Animals cover shoot

General discussion about Pink Floyd.
ParadiseRoad
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Animals cover shoot

Post by ParadiseRoad »

There's a new book out on Battersea Power Station that has a whole chapter on the Animals cover shoot with interviews with Aubrey Powell of Hipgnosis, plus the guy that made Algie and several of the photographers who present over those three days in December 1976. It's written by Peter Watts, a music journalist, who also wrote the piece in last month's Uncut magazine about Floyd's connection with the Balearics. The book's called Up in Smoke: The Failed Dreams of Battersea Power Station.
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drafsack
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Re: Animals cover shoot

Post by drafsack »

Battersea power station is unrecogniasable at the moment as the chimney stacks have been taken down
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Hudini
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Re: Animals cover shoot

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Speaking as an architect, the commissioned project for remodeling of Battersea and its surroundings is a complete atrocity.
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Re: Animals cover shoot

Post by jtull »

How looks the new remodeling of BPS?
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Hudini
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Re: Animals cover shoot

Post by Hudini »

Well, like pretty much anything you could see in the Middle East, besides there's Battersea in the middle of it all. Looks like a student project actually.

Image

I wrote about it on my blog last year and just recently a woman who lived there left a comment how I was wrong and the project is actually wonderful because it will give a new life to the area around the station, and that is why the residents of the area voted for it. Now that's what happens when you let general public decide on professional matters.

Here's my response, translated to English:

"Respected,
I value your opinion as an (in)direct beneficiary of the project, but I still hold my stand which is both personal and professional at the same time. As much as it is ruined today, the power station remains an invaluable piece of English and global architectural heritage and should be treated as such. The field of conservation and reconstruction of architectural monuments employs strict rules that designers must adhere to, and even when those rules are deviated from (usually for sake of revitalization of spaces where the original purpose has been abandoned, which is the case with the Battersea power station) that should be done meaningfully and tastefully. As much as the architectural and urban solutions presented for the Battersea area seem functional and aesthetically susceptible to the general (unprofessional) public, they simply depart from the spirit and context of the location and bear no unique features a project of this magnitude should have. The whole concept could have just as well been found in Paris, Berlin, Belgrade, but maybe primarily somewhere on the Arabian peninsula, where the expensive yet bland architecture has long become a standard which keeps spreading like cancer throughout the world for some time now because we all know what makes the world go 'round... Unfortunately for Battersea, and thus the industrial Art Deco architecture in general..."

That's what I think about it, in short.
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jtull
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Re: Animals cover shoot

Post by jtull »

Thanks Hudini. Well I pretty much agree with you, I think Battersea Power Station will lose his magic surrounded by these buildings. :(
Heck, even Algie the Floyd pig would refuse to fly over Battersea Power Station in this case! :)
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Re: Animals cover shoot

Post by twcc »

^^^
+1, nothing more to say
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drafsack
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Re: Animals cover shoot

Post by drafsack »

jtull wrote:Thanks Hudini. Well I pretty much agree with you, I think Battersea Power Station will lose his magic surrounded by these buildings. :(
Heck, even Algie the Floyd pig would refuse to fly over Battersea Power Station in this case! :)
The attraction of Battersea was the urban desolation around it and now its all going to be tidy and manicured
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Re: Animals cover shoot

Post by A Syd Casualty »