new album.
There's no title."
1178
01:03:51,912 --> 01:03:53,747
"Just come up with
an interesting idea."
1179
01:03:55,207 --> 01:03:58,126
And we started to talk about
the power of Led Zeppelin.
1180
01:03:58,210 --> 01:03:59,461
They were powerful.
1181
01:04:14,351 --> 01:04:16,562
Led Zeppelin
definitely had a presence
1182
01:04:16,645 --> 01:04:20,148
that was just channelling
out of, out of nowhere.
1183
01:04:27,531 --> 01:04:30,617
We started talking about
power of persuasion.
1184
01:04:30,701 --> 01:04:32,744
The psychology of how
you could draw people in.
1185
01:04:32,828 --> 01:04:36,081
That led on to a conversation
about what people need.
1186
01:04:36,164 --> 01:04:37,374
People need Led Zeppelin.
1187
01:04:45,090 --> 01:04:47,885
Storm said,
"Well, what about the image from
1188
01:04:47,968 --> 01:04:51,763
the end of Arthur C Clarke's
book 2001
1189
01:04:51,847 --> 01:04:54,182
that Kubrick
had in turn interpreted
1190
01:04:54,266 --> 01:04:56,852
as this black solid object
in space?"
1191
01:04:56,935 --> 01:04:59,855
"And supposing
one took something like that
1192
01:04:59,938 --> 01:05:03,066
and made it as a battery
that everybody needed?"
1193
01:05:03,150 --> 01:05:05,027
"Without this object,
you couldn't live."
1194
01:05:05,110 --> 01:05:06,111
"You had to have it."
1195
01:05:08,739 --> 01:05:11,116
George went and hunted around
Charing Cross Road,
1196
01:05:11,199 --> 01:05:12,910
in the libraries there
1197
01:05:12,993 --> 01:05:15,412
for stills that were
out of the '50s
1198
01:05:15,495 --> 01:05:17,164
that we could place
the object in
1199
01:05:17,247 --> 01:05:19,041
in sort of a normal setting.
1200
01:05:21,835 --> 01:05:26,465
The situations were a catalogue
of important things in life.
1201
01:05:33,555 --> 01:05:36,642
We were trying to displace it
in time.
1202
01:05:36,725 --> 01:05:39,227
We were looking at a time past
1203
01:05:39,311 --> 01:05:42,022
in which this black object
was important.
1204
01:05:43,649 --> 01:05:46,151
I put the object
on the table
1205
01:05:46,234 --> 01:05:47,486
in the middle of the room.
1206
01:05:47,569 --> 01:05:49,988
Jimmy walked in and he took
one look at the object.
1207
01:05:50,072 --> 01:05:51,949
He said, "Is that it?"
I said, "That's it."
1208
01:05:52,032 --> 01:05:55,577
And he went, "That's it. Great."
1209
01:05:55,953 --> 01:05:58,288
He felt the power
of that black object.
1210
01:06:04,461 --> 01:06:06,546
But when
I saw the object, I said,
1211
01:06:06,630 --> 01:06:09,341
"This is great,
but can we put a twist in it?"
1212
01:06:10,926 --> 01:06:12,761
And then they did it
and they came back.
1213
01:06:12,844 --> 01:06:15,764
And it was like, "Well,
this is it. This is great."
1214
01:06:15,847 --> 01:06:18,016
The whole idea of the object:
1215
01:06:18,100 --> 01:06:20,811
Creative, imaginative,
and very unusual.
1216
01:06:20,894 --> 01:06:22,938
The way it actually moved
through its phases
1217
01:06:23,021 --> 01:06:26,274
to become what it is
was just fantastic.
1218
01:06:26,358 --> 01:06:28,485
No two sides alike,
nothing parallel, nothing...
1219
01:06:28,568 --> 01:06:31,822
You know, it was just
a unique piece of work.
1220
01:06:32,406 --> 01:06:33,782
It was the right decision.
1221
01:06:33,865 --> 01:06:37,077
Crikey, it got emulated
on a building in Dubai.
1222
01:06:38,036 --> 01:06:40,664
Peter instructed me.
He said, "Make eight."
1223
01:06:40,747 --> 01:06:42,874
"I'm gonna give four to
the guys, one to you and Storm,
1224
01:06:42,958 --> 01:06:44,751
one to George Hardie,"
and one for himself.
1225
01:06:48,588 --> 01:06:51,174
There were a myriad
of different scenarios
1226
01:06:51,258 --> 01:06:54,136
which they were
placing the object in.
1227
01:06:54,219 --> 01:06:59,224
It was a really fantastic way
of establishing this object
1228
01:06:59,307 --> 01:07:01,977
as being an accepted part
of normal life,
1229
01:07:02,060 --> 01:07:03,854
as was our music.
1230
01:07:05,063 --> 01:07:06,773
On the front cover
1231
01:07:06,857 --> 01:07:10,777
was a family sitting around a
table at the London Boat Show.
1232
01:07:10,861 --> 01:07:13,280
I went to the boat show,
shot the background,
1233
01:07:13,363 --> 01:07:16,324
shot the rest of it
in Hipgnosis's studio.
1234
01:07:22,080 --> 01:07:25,083
And this is one of the original
eight that was made.
1235
01:07:25,167 --> 01:07:28,336
And, as you can see,
it's very pure in its shape,
1236
01:07:28,420 --> 01:07:29,546
and it's very beautiful.
1237
01:07:29,629 --> 01:07:32,382
This is the twist
that Jimmy suggested.
1238
01:07:32,466 --> 01:07:34,509
And this is the sort of...
1239
01:07:34,593 --> 01:07:37,137
it's got this matte feeling
to it.
1240
01:07:37,220 --> 01:07:39,806
And funnily enough,
if anybody ever sees it
1241
01:07:39,890 --> 01:07:41,767
in the studio
or something like that
1242
01:07:41,850 --> 01:07:44,061
people often say,
"Can I touch it?"
1243
01:07:44,144 --> 01:07:45,520
Particularly fans,
1244
01:07:45,604 --> 01:07:48,857
because they feel that
somehow it gives off some...
1245
01:07:50,317 --> 01:07:52,944
you know, something.
1246
01:07:57,908 --> 01:07:59,785
I've actually got
three of these.
1247
01:08:00,911 --> 01:08:05,040
They've all come from different
collectors over the years.
1248
01:08:05,123 --> 01:08:08,877
Um, I'm not sure
if all three of them are real.
1249
01:08:09,544 --> 01:08:11,797
But I like having three of them.
1250
01:08:11,880 --> 01:08:13,882
I'll like to have seven of them
1251
01:08:13,965 --> 01:08:15,967
just as much as I like
to have three of them
1252
01:08:16,051 --> 01:08:17,803
or ten if I can find them.
1253
01:08:17,886 --> 01:08:19,930
I do think I've still got
one of those somewhere.
1254
01:08:20,013 --> 01:08:22,974
It's a doorstop, I think.
1255
01:08:23,058 --> 01:08:25,018
But I must find it.
1256
01:08:26,228 --> 01:08:27,938
I'm sure Po's got a few
in his garage.
1257
01:08:34,569 --> 01:08:36,029
By the mid '70s,
1258
01:08:36,113 --> 01:08:38,740
money was really rolling
into rock stars' pockets.
1259
01:08:38,824 --> 01:08:41,243
The albums
were selling in millions.
1260
01:08:41,326 --> 01:08:42,994
The money was gushing in.
1261
01:08:44,079 --> 01:08:45,997
You know,
whether it was Paul McCartney
1262
01:08:46,081 --> 01:08:47,707
or Led Zeppelin, or...
1263
01:08:47,791 --> 01:08:49,709
or Pink Floyd, or Peter Gabriel,
1264
01:08:49,793 --> 01:08:52,629
they wanted their image to look
right on the album cover.
1265
01:08:52,712 --> 01:08:57,175
This album cover was a very
important asset to them.
1266
01:08:59,261 --> 01:09:01,388
And so our fortunes changed too.
1267
01:09:01,471 --> 01:09:03,223
Fees accelerated.
1268
01:09:03,306 --> 01:09:06,643
You were looking at $50,000
spent on an album cover.
1269
01:09:09,062 --> 01:09:11,314
I felt a bit like
the fifth wheel on the car.
1270
01:09:11,398 --> 01:09:12,941
You had the four members
of the band
1271
01:09:13,024 --> 01:09:16,069
and then there was this guy
who was attached to the car
1272
01:09:16,153 --> 01:09:18,488
that went with them
everywhere they went.
1273
01:09:18,947 --> 01:09:21,449
Peter Grant would say,
"Well, you better get Concorde."
1274
01:09:21,533 --> 01:09:23,076
"Better get there
tomorrow morning."
1275
01:09:23,160 --> 01:09:27,038
Suddenly I was becoming this
kind of transatlantic merchant.
1276
01:09:27,122 --> 01:09:29,207
I was living the life of Riley.
It was wonderful.
1277
01:09:31,376 --> 01:09:35,881
This was the heyday. This was
the salad days of album covers.
1278
01:09:37,924 --> 01:09:40,594
I have put graphic designers...
1279
01:09:41,887 --> 01:09:44,222
weeping out of meetings
1280
01:09:44,306 --> 01:09:46,725
because
that tiny little thing there
1281
01:09:46,808 --> 01:09:47,934
is not in the right place.
1282
01:09:48,018 --> 01:09:50,353
And I've let go...
1283
01:09:51,730 --> 01:09:54,482
while I was high, covers...
1284
01:09:54,566 --> 01:09:57,194
like the most famous record
I've ever made,
1285
01:09:57,277 --> 01:09:58,904
Morning Glory?
1286
01:09:58,987 --> 01:10:01,948
Has literally
the shittest cover of all time
1287
01:10:02,032 --> 01:10:03,617
because I glanced at it.
1288
01:10:04,993 --> 01:10:06,369
"Yeah. That'll do."
1289
01:10:06,453 --> 01:10:07,913
And then it came out.
1290
01:10:07,996 --> 01:10:09,539
And then, a few years later,
1291
01:10:09,623 --> 01:10:11,458
you're going,
"Who the fuck OKed that?"
1292
01:10:11,541 --> 01:10:14,085
It's like, "Well, you did."
And, um...
1293
01:10:14,169 --> 01:10:17,130
So I take a lot more interest
in it now.
1294
01:10:18,548 --> 01:10:20,842
If there was any bad feeling
in the studio,
1295
01:10:20,926 --> 01:10:22,427
it was between Storm and me.
1296
01:10:22,844 --> 01:10:24,471
He would always turn up late,
1297
01:10:24,554 --> 01:10:27,766
dressed in tennis shorts
and a smelly T-shirt.
1298
01:10:27,849 --> 01:10:30,477
I would have done a
photographic print, beautiful,
1299
01:10:30,560 --> 01:10:34,439
and he'd come in and he'd say,
"Bit too light there."
1300
01:10:34,522 --> 01:10:35,690
He'd take his thumb,
1301
01:10:35,774 --> 01:10:37,859
and he'd rub on it until
there was a big mark on it.
1302
01:10:37,943 --> 01:10:41,112
"Oh, dear, you can't use that.
I think you better do it again."
1303
01:10:41,196 --> 01:10:42,197
And I'd be, "Storm."
1304
01:10:42,697 --> 01:10:45,158
I threw a Hasselblad at him
a couple of times
1305
01:10:45,242 --> 01:10:47,786
across the studio because
he pissed me off so much.
1306
01:10:48,078 --> 01:10:50,247
So, Po and the red mist.
1307
01:10:50,330 --> 01:10:52,666
Yeah, I mean,
we called it the red mist
1308
01:10:52,749 --> 01:10:55,377
because he would get
seriously angry.
1309
01:10:55,460 --> 01:10:58,088
When it came to arguing
about the work,
1310
01:10:59,297 --> 01:11:01,633
it was with the intention
from both of us
1311
01:11:01,716 --> 01:11:03,301
to get the best out of it.
1312
01:11:03,385 --> 01:11:06,513
A lot of that
was because of the...
1313
01:11:06,596 --> 01:11:08,682
banging of heads
between him and Storm.
1314
01:11:08,765 --> 01:11:11,518
You know, this constant
running over budget.
1315
01:11:11,601 --> 01:11:13,687
Storm didn't care about money.
1316
01:11:13,770 --> 01:11:17,732
He wanted the design, the
photograph, whatever it was,
1317
01:11:17,816 --> 01:11:21,152
to be absolutely
as he saw it in his head.
1318
01:11:32,914 --> 01:11:35,875
Scratch,
that record, came out of
1319
01:11:35,959 --> 01:11:38,211
Storm's second-hand box.
1320
01:11:38,295 --> 01:11:42,048
And this is a famous box. But it
was basically the reject box.
1321
01:11:42,132 --> 01:11:45,844
All the ideas that he liked
but no one else wanted.
1322
01:11:45,927 --> 01:11:47,846
I've got a great story
about Robert Plant,
1323
01:11:47,929 --> 01:11:51,182
when I went to see him with
some ideas for Led Zeppelin.
1324
01:11:51,266 --> 01:11:53,310
He turned over an idea
he was looking at,
1325
01:11:53,393 --> 01:11:56,021
and on the back it said
"Judas Priest" crossed out.
1326
01:11:56,104 --> 01:11:57,605
It said "Wishbone Ash"
crossed out.
1327
01:11:57,689 --> 01:11:59,566
It said "Nazareth" crossed out.
1328
01:11:59,649 --> 01:12:01,943
He said, "Have you shown this
idea to all these people?"
1329
01:12:02,027 --> 01:12:03,069
And I said, "Yeah."
1330
01:12:03,153 --> 01:12:04,988
I said,
"A good idea's a good idea."
1331
01:12:05,071 --> 01:12:07,657
He said, "You and Storm
are just a couple of chancers."
1332
01:12:07,741 --> 01:12:09,951
I mean, they're hucksters.
1333
01:12:10,035 --> 01:12:13,121
Everybody's trying to float
an idea. It's great.
1334
01:12:14,289 --> 01:12:16,458
If Pink Floyd didn't take them,
1335
01:12:16,541 --> 01:12:19,794
three weeks later, they'd appear
on someone else's record.
1336
01:12:19,878 --> 01:12:22,505
Yeah, there's a picture
of a lobster
1337
01:12:22,589 --> 01:12:24,257
being walked along the pavement,
1338
01:12:24,341 --> 01:12:26,551
and I think Paul McCartney
used that one.
1339
01:12:26,843 --> 01:12:29,512
It's one of mine? Hmm!
1340
01:12:29,596 --> 01:12:32,182
What Paul McCartney didn't want,
who was gonna have that?
1341
01:12:32,265 --> 01:12:33,600
10cc, perhaps.
1342
01:12:33,683 --> 01:12:36,644
Well, now...
1343
01:12:36,728 --> 01:12:38,938
I think I'll have to talk
to someone about that.
1344
01:12:39,022 --> 01:12:42,692
Wait a minute. Lobster, yeah.
OK. It's coming back now.
1345
01:12:42,776 --> 01:12:45,570
You never quite knew
when he brought in the box
1346
01:12:45,653 --> 01:12:49,908
whether you were gonna get all
these second-hand leftover ideas
1347
01:12:49,991 --> 01:12:51,409
or something fresh.
1348
01:12:51,493 --> 01:12:55,288
He was a master at passing off
the rejects as originals.
1349
01:12:56,414 --> 01:12:59,501
He'd done a piece of promotion
for Lumiere and Son.
1350
01:12:59,584 --> 01:13:02,670
But it had torn paper.
And I just...
1351
01:13:02,754 --> 01:13:05,340
I thought,
"This is so powerful."
1352
01:13:05,423 --> 01:13:07,967
I took a photograph
of Peter like this,
1353
01:13:08,051 --> 01:13:10,387
with his hands
like he's clawing at himself.
1354
01:13:10,470 --> 01:13:13,473
And then we got strips
of paper, white paper,
1355
01:13:13,556 --> 01:13:16,726
stuck them down
over the top of the print
1356
01:13:16,810 --> 01:13:20,313
so it looked as though
he was tearing himself
1357
01:13:20,397 --> 01:13:22,148
out of the picture.
1358
01:13:22,232 --> 01:13:24,484
He was then mixing
and recording in New York.
1359
01:13:25,193 --> 01:13:27,153
And he wanted
Peter Christopherson
1360
01:13:27,237 --> 01:13:28,947
to come and take
the pictures of him.
1361
01:13:29,030 --> 01:13:31,699
He and Peter get on really well.
1362
01:13:31,783 --> 01:13:35,328
And then Peter photographed
Peter Gabriel
1363
01:13:35,412 --> 01:13:36,496
walking around New York
1364
01:13:36,579 --> 01:13:38,748
making these strange gestures
with his hands.
1365
01:13:38,832 --> 01:13:40,333
You know, very dark.
1366
01:13:40,417 --> 01:13:42,502
You don't know what's happening
in the narrative,
1367
01:13:42,585 --> 01:13:45,296
but it's definitely something
uncomfortable and weird.
1368
01:13:45,380 --> 01:13:48,591
And only Peter Christopherson
could get that intimate with him
1369
01:13:48,675 --> 01:13:50,093
doing those kind of shots.
1370
01:13:50,635 --> 01:13:53,263
I didn't really know Peter
when he joined at all.
1371
01:13:53,346 --> 01:13:54,931
I got to know him
some months later
1372
01:13:55,014 --> 01:13:56,558
when I was travelling
in a car with him
1373
01:13:56,641 --> 01:13:58,268
through the deserts of America.
1374
01:13:58,351 --> 01:14:01,020
And I happened to be talking
about his portfolio
1375
01:14:01,104 --> 01:14:02,313
and how impressed I was
1376
01:14:02,397 --> 01:14:04,399
with the images of the people
he had there.
1377
01:14:04,482 --> 01:14:07,235
He said, "Oh, I was working
in a mortuary at the time,
1378
01:14:07,318 --> 01:14:10,905
and I twisted the bodies around
till I liked the shapes of them
1379
01:14:10,989 --> 01:14:13,575
and then I lit them
and photographed them."
1380
01:14:13,658 --> 01:14:15,493
I was absolutely horrified.
1381
01:14:15,577 --> 01:14:17,078
I said,
"Well, how did you do that?"
1382
01:14:17,162 --> 01:14:19,330
He said, "I only worked
in the mortuary late at night,
1383
01:14:19,414 --> 01:14:20,874
so I could do what I wanted."
1384
01:14:26,421 --> 01:14:29,591
I realised there was an
extremely dark side to Peter.
1385
01:14:29,674 --> 01:14:33,011
And this dark side
went on further
1386
01:14:33,094 --> 01:14:34,804
when he joined
Throbbing Gristle
1387
01:14:34,888 --> 01:14:37,640
and then went on
to form his own band,
1388
01:14:38,266 --> 01:14:40,935
Coil and Psychic TV.
1389
01:14:41,019 --> 01:14:43,146
He was highly regarded
and he's still a cult figure.
1390
01:14:44,898 --> 01:14:47,734
I know he has
this very dark reputation,
1391
01:14:47,817 --> 01:14:52,363
but he didn't come across to me
as a particularly dark person.
1392
01:14:52,447 --> 01:14:54,741
He was more like
a sort of professor,
1393
01:14:54,824 --> 01:14:56,618
or academic in a way, I think.
1394
01:14:56,701 --> 01:15:00,663
What he'd brought to Hipgnosis
was this element of darkness.
1395
01:15:00,747 --> 01:15:02,165
And we kind of needed that.
1396
01:15:02,248 --> 01:15:05,793
In a flippant world, and a
fickle world of rock 'n' roll,
1397
01:15:05,877 --> 01:15:08,004
to have somebody
who had this undercurrent
1398
01:15:08,671 --> 01:15:13,259
of presenting things
that were very real, very raw.
1399
01:15:15,428 --> 01:15:20,350
Denmark Street had a rehearsal
studio right behind Hipgnosis.
1400
01:15:20,433 --> 01:15:22,310
When we first moved in here,
1401
01:15:22,393 --> 01:15:24,687
there was a guy
out the window there...
1402
01:15:25,897 --> 01:15:27,440
kind of peering all the time,
1403
01:15:27,524 --> 01:15:29,943
and it was a bit off-putting
and a bit weird.
1404
01:15:30,026 --> 01:15:31,236
Didn't really know
1405
01:15:31,319 --> 01:15:34,405
what went on
there originally.
1406
01:15:34,489 --> 01:15:36,115
And it became
very disconcerting.
1407
01:15:36,199 --> 01:15:38,159
So in the end,
1408
01:15:38,243 --> 01:15:40,537
we got some net curtains
to put up here,
1409
01:15:40,620 --> 01:15:43,665
which was not very Sex Pistols
and more little old lady,
1410
01:15:43,748 --> 01:15:46,167
to stop the guy
peering in at us.
1411
01:15:46,251 --> 01:15:50,255
But it turns out it was a guy
called Peter Christopherson
1412
01:15:50,338 --> 01:15:51,881
who ended up
in Throbbing Gristle.
1413
01:15:51,965 --> 01:15:54,801
He was like the young guy
of Hipgnosis.
1414
01:15:54,884 --> 01:15:57,053
And he wondered
what we were all about.
1415
01:15:57,136 --> 01:16:00,181
And he befriended us.
1416
01:16:00,265 --> 01:16:02,517
And he even did
some photo sessions with us.
1417
01:16:02,600 --> 01:16:06,771
He put John in a straitjacket,
Steve in handcuffs.
1418
01:16:06,854 --> 01:16:09,190
He did Paul
with all bullet wounds.
1419
01:16:09,274 --> 01:16:11,442
And he took me down the YMCA
into the locker room.
1420
01:16:11,526 --> 01:16:13,945
So I didn't quite know
what to make of that.
1421
01:16:14,028 --> 01:16:17,282
But it was kinda cool.
But the other guys were also
1422
01:16:17,365 --> 01:16:20,910
the enemy in a way, I suppose.
They did all the covers
1423
01:16:20,994 --> 01:16:24,622
for... what we saw as
a dinosaur rock band.
1424
01:16:24,706 --> 01:16:28,668
One day, I walked into
Hipgnosis's front door
1425
01:16:28,751 --> 01:16:31,296
and there coming towards me
down the corridor
1426
01:16:31,379 --> 01:16:35,133
was John wearing an
"I hate Pink Floyd" T-shirt.
1427
01:16:35,216 --> 01:16:37,093
And I said, "Oi, what's that?"
1428
01:16:37,176 --> 01:16:39,887
And he said,
"They're all cunts, Pink Floyd."
1429
01:16:39,971 --> 01:16:42,640
"That's what they are."
He walked out the door.
1430
01:17:13,796 --> 01:17:16,424
The megastars
of the late '60s, early '70s,
1431
01:17:16,507 --> 01:17:19,594
they were living lifestyles...
1432
01:17:20,887 --> 01:17:24,641
that were entirely
irrelevant to young people.
1433
01:17:24,724 --> 01:17:29,479
They didn't really talk to us
about stuff that kinda concerned
1434
01:17:29,562 --> 01:17:30,980
where we were at.
1435
01:17:32,815 --> 01:17:37,445
It's about something
that connects to your reality.
1436
01:17:37,528 --> 01:17:40,365
That's the marked difference
1437
01:17:40,448 --> 01:17:43,409
between the kind of pre-punk
and post-punk moment.
1438
01:17:46,204 --> 01:17:48,790
By the time you're oating
huge inflatable pigs
1439
01:17:48,873 --> 01:17:50,541
over Battersea Power Station,
1440
01:17:50,625 --> 01:17:54,045
you really are not talking to,
sort of, 15-year-olds any more.
1441
01:18:09,143 --> 01:18:11,896
Storm came up
with an idea of a small child
1442
01:18:11,979 --> 01:18:15,817
standing in a doorway watching
his parents fucking in the bed.
1443
01:18:15,900 --> 01:18:20,947
Animals.
It was... they laughed, but...
1444
01:18:21,030 --> 01:18:23,908
Thank you, no. Next.
1445
01:18:23,991 --> 01:18:26,035
So I got a phone call
from Roger.
1446
01:18:26,119 --> 01:18:30,164
He said, "You know that I'm
having a big plastic pig made
1447
01:18:30,248 --> 01:18:33,251
to go on our live shows?"
And I said, "No, I didn't."
1448
01:18:33,334 --> 01:18:34,961
He said,
"Well, come over to my house
1449
01:18:35,044 --> 01:18:37,547
and have a look
at a maquette of it."
1450
01:18:37,630 --> 01:18:39,465
And looking out the window,
he said,
1451
01:18:40,049 --> 01:18:41,843
"There's Battersea
Power Station."
1452
01:18:41,926 --> 01:18:44,429
I looked at the
power station, and then I went,
1453
01:18:44,512 --> 01:18:46,264
"I know what I'll do."
1454
01:18:46,347 --> 01:18:49,559
"I'll finish the pig
and we'll fill it with helium
1455
01:18:49,642 --> 01:18:51,978
and fly it over the thing
and take photographs of it,
1456
01:18:52,061 --> 01:18:53,438
and that will be
the album cover."
1457
01:18:53,521 --> 01:18:55,523
Storm was kind of grumpy
about it.
1458
01:18:55,606 --> 01:18:56,858
And he and Roger were having
1459
01:18:56,941 --> 01:18:59,193
a little bit of a contretemps
at this time.
1460
01:18:59,277 --> 01:19:01,487
Considering they used to play
squash together,
1461
01:19:01,571 --> 01:19:03,156
tennis together, good friends,
1462
01:19:03,239 --> 01:19:06,159
there was definitely
something in the air.
1463
01:19:09,036 --> 01:19:10,663
I can't remember ever thinking,
1464
01:19:10,747 --> 01:19:13,875
"No, this is too big,
too elaborate, or whatever."
1465
01:19:13,958 --> 01:19:16,377
We were in full prog-rock mode.
1466
01:19:16,461 --> 01:19:19,338
Our egos were all
in pretty good shape.
1467
01:19:21,007 --> 01:19:23,843
I got permission.
There was no health and safety.
1468
01:19:23,926 --> 01:19:25,678
No demands for anything else.
1469
01:19:25,762 --> 01:19:28,973
Yeah, you turn up, you...
park your trucks and fly it.
1470
01:19:30,349 --> 01:19:33,186
It's almost a mystery
to me that I went at all
1471
01:19:33,269 --> 01:19:36,022
'cause I remember it was
a very cold morning.
1472
01:19:36,105 --> 01:19:39,525
But I was friends with
some of the band, and...
1473
01:19:39,609 --> 01:19:42,361
I grabbed my camera
at the very last moment
1474
01:19:42,445 --> 01:19:45,031
thinking I was gonna go out,
just sort of see it,
1475
01:19:45,114 --> 01:19:46,574
and come back to bed.
1476
01:19:46,657 --> 01:19:49,035
And I have to say,
I'm really glad I didn't.
1477
01:19:55,875 --> 01:19:59,295
So on the day,
everybody's in position.
1478
01:20:00,213 --> 01:20:01,798
Amazing clouds that day.
1479
01:20:01,881 --> 01:20:03,382
It looks like
a Turner painting.
1480
01:20:03,466 --> 01:20:06,219
Absolutely something
out of this world.
1481
01:20:07,887 --> 01:20:09,889
The gas cylinders went wrong
1482
01:20:09,972 --> 01:20:13,142
and couldn't inflate the pig.
1483
01:20:13,226 --> 01:20:16,521
"OK. Everybody home.
Back again tomorrow."
1484
01:20:19,106 --> 01:20:22,235
So, we came back the next day.
We inflated the pig.
1485
01:20:22,735 --> 01:20:24,612
It goes up between
the chimneys.
1486
01:20:24,695 --> 01:20:26,113
It looks amazing.
1487
01:20:45,424 --> 01:20:47,927
There was only one actual cable
1488
01:20:48,010 --> 01:20:50,263
connecting us to it.
1489
01:20:50,346 --> 01:20:52,390
And at one point
the ring went ping!
1490
01:20:52,473 --> 01:20:55,726
There was a loud bang like that.
A crack.
1491
01:20:56,060 --> 01:20:58,521
And bits of it fell down
onto the ground.
1492
01:20:58,604 --> 01:21:01,691
"Oh, my God! Oh, look,
it's broken away."
1493
01:21:01,774 --> 01:21:04,777
And the pig sailed up
between the chimneys.
1494
01:21:13,411 --> 01:21:16,747
And then, vroom, it was gone.
It was gone within seconds.
1495
01:21:16,831 --> 01:21:21,752
And as it went up,
I saw a 747 jet fly across.
1496
01:21:21,836 --> 01:21:23,337
And I thought, "Oh, my God,
1497
01:21:23,421 --> 01:21:26,966
that's going straight into the
air lanes of Heathrow Airport."
1498
01:21:28,175 --> 01:21:32,138
I'm sure there was a lot
of rueful grinning going on.
1499
01:21:32,221 --> 01:21:34,724
"Did you get it?" "Er, no."
1500
01:21:34,807 --> 01:21:37,768
"Oh, fuck me."
1501
01:21:39,395 --> 01:21:41,480
We had organised for day one
1502
01:21:41,564 --> 01:21:43,733
to have
a police marksman there.
1503
01:21:43,816 --> 01:21:46,485
Where was the police marksman?
1504
01:21:46,569 --> 01:21:50,656
I heard that there had been
a marksman the day before
1505
01:21:50,740 --> 01:21:53,951
and he hadn't been paid.
So, he wasn't there that day.
1506
01:21:54,035 --> 01:21:56,829
It was the only thing
that was asked of us.
1507
01:21:56,913 --> 01:22:00,833
In case the pig flew away,
it would be shot out of the sky.
1508
01:22:02,293 --> 01:22:03,502
The police arrived.
1509
01:22:03,586 --> 01:22:06,213
They closed all the air lanes
into Heathrow Airport.
1510
01:22:06,297 --> 01:22:09,300
Fighter jets were sent up
to look for it. It was plastic.
1511
01:22:09,383 --> 01:22:10,635
It wouldn't appear on radar.
1512
01:22:10,718 --> 01:22:13,429
Police helicopter pilot
who was sent to chase it,
1513
01:22:13,512 --> 01:22:15,348
he said there was no way
they could catch it.
1514
01:22:15,431 --> 01:22:18,851
It was climbing faster
than the helicopter could go.
1515
01:22:21,520 --> 01:22:24,523
Nine in the evening,
our phone rings and...
1516
01:22:24,607 --> 01:22:27,944
this voice, in a very
country accent, says to me,
1517
01:22:28,861 --> 01:22:31,405
"Are you the people
looking for a pig?"
1518
01:22:31,489 --> 01:22:34,200
And I said, "Yes." He said,
"Well, it's in my field,
1519
01:22:34,283 --> 01:22:36,243
and it's frightening my cows."
1520
01:22:38,621 --> 01:22:40,206
So in the end it was a collage.
1521
01:22:40,289 --> 01:22:42,750
It wasn't the real picture
of the event.
1522
01:22:42,833 --> 01:22:45,127
But nobody was to know that
until later.
1523
01:22:46,337 --> 01:22:49,840
The relationship with Storm
and Roger was already tense.
1524
01:22:49,924 --> 01:22:51,425
When Roger learnt that Storm
1525
01:22:51,509 --> 01:22:55,221
was claiming design
for the cover,
1526
01:22:55,304 --> 01:22:57,306
which was
a very foolish thing to do,
1527
01:22:57,390 --> 01:23:00,184
Roger cut him out of his life.
Bang.
1528
01:23:00,267 --> 01:23:03,062
I remember being
royally pissed off
1529
01:23:03,145 --> 01:23:04,981
at the time,
because they didn't ask me.
1530
01:23:05,064 --> 01:23:07,108
I thought,
"Why are you doing that?"
1531
01:23:13,739 --> 01:23:15,574
Anybody
who knew Storm will tell you
1532
01:23:15,658 --> 01:23:17,159
he was insufferable.
1533
01:23:17,243 --> 01:23:20,579
But among being one of the most
annoying people in the world,
1534
01:23:20,663 --> 01:23:24,500
he was also one of the most
lovable people in the world.
1535
01:23:24,583 --> 01:23:27,044
And one of the bravest people
in the world.
1536
01:23:27,128 --> 01:23:29,255
I loved Storm.
1537
01:23:29,338 --> 01:23:30,798
I still love Storm.
1538
01:23:31,382 --> 01:23:35,803
Pink Floyd themselves were
going through huge upheavals.
1539
01:23:35,886 --> 01:23:38,014
Rick Wright got fired
from the band.
1540
01:23:38,597 --> 01:23:41,017
David and Roger
didn't get along any more.
1541
01:23:41,100 --> 01:23:44,061
There were huge rows
about this, that and the other.
1542
01:23:44,145 --> 01:23:47,481
And we were just part of that
whole process, you know.
1543
01:23:56,615 --> 01:23:58,576
Those '60s characters,
1544
01:23:58,659 --> 01:24:01,245
they just became kind of
victims and casualties
1545
01:24:01,328 --> 01:24:04,248
of their own success,
you know, and excess.
1546
01:24:11,964 --> 01:24:14,300
And of course Hipgnosis
are intrinsically linked
1547
01:24:14,383 --> 01:24:16,635
to that period of rock excess,
1548
01:24:16,719 --> 01:24:18,179
which we kind
of laugh about now.
1549
01:24:39,533 --> 01:24:41,786
Paul McCartney
had called me up and he said,
1550
01:24:41,869 --> 01:24:43,704
"Listen, man,
I've seen this statue
1551
01:24:43,788 --> 01:24:45,498
that I want to buy
at Christie's."
1552
01:24:45,581 --> 01:24:46,874
"Do you think you could get it?"
1553
01:24:46,957 --> 01:24:49,460
"I want to put it somewhere
really special."
1554
01:24:49,543 --> 01:24:52,379
And I said, "Where?"
He said, "On Everest."
1555
01:24:52,463 --> 01:24:55,341
I suppose we must have
had a meeting and said,
1556
01:24:55,424 --> 01:24:59,470
"Oh, wow, it should be at
the top of a Swiss mountain."
1557
01:24:59,553 --> 01:25:02,098
You know, there was a lot
of that in those days.
1558
01:25:06,185 --> 01:25:08,104
So, we took a helicopter up,
1559
01:25:08,187 --> 01:25:11,023
which could only land
on the edge like this.
1560
01:25:12,316 --> 01:25:15,569
We had to jump off,
take this 70-pound statue,
1561
01:25:15,653 --> 01:25:17,655
and there I am, stuck on an area
1562
01:25:17,738 --> 01:25:20,533
about the size of an
average person's sitting room
1563
01:25:20,616 --> 01:25:23,202
with a 10,000-foot drop
all round me.
1564
01:25:23,285 --> 01:25:24,745
And I hate heights.
1565
01:25:24,829 --> 01:25:28,124
I completely have a phobia
about heights.
1566
01:25:28,207 --> 01:25:30,751
And I was stuck up there
for about six hours.
1567
01:25:41,178 --> 01:25:43,097
We loved it. It looked great.
1568
01:25:43,180 --> 01:25:46,350
But then someone said, "You
could've just gone in a studio,
1569
01:25:46,433 --> 01:25:50,062
in London,
just got a big pile of salt
1570
01:25:50,146 --> 01:25:54,400
and just stuck the statue
on top of it."
1571
01:25:54,483 --> 01:25:56,777
But, you know,
that's just too easy.
1572
01:25:56,861 --> 01:26:00,239
Well, I know Hipgnosis
were expensive.
1573
01:26:08,873 --> 01:26:12,334
We had this idea to
recreate a complete juke joint.
1574
01:26:12,418 --> 01:26:14,295
So I did this tour
of the Caribbean,
1575
01:26:14,378 --> 01:26:16,422
taking photographs as a recce
1576
01:26:16,505 --> 01:26:20,134
finishing up at New Orleans.
I went to the Old Absinthe bar.
1577
01:26:20,217 --> 01:26:24,054
And this is the one. I mean, it
hasn't been washed in 60 years.
1578
01:26:24,138 --> 01:26:26,223
There's old ties, there's...
1579
01:26:26,307 --> 01:26:28,767
All kinds of artefacts
everywhere. It's just amazing.
1580
01:26:29,143 --> 01:26:32,563
And we built an exact copy of
it in a studio in West London
1581
01:26:32,646 --> 01:26:35,107
because this was
an expensive operation.
1582
01:26:35,191 --> 01:26:38,027
The sort of set was better
than the album.
1583
01:26:38,110 --> 01:26:39,403
Then Storm said to me,
1584
01:26:39,486 --> 01:26:41,447
"If we put six characters
in a bar,
1585
01:26:41,530 --> 01:26:43,407
why don't we have
the point of view
1586
01:26:43,490 --> 01:26:45,159
of each of the six characters?"
1587
01:26:45,242 --> 01:26:47,244
"We make six different
album covers."
1588
01:26:47,912 --> 01:26:50,873
Then, as money was no object
for the inner bag,
1589
01:26:50,956 --> 01:26:52,499
we thought
we'd do something fun.
1590
01:26:53,334 --> 01:26:56,921
On it, it doesn't say anywhere
that there's any trick at all.
1591
01:26:57,004 --> 01:26:59,131
But, when you put water on it,
1592
01:27:01,300 --> 01:27:03,177
it changes colour.
1593
01:27:03,260 --> 01:27:04,637
Peter Grant said to me,
1594
01:27:04,720 --> 01:27:07,473
"The only problem
with your Hipgnosis covers
1595
01:27:07,556 --> 01:27:09,558
is you're so bloody expensive."
1596
01:27:09,642 --> 01:27:11,185
He said,
"I could sell Led Zeppelin
1597
01:27:11,268 --> 01:27:12,853
in a brown paper bag."
1598
01:27:12,937 --> 01:27:16,232
And I said, "Well, why don't you
then?" He said, "Let's do it!"
1599
01:27:16,857 --> 01:27:19,818
So the whole thing came out
in a brown paper bag.
1600
01:27:20,527 --> 01:27:23,239
It was probably the
most expensive album cover
1601
01:27:23,322 --> 01:27:26,075
that we did
because it was so complex.
1602
01:27:26,158 --> 01:27:30,371
Po would come down, throw the
Yellow Pages at me, and say,
1603
01:27:30,454 --> 01:27:35,167
"Drew, I need a sheep,
er, I need a psychiatrist couch,
1604
01:27:35,251 --> 01:27:38,671
I'll probably need a vet,
1605
01:27:38,754 --> 01:27:41,131
and I'm shooting it in Hawaii,
1606
01:27:41,215 --> 01:27:44,176
so can you book me a flight
to Hawaii on Friday?"
1607
01:27:44,593 --> 01:27:46,595
I'm thinking, "It's Monday,
1608
01:27:46,679 --> 01:27:48,639
and all I've got is
a dial-up telephone
1609
01:27:48,722 --> 01:27:50,557
with a curly wire
and the Yellow Pages."
1610
01:27:59,066 --> 01:28:00,484
I got to Hawaii. Well,
1611
01:28:00,567 --> 01:28:02,569
there were no
psychiatrist couches.
1612
01:28:02,653 --> 01:28:04,655
And even worse still,
there were no sheep.
1613
01:28:04,738 --> 01:28:08,993
I discovered one sheep
at the university farm.
1614
01:28:09,076 --> 01:28:12,162
And I managed to persuade them
to let me take it to the sea
1615
01:28:12,246 --> 01:28:15,791
and put it on the psychiatrist
couch I had to have made.
1616
01:28:16,333 --> 01:28:17,751
Then trying to persuade
1617
01:28:17,835 --> 01:28:22,631
a sheep to lie on the couch
while these waves rolled in
1618
01:28:22,715 --> 01:28:24,466
proved to be difficult.
1619
01:28:24,550 --> 01:28:28,637
The veterinary advisor gave
a shot of Valium to the sheep,
1620
01:28:28,721 --> 01:28:29,888
which calmed it down.
1621
01:28:31,140 --> 01:28:33,392
It was a whole fiasco.
It took two days to do.
1622
01:28:33,475 --> 01:28:35,269
When Po came back
with the photos,
1623
01:28:35,352 --> 01:28:38,522
we were all just in awe
of this incredible scene.
1624
01:28:38,605 --> 01:28:41,984
And then Storm said, "We're not
going to use it full cover."
1625
01:28:42,067 --> 01:28:46,905
"We're going to print it
35 millimetres in size,
1626
01:28:46,989 --> 01:28:48,991
and then I just want
big typography
1627
01:28:49,074 --> 01:28:50,492
that says 'Are You Normal'."
1628
01:28:50,576 --> 01:28:52,703
Because that's not
a normal thing to do, is it?
1629
01:28:52,786 --> 01:28:55,289
To spend all that money, go to
Hawaii and do this big shoot,
1630
01:28:55,372 --> 01:28:57,082
then just print the picture
really tiny.
1631
01:28:57,499 --> 01:29:00,210
The record company,
who happened to be Welsh,
1632
01:29:00,294 --> 01:29:03,589
asked us why we didn't do it
in Wales. OK?
1633
01:29:03,672 --> 01:29:06,467
He said, "Listen.
We've just spent £2,000
1634
01:29:06,550 --> 01:29:08,677
sending you off to Hawaii,
you creeps."
1635
01:29:08,761 --> 01:29:10,220
"Why didn't you do it in Wales?"
1636
01:29:10,304 --> 01:29:11,388
The irony of it is,
1637
01:29:11,472 --> 01:29:13,640
that it finished up that size
on the front of the cover.
1638
01:29:15,184 --> 01:29:18,062
I'm still not
quite sure what's going on
1639
01:29:18,145 --> 01:29:21,732
or what it means.
But then, do I need to?
1640
01:29:21,815 --> 01:29:24,526
I just know that there's
something great happening there.
1641
01:29:24,860 --> 01:29:27,321
Although you may not think it,
1642
01:29:27,404 --> 01:29:29,948
and also maybe the rest of the
world doesn't think it either,
1643
01:29:30,032 --> 01:29:32,159
it's supposed to be
a little bit funny.
1644
01:29:32,242 --> 01:29:35,162
It's supposed to have
slightly humorous,
1645
01:29:35,245 --> 01:29:37,206
or what we call dry humour.
1646
01:29:37,289 --> 01:29:39,500
That font layout came back to me
1647
01:29:39,583 --> 01:29:42,795
when Katharine Hamnett,
a fashion designer,
1648
01:29:42,878 --> 01:29:46,090
rang up and asked me
to design some T-shirts for her.
1649
01:29:46,173 --> 01:29:48,842
And she said she wanted them
big and bold.
1650
01:29:49,301 --> 01:29:52,888
And so I did a whole range
of these T-shirts for her,
1651
01:29:52,971 --> 01:29:55,808
which then got picked up
by George Michael.
1652
01:29:55,891 --> 01:29:58,143
And it became a viral hit.
1653
01:29:58,560 --> 01:30:02,064
I think Are You Normal
probably represented
1654
01:30:02,147 --> 01:30:05,692
one of the last
really collaborative efforts
1655
01:30:05,776 --> 01:30:09,488
with Hipgnosis and a band
where the budget was unlimited.
1656
01:30:09,571 --> 01:30:14,201
I think that from 1968 to 1980,
1657
01:30:15,411 --> 01:30:18,038
Hipgnosis are so ubiquitous
1658
01:30:18,122 --> 01:30:24,378
with the most important artwork
in the world for music
1659
01:30:24,461 --> 01:30:26,171
that it had to change.
1660
01:30:26,255 --> 01:30:29,049
Pop culture moved on.
Ss it does.
1661
01:30:29,133 --> 01:30:31,009
It's a young-people thing.
1662
01:30:38,600 --> 01:30:42,980
1980 comes in in its bright
colours and padded shoulders.
1663
01:30:54,491 --> 01:30:57,077
This was probably the moment
1664
01:30:57,161 --> 01:31:01,665
when things started to, sort of,
disappear for us.
1665
01:31:12,718 --> 01:31:15,304
There was this progression
1666
01:31:15,387 --> 01:31:18,307
to dumping lavish and expensive
album covers.
1667
01:31:38,911 --> 01:31:41,663
Bonzo,
Led Zeppelin's drummer, died.
1668
01:31:41,747 --> 01:31:43,957
And after that,
Peter Grant went to pieces.
1669
01:31:44,791 --> 01:31:46,668
He almost had a breakdown.
1670
01:31:46,752 --> 01:31:49,129
And the mighty Led Zeppelin
just fell apart.
1671
01:31:53,717 --> 01:31:56,720
Last question.
What are your projects?
1672
01:31:56,803 --> 01:31:58,972
- Our future projects?
- We're gonna get married.
1673
01:31:59,056 --> 01:32:00,557
- Yes.
- We're going to get married.
1674
01:32:00,641 --> 01:32:02,267
- We're gonna start a double act.
- Yes.
1675
01:32:17,199 --> 01:32:19,368
Storm turned up
at my house one day
1676
01:32:19,451 --> 01:32:22,871
with Peter Christopherson,
with a bunch of flowers.
1677
01:32:22,955 --> 01:32:25,165
This had never happened before,
1678
01:32:25,249 --> 01:32:27,751
and I was immediately
suspicious.
1679
01:32:28,961 --> 01:32:30,629
We sat down. He said,
1680
01:32:30,712 --> 01:32:33,090
"I wanna have a serious talk
about Hipgnosis."
1681
01:32:33,173 --> 01:32:35,884
"I don't think we should do
album covers any more."
1682
01:32:35,968 --> 01:32:38,053
"We should knock it
on the head."
1683
01:32:38,136 --> 01:32:42,057
"It's old-fashioned. It's out
of date. We need to move on."
1684
01:32:42,140 --> 01:32:47,062
I think Storm and Peter saw that
the MTV generation was coming.
1685
01:32:47,145 --> 01:32:50,315
And Storm was a film grad
from the RCA
1686
01:32:50,399 --> 01:32:53,652
so I think he'd always fancied
being a film director.
1687
01:32:53,735 --> 01:32:56,029
So he saw this
as his opportunity
1688
01:32:56,113 --> 01:32:58,407
to fulfil that ambition.
1689
01:32:58,490 --> 01:33:02,369
Well, I was very loath to get
rid of Hipgnosis in that sense.
1690
01:33:02,452 --> 01:33:06,290
I thought we were really
at the peak of our careers.
1691
01:33:06,373 --> 01:33:09,459
And I wasn't very forward
looking, I have to say.
1692
01:33:09,543 --> 01:33:11,086
Peter was younger
than Storm and me,
1693
01:33:11,169 --> 01:33:15,048
and he was saying to me,
"Listen, Po, the time has come."
1694
01:33:15,132 --> 01:33:17,801
"You need to let it go."
So we did.
1695
01:33:18,218 --> 01:33:21,263
And we decided
that we ought to branch out
1696
01:33:21,930 --> 01:33:25,100
and become movie makers.
Do something else. Do videos.
1697
01:33:25,559 --> 01:33:27,477
It started off great.
1698
01:33:27,561 --> 01:33:31,773
But Storm began to take over
as master of the universe
1699
01:33:31,857 --> 01:33:35,193
as a director, believing that he
could have what he wanted
1700
01:33:35,277 --> 01:33:37,529
regardless of what
Peter and I said.
1701
01:33:37,613 --> 01:33:41,575
With too much money involved,
allocated amount of time,
1702
01:33:41,658 --> 01:33:46,204
Storm ran so over budget that
I couldn't control him any more.
1703
01:33:46,288 --> 01:33:49,166
Because Storm was so extreme.
1704
01:33:49,249 --> 01:33:51,668
He didn't care two hoots
for money.
1705
01:33:51,752 --> 01:33:54,087
He just did
what he needed to do.
1706
01:33:54,171 --> 01:33:57,966
This film company collapsed
after about two years
1707
01:33:58,050 --> 01:34:01,887
due to very poor management
on behalf of all of us.
1708
01:34:02,679 --> 01:34:04,640
We were financially
deeply in debt.
1709
01:34:04,723 --> 01:34:06,516
We each had to put in money.
1710
01:34:06,600 --> 01:34:09,019
And they wanted the money
the next morning at ten o'clock.
1711
01:34:09,102 --> 01:34:13,065
This is the bank.
And I said, "Here's a suitcase."
1712
01:34:13,148 --> 01:34:15,901
"My cash is in there.
Where's yours, Storm?"
1713
01:34:16,276 --> 01:34:17,611
"I don't have it."
1714
01:34:17,694 --> 01:34:19,905
"I might have to borrow it
from David Gilmour."
1715
01:34:19,988 --> 01:34:21,531
I said, "Peter, where's yours?"
1716
01:34:21,615 --> 01:34:24,242
He said, "Well, I'll have to
remortgage my house."
1717
01:34:24,326 --> 01:34:25,494
"I'm not quite sure."
1718
01:34:25,577 --> 01:34:27,663
They hadn't dealt
with the reality of it.
1719
01:34:27,746 --> 01:34:29,831
"Tomorrow morning
at ten o'clock,
1720
01:34:29,915 --> 01:34:32,751
the bank is calling the tune
and we're out of business."
1721
01:34:32,834 --> 01:34:35,003
"If you don't have your money
by ten tomorrow morning,
1722
01:34:35,087 --> 01:34:36,838
I resign from the company."
1723
01:34:36,922 --> 01:34:38,382
Ten o'clock tomorrow
morning came,
1724
01:34:38,465 --> 01:34:40,300
they didn't have
the money organised,
1725
01:34:40,384 --> 01:34:41,593
I resigned from the company,
1726
01:34:41,677 --> 01:34:43,512
and Storm and I
stopped speaking.
1727
01:34:43,595 --> 01:34:46,181
And I didn't speak to him
for 12 years.
1728
01:34:47,099 --> 01:34:48,684
It was a tragedy.
1729
01:34:48,767 --> 01:34:53,355
From all the good things
we'd done for 15, 17 years,
1730
01:34:53,438 --> 01:34:55,190
we're fucked.
1731
01:34:56,066 --> 01:34:57,693
Absolutely fucked.
1732
01:36:54,184 --> 01:36:57,479
They created some of
the best covers ever.
1733
01:36:57,562 --> 01:37:01,107
And they were highly original.
1734
01:37:01,191 --> 01:37:04,110
And they took the art seriously.
1735
01:37:04,194 --> 01:37:06,488
It wasn't
a piece of merchandise.
1736
01:37:10,283 --> 01:37:13,662
To be able to come up
with so many ideas,
1737
01:37:13,745 --> 01:37:16,957
not just for Led Zeppelin, but
for all of the artists they did
1738
01:37:17,040 --> 01:37:18,750
right across the music industry,
1739
01:37:18,834 --> 01:37:21,253
keep coming up with these
wonderful ideas,
1740
01:37:21,336 --> 01:37:23,463
time after time after time,
1741
01:37:23,547 --> 01:37:25,590
that takes
a very special person,
1742
01:37:25,674 --> 01:37:27,551
or people,
to be able to do that.
1743
01:37:29,845 --> 01:37:31,763
With such a great reputation,
1744
01:37:31,847 --> 01:37:34,224
why didn't you use Hipgnosis
for your album covers?
1745
01:37:34,307 --> 01:37:37,727
I couldn't afford them.