Through the Prism: Untold Rock Stories from the Hipgnosis Archive

If you happen to be a rock music fan of the seventies, this book is right for you. Sleeve design was so important as vynil and the music itself. Musicians invested in building great image hiring Hipgnosis as a creative and production force that made records unique and unforgettable. Once you start reading you won’t be able to stop. Incredible stories behind each project are shared by Powell. A great companion to the recent documentary about Hipgnosis “Squaring the Circle”.

A great read! Behind the scenes stories on some classic albums like Pink Floyd's Animals and Led Zeppelin's Houses of the Holy that you may not know. Hard to put down. Great job Po!

Fascinating insight into the world of rock n' roll through the eyes of the album cover designer. Hilarious stories and so many interesting facts. A must read for every music/design fan

Nel libro per i collezionisti e amanti della musica.

As you'd expect from Hipgnosis, this book is a beautiful thing to behold with its prism finish along page edges. Inside there are fascinating stories of how they designed classic album covers and their exploits with famous rock stars. I read this book very quickly, hard to put down. If you are a fan of Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin this book is a must.

I spotted only one historical inaccuracy :-)

There have been many books published about the work of the legendary Hipgnosis design studio, responsible for iconic (and for once that word is entirely appropriate) cover designs for Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Peter Gabriel and others, but most of them are just collections of the actual pictures. This one actually goes into a lot of detail about the stories behind the creation of the pictures - in addition to including a lot of the pictures, both the completed versions and the original sketches and rejected designs. It's a fascinating read - highly recommended to anyone familiar with the work of Hipgnosis who wants to find out more about how these designs came about.

This appears to be at least the third book from Mr Powell regarding similar topics, after “Vinyl. Album. Cover” and “Hipgnosis Portraits”. I have not read either so I cannot say how much, if any, is duplicated in this “Prism” composition. Mr Powell is certainly open about his past, admitting to being prosecuted for falsifying cheques and generally being rather troublesome as a youngster. The mandatory period living in squats and other such practices, such as tipping the occupant of a punt into the River Cam for no apparent reason other than to give himself a laugh, tick all the boxes of the contemporary rebel. I’m not sure how much of a friend he would have been in those formative years he seems so proud about. Latterly of course, he’s pleased to boast about having First Class flights and accompanying vodka and tonics in the lounge prior to his luxury travel, all paid for by his clients. One gets the feeling he would be the first to point a resentful finger at anyone else in that lounge, probably the type from which he stole and whose properties he occupied in the past. Name dropping is the theme of this publication and whilst I’m sure he deserved his commercial success, one wonders who was left behind in his wake. The sanctimonious Mr Waters, R. receives much attention and smooching up to. Not sure you’d get the same from Aubrey’s erstwhile partner, Storm. Yes, our Rog, he who appears to harbour a world of frustration, bile and hate. It’s surprising there’s any left for anyone else. He who seems to glorify terrorists – please correct me if I’m wrong – yet screams outrage and injustice if any military Westerner fires so much as a one bullet in their own defence. I found the tales regaled by Mr Powell highly entertaining and if you can step outside of this bubble of luvvies and naval gazing, it’s well worth the time to read.