Us and Them: The Authorised Story of Hipgnosis
Us and Them: The Authorised Story of Hipgnosis

Author: Mark Blake

Publisher: Nine Eight Books

Published: 2023-02-02

Total Pages: 376

ISBN-13: 178870570X

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'Hugely entertaining history' - Mojo Between the late '60s and early '80s, design house Hipgnosis created some of the most iconic and ubiquitous album artwork of all time. Their original lifespan coincided with the golden age of the 12-inch LP, beginning just as the Beatles' Sgt Pepper made the record sleeve the ultimate blank canvas and ending just as new technology looked set to usurp vinyl. Having originally been approached to design an album cover for their friends Pink Floyd, students Aubrey 'Po' Powell and Storm Thorgerson would go on to define the visual identity of rock and roll for the next fifteen years, swiftly gaining international prominence for their famed The Dark Side of the Moon artwork. This paved the way for other major musicians to set foot in the surreal photo-design world of Storm and Po, resulting in seminal Hipgnosis creations for the likes of Led Zeppelin, Paul McCartney, Genesis, Black Sabbath, ELO and Yes. In this authorised account, with access to previously unpublished material and exclusive contributions from David Gilmour, Jimmy Page, Peter Gabriel, Roger Waters, Robert Plant and even Aubrey Powell himself, Mark Blake goes behind the scenes of the Hipgnosis partnership to reveal the pioneering ambition and grand vision that led to their success, as well as the clashing egos and artistic differences that undermined it. The Hipgnosis story also offers hitherto-untold insight into some of music's most legendary bands, as viewed through the prism of the people who shaped their imagery and cultural legacy. With the work of Hipgnosis continuing to be referenced, reproduced and revered worldwide, Us and Them serves as a celebration, a cautionary tale and a compelling human drama, exploring the vital intersection between art and music.

Through the Prism
Through the Prism

Author: Aubrey Powell

Publisher: National Geographic Books

Published: 2022-02-15

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 0500252378

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The most intriguing stories of creative endeavor, volatile relationships, excessive lifestyles, and bizarre events from the world of rock, as told by Hipgnosis cofounder, creative designer, photographer, and filmmaker Aubrey Powell. Founded in 1967 by Aubrey “Po” Powell, Storm Thorgerson, and Peter Christopherson, graphic design firm Hipgnosis gained legendary status by transforming the look of album art through their designs for AC/DC, Black Sabbath, the Police, Genesis, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Paul McCartney, Syd Barrett, and the Who. In this lively volume, Powell presents brutally honest, entertaining, and revealing insider stories from the world of rock, featuring an eclectic cast of pop stars, comedians, actors, managers, gangsters, and inspirational world gures from 1966 on. His thrilling narrative is packed with anecdotes—from the founding of Hipgnosis to surviving drugs busts—and is richly illustrated with Hipgnosis artwork and Powell’s own photographs. Drama and creativity are the common threads throughout this unique account. With candor and insightful reflection, Powell reveals how the final color artwork for Led Zeppelin’s Houses of the Holy was created; how the most iconic album cover of all time—Dark Side of the Moon—came about; and how the 2017 Pink Floyd retrospective became the most successful music exhibition ever mounted by the Victoria and Albert Museum, despite the deeply antagonistic and dysfunctional relationship between Roger Waters and David Gilmour. Throughout, Powell exposes how the trappings of fame and glory upset the balance of everyday life, bringing creativity and destruction in equal measure. Packed with exciting insider stories and anecdotes featuring famous musicians, managers, and actors, Through the Prism is a must-have for music and pop-culture fans.

Yes 90125
Yes 90125

Author: Stephen Lambe

Publisher: Sonicbond Publishing Ltd

Published: 2024-08-16

Total Pages: 115

ISBN-13: 1789520142

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90125, released towards the end of 1983, was Yes’ best-selling album. A combination of commercial necessity and luck saw an album by a new band called Cinema – featuring Yes stalwarts Chris Squire, Alan White and Tony Kaye alongside talented multi-instrumentalist Trevor Rabin – become Yes, following the last-minute recruitment of vocalist Jon Anderson. A US number one hit single, ‘Owner Of A Lonely Heart,’ led to a triple platinum record and a massive world tour, giving this band a new lease of life into the 1980s. Featuring new interviews with Jon Anderson, Trevor Rabin, Tony Kaye, current Yes bassist Billy Sherwood and Atlantic executive Phil Carson, this book traces the story of the album from its roots in Rabin’s garage in 1981, via Trevor Horn’s turbulent production, up to the end of the world tour in early 1985. 90125 is reviewed in full, and the book also includes a detailed look at the somewhat complex and contrived process that created it, as well as the videos that promoted it. The book also discusses the album’s legacy and the remarkable afterlife of its innovative number-one single. The 90125 story is possibly the most astonishing in this legendary group’s nearly six-decade history. This is how it happened. Stephen Lambe is a publisher, festival promoter and freelance writer. A former chairman of The Classic Rock Society, he now owns Sonicbond Publishing. His piece about 90125 for Prog magazine was the inspiration for this, his eleventh book. The other ten include two other books about Yes, and the best-selling Citizens Of Hope And Glory – The Story Of Progressive Rock for Amberley in 2011. He has also written several volumes of local history. He lives in Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, UK.

Dreams
Dreams

Author: Mark Blake

Publisher: Nine Eight Books

Published: 2024-09-12

Total Pages: 387

ISBN-13: 1788708067

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Fleetwood Mac have had a chart-topping career that spans over fifty years and includes some of the biggest-selling albums and greatest hits of the 20th and 21st centuries. But the band's story is one of enormous triumph and also unimaginable tragedy. There has never been a band in the history of music riven with as much romantic drama, sexual tension and incredible highs and lows as Fleetwood Mac. Dreams is a must-read for casual Fleetwood Mac fans and die-hard devotees alike. In this unique collection of mini-biographies, observations and essays, Mark Blake explores all eras of the Fleetwood Mac story to explore what it is that has made them one of the most successful bands in history. Blake draws on his own exclusive interviews with Mick Fleetwood, Stevie Nicks, Lindsey Buckingham and the late Peter Green and Christine McVie, and addresses the complex human drama at the heart of the Fleetwood Mac story, including the complicated relationships between the band's main members, but he also dives deep into the towering discography that the band have built over the past half-century.

For the Love of Vinyl
For the Love of Vinyl

Author: Peter Curzon

Publisher: Picturebox, Incorporated

Published: 2008

Total Pages: 232

ISBN-13:

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"Hipgnosis was the design firm of choice for the biggest and best bands of the classic rock era. Formed by Storm Thorgerson and Aubrey Powell in 1968, Hipgnosis was a graphic design studio specializing in creative photography and working mainly in the music business designing album covers for many rock 'n' roll bands including Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Genesis, 10cc, Yes, Peter Gabriel, Black Sabbath, Paul McCartney, Syd Barrett and Styx, amongst others. For a dozen years Hipgnosis created timeless rock iconography. This is the first book to document their output in detail, focusing on over 60 package designs - from cover to label - written about in entertaining detail by the men who created them. Also included are short essays by musicians (such as Pink Floyd's Nick Mason), artists (Peter Blake) and fellow designers (Paula Scher) on their favorite covers, plus a contextual commentary by Adrian Shaughnessy, as well as unseen photographs and ephemera."--BOOK JACKET.

Hipgnosis
Hipgnosis

Author: Aubrey Powell

Publisher: National Geographic Books

Published: 2017-05-09

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 0500519323

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The complete catalogue of design collective Hipgnosis, showcasing groundbreaking cover art created for iconic rock ’n’ roll giants, including the Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney, Led Zeppelin, and Pink Floyd The complete, definitive, and never-before-published catalogue of album covers created by the legendary design agency Hipgnosis, this volume finally does justice to the work of the most important design collective in music history. Founded in 1967 by Storm Thorgerson, Aubrey “Po" Powell, and Peter Christopherson, Hipgnosis gained a legendary status in graphic design, transforming the look of album art forever and winning five Grammy nominations for package design. Their revolutionary cover art departed from the conventional group shots favored by record companies of the day, resulting in groundbreaking, often surreal designs inextricable from the major albums of many of the biggest names in the history of popular music: AC/DC, Black Sabbath, The Police, Genesis, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Paul McCartney, Syd Barrett, The Who, Wings, Yes, and XTC, to name but a few. Arranged chronologically, Vinyl . Album . Cover . Art features stunning reproductions of every single Hipgnosis cover—more than 300 in total—for the first time, along with pertinent insights from the rock ’n’ roll legends whose albums are featured and behind-the-scenes photography. The text, written by Powell, and with contributions by Peter Gabriel, Robert Plant, and Nick Mason, brims with information that illuminates the album art and the compelling stories behind each cover’s creation.

100 Best Album Covers
100 Best Album Covers

Author: Storm Thorgerson

Publisher:

Published: 1999

Total Pages: 160

ISBN-13: 9780751307832

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Focuses on the stories behind 100 of the most memorable album covers in the history of rock and roll music, tracing the history of rock music and culture from Elvis to Blur. The collection has been personally selected by Storm Thorgerson, known for his work on Pink Floyd album covers.

The Flaming Cow
The Flaming Cow

Author: Ron Geesin

Publisher:

Published: 2013

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780752486154

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By the late 1960s, popular British prog-rock outfit Pink Floyd were experiencing a creative voltage drop, so they turned to composer Ron Geesin for help in writing their next album. The Flaming Cow offers a rare insight into the brilliant but often fraught collaboration between the band and Geesin, the result of which became known as Atom Heart Mother - the title track from the Floyd's first UK number one album. From the time drummer Nick Mason visited Geesin's damp basement flat in Notting Hill, to the last game of golf between bassist Roger Waters and Geesin, this book is an unflinching account about how one of Pink Floyd's most celebrated compositions came to life. Alongside unpublished photographs from the Abbey Road recording sessions (the only ones taken) and the subsequent performances in London and Paris, Geesin goes on to describe how the title was chosen, why he was not credited on the record, how he left Hyde Park in tears, and why the group did not much like the work. The Flaming Cow rose again, firstly in France, then in London in 2008. After 40 years Atom Heart Mother remains a much-loved record, and The Flaming Cow explores its new-found cult status that has led to it being studied for the French Baccalauréat.

Magnifico!
Magnifico!

Author: Mark Blake

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2022-11-15

Total Pages: 388

ISBN-13: 1637585918

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“An engaging mix of humor and detailed critical analysis…great fun.” —Mojo From the award-winning author of Bring It On Home: Peter Grant, Led Zeppelin, and Beyond and Comfortably Numb: The Inside Story of Pink Floyd comes this deeply researched alphabetical biography of Queen and each of its dynamic members. Addressing the phenomenal success of the movie Bohemian Rhapsody, acclaimed music journalist Mark Blake builds on the legend of Queen and their enduring audience appeal. Providing a fresh, unparalleled take on Queen’s music, story, and legacy, Blake’s complete portrait covers not only the major hits and bestselling albums, but also the inside stories behind the music. Via a series of essays, interviews, and biographies, the author shares a wealth of lesser-known details—gained from over thirty years of original material—and explores what the songs of Queen say about their creators. “You want it all? There’s not much missing here.” —Classic Rock

Dreams
Dreams

Author: Maureen Mataranyika

Publisher: Authorhouse UK

Published: 2018-06

Total Pages: 134

ISBN-13: 9781546293996

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Should we attach any importance to our dreams? Can we teach ourselves to dream? We dream almost every night, but we often fail to grasp the importance of the message being downloaded to us from the spiritual realm. Dreams carry personal messages to us and offer us opportunities to better understand our lives to achieve greater inner harmony. Dreams help us to solve practical personal problems and show us a way forward in times of trials and persecutions. We should seek to understand dreams and ask the Lord for the meaning of each dream, aligning them to the Word of God.