A recently opened exhibition of Hipgnosis pictures and artwork in Germany has been attracting a lot of interest from visitors, along with local media. Co-curator Aubrey ‘Po’ Powell was in touch with us, to provide some more detail on this for you all. Po said: “The Hipgnosis Exhibition ‘Breathe’ opened on Sunday 21st January to an enthusiastic crowd of 400 people. The exhibition runs over 3 floors of this wonderful gallery and contains 150 Hipgnosis pictures, curated by myself and John Colton of the Browse Gallery, Berlin. There has been great press and TV coverage. “The initial rooms celebrate the 50th Anniversary of Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon and all the artwork that has been designed by Hipgnosis or Storm Studios over the past fifty years related to that celebrated album. The Ludwig Schloss Gallery is in Oberhausen, 30 minutes by car from the centre of Dusseldorf. Germany has always been a huge admirer of Pink Floyd, and Hipgnosis, and this marks the sixth exhibition held over the last five years in that country, with many thanks to the continued support from Pink Floyd.” For more information on the gallery, and the exhibition – which runs until May 2024 – please visit Ludwiggalerie.de (https://www.ludwiggalerie.de/en/exhibition/current-exhibitions/). Our thanks to Po for the update, as well!
One of Brain Damage’s regular correspondents is Heather Fenton, a frequent visitor to the site. She had the opportunity over the Christmas period to watch three of the biggest releases that came out during 2020 – the Roger Waters Us + Them live recording, the Restored.Re-edited.Remixed version of Pink Floyd’s Delicate Sound of Thunder, and Nick Mason’s Saucerful Of Secrets Live At The Roundhouse. Here, she compares and contrasts these markedly different releases. Which one comes out as her favourite? Read on to find out… I finally got round to watching and listening to all the CDs/DVDs and this is what I thought. Going back first to October, and Roger Waters Us + Them (https://www.brain-damage.co.uk/latest/roger-waters-us-them-2cd-3lp-dvd-and-blu-ray-announced.html). Having been to the live show at Manchester which was fantastic, then seeing the cinema showing in 2019 which left us feeling depressed, I said I would not get the DVD but of course I did. With Roger the live show is a spectacle and the atmosphere lifts the audience, but when its just you and the screen it lacks the lightness. Don’t get me wrong, it was still very good but even revisiting Dark Side and all he is now very removed from Pink Floyd, which is what he wanted. The interpretation is all his but even a lot of the old favourites are more of a cover version (not tribute band) and come across hard especially when interspersed with his own more recent compositions. You would not want to play this every night! Pink Floyd’s Delicate Sound of Thunder (https://www.brain-damage.co.uk/latest/the-restored.-re-edited.-remixed.-delicate-sound-of-thunder-being-rel.html) though was everything we have come to expect. The sound quality was greatly enhanced and as for the visual definition, it’s now so sharp and the colours very vivid – almost iridescent – in Time. A joy to watch and an excellent worthy addition to the collection, and maybe one day Venice will follow suit. But although Delicate Sound Of Thunder was excellent, a higher accolade would have to go to Nick Mason’s Saucerful Of Secrets Live At The Roundhouse (https://www.brain-damage.co.uk/latest/nick-masons-saucerful-of-secrets-live-at-the-roundhouse-2lp-2cd-dvd-blu-ray-ci-2.html). This leaves you with a real “feel-good factor”. Light hearted, beautifully put together, lovely interviews throughout with the band members, and fascinating how they all got together. The songs and music are perfectly executed. Bet Gary Kemp never though he would perform Vegetable Man, and the split of Atom Heart Mother was inspiring. This is the one you can play over and over again and although there’s not the visual spectacle of the other two, it allows you just to watch the action and really enjoy the performances. Well done Nick and the band! Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Heather! We always welcome contributions from our visitors – if you’ve got anything you want to share with the wider community, please get in touch!
Every so often, some vintage Pink Floyd surfaces when you least expect it. In the last day or so, some incredible footage of the band playing live in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, on June 28th, 1975, has surfaced. This gig was the final show on the 1975 North American tour, showcasing The Dark Side Of The Moon and selections from Wish You Were Here, along with Raving And Drooling and Gotta Be Crazy (both to appear later on Animals), with an encore of Echoes. The footage which has just appeared was shot on Super 8, which allows for around 3 minutes on each cartridge of film. Thus, during the 70s if people were using Super 8 cameras to record shows, they’d grab snippets and highlights, rather than have the camera rolling for entire sequences. The footage, which you’ll see below, features highlights of the band’s performance throughout the evening, showing some of the stage effects well. The footage has also been restored and tidied up, and syncronised with an audio recording of this show (Super 8 film at that time was normally just picture, no sound, although larger cartridges had recently been developed allowing a magnetic sound recording). Enjoy!
The debut release from Armenian-American singer-songwriter Murad, ‘Laser Love’ is a visceral, entrancing indie-pop/hip-hop/soul fusion. Having graduated with a degree in Audio Engineering Design and Production, Murad already has years of know-how under her belt – she’s taken the time in contemplation of her sound, and such preparedness is exhibited on this first release ‘Laser Love’. The track …
