One of them was about light, the other tended to be dark, but without them progressive rock would have been much poorer in visual terms and both left this world almost at the same time: Patrick Woodroffe on May 10th and H. R. Giger two days later.
Giger has become truly famous when he created a titular extraterrestrial monster for the “Alien” movie, although music lovers knew him before that thanks to the Swiss designer’s cover for ELP’s classic “Brain Salad Surgery” which was preceded by the artwork for MAGMA and Hans Rudolf’s compatriots CELTIC FROST would be followed by the equally striking works for such different musicians as Debbie Harry, CARCASS and DEAD KENNEDYS. Yet poet and painter Woodroffe’s oeuvre lay mostly in the domain of fantasy he was a huge fan of, so he created memorable works for GREENSLADE’s “Time And Tide” and “The Pentateuch Of The Cosmogony,” a wonderful art-and-music package thought up by Patrick and recorded by Dave Greenslade, as well as for BUDGIE’s “Bandolier” and STRAWBS’ “Burning For You,” although the Englishman also was no stranger to metal and went on to illustrate STRATOVARIUS’ “Fright Night.”
Now the masters are gone but their art remains.
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H. R. Giger (center)
with ELP and Pete Sinfield -
ELP – Brain Salad Surgery
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Patrick Woodroffe
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GREENSLADE – Time And Tide
