Category Archives: News

Roger Waters weighs in on “toxic” and “insignificant” Pink Floyd bandmates

Pink Floyd - A Fleeting Glimpse Posted on by

 

The bad blood between Pink Floyd members has continued, this time with Roger Waters slagging off his ex-bandmates in a new interview.

As per Ultimate Guitar, Waters was appearing on the WTF with Marc Maron Podcast when he less than fondly looked back on his time in the iconic British band. When asked about Pink Floyd’s massive contribution to music, he was unbothered. “I was never that intellectual about it,” he said casually. “It’s something that happened, that development. Now I understand a lot more than I did about it.”

Waters was less dismissive about his influence on arena rock: “What happened was that the band became popular, and my major contribution to rock ‘n’ roll, if you like – I’ve written some decent songs but it was really to develop the theater of arena rock, which I did almost single-handedly back in the mid-’70s.”

He wasn’t done with the boasts there, saying that “over the years, I’ve come to realise that actually, I have quite a sophisticated musical brain and that I get a lot of things that other people don’t notice.” And he put that development down to escaping the Pink Floyd bubble. “I’m serious, I think it was really important that I got away when I did,” he insisted.

It was at this point Waters turned his fire on his former bandmates. “Well, I was in a very toxic environment where I was around some people…Well, David (Gilmour, guitar) and Rick (Wright, keyboards) mainly were always trying to drag me down. They were always trying to knock me off.”

Waters stated that they tried to undermine his artistic vision “by claiming that I was tone-deaf and that I didn’t understand music. ‘Oh, he’s just a boring teacher figure who tells us what to do but he can’t tune his own guitar…’. They were very snotty and snippy because they felt very insignificant, I think.”

He did end with a moment of more considered reflection though. “Those years that we were together, whatever it was like socially, there is no question but that we did some really good work together,” he recalled. “We didn’t share the vision but we shared the work.”

Guy Pratt & Gary Kemp : Rockonteurs Podcast Episode 52 with JJ Burnel

Pink Floyd - A Fleeting Glimpse Posted on by

Rockonteurs is a podcast all about the real stories behind real music.

Presented by Spandau Ballet’s Gary Kemp, who wrote and performed megahits like ‘Gold’ and ‘True’, and Guy Pratt, a bass player who shaped songs for the likes of Madonna and Pink Floyd, you’ll hear exclusive stories of life on the road, in the studio and what really happened behind the scenes from artists who wrote, performed and produced the some of the biggest classic rock and pop tracks of all time.

Rockonteurs is a podcast all about the real stories behind real music.

This weeks upcoming episode is Number 52 and features guest JJ Burnel of The Stranglers

Available from 11th September 2021 on Itunes, Spotify and all other Listening Platforms. Click Here to be taken to Apple Musics Listening Page

Guy Pratt & Gary Kemp : Rockonteurs Podcast Episode 51 with Steven Wilson

Pink Floyd - A Fleeting Glimpse Posted on by

Rockonteurs is a podcast all about the real stories behind real music.

Presented by Spandau Ballet’s Gary Kemp, who wrote and performed megahits like ‘Gold’ and ‘True’, and Guy Pratt, a bass player who shaped songs for the likes of Madonna and Pink Floyd, you’ll hear exclusive stories of life on the road, in the studio and what really happened behind the scenes from artists who wrote, performed and produced the some of the biggest classic rock and pop tracks of all time.

Rockonteurs is a podcast all about the real stories behind real music.

This weeks upcoming episode is Number 51 and features guest Steve Wilson Ex Porcupine Tree

Available from 4th September 2021 on Itunes, Spotify and all other Listening Platforms. Click Here to be taken to Apple Musics Listening Page

Pink Floyd share ‘Learning to Fly’ from ‘A Momentary Lapse Of Reason’ remix album

Pink Floyd - A Fleeting Glimpse Posted on by
Pink Floyd - Learning To Fly (360 Reality Audio / 2019 Remix / Official Music Video)

Pink Floyd will release a ‘Remixed &Updated’ version of their 13th studio album ‘A Momentary Lapse of Reason’ on Friday 29th October 2021.

Originally available as part of Pink Floyd’s December 2019 box set ‘The Later Years’, the album was remixed and updated from the original 1987 master tapes by Andy Jackson and David Gilmour, assisted by Damon Iddins.

Pink Floyd announce remixed and updated A Momentary Lapse Of Reason

Pink Floyd - A Fleeting Glimpse Posted on by

Pink Floyd have announced that they will release a remixed and updated A Momentary Lapse Of Reason through PLG on October 29.

The new version of the band’s 1987 album which saw Gilmour helm the band in the wake of Roger Waters’ departure, it has been remixed and updated from the original 1987 master tapes for The Later Years by Andy Jackson with David Gilmour, assisted by Damon Iddins, the album will be available on Vinyl, CD, DVD, Blu-ray and digitally with Stereo and 5.1 mixes.

In addition, for the first time, the album will be presented in 360 Reality Audio, a new immersive music experience that closely mimics the omni-directional soundscape of live musical performance for the listener using Sony’s object-based 360 Spatial Sound technologies. A Momentary Lapse Of Reasonwill also be released in Dolby Audio and UHD in addition to 360 Reality Audio, all of which will continue with other Pink Floyd releases.

“Some years after we had recorded the album, we came to the conclusion that we should update it to make it more timeless, featuring more of the traditional instruments that we liked and that we were more used to playing,” explains David Gilmour. “This was something we thought it would benefit from. We also looked for and found some previously unused keyboard parts of Rick’s which helped us to come up with a new vibe, a new feeling for the album.”

“Initially it seemed a bit odd to start re-assembling a record after 35 odd years, but the public’s appetite for alternate views of the same work has undoubtedly increased immeasurably over time,” adds Nick Mason. “I enjoyed re-recording drum tracks with unlimited studio time. Momentary Lapsehad been recorded under considerable stress and time constraints, and indeed some of the final mixing was done at the same time as rehearsals for the forthcoming tour. It was also nice to have an opportunity to enhance some of Rick’s work. Again, that positive tidal wave of technology just might have provided too many digital opportunities to overwhelm the band feel. Hopefully, that’s one of the benefits of this remix!”

“Bob Ezrin had worked on The Wall with us back in ’79 and on some solo albums with me,” Gilmour continues. “I learnt a lot from Bob and he’s a valuable person to have on board. We started working on pieces of music that I had been writing and, come Christmas, we knew it was going well. One day, I felt this ‘thing’ coming on me that became Sorrow. I wrote five verses one evening. They just flowed out from nowhere in one of those great serendipitous moments that you recognise later as having been very valuable… I knew that we were on a good roll and that this thing was going to work.”

The new version also features new artwork from Aubrey ‘Po’ Powell.

“I was looking to update the iconic five hundred beds picture my partner in Hipgnosis, Storm Thorgerson, had designed,” he explains. “On looking through the archives I discovered a version where the sea was encroaching on the set, just before Storm shut down the shot worried he would lose all the beds. I also wanted to make something more of the microlight. There were no shots of the plane in close up, so I hunted one down that was similar but white, and had Peter Curzon retouch the fuselage with the right colouring – red –  then strip the microlight into the picture in an upfront position. David Gilmour and Nick Mason gave their approval and, voila, a fresh approach to an original favourite”.

The album will be available as single CD, CD +DVD set, CD + Blu-Ray set, 2x 180gm LP set, the latter cut at half-speed at 45rpm for enhanced sound quality, with pre-orders from 2 September.  A special  version of the video Learning To Fly will be available simultaneously with Sony 360RA immersive audio: if you watch the video on YouTube with headphones you experience simulated 360RA sound.

A Momentary Lapse Of Reason 360 Reality Audio, Dolby Audio and UHD versions will be available via multiple Digital Service Providers on 19 October. All physical formats will be available on 29 October.

 

 

Guy Pratt & Gary Kemp : Rockonteurs Podcast Episode 50 With Gaz Coombes

Pink Floyd - A Fleeting Glimpse Posted on by

Rockonteurs is a podcast all about the real stories behind real music.

Presented by Spandau Ballet’s Gary Kemp, who wrote and performed megahits like ‘Gold’ and ‘True’, and Guy Pratt, a bass player who shaped songs for the likes of Madonna and Pink Floyd, you’ll hear exclusive stories of life on the road, in the studio and what really happened behind the scenes from artists who wrote, performed and produced the some of the biggest classic rock and pop tracks of all time.

Rockonteurs is a podcast all about the real stories behind real music.

This weeks upcoming episode is Number 50 and features guest Gaz Coombes of Supergrass

Available from 29th August 2021 on Itunes, Spotify and all other Listening Platforms. Click Here to be taken to Apple Musics Listening Page

New Book : Pink Floyd – The Rob Verhorst Archives

Pink Floyd - A Fleeting Glimpse Posted on by

Rob Verhorst’s career spans well over four decades. David Gilmour, Roger Waters, Rick Wright and Nick Mason have been a common thread in his working years. The gentlemen of Pink Floyd, as a group but later also solo, often appear before the lens of the Rotterdam (pop) photographer. A first encounter in Sportpaleis Ahoy’ in Rotterdam in 1977 makes Verhorst decide to combine his two passions – photography and music – and to make it his profession. His picture of a deflated pig in Ahoy’ also inadvertently reveals a unique way of working. Verhorst not only goes for the big picture, but knows – like no other – how to capture details that only someone with an eye for detail and a strong urge for perfection can capture.

His photos do not remain unnoticed for long and soon start to appear in newspapers such as Rotterdams Dagblad and renowned music magazines like Muziekkrant OOR, Muziek Expres, Hitkrant and Music Maker. In the years that follow his photographs of the 1980 Pink Floyd shows at Earls Court in London to promote The Wall go global. In the 1980s, Verhorst is always there, everywhere. He ends up with David Gilmour in Muziekcentrum Vredenburg Utrecht in 1984 and Roger Waters in Sportpaleis Ahoy’ that same year. He documents Pink Floyd’s comeback in Rotterdam in 1988 and a year later in Werchter and the Goffertpark in Nijmegen. A picture of Pink Floyd in front of a battery of his colleagues during a photo session in Versailles in 1988 is a classic, just like so many others. Rob Verhorst’s photos of Pink Floyd – but also those of dozens if not hundreds other world acts – have become a staple of the renowned Getty Images catalogue.

In 1990 Verhorst photographs The Wall for a second time – this time Roger Waters’ performance in Berlin – and frequently captures the former Pink Floyd bassist in the new millennium, in 2011 in Arnhem for a third time performing The Wall. He is one of the few – and perhaps the only one professionally – who has shot the three tours of the concept album in as many decades. For this book, Rob Verhorst (1952) made a selection of no less than three hundred iconic Pink Floyd photos, many of them previously unpublished. Together with memories and additional visual material from his archives they form an impressive collection and legacy

Pink Floyd : Captured Through Time Soft Cover To Be Released

Pink Floyd - A Fleeting Glimpse Posted on by

Spanning more than half a decade Pink Floyd has rightly earned its place as one of the greatest rock bands of all time. From the early, experimental ando ften whimsical days with band leader Syd Barrett to them ore expansive style with Dave Gilmour onboard, leadingt o the masterpiece Dark Side Of The Moon that elevatedF loyd into the stratosphere. But success came at a price as personal relationshipss uffered, culminating in break-ups as eventually Roger Waters departed. Buts tadiums and huge arenas continued to welcome Floyd through the eighties andn ineties with a brief reunion with Waters for 2005’s Live 8 event. Captured Through Time is a photographic celebration of this truly iconic band thatt akes you on a journey from the psychedelic, avant-garde sixties to the present dayi ncluding off stage shots of all band members during the 2000s including Syd Barrett!

Many of the photos have never been published in print before, including a sequence of shots from the Animals tour in 1977 that have only just been developed from the original negatives and digitally restored for this publication.
In total, over 100 glorious images of Floyd both on and off stage through the
decades are included in this large format book.

You can find a sneak preview of the book along with pre-order information by clicking here

Guy Pratt & Gary Kemp : Rockonteurs Podcast Episode 49 with Ian Anderson

Pink Floyd - A Fleeting Glimpse Posted on by

Rockonteurs is a podcast all about the real stories behind real music.

Presented by Spandau Ballet’s Gary Kemp, who wrote and performed megahits like ‘Gold’ and ‘True’, and Guy Pratt, a bass player who shaped songs for the likes of Madonna and Pink Floyd, you’ll hear exclusive stories of life on the road, in the studio and what really happened behind the scenes from artists who wrote, performed and produced the some of the biggest classic rock and pop tracks of all time.

Rockonteurs is a podcast all about the real stories behind real music.

This weeks upcoming episode is Number 49 and features guest Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull

Available from 22nd August 2021 on Itunes, Spotify and all other Listening Platforms. Click Here to be taken to Apple Musics Listening Page