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Through the camera eye
Fin Costello did a lot of photograpy for the Purple family back in the 70s. He is now taking his work on the road for exhibition around Norway. Roy Hilmar Svendsen from NRK spoke to him and published an interesting interview. ‘Cos Fin has a heck of war stories to tell:
At the time I was also putting together «Long Live Rock & Roll» for Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow. It was originally called «Kill The King», a title taken from one of the songs on the album. We shot a photo in California on a hill, with a skeleton in a suit of armor, as if a king had been killed in a old medieval war, with grass growing up through the skeleton, and a sword sticking in it which went around the fold of the cover. The shield of the fallen had the cover of the previous album, «Rainbow Rising», on it. A concept cover, and all that. My sister even found some rattlesnakes in the grass, and we put one around the sword. We thought it was a great idea, it looked really good. And we took it to Polydor, the record company – and they said: «Forget it! No snakes!».
The story behind the Kiss Alive cover, how Rush got pissed at Fin, and advise for young music photographers — read it all at nrk.no (don’t get spooked, it’s in English).
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
Oh, man! That’s the cover and title they should have used–snakes be damned!
September 11th, 2008 at 21:23I couldn’t agree more, T!
IMHO, the Rainbow Rising cover is an enduring classic of the vinyl art genre, whereas LLRR’s is pretty ordinary. What Fin is describing here, however, would have sold a heap of records just for the cover alone. What a pearler!
September 12th, 2008 at 05:11He also talks about how the fold out live audience shot, of fans withe the banner, actually is taken at a Rush concert! T-shirts and banner have been airbrushed…
September 12th, 2008 at 09:18I bet he’s got some great shots of MkII/III Does anybody know if Purple shots from this era have been published??
Jeff
September 12th, 2008 at 11:38I always loved that inside shot of “Long Live Rock and Roll”.
It’s been many moons now since I read it was atually taken at a RUSH show.
I do not(…)remember If that really bothered me…..
Perhaps very shortly ’cause first it felt very cool to think that was actually a scene in front of a Rainbow show!!!!
I was about 12 years old and everything concerning DP, Rainbow, Led Zeppelin, Heart and lots of other music I loved seemed LARGER THAN LIFE.
This SHOT expressed a feeling I embraced.
At the time I probably considered lots of people above the age of 30 kinda old, I think.
Ritchie and the others were born around 1945, so……
I do remember that the DUTCH Over The Rainbow FanClan Magazine celebrated Paicey’s 33thh birthday in the early 80’s…He is and was the youngest, I think.
Nowadays I look back ofcourse and think : Wow, how young they all were around 1977/1978. And : that they were being regarded as OLD by many, espescially the PUNK generation.
In 84, the criticism in that vein was even harsher.
In 85 I thought, buying a ticket for the show in Belgium,that this might be THE LAST ONE!!!!
In 2008 we know better than that.
Ofcourse, the reunion never gave us what we REALLY wished for.
Well, some moments were really BIG, that’s for sure…
So, the albumcover…………
In a way it felt kinda ok because way back in Holland we listened to Alfred Lagarde and his hour of HeavyRock, called BetonUur(Hour of Concrete)and he played all these great bands, including RUSH……Rainbow,…..Ted Nugent,…..AC/DC……..
That picture sort of contains the feeling of those times I seem(…)to remember
Well, I ve gotta go…..
back in the reality instead of dreaming away………….
September 13th, 2008 at 13:02Fin took all the photos on the MIJ album, the one of Ritchie on the inside the album is one of my faves as is the one inside the first Rainbow album.
September 13th, 2008 at 22:41Those pics are all in black and white, I wonder if they were actually taken in color?
I’d love for Fin to publish a book his DP photos, or maybe just his Blackmore pics.
That would be awesome.