SteelStacks

SteelStacks

In May, Steve Miller came to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania to perform at a fundraiser and also, to meet up with Hypergallery's Rob and Andy, sign some prints and talk up a Storm. Here he is writing a personal message to Storm on some Hypergallery packing card:

Writing to Storm Thorgerson

The ArtsQuest Center where the band played is a contemporary performing arts center that sits on a site formally occupied by The Bethlehem Steel Corporation (1857–2003), once the second-largest steel producer in the United States. The site of the company's former main plant, in Bethlehem, PA, is now home to an entire arts and entertainment district called SteelStacks. The plant's 5 blast furnaces have been left standing and serve as the back drop for this new campus. What a dramatic backdrop for a venue and what an inspiring place to be. Here are some more photos of SteelStacks and Steve Miller signing Hypergallery prints in their shadow:

SteelStacks

ArtsQuest

Bingo!

Let Your Hair Down, Baby

Steve Miller prints - fresh from signing in the USA

As you may have seen from the @hypergallery Twitter feed, we have been on an American adventure to see Steve Miller play a charity gig.

While we were there he very kindly graced all the wonderful Storm Thorgerson album art we took over with his squiggle; a bit of a change of pace for those masterly guitar playing fingers. This means we can proudly launch a newly star-spangled Steve Miller wall at Hypergallery!

Bingo! was designed by Storm for the album of the same name that has been such a huge success ever since it was released in June 2010. It is one we are particularly proud of and we think Adrian at Senecio has made a stunning print that brings out all the colourful craziness of the original artwork.

Another vibrant piece of work is Water Guitar with its acid green grass and retro-dressed protagonists. You can see the making of the Water Guitar shoot below, which gives an idea of the lengths Storm and his team go to in their mission to do it 'for real'.

Peter Gabriel | Latest News

So excited to see the footage from Peter's Hammersmith show, filmed in 3D. And these interviews: Peter Gabriel | Latest News

Tree of Half Life for Bowel Cancer UK

Tomorrow night Hypergallery will be at a very special event indeed: Summer Champagne Party at Chelsea Physic Garden, in aid of Bowel Cancer UK. It is a chance to celebrate the work of the charity, raise awareness and to raise much needed funds in the most magical of surroundings. We are hoping that TREE OF HALF LIFE, chosen by us as a fitting piece of work for the occasion, raises a good sum for this most deserving cause.

THE TREE OF HALF LIFE was submitted as an image for a Floyd 30th anniversary campaign that never got fully realized. It was so liked by the band, and by Storm Thorgerson that it appeared as a t-shirt and as the frontispiece of the ‘Mind Over Matter’ book of Floyd imagery. A cover waiting wistfully for an album to go with it.

HERE IS WHAT STORM HAS TO SAY ABOUT IT:

Is the tree head a real physical thing? A fluke of nature?, or a sculpture of some mad topiary artist? Is it the spirit of the forest? Is the spirit taking the shape only briefly in order to communicate with us, to let us know there is intelligence there? Will it revert back to normal tree shape just as quickly? Look again and it will not be there. Was it in the mind all along? Are the branches like the neurons of the brain? The tree of knowledge, the tree of half life. The official story is that this tree profile head was achieved by helicopter topiary – a man hung from a ‘copter and cut the shape much as he might a hedge. Anybody who says different, who says the Tree Head was done on computer is a telltale and a stinking rotten liar.

Photographed on Hasselblad 500C with daylight transparency in a London Park in February with available light. The tree is still there, but you might not see it like this unless in the right frame of mind.

Old School

A snazzy boxset has just been released for Alice Cooper's 1972 single release, SCHOOL'S OUT FOR SUMMER. The original design for the SCHOOLS OUT release was by Wilkes & Braun Inc., (Craig Braun and Tom Wilkes), who designed and directed many great covers including Rolling Stones' FLOWERS and BEGGARS BANQUET and Neil Young's HARVEST.

The school desk design, though, reminds me think of our visit to Lol Creme's studio in March when he talked about the cover he and Kevin Godley designed for their THINKS: SCHOOL STINKS release as Hotlegs in 1970.

THINKS was never a huge album, but the sleeve was great: the school desk crammed with cigarette butts, broken cookies, pin-up postcards, odd socks, and a creepily occupied gas mask that preceded the SCHOOL'S OUT release by two years.


Here are some more pics of Lol Creme's very own copy:

And a couple of shots of Lol himself, being a most obliging subject for a Hypergallery video (all of which will be on the website and on our Vimeo / YouTube channels in the near future:

I wonder, does anyone out there own this LP? Would make a great little display alongside the Alice Cooper vinyl. A hypergallery outing to the record store, as so often, beckons.