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Battersea Power Station Revisited

Our thanks to BD regular Ian McKenzie who shares his recollections of Battersea Power Station in London, from 1977, when Animals was released, in 1981, en route to seeing Pink Floyd at Earls Court for The Wall, and then – bringing the story up to date – a very recent visit as part of his birthday celebrations! Ian talks about the refurbished building, including the lift which takes you to the top of one of the rebuilt chimneys, giving you an Algie-eye’s view of the surroundings. Needless to say, some of his images and descriptions might be considered spoilers if you are considering a visit – or indeed, if you’ve been a bit unsure, he might have convinced you it is worth a visit. For more information on visiting the site, and what’s there, check out BatterseaPowerStation.co.uk (https://batterseapowerstation.co.uk). Now, over to Ian: Having discovered Pink Floyd in 1976, I can remember the release of the Animals album in early 1977. However, as I was in my early teens and surviving on pocket money, I was unable to afford to buy the album until I was on holiday in July of the same year. Even though I was unable to play the album until I returned home from the holiday, I was completely intrigued by the building on the album cover. I was convinced that this building didn’t actually exist and that the cover was just an elaborate illustration. However, the black and white photos inside the album sleeve certainly looked real enough and at some point over the coming weeks I learned that the building in question was Battersea Power Station in London. Regardless of Animals being one of my favourite Pink Floyd albums, I have also found the building itself to be particularly fascinating. Fast forward to 1981 and I was in London to see one of the Pink Floyd The Wall shows at Earls Court. I’d also been lucky enough to have seen this show at the same venue the year before, and I decided on my return to try to get a glimpse of Battersea Power Station before heading to the concert in my Pink Floyd tee-shirt and velvet jacket (the height of fashion in 1981, honest). I’d worked out from a map that probably the easiest means of seeing the power station would be from Chelsea Bridge, so I headed south from Sloane Square tube station along Chelsea Bridge Road. I managed to spot the power station before reaching the bridge and I was very impressed to see it in all its glory from the bridge itself. It was a lovely sunny day with a fairly clear blue sky, so I managed to capture a photo or two with my recently acquired Rollei 35mm compact camera [see picture below]. This was the same camera that I used later that evening to capture some photos of the concert itself. These pics can be seen elsewhere on the Brain Damage website – follow this link to see them (https://www.brain-damage.co.uk/the-wall/the-wall-live-1981-earls-court-pictures.html).

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Beneath the Surface: Adam O’Rua

Welcome, welcome friends! We are back today with another fabulous Beneath the Surface feature with the sensational Adam O’Rua, off the back of his recent music video release for ‘Rainfall’. So grab a drink, settle down and let’s get to it! What would you say first sparked your interest in music/who inspired you to make …

The post Beneath the Surface: Adam O’Rua appeared first on Turtle Tempo.

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Rock Concerts

Familiar voice heard on Floyd inspired new music

Bjorn Riis, a long time friend of Brain Damage, and the guy who runs the excellent Gilmourish.com (https://www.gilmourish.com) website, which focuses on David Gilmour’s sound and equipment, is an accomplished musician in his own right, and at the end of next month, releases a four track EP, A Fleeting Glimpse, which includes a familiar sounding vocalist. His new new single, Dark Shadows (part 1), features long-time Pink Floyd backing vocalist Durga McBroom on vocals; the track will appear on the EP, which will be released on September 30th. He told us: “My goal has been to write original material and trying to capture an authentic Floyd vibe without actually copying or doing covers. I’m performing lead vocals and guitars.” Riis is a founding member of the highly successful Norwegian progressive rock band
Airbag. With his new EP, he said: “This is a work of passion. It’s a chance for me to go back to my musical roots and pay a respectful homage. All four songs could easily have fitted on one of my albums but there is a seamless Pink Floyd vibe in all of them.” The new music is said to capture the essence of Pink Floyd, from the mellow psychedelic soundscapes of the early 70s to the bombastic stadium rock of the 80s and 90s. “I wanted to make it sound authentic, using gear and sounds that Pink Floyd would employ on a
certain song or album. It really took me back to when I started to play guitar and experiment with
tone and sounds.” Apart from Durga McBroom, other guest appearances feature Arild Brøter, from Norwegian prog band Pymlico, on drums and Per Øydir on Farfisa organ. If the taster, below, tempts you, you can order A Fleeting Glimpse at KarismaRecords.no (https://www.karismarecords.no/artists/bjorn-riis/).

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New book – Pink Floyd: The Rob Verhorst Archives – in October

Orders are now being taken for a book stuffed with 300 Pink Floyd concert pictures from 1977 onwards. Limited to just 1000 numbered copies (which are expected to sell quickly), Pink Floyd – The Rob Verhorst Archives (https://www.floydstuff.com/product/5207869/pink-floyd-the-rob-verhorst-archives-holland-book), published on October 8th, 2021, is presented as a deluxe clothbound and hardback edition, with 200 heavyweight pages, and signed by the photographer himself. Rob Verhorst’s career spans well over four decades. The publishers note that “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 appeared before the lens of the Rotterdam-based photographer. A first encounter in Sportpaleis Ahoy’ in Rotterdam in 1977 made 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 Rotterdam’s 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 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.” Sounds like an essential purchase to us! The text in the book is in English, and pre-orders (https://www.floydstuff.com/product/5207869/pink-floyd-the-rob-verhorst-archives-holland-book) come with an exclusive poster. You can secure your copy now through Floydstuff.com (https://www.floydstuff.com/product/5207869/pink-floyd-the-rob-verhorst-archives-holland-book), who will ship the book worldwide.