We at AFG would like to wish a very happy 80th birthday to Pink Floyd founding member and our favorite drummer, Nick Mason! Happy birthday, Nick! We hope you enjoy your day. Nick and his lovely wife Annette will be hosting their annual Middlewick House Open Garden event in June click for info and tickets and in July, Nick and his Saucerful Of Secrets will be on tour in Italy and playing a festival in Germany click for info and tickets. 

Robert Walter (keyboards/organ for Roger Waters’ recent live band) has appeared on the Keyboard Chronicles and he speaks about his diverse career in the music industry, how he landed the gig with Roger Waters and touring in a big live production- plus more! It’s a great interview and we highly recommend you check it out.

CH Vintage Audio together with Allen and Heath original founder Andy Bereza have re-created Pink Floyd’s quad mixing console used between 1971-1974. Allen and Heath built the original mixer for Pink Floyd in September of 1971 and it can be seen in use in the film Live at Pompeii. 

During the design and build process of the 1971 Pink Floyd 28 into 4 mixer, Peter Watts who was Pink Floyd’s chief roadie at the time asked Andy Bereza to incorporate a large amount of coloured illuminated push buttons in a variety of colours for routing on the desk, in fact he brought Andy a 1 to 1 drawing of the proposed mixer layout using almost every colour of felt tip pen available. Peter, like a lot of late 60’s early 70’s people was into psychedelics and so he also wanted to see the mixing desk feature lots of bright coloured lights.

The desk was constantly modified between October 1971 and October 1974 including expanding the case and fitting Penny and Giles faders, changing the square layout of the quad pan pots to four in a vertical row, and adding extra meters in the middle of the desk.

The mixer tours Dark Side Of The Moon through until November 1974 when it is replaced with a new Allen and Heath mixer, neither Allen and Heath mixer seems to have survived. 

The Mod 1 custom quadraphonic mixer made for Pink Floyd. Seen in the film Live at Pompeii.

For fans in Spain, if you wish to see this recreated ‘Pompeii’ mixer and PA it is making an appearance at the ISE Exhibition in Barcelona from 30th January to 2nd February 2024. More information at the link here

Watch Chris Hewitt, Geoff Goddard and desk designer/builder Andy Bereza explain how they re-created the 1971 mixing console here:

Surging in popularity due to the film Saltburn, the pop tune Murder On The Dancefloor by Sophie Ellis-Bextor has entered the UK charts again coming in at No. 8! For those who don’t know Pink Floyd later years bassist/collaborator Guy Pratt played bass on this tune. In an article posted on MusicRadar.com Sophie Ellis-Bextor talks about the song and its resurgence in popularity and she goes on to say:

There’s a crucial musical element to consider, too: what Ellis-Bextor describes as a “really brilliant bassline. This was played by legendary British bassist Guy Pratt, who’s also recorded with the likes of Madonna (Like A Prayer), Pink Floyd (The Division Bell) and Michael Jackson (HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I)

“He’s got such flair for bringing melody to a bassline,” Ellis-Bextor says of Pratt. “With disco, if you haven’t got the rhythm section doing what they need to do, then it isn’t disco.” 

You can read the full article using this link: https://www.musicradar.com/news/murder-on-the-dancefloor-saltburn

Those familiar with Guy’s Youtube channel know that he posted a video playing the bassline on his Lockdown Licks video series, but if you haven’t checked it out we highly recommend you do!