The cover for The Who’s classic “Who’s Next” album shows a photograph, taken at Easington Colliery, of the band apparently having just urinated on a large concrete piling protruding from a slag heap. Easington Colliery is an old coal mining town in County Durham, in England. It is situated to the north of Horden, and a short distance to the east of Easington Village.

According to photographer Ethan A. Russell, most of the members were unable to urinate, so rainwater was tipped from an empty film canister to achieve the desired effect. Here is an alternate photo taken at the same concrete piling.

The photograph is often seen to be a reference to the monolith discovered on the moon in the film 2001: A Space Odyssey, which had been released only about three years earlier.

Related posts: