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Rock Concerts

Brainstorms: A Great Gig in the Sky featuring the music of Pink Floyd

Just announced: June 7th sees the launch of Brainstorms: A Great Gig in the Sky, presented by the UK’s largest immersive art experience Frameless. A complete takeover of the iconic, 30,000 square-feet venue in the heart of Marble Arch, London, this new show blends music and art with the latest neuroscience and technology, in an exploration of how our minds respond to music. The fascinating sounding immersive experience, running on Friday and Saturday evenings in June 2024 for over 18s only, comes from Brainstorms, a joint venture between San Francisco-based creative studio Pollen Music Group and Richard Wright Music Limited. It brings to life the results of the Brainstorms research project that took place last autumn. Driven by a mutual admiration for the beautiful and haunting simplicity of Pink Floyd keyboardist Richard Wright’s songwriting, the Brainstorms team has themed the experience around the concept behind the iconic Pink Floyd track The Great Gig in the Sky. Visitors will travel through the four main Frameless galleries which each feature stunning sky-themed creative visualisations of the human brain’s response to music, from mesmerising cloud formations and mystical auroras to starling murmurations and an eclipse. The whole experience has been designed to communicate how people respond to music, while enhancing the listening experience by enveloping individuals inside the songs like never before. Gala Wright, curator and Artistic director at Brainstorms and daughter of Pink Floyd keyboardist Richard Wright, says, “The visual representation of brain data provides an accessible and intuitive way to see how a piece of music can be a deeply personal yet also powerfully shared experience. Questioning how this is true for my father’s compositions is a key motivation for me bringing this concept to life with Pollen. The added benefit of bringing awareness to his musicality through the Brainstorms project serves to augment his legacy.” To create the visuals for the centrepiece experience, 125 individuals had their brain activity recorded while listening in unparalleled clarity and depth through immersive sound Dolby Atmos to 1973 Pink Floyd classic, ‘The Great Gig in the Sky’ from the highly celebrated album ‘The Dark Side of the Moon’. The instrumental track, which was the creation of Richard Wright, features Clare Torry’s voice as an instrument in place of lyrics so was deemed a perfect piece for the largest data collection of its kind. The EEG readings of brain activity, which will be showcased within the experience, were captured at Dolby by the neuroscience experts within the Pollen Music Group team and reflect the participant’s excitement, interest, relaxation and stress felt whilst listening to the track. A strictly limited number of VIP places will be available to book a unique 15-minute EEG brain capture experience, powered by technology provided by AMD and Emotiv, where they will feel more from the music than ever before as they go on an intense and emotional journey as they listen to five minutes of The Dark Side of the Moon in immersive sound Dolby Atmos via headphones. Participants will then be able to see their brain activity visualised into stunning large-scale cloud formations, projected into Frameless’ re-imagined ‘Cloud’ Gallery. Each participant will also receive a personalised memento based on their individual brain’s reaction to the piece. Tickets to Brainstorms: A Great Gig in the Sky are priced from £30 and have gone on sale this morning. To buy tickets or to find out more visit frameless.com/brainstorms (https://frameless.com/brainstorms/).

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Rock Concerts

Very rare Syd Barrett gig poster in upcoming auction

Warren Dosanjh, a school friend of Syd Barrett, and the manager of the early Barrett band Those Without, is selling some of his framed and glazed posters and other ephemera through the Cambridge based auction house Cheffins. Cheffins Auctions were the people who sold Barrett’s possessions after his death, on behalf of his family, so it is no real surprise they are being used again. The auction is being held this Thursday, October 26th, under the sale title Art and Design October 2023. You can view the details of each of the lots, on page 50-51 of Cheffins catalogue for this auction, which can be viewed through this link (https://edition.pagesuite.com/html5/reader/production/default.aspx?pubname=&edid=0c6fef7f-3de9-410d-be7e-077c9c75883b) or by clicking the thumbnail of the auction pages below: Most of the items are from exhibitions to do with Syd, held after his death. The first is a City Wakes poster (from the Syd celebration in Cambridge) signed by Storm Thorgerson and Rosemary Breen (Syd’s sister), together with assorted ephemera relating to the exhibition, a facsimile poster of the BBC Cambridgeshire and Anglia Ruskin University invitation to the unveiling of a Blue Plaque in memory of Syd; a Royal Mail Syd Barrett first day cover, numbered 658 of 3000; a copy of Melody Maker from August 1967 featuring Syd on the cover and other Syd related ephemera. There’s a VIP invitation poster for ‘Syd Barrett: A Celebration’ at the Cambridge Corn Exchange from October 2016 , featuring an unveiling of public commemorative art followed by a celebratory concert and music from Men on the Border together with the Sandviken Symphony Orchestra and lights by Peter Wynne-Willson, interpreting the music of Syd Barrett and Pink Floyd, at the venue where Barrett performed his last ever concert in 1972. There’s a Royal Mail limited edition, numbered giclée print of the Wish You Were Here stamp, and a poster from the Their Mortal Remains exhibition in Rome, Italy. The most unusual lot though is from a gig at the Cambridge Corn Exchange that Syd played in with a support band, The Last Minute Put Together Boogie Band. This comes with a live recording CD of the band which had Syd on guitar, and a CD of Hawkwind on the same evening. Potentially this is the only remaining example of this poster in existence. We suspect the estimate of £500-1000 will be shown to be very pessimistic…