Legendary Pink Floyd founding member Roger Waters has announced a new solo album, Is This The Life We Really Want? The album will be his first major solo release since 1992, when he released the album Amused to Death.
No singles have been released just yet, but considering his outspoken political opinions, on top of the state of global politics today, it’s pretty likely that it’ll form something of a concept album. Waters is best known for thematically-connected releases after all, most notably Pink Floyd albums The Wall, Animals and The Final Cut.
There’s no official release date yet. However, Waters is embarking on a massive national tour on May 26, so perhaps it’ll be out before then. The tour is titled Us + Them, indicated a Pink Floyd focus, although he did tell Rolling Stone in October that, “Probably 75% of it will be old material and 25% will be new, but it will be all connected by a general theme. It will be a cool show, I promise you.”
The album announcement was revealed via Waters’ Facebook, along with a 40 second clip of new music. Last year, a little snippet was also shared on his Instagram.
https://www.facebook.com/rogerwaters/videos/1326794944030974/
Legendary Pink Floyd co-founder Roger Waters has previewed material from his upcoming solo album, which has apparently been in the works for several years. The album will be his first solo release in 25 years, having last released Amused To Death back in 1992.
Although Pink Floyd have been long gone, Waters has not shied away from his audience, touring a mammoth production of the classic rock opera The Wall across the globe several times. He’ll be on the road for much of 2017, with his 40-date Us & Them tour running from May 26 until late October. The tour is set to unveil a brand new stage show, and music wise, will be a mix of older solo work, Pink Floyd, and new stuff. “Probably 75% of it will be old material and 25% will be new, but it will be all connected by a general theme. It will be a cool show, I promise you. It’ll be spectacular like all my shows have been,” he told Rolling Stone back in October.
The upcoming album will feature twelve tracks, has been produced by Nigel Godrich (best known for producing every Radiohead album since OK Computer), and thematically will focus on love. In that same Rolling Stone interview he also noted that the album will be “part magic carpet ride, part political rant, part anguish.”
Check out the snippet below, posted to Waters’ official Instagram:
Image: Instagram
Every now and again you stumble upon an exciting little tidbit of musical history that just puts a smile on your face. It’s hardly new news, and it has no consequential meaning or relevance really, but it’s fun and interesting nonetheless. Did you know: Pink Floyd recorded their debut album Piper At The Gates of Dawn at the same time, in the same studio, as The Beatles recording Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.
The year was 1967. The Beatles were well into their career by this point, Sgt. Pepper’s being their eighth, and ultimately one of their most influential album in terms of sonic exploration, lyrical prowess and both thematic and musical progression. Having passed the halfway mark of their relatively short career (it’s hard to believe, but their entire core discography was released within just seven years) and in the midst of their increasingly tumultuous relationships with one another, The Beatles entered EMI’s Abbey Road Studios in November 1966, and set to work on creating one of their finest masterpieces. They worked in Studio 2, where they remained until April 21, 1967, crafting and honing some of Fab Four’s greatest triumphs, like With A Little Help From My Friends, Lucy in the Sky of Diamonds, and When I’m Sixty Four.
The album was released on June 1 1967 and has gone on to be one of the most revered and acclaimed records of all time.
Just across the way, meanwhile, a relatively unknown band known as Pink Floyd were setting to work on their debut album. The four-piece had begun to form their sound and style in the years leading up to their signing with EMI, and had made a name for themselves in London’s underground music scene, particularly at the UFO Club. Now with a record deal under their belt, they were ready to begin their genre-crafting journey toward the eternally revered, game-changing name they would soon become.
With a newly minted record deal worth just £5000, (compared to The Beatles’ £25,000 budget for Sgt. Pepper’s), they entered Studio Three on February 21 and remained there until late May. The album was released on August 5, 1967.
This was to be Pink Floyd’s only full album led by the late Syd Barrett, whose increasing drug use and deteriorating mental state was reportedly having a seriously damaging effect on him both personally and musically, to the point where the band were later forced to cancel several shows – including support slots for one Jimi Hendrix. That this was his core record with the band has given it additional historical significance; decades later, superfans are still engaged in the enduring debate between Pink Floyd’s years with Barrett, and those with David Gilmour. With beloved tracks like See Emily Play and the gargantuan Astronomy Domine, the LP laid foundations for the flourishing mounds of psychedelic rock that would soon follow.
So literally next to one another, The Beatles and Pink Floyd – two of the most important musical pioneers in the entire history of rock and pop music – created some of their most seminal works. That’s pretty cool.
The connections don’t end there. Both albums were engineered by EMI’s Norman Smith, who undoubtedly had a pretty busy few months at Abbey Road. While Smith is best known for engineering almost every single Beatles album, he went on to work on three Pink Floyd records, and even played drums on Remember a Day, from their second album A Saucerful of Secrets.
The groups didn’t interact much, although Pink Floyd were invited to actually watch the Beatles record Lovely Rita in March 1967. In a recent podcast with Marc Maron, Roger Waters recalls only briefly meeting the group during those recording sessions: “I only met John Lennon once, to my huge regret, and that was in the control room at Number 2. He was a bit acerbic, he was quite snotty – so was I!”
Anyway, there’s your fun little piece of rock ‘n roll trivia for the week.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-uTocAlIyw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJh9OLlXenM
Images: EMI
The Great Gig, sorry, Pig In The Sky – Pink Floyd have brought one of their Animals songs to life, flying a massive inflatable pig over the skies of London. Well, over the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, anyway. The pink blimp is a creative way of announcing that the legendary prog band will be launching an art exhibition at the South London museum.
Titled The Pink Floyd Exhibition: Their Mortal Remains, the extensive exhibit will not only feature instruments, artwork, previously unseen live footage and photography, but an actual laser show, the kind of psychedelic display that’s become so synonymous with the British band.
The exhibition will launch in May 2017 and will remain open until October. It is timed to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Pink Floyd’s first ever single follows on from the V&A Museum’s incredibly popular David Bowie exhibition back in 2012, and is said to be “immersive, multi-sensory and theatrical.” The extensive display will hold 350 “objects and artefacts.”
The Victoria & Albert Museum director Martin Roth believes that the venues is “Perfectly placed to exhibit the work of a band that is as recognisable for its unique visual imagery as for its music.
“Pink Floyd is an impressive and enduring British design story of creative success. Alongside creating extraordinary music, they have for over five decades been pioneers in uniting sound and vision, from their earliest 1960s performances with experimental light shows, through their spectacular stadium rock shows, to their consistently iconic album covers.”
The inflatable pig is a pretty incredible reference that any Floyd fan would immediately point out; the cover of 1977 album Animals, on which Pigs is a track, features Battersea Power Station – also in South London – with a flying pig soaring up above.
The Pink Floyd Exhibition: Their Mortal Remains runs May 13 2017 – October 1 2017. More details and tickets can be found here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOqblSqx_VI
Image: The Hollywood Reporter
David Gilmour, of legendary prog band Pink Floyd, took to Jimmy Kimmel’s late night talk show this week to play what was his first American TV performance in a decade.
Gilmour was on the show to promote his upcoming solo album Rattle That Lock, which came out in September last year. Gilmour performed the stunning Pink Floyd classic Wish You Were Here, as well as the title track to his new album.
If you’re anything like me (aka a massive Pink Floyd fan with multiple copies of this album on vinyl,) this incredible rendition will send shivers up your spine and back down again. Performed with essentially the same instrumentation as the original – two acoustic guitars, backed by keys, bass and drums, it’s a gorgeous rendition of the timeless track.
Easily one of the most important, iconic songs of their career, it’s a real treat to hear a fresh version.
Originally written (as was the whole Wish You Wee Here album mostly in response to the death of Syd Barrett, it’s intimate and heartbreaking on musical and thematic levels. A full forty years after this song was first released, it’s amazing how much this song still resonates with us today.
https://youtu.be/LTGwB6CBuX0
https://youtu.be/DcGju-xvcZM
Image: Youtube / Jimmy Kimmel Live
Pink Floyd singer and guitarist Dave Gilmour is set to play at the Roman amphitheatre in Pompeii for the first time since 1971.
Back in October 1971 Pink Floyd travelled to Italy for a live performance – the only catch was that there was actually no audience on hand to watch them.
Over four days, the band filmed a collection of songs in the empty arena, which they then released later as the concert film titled Live in Pompeii. The film, directed by Adrian Maben, went on to be a critically acclaimed hit and remains one of the greatest live concert films ever made.
Dave Gilmour will return later this year and this time he will be performing in front of an audience as he continues to promote his latest solo record Rattle That Lock.
The record was only released towards the end of last year but has already been warmly received. It is a loosely based concept album that centres on the thoughts of a man across a whole day.
“I certainly wanted to end with the theme of carpe diem, seize the day, life can be as good as you make it. There are moments of encouraging people to fight for the right to be here, to make their presence felt and protest against injustices in the world. The theme is to get in there and rattle that lock,” Gilmour said of the record in a recent interview with Rolling Stone.
Pompeii’s Cultural Minister Dario Franceschini was the first man to announce the news of Gilmour’s return on his Twitter page, where he also confirmed the dates of July 7th and 8th for the performances.
“Agreement reached. After 45 years David Gilmour will play again at Pompeii on 7 and 8 July,” he tweeted.
The site, which lay buried under ash for more than 1,500 years after the Vesuvius volcano erupted, will play host to Gilmour but it won’t all be exactly the same. Pink Floyd recorded their concert over four days at the Large Theatre, but this time it is believed he will play in the smaller amphitheatre nearby. The stone built theatre was originally made to host gladiator fights but will now host the 70-year old legend as he plays in front of 2,000 fans.
Revisit some of the epic 1971 performances if you have a spare half an hour:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOwroLGc5r4
Image: Mario Ruiz/EPA
Some keen eyed/ bleary eyed Redditor has pointed out that the new blockbuster Star Wars: The Force Awakens syncs up with the classic Pink Floyd record The Dark Side of The Moon.
The correlation is obviously a coincidence but the theory goes that a whole host of Roger Water’s lyrics seem to fit with the film almost perfectly.
In the original post, the commentator highlighted a number of key scenes that fit alongside the album. They said that for it to work, the two needed to be played simultaneously as soon as the film’s opening credits end. According to the theory, the synchronisation then includes:
-The lyric “I’m not afraid of dying/ Anytime will do” is heard when, “Poe (Oscar Isaac) wakes up in the torture chamber and stares at Kylo Ren (Adam Driver). On the song The Great Gig in the Sky the scream also begins “at the same time Poe screams in the movie.”
-The lyrics “Kicking around on a piece of ground in your home town/ Waiting for someone or something to show you the way,” from the track Time then plays alongside “Rey’s (Daisy Ridley) daily struggles.”
It is, of course, not the first time that Pink Floyd’s classic album from 1973 has been attributed with such a theory. For years it has been said that Wizard of Oz perfectly synchronizes with the album, which garnered it to be cleverly titled Dark Side of the Rainbow.
The Dark Side of the Moon was the English band’s eighth studio album and reflected on the inevitable passing of time and all that that entailed, with the themes of life and death threaded throughout and structuring the concept record.
It proved to be Pink Floyd’s most commercially successful record with an approximate 50 million sales worldwide, but came in the wake of inner band turmoil as original member and former singer and lyricist Syd Barret had left only a few years earlier with mental illness issues.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqCEPytSFqU
[Image- Hipgnosis and George Hardie]
I’m not sure if a musical collaboration has ever made me as excited or given me as many goosebumps as these clips right here.
Roger Waters, longstanding member of legendary prog band Pink Floyd, is currently gearing up for a 2016 tour of his new solo work. But this weekend, he took to the stage in Washington DC, as headliner of the Music Heals, a charity concert raising money for MusiCorps.
Footage is now available of Waters performing a number of Floyd tracks live on stage, but he’s not alone, oh no. No, no, he enlisted the help of a few friends who were also playing on the night, including Rage Against The Machine guitarist (and recently, Raury collaborator) Tom Morello, and Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy William Patrick Corgan.
I know I can’t speak for others, but these three bands were some of the ultimate defining bands of my upbringing. Collectively, Floyd, RATM and Pumpkins tracks made me who I am today. For these three incredibly diverse acts to come together – to perform Pink Floyd tracks, no less – has given me a pure, unbridled sense of real joy.
Watch this video of all three performing with a full band for a rendition of Pink Floyd tracks Comfortably Numb, (fun fact, Comfortably Numb might just be this editor’s favourite song of all time.) and Brain Damage/Eclipse, as well as a cover of Bob Dylan’s Forever Young.
It’s fan shot footage but it’s still unbelievable.
Comfortably Numb
https://youtu.be/7urjTOyaZpo
Brain Damage/Eclipse
https://youtu.be/t_Qh1Tliu-c
Forever Young
https://youtu.be/3Qqu7ftqLaU
Check out the full setlist here. Not only did Waters perform a best-of Pink Floyd set, as well as the first ever live performance of When The Tigers Broke Free (oh my god – fingers crossed more footage surfaces), but covers of Bruce Springsteen, Bill Withers, Leonard Cohen and more.
Setlist:
When the Tigers Broke Free (Live Debut)
Wide River to Cross (Buddy Miller cover)
Mother (Pink Floyd)
Lean On Me (Bill Withers cover)
A Change Is Gonna Come (Sam Cooke cover)
Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Parts I-V) (Pink Floyd) (with Tom Morello)
Money (Pink Floyd) (with Tom Morello)
The Ghost of Tom Joad (Bruce Springsteen cover) (with Tom Morello)
Wish You Were Here (Pink Floyd) (with Billy Corgan and Tom Morello)
Brain Damage (Pink Floyd) (with Billy Corgan and Tom Morello)
Eclipse (Pink Floyd) (with Billy Corgan and Tom Morello)
Crystal Clear Brooks
Goodbye Blue Sky (Pink Floyd song)
Blowin’ in the Wind (Bob Dylan cover) (with Sheryl Crow)
Is There Anybody Out There? (Pink Floyd)
Nobody Home (Pink Floyd)
Hallelujah (Leonard Cohen cover)
Another Brick in the Wall Part 2 (Pink Floyd)
Comfortably Numb (Pink Floyd) (with Billy Corgan and Tom Morello)
Forever Young (Bob Dylan cover) (with Billy Corgan and Tom Morello)
(CoS)
In July, former Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour announced that he would be releasing his first album in nine years, Rattle That Lock. The news was followed shortly by an announcement of a tour that would see him head to the US for a string of shows, as well as the release of the album’s lead and title single. In anticipation of the album and tour, Gilmour staged a rehearsal gig in Brighton, where much of the recording for Rattle That Lock was done, over the weekend.
The extensive set list included the live debut of a number of the album’s tracks (5 A.M, Rattle That Lock, Faces of Stone, The Girl in the Yellow Dress), along with a bunch of Pink Floyd tracks (Wish You Were Here, Money, Shine On You Crazy Diamond, Comfortable Numb). Included in the Pink Floyd selection was a rendition of Us and Them, which Gilmour’s first live performance of the song.
He also recently shared a video on YouTube covering the making of the album’s second single, Today. In the video, Gilmour discusses how the song came about and his preference of using backing singers throughout most of his music, including Pink Floyd material. Today is said to have been pieced together by Roxy Music guitarist Phil Manzanera from music that Gilmour himself had previously discarded.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHP7l0EaouM