Our thanks to BD visitor Brian Phillips who has supplied the following article with his views on Audio Technology and Pink Floyd. We always welcome contributions from our visitors, as this site is run FOR you, and WITH you. Different views give different perspectives – if you have something you’d like to share with us, and the Floyd community as a whole, just let us know! The Beatles get a lot of attention, and rightfully so, for being innovators in the studio, the invention of flanging , artificial double tracking, and sampling, among others are tools still used today. There are other contemporaries that deserve an equal amount of attention for being studio and live sound innovators. Pink Floyd is one of these bands. While sometimes being in Abbey Road studios at the same time as the Beatles, the innovation by Pink Floyd continued for decades after the Beatles planted the first seeds. Things like Pink Floyd’s 1967 invention the Azimuth Coordinator , allowed for live sound to be presented in quadraphonic , a surround sound format 20 to 30 years prior to that format becoming a standard for home theaters. This new idea of surrounding, encapsulating the audience, allowing concert goers to listen inside the music, raised the bar for all future concerts.
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Wish You Were Here – A People’s History of Pink Floyd
Wish You Were Here – A Peopleâs History of Pink Floyd is the title of a new book about the Floyd, although author Richard Houghton readily admits that the book isn’t entirely new, as it’s an update of an earlier work from 2017. The book tells the story of Pink Floyd through more than 500 eyewitness accounts, mixing concert memories with other encounters with the band. As well as stories from the beginnings of the band’s career and accounts of arena shows, there are a number of more intimate encounters. One example is the story of Norman Whitehall, who travelled with a friend to Bridgend in Wales to see Pink Floyd at the tiny Kee Club in March 1969, only to be told that they couldn’t get in because it was a members-only club. A disconsolate Norman wandered the streets with his friend until they bumped into the band themselves, who took pity on them and escorted them into the club and through to their dressing room, where band and fans shared a joint. Richard said: “I had a book entitled Pink Floyd – I Was There published in paperback, but that book has been out of print for a few years. I’ve managed to acquire the rights to the book and decided to republish it through my own company, Spenwood Books, and give the material in the book the treatment it deserves. The new book is coming out in hardback in a larger format, with full colour photos on high quality paper. I’ve also collected over 100 new accounts of seeing the Floyd live that weren’t in the original book. This includes several tales from the period when Syd was in the band. So it’s a fascinating look back at Pink Floyd as it’s their history told in the words of fans, and it provides a very different take on a story that’s been told many times before. Richard is still interested in hearing from anyone who saw Pink Floyd, particularly if they have a concert memory from the Sixties, and he can be reached at isawpinkfloyd@gmail.com. The deadline for fresh material is 31st May. Wish You Were Here – A Peopleâs History of Pink Floyd is published by Spenwood Books and is available to order now at SpenwoodBooks.com (https://spenwoodbooks.com/product/wish-you-were-here-a-peoples-history-of-pink-floyd/). Orders placed by 14th July will receive a 20% discount on the RRP of £30 and early bird purchasers will also be named as sponsors in the book.
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Nick Mason’s Saucerful Of Secrets – two more shows in Europe, July 2019
Nick Mason’s Saucerful Of Secrets have added another couple of shows to their 2019 tour (http://www.brain-damage.co.uk/nick-mason-s-sos-2019/index.php) – one indoor, one outdoor. The extra shows sit at the end of the current schedule, and take the band to Poland and the Czech Republic. Fans in those countries will now be able to catch the Saucers at the following gigs: Thursday 25th July 2019 – Lucerna Velky Sal, Prague, Czech Republic (http://www.brain-damage.co.uk/nick-mason-s-sos-2019/july-25th-lucerna-music-bar-prague-czech-rep.html) – TICKETS (https://www.ticketmaster.cz/artist/nick-mason-vstupenky/871570) Saturday 27th July 2019 – Korty Legii/Legia Tennis Stadium, Warsaw, Poland (http://www.brain-damage.co.uk/nick-mason-s-sos-2019/july-27th-korty-legii-legia-tennis-stadium-warsaw-p.html) – TICKETS (https://www.eventim.pl/artist/summerfogfestival/bilety.html?doc=artistPages%2Ftickets fun=artist action=tickets erid=2431135 includeOnlybookable=true x10=1 x11=nick%20mason) Tickets for these new shows have just gone on sale – midday local time – to coincide with the announcement, and are available NOW. The Warsaw show is part of the Summer Fog Festival, as you can see from the rather nice poster shown here (click the thumbnail to see it in better detail and colour). As normal, we have been busy setting up a dedicated page for both of these concerts which, with your assistance, will have all sorts of useful information, pictures, reviews and more. The pages can be found in the Nick Mason’s Saucerful Of Secrets 2019 Tour Zone (http://www.brain-damage.co.uk/nick-mason-s-sos-2019/index.php) which has details of ALL the shows on this year’s tour, that have been announced so far. To cover regular email questions we are getting, if other dates/locations are revealed, then we will bring you the good news.
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Roger Waters Us + Them concert film reviewed
Floydian Slip (https://www.floydianslip.com/news/2019/09/review-roger-waters-us-them/), three weeks ahead of its release last night in cinemas across the world. Further screenings are to come over the next few days – details of when and where at RogerWatersUsAndThem.com (http://www.rogerwatersusandthem.com). A piece of key advice for you, if you are going to see it in a cinema this week: don’t leave during the titles – there’s an absorbing, additional documentary looking at the show, and the rehearsals of the music, which follows on. Anyway, with thanks to Floydian Slip, here’s Ed’s report… The intersection of beautifully crafted sound and footage combined with director Sean Evans‘ ability to turn an action-packed, live performance into an atmospheric, ethereal experience raises the bar for concert video. Recorded during a series of June 2018, Amsterdam performances, Roger Waters: Us + Them is so exquisitely constructed it emancipates the film from traditional and repetitive templates employed in comparable efforts: the music takes center stage as the expression of ideas Waters and the audience wish to converse about unfold in an exchange between the twain: it takes a talent of Evans’ caliber to capture that. This film documents that dynamic with great cinematic power. Within the film’s first couple of minutes, the crisp and brutally visceral sound of clapping thunder blends seamlessly into the sound of artillery, garnishing footage of a child sitting on a shore (part of the storylines that run on the background screens during the live performance). This brief introduction segues into the visual of Roger Waters taking the stage. In that brief convergence of audiovisual elements Evans manages to bewitch the audience, realigning their senses for an unusually gripping concert documentary. The audience plays a central role in this film. It is never veiled in a sea of black. Instead, its interaction with the artist is central to the story and its voice is accentuated by the colors that flood the arena as this emotive call and response transpires.
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