COVER STORIES

Phil Franks discusses the making of The Yes Album cover.

“At the time I was working a lot on Friends Magazine with the late Jon Goodchild, who’d come over from the States from Rolling Stone. He was their art director at the time. Out of the blue, he asked me to do some stuff for this upcoming Yes album, which they were recording at the time.

“He, being a designer, had this idea of getting the band against a white backdrop. He’d got some Marshall stacks sent to him in this photographic studio and we had the band’s name stencilled on the back and the plan was that we’d stand the band around them and we’d start from there.

“We got set up and waited for ages. We checked our setup and checked it all again for something to do. Eventually, well past the agreed time, the band turned up with one of them [Tony Kaye] with his leg in plaster. They were on their way back from a gig the night before and they’d had a terrible car crash. They’d just come to the studio in Westbourne Grove straight from the hospital.

“We got them arranged but the studio lights suddenly wouldn’t work! We checked the fuses, the power was okay, but we had no idea why they weren’t working. I hated working in studios anyway so I said, ‘Let’s get everybody to my flat on Portobello Road.’ The flat was a shithole and had once been used as a squat. As we got out of the cabs, I noticed that somebody had thrown a polystyrene head out on the street, probably from a hairdresser’s shop, so I grabbed it. I’ve no idea why. I never liked setting stuff up. Whenever I was sent to photograph people, I’d just sort of be there. I let them be themselves. I never told people to do this or do that.

“So, I put some tea on and told them to make themselves at home. I cleared the kitchen table out of the way and we tried some shots with this roll of infrared film and some filters I had. The polystyrene head we hung from the ceiling with some fishing wire and took a shot or two. I went to Advision Studios and spent pretty much a whole night there with them. It was fluorescent lighting so again it had a greenish hue. I also shot them at the Lyceum in a soundcheck rather than the actual concert.

“I have very fond memories of that cover. I was paid £140, which was a lot of money for me back then. I used it to go to San Francisco and ended up working for Rolling Stone and other things for several months. I loved the music. Still do. Starship Trooper is my favourite but there’s a whole load of stuff on it I love.”

See www.philmfreax.com for more information.

“I loved the music. Still do. Starship Trooper is my favourite but there’s a whole load of stuff on it I love.”