____twoism

Hey guys, I think I've made a discovery that may just blow your minds. I've seen before (but can no longer find) a thread discussing the possible location of the photograph in the MHTRTC cover, however no exact location could be specified, just that it was in Banff, Alberta, Canada (as per the Space Age Bachelor interview, 1998).

Anyway, I was reading about locations in Banff and looking at photos of various scenic areas and came across the lookout on Mt Norquay. Doing a Google and Flickr search turned up the following photos which seem to point to it being the exact wall and mountains in the background. The photos with snow make the wall appear smaller, but I'm guessing that is because of amount of snow on the ground in winter as in the pictures with no snow, the wall is waist height.

Please take a look at these photos and give me your thoughts:









The originals can be found at the following locations:

http://vfr1200fa.blogspot.com/2010/08/banff.html
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dangerouslyawesome/2306025741/in/photostream/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dangerouslyawesome/2306026207/sizes/m/in/photostream/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/11906152@N04/1243127699/

for reference

More













http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/view?q=norquay+lookout&uname=105340367785190205851&psc=G&cuname=105340367785190205851&filter=1#5201106148928867938

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/view?q=norquay+lookout&uname=105340367785190205851&psc=G&cuname=105340367785190205851&filter=1#5039716042629700642

http://www.emil.com/my_stuff/trips/alberta-2001-07/7-6-Fri-Banff/pages/banff-norquay-1.htm

http://dearhams.blogspot.com/2011/07/banff-national-park-alberta-and-yoho.html

http://simonandgen.tripod.com/id5.html

http://www.challengerforumz.com/showpost.php?s=b18502d92cfdef846846ec861de8063b&p=618781&postcount=3

Great observation. Of course we can't know for sure unless we were to match up the exact same crack in the wall from the cover with a picture of it now, but this certainly seems most likely. I would base the photo on a location in Canada more so than anywhere else, you know, for thematic purposes since this was technically their debut LP.

Rodheh wrote:Great observation. Of course we can't know for sure unless we were to match up the exact same crack in the wall from the cover with a picture of it now, but this certainly seems most likely. I would base the photo on a location in Canada more so than anywhere else, you know, for thematic purposes since this was technically their debut LP.

I believe it's already been confirmed that the photo was taken at Banff Springs in the Space Age Bachelor interview:

Michael: "Yeah, Banff Springs. the cover for Music Has the Right to Children was taken there. It's funny all these places in Canada have stolen their names from places in Scotland like Banff, Airdrie, Strathmore, etc loads of them around Calgary alone.

Mount Norquay lookout, where I believe the photo was taken looks out over Banff and from here you can also see Mount Rundle which appears to be the mountain in the background on the cover.

if this is, indeed, it, then fantastic find!

I've found a youtube vid of this specific view, quite cloudy though so you can't see much of the mountains.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htisF-qwF-w

GeometricPish wrote:

Just changed the album art for my MHTR songs to this one.

TY Sir.

Rodheh wrote:Great observation. Of course we can't know for sure unless we were to match up the exact same crack in the wall from the cover with a picture of it now, but this certainly seems most likely. I would base the photo on a location in Canada more so than anywhere else, you know, for thematic purposes since this was technically their debut LP.

Just checked the scenic drive via Google Maps. Annoyingly the Google camera car never made it off the Trans Canada Highway so no Streetview to do a visual check of the wall.

Rodheh wrote:Great observation. Of course we can't know for sure unless we were to match up the exact same crack in the wall from the cover with a picture of it now, but this certainly seems most likely. I would base the photo on a location in Canada more so than anywhere else, you know, for thematic purposes since this was technically their debut LP.

It could be an old picture of them as kids with their parents. Didn't they used to live in Canada for a while when they were younger? (Not that has anything to do with the exact location of the photo)

Found some more:














http://www.flickr.com/photos/summer_salt2010/5673385710/

http://coolmossblog.com/the-hills-are-alive/

http://smalltowngirl-lindsay.blogspot.com/2011/09/lindsay-goes-west-part-2.html

http://web2.uwindsor.ca/courses/leddy/creitz/photos.html

http://www.bikepics.com/pictures/1855730/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/leveypa/6214438636/in/photostream/

polar sky wrote: It could be an old picture of them as kids with their parents. Didn't they used to live in Canada for a while when they were younger? (Not that has anything to do with the exact location of the photo)

They did indeed live briefly in Alberta, Canada (see Warp Records Biography http://bocpages.org/wiki/Biography#warprecords.com). If you read the Space Age Bachelor interview ( http://bocpages.org/wiki/Space_Age_Bachelor_interview ), Mike specifically mentions Banff as the location of the cover photograph. It is highly likely that it is Mike and Marcus with their family/friends in the photograph.

Michael: "It's a small world. I stayed in Braeside for a while and I remember a shoot out near the Trade Winds hotel, when I was told to get down on the floor of the car. I also remember getting ski masks to go trick or treating with my friends, and this old guy thought we were going to mug him."

is this where the trade winds remix comes from?

I've been doing some further research into these photos and I think I've found not only the proof that this is the exact location of the MHTRTC cover, but also that the cover image has been horizontally flipped. Compare the mountain in the background of the following photo with the mountain in a flipped version of the cover:




Overlaying the flipped cover on the photo with varying degrees of transparency reveals something interesting. It's not perfect, but I put that down to the differing position and angles of the photographers:






(sorry for posting a lot of large images, but I'm sure your internet connections can handle it!)

Nice work

PHD in Boczology

some top notch forensics work man, nicely done.

all i can say is that that wall gets some BABES

Jakerpoo wrote:some top notch forensics work man, nicely done.

all i can say is that that wall gets some BABES

WOOF!