IF I asked you to think of the most iconic rock album covers ever made, chances are that at least a couple of them will have come from the design house Hipgnosis.
Picture the stark prism of Pink Floyd's Dark Side Of The Moon, the infamous 'celebrity prison break' image that graces the cover of Band On the Run by Wings or even those strange tinted children who are crawling over the stones of the Giant's Causeway on Led Zeppelin's House Of The Holy, and you're picturing the odd and rather wondrous work of Storm Thorgerson and Aubrey 'Po' Powell, otherwise known as Hipgnosis.
Director Anton Corbijn's documentary Squaring The Circle, which opens at the Queens Film Theatre in Belfast on Friday July 14, is the story of that duo's contribution to the visual side of rock and roll, and a mighty fine slice of suitably stylish storytelling it is too.
Essentially, this is the simple tale of two very talented but very different individuals. Thorgerson, who died in 2013, comes across as a brash and contrary graphic designer and 'ideas man', who's always happy to push the envelope regardless of how many celebrity feathers he may ruffle in the process – Pink Floyd's Nick Mason memorably refers to him as "A man who wouldn't take 'yes' for an answer" at one point – while Po, the photographer of the team, cuts a much more reasonable figure and provides 90 per cent of the narrative here.
Renowned photographer Corbijn, who is making his documentary debut here, imbues all the interviews and linking material with a predictably strong and moody sense of style, shooting everything, bar the colourful album covers themselves, in a rich monochrome that adds plenty of gravitas to the fables of rock and roll excess and good old fashioned gossip that most of the players are only too happy to impart.
The story traces the duo's journey from Cambridge, where their paths first cross with the Floyd, to the pretty grubby reality of late 1960s counter-culture in 'swinging London', before success comes calling laden down with buckets of cash and cocaine in tow.
Most of the key players, from surviving Floyd members to Peter Gabriel and even McCartney, are interviewed, while others, like Thorgerson, appear via archive material.
All the key artwork they delivered is covered and the talking heads relive the glory days with real relish. There's even room for comments from Noel Gallagher, although don't let that put you off. The Oasis main man has plenty to say about the craft of the classic cover, something we've lost sight of a lot in the age of streaming, and his championing of the album sleeve as the poor man's art collection is admirable.
Unlike the duo's best work, there's nothing particularly game-changing about this documentary, but it tells its tale economically and spins its rock and roll charm with impressive ease.
Stylish, memorable and full of hoary old rock road stories from those who survived to tell their tales, Squaring The Circle is an impressive journey into a lost world of art and music and is well worth spending some quality time with.
Squaring The Circle runs at the QFT until Thursday July 20
