Cover ups: Storm Thorgerson's iconic album artwork in pictures | Art and design

 Posted on April 25, 2024  |  7 minutes  |  1328 words  |  Martina Birk

Cover ups: Storm Thorgerson's iconic album artwork – in pictures

Storm Thorgerson, who has died aged 69, was the sleeve designer behind weird and wonderful images for Pink Floyd, Ian Dury and the Mars Volta. Here, in an interview from 2009, he talks about some of his creations

guardian.co.uk/music

Thu 18 Apr 2013 18.08 EDT First published on Thu 18 Apr 2013 18.08 EDT

  • 10cc – Look Here (1980)

    Storm says: 'This picture of a sheep on a psychoanalytic couch was designed as a poster insert for 10cc's 1980 album, Look Here. The band asked for 'something different'. I never really have a clear idea of what that expression means ... I thought it was more engaging to ask a question and between us we came up with 'are you normal?' Anyway, the question led to the idea of normality and what could be more normal than a sheep, all of whom tend to follow each other. But to be normal you'd need a lengthy dose of psychotherapy.'

  • Alan Parsons – Try Anything Once (1993)

    Storm says: 'The title suggested something a touch reckless, perhaps, or at least a departure from normal behaviour. We joined this thought with the image of a bungie jump from a high bridge on television – wondering what on earth people would do for a thrill.'

  • Black Sabbath – Technical Ecstasy (1976)

    Storm says: 'Here is a design taken unequivocally from the title. I don't think I heard the music, I'm sorry to confess, but the title was so evocative and promising that it wasn't necessary.' 1976

  • Deepest Blue – Late September (2004)

    Storm says: 'The idea came from something about 'keeping tabs', keeping up with the news, finger on the pulse, having your ear to the ground. I had also wanted to use a very large wave or tsunami ever since Dark Side of the Moon.'

  • Ellis, Beggs & Howard – Homelands (1988)

    Storm says: 'A band from the 80s consisting of three very different characters – Steve Ellis, white from up north, Nick Beggs, lately of Kajagoogoo, white from down south, and Austin Howard, black from London but born in Jamaica. We devised three such totems or masks (for the three band members) that Keith Breeden (Scritti Politti, the Mission, ABC) proceeded to make from old boilers and motorbike parts – contemporary sculptures from scrap metal, suggestive of both modernity and ethnicity.'

  • Ethnix – Thirteen (2001)

    Storm says: 'Ethnix are from Israel and both the albums on which we worked seemed concerned with war, the first more directly so. It appeared that Ethnix were as questioning and critical of their own country as of others.'

  • Led Zeppelin – Presence (1976)

    Storm says: 'I was greatly impressed that the mighty Led Zeppelin could take this low-key, off-the-wall, domestic semi-kitsch, partially retro design ... so obscure really. Impressed and delighted because I always felt that the understatement adds to the power of the image.'

  • Mars Volta – Frances the Mute (2004)

    Storm says: ' What is there to say about the Mars Volta? An extraordinary coupling: exotic, extravagant, improvising, unrestrained but as tight as a drum when they need to be. A heady mix of styles woven together at a frenetic pace but interspersed with unexpected longeurs.'

  • Umphrey McGee – The Bottom Half (2007)

    Storm says: 'This design was first devised for Jane's Addiction who rejected the rough in favour of something else (they clearly don't know their onions). The idea was about female sexual allure and sexual contrariness, and came from Alice in Wonderland via Toulouse Lautrec, French can can, red/black striped corsets, Nicole Kidman in Moulin Rouge or Marilyn Monroe in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.' 2007

  • Phish – Slip Stitch and Pass (1997)

    Storm says: 'The most impressive thing about the band Phish was going to see them live and discovering that they did not have a set list. No set list? Horrors! The second impressive thing about Phish is the degree of improvisation in their concerts, and improvisation is what I was trying to represent in this design.'

  • Pink Floyd – The Dark Side of the Moon (30th Anniversary Edition, 2003)

    Storm says: 'Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon was remixed from original tapes in 5.1 surround sound or super audio to provide an even more detailed and splendid audio experience. It was the same music but not the same mix. A different beast, in effect, and it seemed appropriate to indicate as much on the cover by reworking the original design, which was an airbrush illustration with line work for tint lay.'

  • Pink Floyd – Ummagumma (1969)

    Storm says: ' This was the second design for Pink Floyd after A Saucerful of Secrets. It was an attempt to represent the many different layers in their music. No ephemeral pop band this, therefore no trivia, instead wheels within wheels, layers beneath layers, tunes replete with meaning and all this, for heaven's sake, in the same music.'

  • Pink Floyd – Pulse (1995)

    Storm says: 'Much as I'm fond of books and photo galleries, I regret that we cannot show you here the pulsing red light that was a feature of the package for Pink Floyd's Pulse CD – a double live album of The Division Bell shows at Earls Court, London.'

  • Pink Floyd – Tree of Half Life T-shirt (1997)

    Storm says: 'This image was adopted by the Floyd both as a T-shirt and as a frontpiece in a book because they liked it and it felt Floyd-like. As a Sony executive once said to me, 'It's a cover of an album never made.''

  • Richard Wright – Broken China (1996)

    Storm says: ' Richard Wright, noted keyboard player from popular rock'n'roll ensemble Pink Floyd, made a solo album in 1996. Apart from his hallmark lyricism and keyboard swashes, the album dealt thematically with an emotional breakdown, occasioned by some unstated trauma, followed by subsequent attempts at recovery.'

  • The Cranberries – Bury the Hatchet (1999)

    Storm says: 'I was both suprised and heartened that the Cranberries chose the design at all ... the Cranberries had previously used pictures of themselves, often on a sofa. Our image was clearly a departure, not a sofa in sight. The second miracle arose after we decided that red earth was paramount to contrast with a blue sky, which had to be empty (ie cloudless, to echo the empty landscape and to emphasise that the All Seeing Eye can get you anywhere).'

  • The Cranberries – Wake Up and Smell the Coffee (2001)

    Storm says: 'Sad really, but the Cranberries self-combusted like many before them. From the Beatles down, implosion seems to be a recurring nightmare for bands. For this album, I imagined little granules of coffee floating through the air, up the stairs, floating into one's bedroom...'
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