Following Mark Blake’s authorised biography of Hipgnosis comes Anton Corbijn’s documentary about the pioneering art studio, the relationship between co-founders Aubrey “Po” Powell and Storm Thorgerson and their remarkable body of work for Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, 10CC, Peter Gabriel, Wings and more. This is Corbijn’s first feature documentary and as you’d expect given director and subject matter, he provides excellent pace and a strong visual identity, especially in the arty black-and-white set-pieces that bookend the film.
In the absence of Thorgerson – who died in 2013 – Po is the film’s main narrator. Typically garrulous, Po’s recollections are bolstered by archive interviews and footage, but Corbijn’s trump card is the group of rock heavyweights who deliver thoughtful and occasionally self-effacing reflections. Corbijn coaxes a Royal Flush of contributors: all three surviving members of Floyd, Page and Plant, Peter Gabriel and Paul McCartney.
Alongside these are several Hipgnosis photographers and designers plus assorted members of the Hipgnosis/Floyd set in both Cambridge and London – some familiar from another recent documentary, Have You Got It Yet? The Story Of Syd Barrett & Pink Floyd. Elsewhere, Peter Saville explores Hipgnosis’s work from a designer’s standpoint, while Noel Gallagher – an odd choice, perhaps – explains the importance of album art from a fan and aspiring musician’s perspective. These luminaries deliver a well-drilled run through the greatest hits of Hipgnosis anecdotage, from red footballs in the Sahara Desert to flying pigs at Battersea Power Station. These fabulous yarns are told with pace, so it’s impossible to get bored even if it’s the hundredth time you have heard how Hipgnosis set a man on fire for Wish You Were Here, rebuilt a New Orleans speakeasy for In Through The Out Door or flew a valuable art deco statue halfway up the Alps for a Wings greatest hit collection. It would have been interesting to hear a little more about Hipgnosis’s style from other artists and designers – including Corbijn himself given the stark differences and occasional similarities with his own work.
During this journey, we learn much about Storm and Po’s volatile relationship, both with each other and – in the case of Storm – with their clients. One of the best sequences is a super-cut featuring every interviewee giving their impressions of Thorgerson, which basically constitutes the various ways it is possible to say: “He was the rudest man I have ever met.” This slowly gives way to an outpouring of admiration and affection, led, somewhat surprisingly by Roger Waters, who fell out bitterly with his old friend and squash partner but, it seems, never stopped loving him. Make of that what you will.
The broader theme is that Hipgnosis were as rock and roll as the bands they worked with, having coming from the same place – both literally in the case of Floyd, but also politically and artistically. Hipgnosis’s rule-breaking attitude complemented the anti-establishment ethos of their bands, particularly after they left the acid-saturated London counterculture behind and wallowed in the endless possibilities presented by 70s mega-stardom. Hipgnosis even dissolved in rancour as egos and sheer exhaustion took hold, much as you’d expect from any great band. But with a back catalogue that includes Dark Side Of The Moon and Houses Of The Holy, they left an era-defining legacy.