Hipgnosis was a London-based design group best known for creating album cover artwork for Pink Floyd, T. Rex, Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, Scorpions, Paul McCartney & Wings, Peter Gabriel, and countless other rock bands and performers. The group consisted primarily of Storm Thorgerson and Aubrey Powell, who were later joined by Peter Christopherson. Also known as Sleazy, Christopherson was a founding member of Throbbing Gristle, and also performed with their offshoot band Psychic TV and Coil.
Hipgnosis produced celebrated album graphics for many classic rock classics, including Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here, Houses of the Holy, and The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway. These are regularly featured in books about album cover design, but the only title to cross over into artist designed album cover books is Go 2, by British band XTC.
Hearing that Brian Eno was a fan of their 1978 debut, the group approached him to produce their follow-up. He refused, convinced they were not in need of a producer. The record label disagreed and hired John Leckie.
Also released in 1978, Go 2 was issued in a stark black cover with white typewriter text satirizing music world marketing. Designed and executed by Hipgnosis, the text consists of an essay by Thorgerson about how album covers are used to attract potential buyers of the album. It is not dissimilar to the cover for Michael Snow’s 1975 LP Music For Piano, Whistling, Microphone and Tape Recorder [below, bottom].*
The text reads:
This is a RECORD COVER. This writing is the DESIGN upon the record cover. The DESIGN is to help SELL the record. We hope to draw your attention to it and encourage you to pick it up.
When you have done that maybe you’ll be persuaded to listen to the music – in this case XTC’s Go 2 album. Then we want you to BUY it. The idea being that the more of you that buy this record the more money Virgin Records, the manager Ian Reid and XTC themselves will make. To the aforementioned this is known as PLEASURE. A good cover DESIGN is one that attracts more buyers and gives more pleasure. This writing is trying to pull you in much like an eye-catching picture. It is designed to get you to READ IT. This is called luring the VICTIM, and you are the VICTIM. But if you have a free mind you should STOP READING NOW! because all we are attempting to do is to get you to read. Yet this is a DOUBLE BIND because if you indeed stop you’ll be doing what we tell you, and if you read on you’ll be doing what we’ve wanted all along. And the more you read on the more you’re falling for this simple device of telling you exactly how a good commercial design works. They’re TRICKS and this is the worst TRICK of all since it’s describing the TRICK whilst trying to TRICK you, and if you’ve read this far then you’re TRICKED but you wouldn’t have known this unless you’d read this far. At least we’re telling you directly instead of seducing you with a beautiful or haunting visual that may never tell you. We’re letting you know that you ought to buy this record because in essence it’s a PRODUCT and PRODUCTS are to be consumed and you are a consumer and this is a good PRODUCT. We could have written the band’s name in special lettering so that it stood out and you’d see it before you’d read any of this writing and possibly have bought it anyway. What we are really suggesting is that you are FOOLISH to buy or not buy an album merely as a consequence of the design on its cover. This is a con because if you agree then you’ll probably like this writing – which is the cover design – and hence the album inside. But we’ve just warned you against that. The con is a con. A good cover design could be considered as one that gets you to buy the record, but that never actually happens to YOU because YOU know it’s just a design for the cover. And this is the RECORD COVER.
The back cover of the LP continues the conceit:
This is the back of a RECORD COVER. Catalogue No. V2108. This writing is the DESIGN on the back of the cover. This design is not like that on the FRONT. Its aim is to impart information about the RECORD and the GATEFOLD INSERT within rather than trying to sell it by being impactful or clever or any of those things. We have kept it in the same style so that the entire package has a sense of IDENTITY which-ever way you see it. The record is by XTC. This is their second album. We won’t attempt to describe their music because all you have to do is play it and you can describe it for yourself. XTC is made up of Andy Partridge, Barry Andrews, Colin Moulding and Terry Chambers. We have shown photos of them below because this is regarded as commer-cially sensible and helpful in creating their image. And if you’re curious at all you might find it interesting to see what the musicians actually look like. And there are more pictures and words on the very colourful insert which you can only see if you buy the whole thing.
Many people think it helpful and useful to know some details about the songs on the record , so here they are:-
1. Meccanik Dancing (Oh We Go!)
2. Battery Brides (Andy Paints Brian)
3. Buzzcity Talking
4. Crowded Room
5. The Rhythm
6. Red
7. Beatown
8. Lfe is Good in the Greenhouse
9. Jumping in Gomorrah
10. My Weapon
11. Super-Tuff
12. I am the Audience.
You may also be interested to know that the record was produced and Engineered by John Leckie with assistant engineers Haydn Bendall and Pete James at Abbey Road, also, Andy Llewelyn and Jess Sutcliffe at Matrix and that Barry’s Roots photos were by Dave Eagle. We have to repeat the catalogue number on the insert for bureaucratic reasons and here it is V2108. Lastly we would like to make it clear that this is a product of Virgin Records Limited, partly because they wanted us to and partly because it is a legal necessity. Virgin Records’ head office is located at Vernon Yard,Portobello Road, London W.11. and is (P) Virgin Records
As does the vinyl label, at least in earlier pressings:
This is a LABEL. This writing is known as the LABEL COPY, It is put on the label so you know WHICH side is WHICH. It's also put on for COPYRIGHT reasons. Normally it is made as LEGIBLE as possible, but in this case we are trying to maintain a DESIGN CONTINUITY in the
packaging and advertising material. This is often regarded as an efficient way to PROMOTE the IMAGE of the band and hence INCREASE album sales. This is SIDE ONE of XTC'S Go 2 album and the songs are: [...] For BUREAUCRATIC reasons we must include the catalogue numbers
JARAC VIP-6928 and VIP-6928-A. and for LEGAL reasons the copyright signs P 1978 Virgin Records Ltd. and C 1978 Virgin Music (Publishers) Ltd. This record is STEREO but the label is mono.
Like the 1986 Public Image Ltd album Album (or Cassette, Compact Disc, and, eventually, mp3), the text for Go 2 is altered to reflect the format of the cassette and CD [see below]. In France, the label decided on a more traditional cover portrait of the band [below, top].
XTC continued with inventive album covers, including Nonsuch from 1992, which featured an illustration etched directly onto the plastic CD case, and it’s follow-up seven years later, Apple Venus Volume 1, which sported a holographic cover image of a peacock feather that resembled an uvula.
Ursula Block featured Go 2 in her landmark exhibition and catalogue Broken Music [see earlier post, here].
* Another example that predates Go 2 is the penguin edition of Terry Southern’s Flash and Filigree and The Magic Christian. The double-novel is designed by John Sewell, who boldly includes the publisher’s brief atop the cover illustration:
Comments on wording: Emphasize author. Satirical author of Dr Strangelove and Candy.
Audience level: Sophisticated and middlebrow
Treatment: Could we have a non-pictorial cover.
