Battersea’s Power Rock, Prog & Heavy metal
Sin After Sin by Judas Priest, 1977.
Battersea was firmly placed on the pedestal of Rock history in 1977, when the Battersea Power Station featured on the cover of Pink Floyd’s tenth studio album Animals.
Quadrophenia by The Who, 1973
However, four years previously the Power Station had featured in the inner sleeve of the double album Quadrophenia, by The Who. This was later adapted into a film in 1979, following in the Tommy style concept album. Quadrophenia tells the story of a young Mod, Jimmy and his inner turmoils. It is set in London and Brighton, the two cities where Mod culture flourished in the 60’. Mods were predominantly middle and working class young men, recognisable for their crisp dress, their vespas and their interest in modern jazz. They were at odds with Rockers, who likewise rode motorbikes, sported leather jackets and blasted Rock’n’Roll music on their radios.
These post-war subcultures would go on to influence other counter and pop culture movements. Mods would splinter off into Skinheads and would influence the fashion of the Swinging 60’, whereas Rockers would evolve into Hard Rockers, Metalheads and what not. Mods consumed amphatamines and Rockers pretty much every other drug available.
The Who, became synonymous with Mod culture, tailoring the Power Rock to this slick bunch. For the recording of Quadrophenia, the band setup their own recording studio on Thessaly Road, Ramport Studios. Now a surgeon’s clinic, the studio is situated in a council estate, a stone’s throw away from the Battersea Power Station, which would have been an ever conspicuous presence with its rising fumes plumes.
During the Who’s recording, the band’s larger than life drummer Keith Moon, ran a campaign with local children for the erection of a zebra crossing, at a notoriously dangerous junction in the estate. This amusing event has been memorialised in Brian Barnes’s mural: A Brief History of Time, which can be seen in the nearby Carey Estate.
Quadrophenia front cover, by The Who
A Brief History of Time by Brian Barnes. Brian sadly passed away last year. He has been a long time campaigner in Battersea fro social justice and leader of the Battersea Power Station Community Group, fighting through the years against rapacious developers for the preservation of the Power Station. Notice Keith Moore in the foreground.
I wonder if Hipgnosis, the company that designed Pink Floyd’s artwork for Animals, was inspired by Quadrophenia, when it came to using the Battersea Power Station as a backdrop to their flying pig concept. Books have been written about the Floyd’s many intriguing album covers, but for expediency purposes, Animals was directly influenced by George Orwell’s Animal Farm and his dictatorial pig Napoleon.
The artwork itself is a superimposition of various photos heavily edited to give the depiction a painting like quality. Hipgnosis attempted the photoshoot three times with an inflatable pig tethered to one of the chimneys of the Power Station. One of these has come down in history as the ultimate PR stunt, when Algie, so named by the band, broke loose, grounding Heathrow’s air traffic and landing off the coast of Kent. For the matter, Animals did fairly well in the charts, reaching No.2 in the UK and No.3 in the US.
Animals was not recorded in Battersea, but in Britannia Row in Islington. Luckily The Who, did not fold up Ramport Studios, where more music was recorded, including Joan Jett and Neil Young. Two groundbreaking albums recorded in the studios, would improve the fortunes of two heavy bands that would prove pivotal in the evolution of British music.
In 1976 Thin Lizzy, laid down tracks for their Jailbreak, hard rock extravaganza. This seminal album, finally saw them break into the American market with their single The Boys are Back in Town, still considered a towering rock anthem.
The song not surprisingly charted at No.1 in Ireland and No.8 in the UK. The band’s leader was the talented mix raced Irish singer/bassist Phil Lynott, a striking frontman and proliferous song writer. Always considered an Irish band, due to their adaptations of Irish folk music, Thin Lizzy’s lineup featured an American and a Scottish guitarists, and in later incarnations featured the Irish guitar wizard Gary Moore and the English heavy weight legend John Sykes (Whitesnake).
The other great album penned at Ramport’s, was SIn After Sin by Judas Priest in 1977. Judas are actually from Birmingham, the industrial pit that spawned Black Sabbath. It is no coincidence that the Midlands proved fertile grounds for the high pitched screaming, cavernous distorted guitars and pummelling drums sounds of what became known as the New Wave of British Heavy Metal.
This musical phenomenon which has pervaded modern society beyond the confines of the music industry, was more than just an anti-establishment outpouring of youthful exuberance. It was directly influenced by the industrial hardware of the Heart of England, an aural response to the sound of mechanised production and manufacture. Soon enough many contemporary heavy bands transcended their primeval roots, moving away from the blues tinged Hard Rock of Led Zeppelin and Cream, exploring classical and baroque motifs and chord progressions and incorporating prog elements once explored by Pink Floyd, Yes and the likes.
Ironically by exploring 18th century music Judas Priest and Thin Lizzy where rejuvenating heavy music whilst adding a new layer of sophistication to the mix. Sin After Sin, was Priests’s first album on a major label and featured a fantastic cover of Joan Baez’s Diamonds and Rust, one of the great folk American heroes of the 60’. This is just one of many examples of how a pop ballad can be turned into a Heavy Metal anthem. The album was produced by Roger Glover, bassist of Deep Purple, the band that introduced baroque interludes in their high octane Hard Rock in the early 70’, think Highway Star.
Sin After Sin’s cover artwork, features an Egyptian style tomb. This is not to be found in a Battersea burial ground, but not too far in Putney Vale Cemetery. Surely the location is not coincidental in its proximity to Ramport’s. Just like Animals, the artist has painted the mausoleum during a night time setting, in an empty landscape with an added skull with flaring eyes above the tomb’s entrance. In the foreground are a female and male figure. It’s certainly not a great piece of art, but the below photograph will shows, that the tomb’s depiction is pretty accurate.
A green heritage plaque memorialises Ramport Studios. There’s a lot more music heritage in Battersea to be dug up. These are some highlights!
If you love classic rock get in touch for a private London Rock’n’Roll Tour \m/
