Whos next album cover location
How a Urine Shortage Almost Lost the ‘Who’s Next’ Cover Shoot
Who's Next arrived on Aug. 14, 1971, with a group of songs that would become among the Who's best-loved and a cover image once lovingly described by Pete Townshend as "pissing on the obelisk." How they got there is almost as interesting the music's long journey from Townshend's discarded epic Lifehouse into a single-disc rock classic.
The Who were traveling back to London, after a show in Sunderland, when they happened upon a huge slab of concrete towering over a mining site just outside Sheffield. So why not pee on it, right?
Only it didn't unfold quite that smoothly.
Ethan Russell, having gained no small measure of fame for photographing the Beatles' last launch as a foursome, had taken to riding along with the Who in search of a suitable cover image. Nothing had stuck.
In fact, they'd ultimately discard a photo featuring buxom nude women, and another of Keith Moon dressed in lingerie and a wig, holding a whip – though these images later appeared in advertisements before ruling a home in latter-day reissues of Who's Next.
Earlier, someone had sug
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Think of your favourite album. Then think of your favourite album cover. It’s possible, like me, that you get the same answer.
Some album covers are just pictures of the band. Some more arty/conceptual. Others may be of a definable location, that fans may later wish to visit in tribute. Just think how many people must walk across that zebra crossing on Abbey Road every year!
It’s July 1971 and 4 guys in a band are driving in a van between gigs in the north of England. With them is an American photographer, who’s been tasked with taking pictures of the group for their forthcoming album. At this point he has no particular idea what image he’s looking for. The van passes through an industrial landscape of spoil tips from nearby coal mines. From the passenger seat, the photographer sees a strange object sticking out of the spoil tip, a white monolithic concrete tower, and instinctively tells the driver (the lead guitarist) to pull over into a convenient lay-by. He drags all 4 of them out of the van and tells them to go over to the tower and muck about a bit while he takes some speculative photographs. Amongst other things, the guitarist decid
The story behind The Who's Who's Next album artwork
Up there among the elite British rock albums, The Who’s Who’s Next was not only a triumphant follow-up to Tommy, but also touched by the hand of Lady Luck – and that’s never more true than with the way the cover concept came together.
“I was working with Pete Townshend on his Lifehouse project, which was an ambitious concept based on a futuristic era when people got their entertainment through being strapped into special suits,” recalls Ethan Russell, the American photographer who took the album’s iconic cover shot. “As far as I understand it, a lot of the songs on Who’s Next were originally intended for that record [Lifehouse]. Anyway, the band had virtually finished Who’s Next, but still didn’t have a clue about what to do about the cover.”
It was at this point that fate smiled benevolently.
You may like“We were driving back through [County Durham] from a gig one night, doing about 110 miles per hour down the motorway – which freaked me out. Pete was driving, and he asked me whether I had any ideas for the sleeve. Then sudden
The precise location of The Who's mysterious concrete monolith from the cover of Who's Next has finally been pinpointed
It's one of rock's most iconic cover photographs: The four members of The Who, carefully adjusting their clothing after apparently urinating on a mysterious concrete monolith.
For years, the precise location of the Who's Next cover shoot has remained a mystery, but a report in the Derbyshire Times reveals that the band's historic pee stop took place near Temple Normanton, a township two and a half miles south-east of Chesterfield, Derbyshire.
Let's rewind. On May 14, 1971, American photographer Ethan Russell photographed the The Who pretending to destroy their dressing room at the University of Liverpool, the shot that was used on the back cover of Who’s Next. The following morning, as the group headed back to London, Russell spotted a slag heap dotted by several concrete pilings, like abandoned props from 2001: A Space Odyssey.
You may like“I was thinking about that scene,” Russell told Classic Rock in 2022, “so I had the band sort of behaving the way the apes and humans do in the movie, reacting to it in fea
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A classic rock & roll image, the cover of The Who's epoch-defining album was chosen over a shot featuring Keith Moon on wig and corset (!).
The monolith depicted on the cover of Who’s Next is found on Sheffield. You might know that already, but what you might not know is that the monolith is surrounded by lots of similar constructions. Have a good look at this video, shot by a fan:
The photo was taken by Ethan A. Russell.
And I hate bringing rock & roll myths down, but the band members did not really urinate on the monolith. Rainwater was tipped from an empty film canister to create the intended effect.