Paul McCartney, Noel Gallagher and others set for new Hipgnosis movie
Several high-profile musicians, including Noel Gallagher, Paul McCartney and members from Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd, will appear in Anton Corbijn’s first feature-length movie Squaring the Circle: The Story of Hipgnosis.
It will arrive in cinemas and on-demand on July 14th and tells of Hipgnosis, the art collective of Storm Thorgerson, Aubrey Powell and Peter Christopherson, who created a number of iconic record sleeves for the likes of Pink Floyd, Black Sabbath and many more.
“Growing up in the late 1960s and ’70s, I was obsessed with music and everything connected to it – especially the album covers,” Corbijn said (via NME). “The record sleeves were a huge part of my education and I really enjoyed making this film as it allowed me to revisit the things I loved from that time.”
He continued: “I clearly recall the moment I first saw the sleeve for ‘Atom Heart Mother’ by Pink Floyd, and the Peter Gabriel sleeves. They just blew me away and this led me on a journey of discovery towards Hipgnosis, the London-based design studio who designed these and some of the most memorable sleeves from that time.”
The photographer and director finished, “Hipgnosis were unique in these early days, and they set the bar very high. We are lucky that Po Powell is such a great storyteller, and that everything fell into place despite being filmed during the pandemic. I hope people see it as a fun documentary, as well as an educational one, regarding that period of music and graphic design.”
The synopsis for the film reads, Hipgnosis [formed] in Cambridge during the ferment of the ’60s and became rock royalty during the boom time of the ’70s.”
It goes on, “They conjured into existence sights that no one had previously thought possible, produced visuals which popularised music that had previously been considered fringe, and were at the white-hot centre of the maddest, funniest and most creative era in the history of popular music.
The synopsis finishes, “During this period, record companies didn’t dictate to acts like Peter Gabriel, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin and Paul McCartney what their LP covers should look like – Storm and Po did. They made money; they lost money. They did great things; they did silly things. They fell out bitterly; they made up. They never played a note, but they changed music.”
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