Us and Them: The Authorised Story of Hipgnosis (https://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/178870567X/braindamage-21) takes a close look at arguably the principal music industry designers, Hipgnosis. From the late ’60s, 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 In this authorised account, with access to previously unpublished material and exclusive contributions from David Gilmour, Jimmy Page, Peter Gabriel, Roger Waters, Robert Plant and extensive insights from Aubrey Powell, alongside past interviews and conversations with Storm, 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. Blake, who is best known in the Floyd community for his excellent book, Pigs Might Fly: The Inside Story Of Pink Floyd (known as Comfortably Numb in the US) which originally came out in 2007, and subsequently updated, has achieved something quite special with this book. Anyone with trepidation over the “authorised” element of the title need not worry. The book pulls no punches with regard to laying out mistakes made, the difficult relationship between Storm and Po, the heavy drug ingestion at times, the sense of self-importance and ego which affected things, arguments between Hipgnosis and various bands, musicians and management, and the regret over certain decisions and attitudes.
