"Fuck art let's dance!" proclaimed the famous slogan on a post-punk T-shirt, expressing the rebellious musical spirit that thrived in art colleges at the time.
From the memorable fury of The Clash's London Calling cover to the retro rural traditionalism of the Kinks' Village Green Preservation Society, the cosmic psychedelia of Pink Floyd and the grainy monochrome existential gloom of Joy Division to the colourful androgyny of Bowie and Annie Lennox, the image has played a huge part in shaping the success of British pop over the years. In this episode, we investigate photography's role in capturing rock's majesty and mystery frozen in time, hear about the lengths people went to create those moments and how those images and album sleeves defined the times. We follow one of today's star snappers at work and investigate the ever-expanding role played by photography in rock's mythology with some legends of the genre.
In the late 60s the album, formerly just a collection of singles, established itself as the ultimate musical statement, and an album sleeve art culture was born that forsook obvious band photos for graphical invention and far more ambitious visual pastures.
Britain's rock managers, with their largely theatrical background, were flamboyant in a way that baffled their secretive American counterparts.