Aubrey Powell über sein neues Buch Through the Prism, Syd, 50 Jahre Dark Side und Animals Remix …

Der Musikjournalist und Autor Mark Blake unterhielt sich 45 Minuten mit Hipgnosis-Günder Aubrey Powell über dessen neues Buch Through the Prism. Powell sprach über Led Zeppelin, Peter Gabriel, Paul McCartney … und selbstverständlich Pink Floyd.

Powell verriet währenddessen neues über den Stand des Animals Remix, an dem sowohl er als auch Blake mitarbeiteten. Powell war verantwortlich für das Artwork und Blake schrieb die Liner-Notes, die zu Uneinigkeit zwischen den Bandmitgliedern führte. David Gilmour und Nick Mason stimmten am Ende gegen die zusätzlichen Informationen. Roger Waters veröffentlichte die Liner Notes schließlich auf seiner Website.

Dark Side Of The Moon

Powell schilderte mit Freude die Entstehung des Dark Side Of The Moon Covers und erwähnte voller Stolz, dass zum 50er 2023 einiges geplant ist, für das er zuständig ist. 

AUBREY POWELL: I want to start talking about Dark Side Of The Moon. I think one of the things to understand is that in the 1970s, I have to say that albums sold in 10 of millions and there was huge advantage to us because it meant that the record industry was a Washington party and were the artists. That meant that when we came up with the kind of rather esoteric ideas and things that were strange and surreal, Money was there to do and no one said no. It’s obvious how it is today.

I went up to Abbey Road Studios with Storm and talked to the Band, you know nobody had any ideas about what they wanted to do, and they made a very special Album and Rick Wright, the keyboard player, said, “You know the thing is Storm …. we don’t really want any of your surrealists probably anymore, you know, we want something more graphic, like black magic chocolate.” That was not really our style. So Storm and I went away rather depressed. We came up with some ideas that we felt are pretty cool and then one day I was sitting by a window reading a physics book about light sources and inside was almost this identical picture and Storm immediately made that (zeigte mit den Händen die Prismenform) Design of a Triangle and said I’ve got it.

Plagiarism is always the best thing when you’re stuck with an idea, so why not ripp off a physics book. Anyway I sketched out a way for paper and wandered out for Abbey Road … so how about that, there were some other ideas too, clearly I think there was this Silver Surfer arriving across the cosmos. Immediately all four members of the band went that’s it, that’s it and I remember Storm saying but what about the other ones, and they said, “No, no, that’s it, that’s it”. And how right they were. We left the studio rather confused. On one hand glad that we got the Job but on the other hand this was not our style at all.

The interesting thing for me is that Dark Side Of The Moon sold 65 millions and this has become an iconic symbol worldwide, you know it’s hard to walk down the street and not see somebody wearing a T-Shirt.

Next year in March is the 50th anniversary, which I’m designing all the repackaging and all the other things and plans, the pyramids in Egypt, I can’t say too much, but that’s going to be quite a thing, an emotional thing for me. Storm is not here anymore … I’m privileged.

Syd Barrett

Den Abstieg von Syd Barrett hat Powell noch in Erinnerung. Er erinnerte sich an den einen Freitag, an dem Syd noch voller Tatendrang war und an den darauffolgenden Montag, an dem er ihn wiedertraf, mit Black Eyes, wortlos, nicht mehr in der Lage, die Gitarre zu spielen.

AUBREY POWELL: Syd, I knew very well. We were all Brothers in arms, we all hang out together, and Syd was a wonderful and beautiful human being. Very, very clever, excellent painter. He had all of those beautiful girls in Cambridge, incredibly annoying. The thing about Syd was, being a sensitive person and being the artist that he was, he could turn his hand to anything, he was a very renaissance person, he was painting, he was designing sculpture, he was playing guitar and writing his extraordinary songs.

Being sensitive if you start dabbing drugs, and you start having LSD, sometimes your brain gets eternal you just can’t help it and I remember Friday night, he was driving, Monday night, the black eyes, he couldn’t speak, he couldn’t play the guitar, it was shocking beyond. I always use this story to discourage young people from experimenting too heavily with psychedelics, that can be very damaging. And after that it was never the same, very difficult to relate to him.

I did a photo session with him which is in the book where He’s doing yoga, trying to hold himself together but the haunting look in his eye, it was unbelievable. It’s one of the most beautiful portraits.

Hey Hey Rise Up

Die Frage, ob der neue Song als Single veröffentlicht werden wird, beantwortete er nicht. Fragen Sie mich nicht danach, kein Kommentar, so Powell.

AUBREY POWELL: Dont ask me to comment about this … I apreaciate they done it for the Ukraine and hats off to them. I agree with that. But …I will say nothing about it.

Interessante Antwort. Das Artwork für die Single stammt wohl eher nicht von ihm. Kann mir vorstellen, dass er gern seinen Beitrag zur Corporate Identity geleistet hätte. Eine Single auf Vinyl wäre wünschenswert. Am besten mit einer exklusiven B-Seite. 

Animals Remix

Powell bestätigte, dass der Remix 2018 von Animals in Kürze rauskommen wird.

AUBREY POWELL: Yes, that’s coming out shortly. In fact, I’ve been working on it today. It’s a complete new Cover. I’ve re-shoot the Pig over the Power Station only at night, and it looks amazing, It’s really something very different. I Think People will be interested see that and packaging is much more elaborate than all the rest of it.

Animals is one of my favorite things because of the stories attached to it about the pig flying away and everybody said well that has to be a publicity stuff, but it wasn’t it was terrifying. Especially when you saw the thing where you see the pig going up and there’s a jet airliner going across the eagle and I thought “Oh my god, I won’t be responsible for the worst aviation attraction in history, and luckily not.

You could not do that now. I remember going back to the Power Station, which was a dump, it was just full of coal and debris and broken cars. It was just absolutely dilapidated, and I knocked on the door outside, and you know how big it is, and a bloke opened, and I said I want to see something important, and he said that’s me. I said I want to fly up a pig the chimneys, and he said “fine”. I mean can you imagine doing that now.

Storm had the idea (alternatives Animals cover: Kind, das Eltern beim Sex erwischte). I still remember when we walked in with it. I still got the drowing at home. We said look, this is Animals, and they all went “Naw, naw.” Roger already had the pig in his mind. Roger and him (Storm) grew up together, their Mothers were both at the communist party, and they were next door to each other, and they were best friends. But you know things have got strange and Storm didn’t know about time and was always late and Roger got very unhappy with him and consequently after that he didn’t want to work with Storm.

What a lot of people don’t aware of is that I was arrested, and they were going to charge me with being in charge of an unidentified flying object.

Quelle: Exclusive Footage from Aubrey Powell’s talk, 19/05/2022 London

Bücher von Aubrey Powell:

JPC: Through the Prism: Untold Rock Stories from the Hipgnosis Archive

JPC: Aubrey Powell: Hipgnosis Portraits

JPC: Aubrey Powell: Vinyl – Album – Cover – Art

Amazon: Through the Prism: Untold Rock Stories from the Hipgnosis Archive

Amazon: Vinyl • Album • Cover • Art: Hipgnosis – Das Gesamtwerk

Amazon: Hipgnosis Portraits

Danke für Unterstützung.