Pink Floyd

Pink Floyd - Beginnings: 1967-1972
Another compilation, this time of assorted archive performance footage, some presumably rediscovered/long-lost. Mostly it seemed to be culled from European television shows of random tracks of the time. It wasn't even much of an excuse to laud Syd as he only featured on the opening 2 numbers (though perhaps the premise that they weren't as good when he was gone would be tricky to contest). Still, some nice curios.

The John Leckie Story
A 2 part chat with the producer of many bands. He started as a tape operator at Abbey Road, working on later Beatles albums. Was promoted to engineer, and started to work with Pink Floyd, and Syd Barratt. Syd's doomed 2nd album came to grief because he could no longer adhere to a schedule. Leckie worked on Meddle, the Household Instruments experiment, Dark Side of the Moon (briefly) and was present when they did Wish You Were Here, popping in on the fateful time Syd revisited his old friends.
Leckie also worked with Bebop Deluxe, XTC, The Skids, Magazine and others. Then he took a brief spiritual sabbatical.
After that, he worked with the Fall, the Stone Roses, Radiohead and Muse. Was always driven to find bands doing something new and different musically. Does less production work these days because few projects interest him as much as his existing ones, and because some bands don't think of using him. Also, production is a different event than how it typically used to be.

There was a press conference to announce their big exhibition at the V&A Museum in May, but Roger Waters and Nick Mason seemed to have much bigger plans:

Wish You Were at Glastonbury?

Roger Waters and Nick Mason made a rare appearance together on Thursday and said they would be up for playing Glastonbury, presumably music to the ears of the festival’s founder, Michael Eavis, who last year said his wishlist included Pink Floyd and Fleetwood Mac.
The problem will be David Gilmour: his former bandmates gave the impression of only being vaguely aware of his movements.
“The last I heard, David retired,” said Waters to Mason. “You know David better than me.”
Mason replied: “I heard he’d retired and then he seemed to unretire, so we don’t know.” He added that he had never played at Glastonbury and it would be fun “but I don’t think it is very likely but yes I would do it given the opportunity”.
Waters has played the festival and remembered it being “really cold. There were a lot of people and it seemed very jolly and I liked it”.

Hard to know whether there would be any point, but if Gilmour was persuaded of the "for one night only" principle, there might be a chance. If not, no harm done.

Ginger Gilmour - Bright Side of the Moon
Iain McNay discussed from her book, how she met Dave Gilmour, around the time the band were touring 'Meddle'. She felt the band saved her soul. The Dark Side money was huge - Dave wanted to save, but was persuaded to invest because there was so much to deal with. She had trouble after a period of detox, and found a spiritual guiding path. The stress around the time of 'The Wall' eventually led to her separating from Dave. When Roger rejoined his former band-mates at Live 8, Ginger was watching from home, and could tell that Dave was still angry with Roger, but by the time they got to "Comfortably Numb", they had thawed, and she felt it was an emotional moment.

One of the less important news stories of the week:

Shrimp named in honour of Pink Floyd

The synalpheus pinkfloydi uses its large pink claw to create a noise so loud it can kill small fish.
The team behind the discovery vowed years ago if it ever found a new pink shrimp it would "honour" the rockers.

Not really the best day for science.

Brian Johnson's A Life On The Road: Nick Mason
Brian went down to a secret aerodrome in the Cotswolds to not only chat to the Floyd drummer, but to admire his car collection, and even get a spin in his Ferrari 250 GTO. Nick spoke of being inspired as a drummer by seeing Ginger Baker in Cream. He felt Syd maybe just wanted out of the band, unwilling to pursue the same dream as the others. After the acrimonious split with Roger Waters, there were insurance questions so Nick had to use one of his rare cars as collateral (though he got it back, and the tours were both hugely successful). Their post-Waters shows showcased a more visual set-up than before, playing in surprising new places like Versailles and Venice. The tour life makes things very easy, dealing with almost all niceties except for packing suitcases and being in the lobby on time. There was also mention of the new exhibition Their Mortal Remains. Nick admits his self-effacement, preferring others to lavish praise, rather than boast.

The Dark Side of the Moon, by John Harris
Music journalist manages a slim tome on the story behind the making of this rock masterpiece, from the early days of the band, and how their odyssey through trying to cope with and without Syd Barrett led to the ideas and imagination involved in this multi-million-selling classic. Nothing earth-shattering, but still interesting to read.

Live From Abbey Road - Classics - David Gilmour
From Aug 29, 2006, with Phil Manzanera and Rick Wright in his band, around the time of his On An Island solo record. They did Astronomy Dominie, On An Island and Echoes. He used an MiniDisc recorder to keep track of ideas in those days.

David Gilmour - Live at Pompeii
Unlike the famous show that the Floyd did there, here he did a proper commercial gig, supposedly the first since 79AD. I suspect the full gig was a lot longer than this hour-long show. But he made good use of material from his solo work, and the more famous work of Pink Floyd.

A Technicolour Dream
A 2008 documentary about the 1967 fundraising event at Alexandra Palace, where PF were the headliners, and also a look at the events in the years preceding (and then succeeding) the 14 hour Technicolour Dream. So it was another examination of Syd Barrett, whilst also including Pete Brown, John Hopkins, Phil May, Peter Jenner & Joe Boyd, Nick Mason and an unusually high-spirited Roger Waters. Hard to tell if it was just a memory of a happier time, but Waters dropped his usual po-faced stuff to seem somewhat at odds with some of the other THs, and no harm in that.

Ron Geesin: An Improvised Life
The maverick pianist and record producer arguably made his name producing part of Pink Floyd's Atom Heart Mother, though he later went on to be the opening act for Genesis and The Who. He scored some short films, and is beloved in France. He recently helped perform AHM and was able to call on Dave Gilmour to help with the performance. A lovely bloke.

Pink Floyd - A Performance of Dark Side of the Moon
As released as the live album Pulse, this Earls Court gig in October 1994 was around the time of the Division Bell release. Gilmour, Wright, Mason and co were in fine form, and Sam Brown did the Clare Torry bits in Great Gig in the Sky.

Nick Mason is touring his own form of tribute show:

The Saucerful of Secrets

He formed the supergroup with the intention of highlighting Floyd’s early work, and they played their first shows in May then announced a European tour. The lineup includes Spandau Ballet’s Gary Kemp and Lee Harris of the Blockheads, with Pink Floyd collaborators Guy Pratt and Dom Beken.

^^^Nick also has a multi-disc compilation, Unattended Luggage, on sale too.

SophieCo: Roger Waters
More of a political chat than a musical one. The man synonymous with Walls lives in the USA and sees a propaganda machine at work. The span of his career is a blink of an eye compared to the whole span of humanity. He accepted a Palestinian call for help in 2004, and continues to avoid working in Israel. He is sceptical of US warmongers, and very sceptical about the White Helmets' organisation, as well as the narrative against Russia.

Roger Waters The Wall
A movie length concert film where Waters presents the Wall album, mixed in with clips of himself visiting his grandfather's war grave in France, and latterly his father's war grave in Italy. His grief is understandable, and the album, which may be his magnum opus, at least works well with modern technology using a wall made of screens to tell his story. Some of the songs have rightly become well loved, many of them don't really hold up otherwise.

Nick Mason was awarded a CBE in the NY Honours List.

Mike Peters (of the Alarm) becomes an MBE, Nicola Benedetti and Nitin Sawhney become CBEs.

David Grant (formerly of early 80s hitsters Linx & duets with Jaki Graham) becomes an MBE.

Auction: David Gilmour
The guitar legend recently sold off 120 guitars from his collection over the years, raising money for charity. The top lot was a "black Strat" which went for more than $3.3 million, bought by some American sports owner. Overall, they raised $21.5 million, which is staggering.

Gerald Scarfe @ Cheltenham Literature Festival
He's got his autobiography out, and previewed it with some pictorial moments (he's also bringing out a book of his artwork, separately). The title, Long Drawn Out Trip, summed up his career. He talked during the Q&A section of this show about his work with Pink Floyd - the time of Wish You Were Here, how he enjoyed Dark Side of the Moon for its stage show, then worked on The Wall, and was a friend of Roger Waters.

misery guts wrote:Nick Mason is touring his own form of tribute show:

The Saucerful of Secrets

He formed the supergroup with the intention of highlighting Floyd’s early work, and they played their first shows in May then announced a European tour. The lineup includes Spandau Ballet’s Gary Kemp and Lee Harris of the Blockheads, with Pink Floyd collaborators Guy Pratt and Dom Beken.

A live album of his SOS band (!) recorded at the Roundhouse has gone in at #5 this week.

Roger Waters has a live album out this week (or next) as well.

misery guts wrote:
Roger Waters has a live album out this week (or next) as well.

Roger Waters - Us + Them
An enjoyable lengthy show, with Roger enjoying it as much as anyone. It's always worth being reminded that though Another Brick in the Wall pt 2 was the big hit, it's part 2 for a reason. With a troubled world facing a gloomy future, a reminder of someone still fighting it.

misery guts wrote:

misery guts wrote:Nick Mason is touring his own form of tribute show:

The Saucerful of Secrets

He formed the supergroup with the intention of highlighting Floyd’s early work, and they played their first shows in May then announced a European tour. The lineup includes Spandau Ballet’s Gary Kemp and Lee Harris of the Blockheads, with Pink Floyd collaborators Guy Pratt and Dom Beken.

A live album of his SOS band (!) recorded at the Roundhouse has gone in at #5 this week.

Nick Mason's Saucerful of Secrets - Live at the Roundhouse
From 2019, Nick and other band members talked about what brought them together in this project, inbetween concert footage. The playlist was culled from early Floyd albums, especially the Syd Barrett era. Kemp and Pratt sang with gusto and paid great faith to the original line-up. Mason even included footage of the infamous Emil Keller interview in the introduction, which presumably makes him smile as much as it does the rest of us.

The Big Interview w/Dan Rather - Roger Waters
Dan described him as a visionary, and other things. Roger enjoys the solitude of fly fishing, and doesn't overdo his personal time. He was prepping for another tour at the time of this 2017 chat. He's still inspired by humanity and has plenty of subject matter. Fear builds walls. He was somewhat pushing his then-new Is This The Life We Really Want? Producer Nigel Godrich was involved and helped. On tour, material can be 75% old stuff, 25% new. He mentions the Montreal gig during the Animals tour which led in part to the concept of The Wall. He'd been missing Syd Barrett emotionally since 1968. He talked about his father having been a conscientious objector but changed his stance. Roger would not be a conscientious objector in a hypothetically similar situation. He defends defending the Palestinians. His activism preceded his music - talk of a student trip to Paris in 1959. He supports Black Lives Matter and despised Donald Trump. He mentioned Mahler's 5th Symphony as a tune he would like in memory rather than any of his own.

Pink Floyd - In Venice
From 1990, a shorter production than the excellent & more frequently-repeated Delicate Sound of Thunder show, though Wayne Isham was credited for this too. They did throw in some older numbers, after pushing some from the then-recent Momentary Lapse of Reason set.

Pink Floyd - The Endless River
A special film from director Ian Emes, using footage to tell a story using the music from their last album. I personally didn't feel it worked too well, but then with an album like that,  it was always a tough ask.

In other news, I gather Roger Waters has remarried - to now his 5th wife

Video Killed The Radio Star: Pink Floyd
Perhaps surprising this series hasn't looked at them before now. Tracks like Money and Arnold Layne were considered, there was a lot on the multiple imagery of High Hopes, and then the Live 8 reformation concert, judged here as the closure on the story.

In an unexpected offshoot from the current crisis in Ukraine, Nick Mason and Dave Gilmour, together with Guy Pratt and Nitin Sawhney, have produced a new track, "Hey, Hey, Rise Up!" with help from a leading Ukrainian singer, Andriy Khlyvnyuk. Proceeds will go to Ukrainian Humanitarian Relief.