A quick alert for – principally – those of you in the UK. If you find yourself with little to do on Saturday evening, especially with the current Covid restrictions, you could do worse than tune in to the Sky Arts television channel (now available on Freeview channel 11, as well as through other providers including Sky and Virgin Media). From 6:30pm until 12:45am, there’s a feast of Pink Floyd related goodies. Starting off with the band’s Live At Pompeii film, it’s then PULSE. Prior to its domestic release on October 2nd, Roger’s Us + Them is then shown, and the evening is concluded with The Story Of Wish You Were Here. For the channel to be showing Us + Them just about a week prior to release is an unexpected treat. Our thanks to Dave Rogers for letting us know about this Floydian evening.
A reminder, should you need it: it’s the 2022 Record Store Day! Each year, they reveal a list of limited edition, one-day-only releases sold via participating stores over the counter (and not via mail order), and for Floyd fans there’s a potential gem tucked away amongst this year’s items, which may be of interest. Mercury Studios are releasing, for the very first time on vinyl, Pete Townshend’s Face The Face album recorded live at MIDEM in Cannes on January 23rd 1986 and broadcast live by Rockpalast, the German TV show. The album was released on DVD/CD in 2016. The new 2LP set is pressed on bright yellow vinyl and includes 14 songs from the concert. The band, known as Pete Townshend’s Deep End, included David Gilmour on guitar for their limited run of shows in late 1985 and early 1986, and also featured Townshend on guitar and vocals, Peter Hope-Evans on harmonica, Chucho Merchan on bass, Simon Phillips on drums, John âRabbitâ Bundrick on keyboards, and Jody Linscot on percussion. They were joined by the Kick Horns: Simon Clarke, Roddy Lorimer, Tim Sanders, Pete Beachill and Dave Plews, with backing vocals provided by Billy Nicholls, Ian Ellis, Chris Staines, Gina Foster and Coral Gordon. TRACK LIST:
SIDE ONE
Wonât Get Fooled Again
Secondhand Love
Give Blood
Behind Blue Eyes
SIDE TWO
After The Fire
Slit Skirts
Blue Light
SIDE THREE
Hiding Out
The Sea Refuses No River
Face The Face
Pinball Wizard
SIDE FOUR
A Little Is Enough
Rough Boys
Night Train As with the other RSD 2022 releases, it is a limited edition: often the RSD releases are pressed up as just a couple of thousand or so worldwide. As yet we don’t know how many there will be of these to snap up on the day. And, as we’ve mentioned previously, all the limited edition items are released via RSD participating stores today, 23rd April 2022 – go to RecordStoreDay.com (https://www.RecordStoreDay.com) or RecordStoreDay.co.uk (https://www.RecordStoreDay.co.uk) for more details of who those will be. A reminder that it will ONLY be these stores participating; the stores themselves can’t sell it online – the record will become available for customers coming through the door of the store from the morning of the 23rd (and not before), in limited quantities – first come, first served, and only one copy per customer. After RSD, if copies remain, they may put them for sale online (and of course, there’ll also be copies on eBay inevitably…).
Following on from this week’s teaser videos, and whispers and rumours abounding, the official announcement has been made today for Pink Floyd’s celebration of the 50 years since the release of The Dark Side Of The Moon. Apart from a deluxe box set, which is released on March 24th, 2023, there are also standalone releases, Planetarium presentations of the album, and a competition aimed at animators. Rest assured, we have all the details for you here. First, the box set: As you might be able to determine from the picture, the new deluxe box set includes a CD and gatefold vinyl of the new 2023 remastered studio album, and Blu-Ray and DVD audio discs featuring the original 5.1 mix and remastered stereo versions. The set also includes an additional Blu-ray disc of the new Atmos mix plus a CD and vinyl (for the first time) of The Dark Side Of The Moon – Live At Wembley Empire Pool, London, 1974. There’s also a 76-page music book, replicas of two 7″ singles, posters, stickers, a replica invite to the press preview of the album at London Planetarium in February 1973, and Thames & Hudson’s 160-page hardback book with rare and previously unseen photographs from the 1972-1975 tours taken by Jill Furmanovsky, Peter Christopherson, Aubrey Powell, and Storm Thorgerson. For full details – and ordering details – please see below. On the same day, 24th March, the CD and LP of The Dark Side Of The Moon – Live At Wembley Empire Pool, London, 1974 will be released separately from the box set. It was originally recorded in November 1974 as part of the band’s winter tour and this is the first time it will be available as a stand-alone album, with artwork featuring an original 1973 line-drawn cover by George Hardie. The book Pink Floyd – The Dark Side Of The Moon: 50th Anniversary (which we talked about here on 14th October 2022) will also be published separately by Thames & Hudson on 24th March 24 to coincide with the box set release (which includes it). Curated by photographer Jill Furmanovsky and art directed by Hipgnosis co-founder Aubrey Powell, this LP-sized volume showcases rare and previously unseen photographs taken during The Dark Side Of The Moon tours of 1972-1975 and was created with the involvement of the band members. The 50th Anniversary release will also be celebrated as Pink Floyd have invited a new generation of animators to enter a competition to create music videos for any of the 10 songs on the iconic 1973 album. Pink Floyd has a rich history of collaborating with animators from the beginnings of the band (Ian Emes, Gerald Scarfe etc.), and in some cases the visuals that accompany the songs have become synonymous with the music itself. The 50th Anniversary will be no exception.
Floydstuff (https://www.floydstuff.com) had lined up a show for those of you in or near Amsterdam in The Netherlands. He is hosting Guy Pratt at the beautiful Hard Rock Hotel Amsterdam American, following the incredible 2022 tour with Nick Mason’s Saucerful Of Secrets, for an evening of chatter and some music too. The event takes place at 8pm, at the hotel’s intimate setting of the ‘Mata Hide Away’ named after the infamous courtesan and convicted spy Mata Hari. The Hard Rock Hotel Amsterdam American is featured in the legendary photo shoot by Nico van der Stam during Pink Floyd’s first visit to the Netherlands in April 1967. Whilst tickets for this event are very limited, a few extra tickets have just been released and are available NOW from Floydstuff.com (https://www.floydstuff.com/product/9018818/in-conversation-with-guy-pratt-hard-rock-hotel-amsterdam-american-18-march-2023). Talking of limited things from Floydstuff, those who haven’t bought their copy of Pink Floyd – Any Colour You Like: The Dark Side Of The Moon on Vinyl (https://www.brain-damage.co.uk/latest/pink-floyds-the-dark-side-of-the-moon-collectors-book-anno.html) yet, don’t leave it too long – Floydstuff have advised they are down to the last few boxes of this fascinating book, a guide to some 700 different versions of the album! In other Guy Pratt news, it’s been announced that Guy will be appearing in a new film, planned for release next year, called The Monk, The Mermaid & Molise. Guy will appear as a fictionalised version of himself, alongside Raffaello Degruttola, Sally Phillips and Ronni Ancona. The basic premise of the film is that Guy accepts an invitation to spend five days playing a series of bass clinics in a remote Italian region, Molise, run by a super fan, and must face up to decisions from his past. In the Screen Daily (https://www.screendaily.com/news/film-soho-gears-up-for-road-trip-comedy-the-monk-the-mermaid-and-molise-exclusive/5179244.article) announcement, it notes that Guy will write the music, with contributions from his previous musical collaborators.
