The first day of the shoot started late and went poorly. As fans can guess, something indeed went wrong. Isles Of Wonder Intro – Opening Ceremony | London 2012 OlympicsĪ three-day photo shoot was scheduled for early December, and as a precaution, a marksman–as in, a real shooter–was hired to take out the inflatable pig in case something went horribly wrong. It was even momentarily featured in the 2012 London Olympic opening ceremony short film Isles Of Wonder, by auteur Danny Boyle, who made sure the iconic towers had a porcine adornment. The station still hosts tours, and thanks to its appearance on the iconic cover, still sees thousands of visitors annually. The final design of a 30-foot flying pig against Battlesea Power Station, a landmark of the London skyline, was conceived by bassist Roger Waters. Led Zeppelin’s Houses Of The Holy, The Alan Parsons Project’s I Robot, and many of Pink Floyd’s earlier albums, including Wish You Were Here, were all designed by Hipgnosis. Many concepts for the Animals cover were proposed by Hipgnosis, an art studio that was behind many of the seventies’ most eye-catching covers. It was the heyday of rock and roll excess after all, and what could be more excessive than a 30-foot pig flying through the air in front of a London landmark?
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For the band’s album cover of their 1977 studio effort, Animals, the band went big. Pink Floyd was one of the most commercially successful rock bands of the 1970s, with some of the highest-selling albums of the decade.