Announced today is a march for Julian Assange, which is taking place tomorrow (22nd February, 2020) in London, and as part of the announcement, Roger Waters has noted that he will be performing during the event.The march for Assange goes from Australia House, Aldwych, to Parliament Square. They note that Assange's full extradition trial begins the following Monday (24th February) and that the Trump administration is seeking to put Assange in jail for 175 years for publishing the Afghan and Iraq War Logs .They will assemble from 11:30am GMT, to leave Australia House at 12:30pm. Others participating will include Chrissie Hynde, Brian Eno, Vivienne Westwood and MIA.Obviously we don't know the nature of Roger's performance, but many of you will recall that he played Wish You Were Here in a similar, yet smaller, protest back in September 2019, again in London. (latest/roger-waters-performing-wish-you-were-here-outside-home-office-in-london-tom.html)
start of March, we noted that the UK’s edition of Classic Rock included a detailed, twelve page article written by Pink Floyd biographer Mark Blake (https://www.brain-damage.co.uk/latest/pink-floyd-reinvent-themselves-in-new-issue-of-classic-rock-mag.html) taking a close look at life for the band immediately after Syd Barrett left it. The article – now translated into German for that country’s version of the magazine – investigates how the band got back on their feet following Syd’s departure, and shows how they reinvented themselves. Blake details how this came via strange, afternoon shows for school kids in the Netherlands, bizarre promo videos, unusual soundtrack albums, and shows which were rather avant-garde – as well as albums which showed the development of the band’s sound. As ever, Blake’s writing proves enlightening and entertaining, peppered with comments from the musicians themselves. Well worth a read! Elsewhere in the magazine are features on Uriah Heep, Rob Halford, UFO, Thunder, and Suzi Quatro, plus plenty of other articles to keep you busy. The magazine is now available from all good German stores; alternatively, you can buy individual issues (worldwide) from this direct link (https://classicrock.net/produkt/classic-rock-nr-98-rob-halford-bekenntnisse-des-metal-gottes-ausgabe-04-2021/). Our thanks to Michael Nickel for the information!
Sam Hong, otherwise known as Hongza, grew up in North London in a Vietnamese household and was initially encouraged not to pursue his musical dreams by members of his close circle. Choosing to disregard those voices and follow his heart, he comes to us now with a poignant and brand new offering. Now the up …
The combined wishes of all of us on the Brain Damage team, along no doubt with many of you reading this, go to Roger Waters, who celebrates the very special occasion of his 80th birthday today! Roger was born in Great Bookham, Surrey, in 1943, moving to Cambridge when he was two years old. It was there that he met, and became childhood friends with, a number of key people in the story of Pink Floyd. Of course, Roger has been extremely busy over recent years, having successfully taken Dark Side Of The Moon on tour in 2006, through to 2008. On completing that, he immediately started work on a new version of The Wall – which finally opened in September 2010. That tour was spectacularly successful, wrapping up in Paris for show number 217 in September 2013. Recordings of that tour turned into the film, shown in cinemas and released on DVD/Blu-ray and as part of a mammoth Super Deluxe Edition. More recently, he performed his highly acclaimed Us + Them world tour, which was filmed and was shown in cinemas worldwide, with the home release of it on Blu-ray, 2CD, 3LP vinyl and DVD that followed. He also released his latest full solo album, Is This The Life We Really Want? as well as overseeing the release of the late Nick Sedgwick’s book about the band, and in particular, the 1974 tour of The Dark Side of the Moon. 2022 finally saw him back on tour for This Is Not A Drill, originally due to start in 2020 but delayed due to Covid-19, with the stage presentation being “in the round”. The powerful presentations, with the unique staging which sees Roger wandering around, addressing attendees on all sides of the arenas, have already thrilled audiences in many countries with more shows to come in South America. June also saw the release of the six-song album, The Lockdown Sessions, which gathered together new versions of Mother, Two Suns In The Sunset, Vera, The Gunner’s Dream, The Bravery Of Being Out Of Range, and Comfortably Numb 2022. Finally, Roger’s Redux version of The Dark Side Of The Moon is released next month, and he presents this in a pair of shows at the legendary London Palladium. The official Pink Floyd social channels this morning also shared a birthday wish for Roger, with a message looking back in fondness to all the work they all did together: We hope you have a great day, Roger. Many happy returns!
