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Us and Them: The Authorised Story of Hipgnosis: The visionary artists behind Pink Floyd and more...
'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In this authorised account, with access to previously unpublished material and exclusive contributions from David Gilmour, Jimmy Page, Peter Gabriel, Roger Waters, Robert Plant and even Aubrey Powell himself, Mark Blake goes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.
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.
- GenresMusic
400 pages, Hardcover
Published February 2, 2023
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53 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
April 20, 2023
Despite the ease of hearing any tune you want on the internet, one of the delights music lovers of the 21st century miss out on is the beauty of album art. Part of the excitement and experience of buying a new album in the 60's and 70's was its cover.
Albums which only showed a photo of the artist were largely boring. Albums with colourful pictures, montages and designs were often another reason as well as the music on the actual record, to buy. They stay in the mind and pose questions. Where for example is Hotel California as shown on the front of the Eagles' classic. Is that the real Giant's Causeway on the cover of Led Zeppelin's Houses of the Holy? And who are the naked people crawling across the rocks and where are they heading ?
Those last two questions are answered in Us And Them, The Authorised Story of Hipgnosis, the album design company set up by Storm Thorgerson and Aubrey Po Powell.
Yes, it is the world heritage site in Northern Ireland and yes, it is a real photo taken with real actors and actresses, some of them children. Author Mark Blake dispels the myth that one of them was Samantha Fox, and reveals how Hipgnosis ran out of coloured hairspray to colour the skin of the actors and actresses after October rain, day after day, washed it off before they'd taken enough photos. The later colour tinting was done by hand - there was no computerised Photoshop in 1971! Where were the nudes heading? It is a scene inspired by sci fi writer Arthur C Clarke's Childhood's End "where the earth's children are spirited away from Planet Earth by extra terrestrials."
Hipgnosis's relationship with Led Zeppelin after the success of that album became so close that author Blake reveals how the group's manager Peter Grant told the designers that they could spend whatever it took to get the right cover for an album once an idea had been agreed. It leads to Hipgnosis flying around the world and staying in top hotels as they spare no expense to create their album art. "It costs what it costs," said Grant. Blake writes that from earning a few hundred pounds in their early days, an album cover design would reap in thousands of pounds at the height of Hipgnosis's popularity.
To read about such excess in rock and pop in the 1970's left me quite shocked and reminded me how far from the real world was the giant bubble in which these supergroups existed. And it wasn't just the super groups. There's a wonderful tale of how Linda MacCartney had just bought "a 2-foot-2-inch gold and ivory statue of the Assyrian goddess Semiramis," and "Linda wanted her on the cover of Wings Greatest, but posed on Mount Everest." I read it with disbelief. To think of the waste of money and fuel, the environmental damage, the danger to life of such a request. Yet it is taken seriously, and author Mark Blake writes in detail of the precarious attempts to land by helicopter the statue undamaged onto a mountain summit in the Alps followed by cameras and crew. It's quite incredible and crazy. Mission accomplished, Hipgnosis reported back to Linda and Paul with their photos, only to be greeted by the former Beatle with the words, "you could have just done this in a studio with a backdrop of a mountain."
I knew Hipgnosis had designed the most famous album covers of them all - Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon - but that was about all. What I didn't know was how closely bound up with the group they were, friends with the original Pink Floyd members, partaking in drugs including one I've not come across before - Morning Glory - which was eaten on "toast, smothered with jam."
The copious amounts of LSD taken, writes Mark Blake, was the inspiration for the "garish colour explosions" on other album covers. It was from their friendship that the offer of designing an album cover materialised. Mark Blake reveals how the group took the brave decision of saying no to EMI's art department to design the cover of their earlier album A Saucerful of Secrets and yes to Hipgnosis. They'd been inspired, writes Blake, by The Beatles' decision to get a non EMI artist to put together the classic Sgt Pepper album cover.
Over the years there have been various claims as to how The Dark Side of the Moon design came about. The truth, according to Mark Blake, is that it came from a 1963 physics textbook and was embellished into a maquette of a prism by designer George Hardie. I remember buying the original LP and being fascinated not only by that cover and the beating heart like graph on the inside gatefold sleeve, but also by two posters included in the package, one of the group, the other of the pyramids in Egypt. Blake reveals that Storm Thorgerson set out by taxi at two in the morning to take photos of the pyramids and found himself approached by armed Egyptian soldiers who told him he was in the middle of a firing range.
It's stories like this that illustrate the sheer adventures Hipgnosis enjoyed as they sought the very best results for the assignments they undertook.
This book reveals how they milked album cover art for all it was worth but eventually came unstuck with the dawn of punk when groups like the Sex Pistols and The Clash proved you could release memorable album covers for a fraction of the price of one designed by Hipgnosis. The demise of the LP and the rise of the CD also ended the good times of Hipgnosis who quite rightly accepted that extravagant and ultra expensive design was wasted on tiny CD cases.
In telling the story of Hipgnosis, Blake weaves in so many welcome stories and facts from the world of rock and pop, including how Paul Young met his future wife Stacey when she was chosen from "a model catalogue" to appear in the video for his song, "Come Back And Stay."
Pop videos took off as MTV came on air and Hipgnosis were keen to become one of the big creative players but it became clear that their heyday was the glory days of the 70's album covers when a pop or rock group knew they'd really made it if the small writing on one of their albums read designed by Hipgnosis. In all, they designed 373 covers though some got away without their treatment - the mighty Rolling Stones considered Hipgnosis for their album Goats Head Soup but their ideas were rejected, writes Blake, by Mick Jagger's wish to have his head covered by a veil to resemble a famous film actress.
Albums which only showed a photo of the artist were largely boring. Albums with colourful pictures, montages and designs were often another reason as well as the music on the actual record, to buy. They stay in the mind and pose questions. Where for example is Hotel California as shown on the front of the Eagles' classic. Is that the real Giant's Causeway on the cover of Led Zeppelin's Houses of the Holy? And who are the naked people crawling across the rocks and where are they heading ?
Those last two questions are answered in Us And Them, The Authorised Story of Hipgnosis, the album design company set up by Storm Thorgerson and Aubrey Po Powell.
Yes, it is the world heritage site in Northern Ireland and yes, it is a real photo taken with real actors and actresses, some of them children. Author Mark Blake dispels the myth that one of them was Samantha Fox, and reveals how Hipgnosis ran out of coloured hairspray to colour the skin of the actors and actresses after October rain, day after day, washed it off before they'd taken enough photos. The later colour tinting was done by hand - there was no computerised Photoshop in 1971! Where were the nudes heading? It is a scene inspired by sci fi writer Arthur C Clarke's Childhood's End "where the earth's children are spirited away from Planet Earth by extra terrestrials."
Hipgnosis's relationship with Led Zeppelin after the success of that album became so close that author Blake reveals how the group's manager Peter Grant told the designers that they could spend whatever it took to get the right cover for an album once an idea had been agreed. It leads to Hipgnosis flying around the world and staying in top hotels as they spare no expense to create their album art. "It costs what it costs," said Grant. Blake writes that from earning a few hundred pounds in their early days, an album cover design would reap in thousands of pounds at the height of Hipgnosis's popularity.
To read about such excess in rock and pop in the 1970's left me quite shocked and reminded me how far from the real world was the giant bubble in which these supergroups existed. And it wasn't just the super groups. There's a wonderful tale of how Linda MacCartney had just bought "a 2-foot-2-inch gold and ivory statue of the Assyrian goddess Semiramis," and "Linda wanted her on the cover of Wings Greatest, but posed on Mount Everest." I read it with disbelief. To think of the waste of money and fuel, the environmental damage, the danger to life of such a request. Yet it is taken seriously, and author Mark Blake writes in detail of the precarious attempts to land by helicopter the statue undamaged onto a mountain summit in the Alps followed by cameras and crew. It's quite incredible and crazy. Mission accomplished, Hipgnosis reported back to Linda and Paul with their photos, only to be greeted by the former Beatle with the words, "you could have just done this in a studio with a backdrop of a mountain."
I knew Hipgnosis had designed the most famous album covers of them all - Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon - but that was about all. What I didn't know was how closely bound up with the group they were, friends with the original Pink Floyd members, partaking in drugs including one I've not come across before - Morning Glory - which was eaten on "toast, smothered with jam."
The copious amounts of LSD taken, writes Mark Blake, was the inspiration for the "garish colour explosions" on other album covers. It was from their friendship that the offer of designing an album cover materialised. Mark Blake reveals how the group took the brave decision of saying no to EMI's art department to design the cover of their earlier album A Saucerful of Secrets and yes to Hipgnosis. They'd been inspired, writes Blake, by The Beatles' decision to get a non EMI artist to put together the classic Sgt Pepper album cover.
Over the years there have been various claims as to how The Dark Side of the Moon design came about. The truth, according to Mark Blake, is that it came from a 1963 physics textbook and was embellished into a maquette of a prism by designer George Hardie. I remember buying the original LP and being fascinated not only by that cover and the beating heart like graph on the inside gatefold sleeve, but also by two posters included in the package, one of the group, the other of the pyramids in Egypt. Blake reveals that Storm Thorgerson set out by taxi at two in the morning to take photos of the pyramids and found himself approached by armed Egyptian soldiers who told him he was in the middle of a firing range.
It's stories like this that illustrate the sheer adventures Hipgnosis enjoyed as they sought the very best results for the assignments they undertook.
This book reveals how they milked album cover art for all it was worth but eventually came unstuck with the dawn of punk when groups like the Sex Pistols and The Clash proved you could release memorable album covers for a fraction of the price of one designed by Hipgnosis. The demise of the LP and the rise of the CD also ended the good times of Hipgnosis who quite rightly accepted that extravagant and ultra expensive design was wasted on tiny CD cases.
In telling the story of Hipgnosis, Blake weaves in so many welcome stories and facts from the world of rock and pop, including how Paul Young met his future wife Stacey when she was chosen from "a model catalogue" to appear in the video for his song, "Come Back And Stay."
Pop videos took off as MTV came on air and Hipgnosis were keen to become one of the big creative players but it became clear that their heyday was the glory days of the 70's album covers when a pop or rock group knew they'd really made it if the small writing on one of their albums read designed by Hipgnosis. In all, they designed 373 covers though some got away without their treatment - the mighty Rolling Stones considered Hipgnosis for their album Goats Head Soup but their ideas were rejected, writes Blake, by Mick Jagger's wish to have his head covered by a veil to resemble a famous film actress.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 1, 2025
Crazy balls
April 9, 2023
Mark Blake is a highly respected author of music books, having covered (amongst others) Queen, The Who, and Pink Floyd. That last book is a corker and very popular amongst Floyd fans for its lucid style and attention to detail. So Blake's new book, on the legendary design company Hipgnosis, was something of a no brainer.
Why? Because Storm Thorgerson and 'Po' Powell parlayed their young-adult connection with the members of Pink Floyd into some of the world's most famous album covers. The famous Dark Side Of The Moon prism, Atom Heart Mother's cow, the enigmatic figures on Wish You Were Here... Hipgnosis were the go-to lads for rock album covers from the late 60s through the wonder years of vinyl records, the 1970s.
Blake's book is crammed with entertaining anecdotes and behind-the-scenes stories. It is funny, occasionally surprising, and briskly paced. Whether it's Paul McCartney and Linda rolling joints in the back of a limo or Jimmy Page falling out with the rambunctious Storm, "Us And Them" is an informative, technicolour read. Of course it helps if you are familiar with at least some of the artists, but unless you have never heard of Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin or 10CC the flow will carry you along.
Mark Blake kindly agreed to be interviewed about the book for the Vinyl Connection blog (https://vinylconnection.com.au/2023/0...) and fans of Hipgnosis may well enjoy that post. Others will want to dive into this excellent book, with those of a certain age grabbing records (or, whisper it, CDs) to soundtrack a fabulous trip.
4 ½ stars.
Why? Because Storm Thorgerson and 'Po' Powell parlayed their young-adult connection with the members of Pink Floyd into some of the world's most famous album covers. The famous Dark Side Of The Moon prism, Atom Heart Mother's cow, the enigmatic figures on Wish You Were Here... Hipgnosis were the go-to lads for rock album covers from the late 60s through the wonder years of vinyl records, the 1970s.
Blake's book is crammed with entertaining anecdotes and behind-the-scenes stories. It is funny, occasionally surprising, and briskly paced. Whether it's Paul McCartney and Linda rolling joints in the back of a limo or Jimmy Page falling out with the rambunctious Storm, "Us And Them" is an informative, technicolour read. Of course it helps if you are familiar with at least some of the artists, but unless you have never heard of Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin or 10CC the flow will carry you along.
Mark Blake kindly agreed to be interviewed about the book for the Vinyl Connection blog (https://vinylconnection.com.au/2023/0...) and fans of Hipgnosis may well enjoy that post. Others will want to dive into this excellent book, with those of a certain age grabbing records (or, whisper it, CDs) to soundtrack a fabulous trip.
4 ½ stars.
December 27, 2023
Having grown up with the Walk Away Rene book and a record collection containing a fair few Hipgnosis sleeves, it was never of case of if I was going to read this but when. I watched Anton Corbijn’s Squaring the Circle documentary a few weeks back and thinking it good but lacking depth, I decided to take the plunge with this.
I wasn’t disappointed. This had me constantly searching for obscure record sleeves on line. Having previously read Mark Blake’s excellent tome on Pink Floyd, I knew what to expect, well researched and written, with nuggets of information previously unknown.
Here, he tackles the story, never taking sides, and best of all goes into more depth about Peter Christopherson’s life (which Corbijn glosses over), and just what went wrong with Hipgnosis. The final chapter brings everything up to date. A better book about Hipgnosis I can’t imagine.
I wasn’t disappointed. This had me constantly searching for obscure record sleeves on line. Having previously read Mark Blake’s excellent tome on Pink Floyd, I knew what to expect, well researched and written, with nuggets of information previously unknown.
Here, he tackles the story, never taking sides, and best of all goes into more depth about Peter Christopherson’s life (which Corbijn glosses over), and just what went wrong with Hipgnosis. The final chapter brings everything up to date. A better book about Hipgnosis I can’t imagine.
May 26, 2025
The whole story; warts & all.
This was a pithy and revealing insight into the phenomenally creative union of Po and Storm that brought us some of the most significant artworks to cover and symbolize recording artist's work from the 60's through to this century.
This was a pithy and revealing insight into the phenomenally creative union of Po and Storm that brought us some of the most significant artworks to cover and symbolize recording artist's work from the 60's through to this century.
August 8, 2023
Takes a wee while to get going but once the book focuses on the work done by Hipgnosis, it rattles along pretty quickly. One edit though: ‘loop’ on p265 should be ‘loupe’.
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February 24, 2024Engaging read about an influential and mercurial creative team
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews