The Nice, Elegy Album Cover, 1971

The front cover of Elegy , the final official album released by The Nice in April 1971.

Image courtesy of The Nice. Photography by Hipgnosis.

“I don’t often dream images - more’s the pity, it would make life easier - but I did dream this one. When this image ‘popped’ into view in the brain I had been listening to the music. I had envisioned a desert where the vastness and atmosphere felt appropriate, but the scene was too empty. An addition was quickly made, namely an unending line of red footballs stretching into the distance as if they might cross the whole desert… which is almost what it was - we drove to the Sahara in a small van full of red plastic balls, placed them in a line trying to avoid footprints and took a picture just as the sun went down.” - Storm Thorgerson