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Pink Floyd will release a 7-inch vinyl edition and CD single of “Hey Hey Rise Up” on July 15 in Europe.

Initially released digitally in April in support of the people of Ukraine, the track reached #1 in 27 countries.

Both formats will also feature a newly-reworked, previously-unreleased version of “A Great Day for Freedom” taken from the band’s 1994 album, “The Division Bell.”

The lead track sees David Gilmour and Nick Mason joined by long time Pink Floyd bass player Guy Pratt and Nitin Sawhney on keyboards; and features vocals by Andriy Khlyvnyuk of Ukrainian band Boombox.

When the track was first recorded at the end of March, Khlyvnyuk, who left his band’s U.S. tour to return home and fight for his country, was in a hospital bed in Kyiv recovering from a shrapnel injury. Proceeds for the physical release and the ongoing digital proceeds will go to Ukraine humanitarian relief.

Japan will see the release Aug. 3; and the U.S., Canada, Australia and Mexico will see it Oct. 21.

“Hey, Hey, Rise Up!,” the new single by Pink Floyd, is scheduled to be made available for digital purchase and on streaming platforms at 9 p.m. EDT tonight. But the band has already posted the video of track.

Read more about the new song: “Pink Floyd to release single ‘Hey, Hey, Rise Up!'”

Tomorrow Pink Floyd will release its first new track recorded together as a band since 1994’s “The Division Bell.” The group will release the single “Hey, Hey, Rise Up!” at midnight, with proceeds going to Ukrainian humanitarian relief.

David Gilmour and Nick Mason, apparently constituting the legal definition of Pink Floyd, are joined on the track by Guy Pratt on bass, and Nitin Sawhney on keyboards. Vocals are by Andriy Khlyvnyuk, frontman of Ukrainian rock band BoomBox.

Rick Wright’s daughter, Gala, attended the recording session.

Gilmour tells The Guardian, “I rang Nick up and said: ‘Listen, I want to do this thing for Ukraine. I’d be really happy if you played on it and I’d also be really happy if you’d agree to us putting it out as Pink Floyd.’ And he was absolutely on for that.”

The project began when Gilmour saw Khlyvnyuk singing the 1914 protest song “Oh, the Red Viburnum in the Meadow” on Instagram, and decided to build a song around it.

“Recently I read that Andriy had left his American tour with Boombox, had gone back to Ukraine, and joined up with the Territorial Defense. Then I saw this incredible video on Instagram, where he stands in a square in Kyiv with this beautiful gold-domed church and sings in the silence of a city with no traffic or background noise because of the war. It was a powerful moment that made me want to put it to music.

From left: Nitin Sawhney, David Gilmour, Nick Mason and Guy Pratt

Gilmour tells The Guardian, “I thought: That is pretty magical and maybe I can do something with this. I’ve got a big platform that [Pink Floyd] have worked on for all these years. It’s a really difficult and frustrating thing to see this extraordinarily crazy, unjust attack by a major power on an independent, peaceful, democratic nation. The frustration of seeing that and thinking ‘what the fuck can I do?’ is sort of unbearable.”

Gilmour’ explains his association with Khlyvnyuk goes back to 2015: “I played a show at Koko in London in support of the Belarus Free Theatre, whose members have been imprisoned. Pussy Riot and the Ukrainian band, Boombox, were also on the bill. They were supposed to do their own set, but their singer Andriy had visa problems, so the rest of the band backed me for my set. We played ‘Wish You Were Here’ for Andriy that night.”

The video for the song was shot by director Mat Whitecross on the same day the track was recorded, March 30. “We recorded the track and video in our barn where we did all our Von Trapped Family live streams during lockdown. It’s the same room that we did the ‘Barn Jams’ with Rick Wright back in 2007,” Gilmour explains. “Janina Pedan made the set in a day and we had Andriy singing on the screen while we played, so the four of us had a vocalist, albeit not one who was physically present with us.”

Artwork for the track features a painting of a sunflower, the national flower of Ukraine, by Cuban artist Yosan Leon. It’s a reference to the woman seen around the world giving sunflower seeds to Russian soldiers and telling them to carry them in their pockets so when they die, sunflowers will grow.

Read the full Guardian article

Stream the song

Streaming services such as Spotify and Amazon have started offering a dozen Pink Floyd concert recordings from 1971.

The mysterious offerings might be an attempt by the band and its label to claim copyright of the works, as they’re all turning 50 years old this year. The band seems to have made a similar move when it issued six previously-unreleased songs as the EP “1965 — Their First Recordings” in 2015.

“The copyright law in Europe was recently extended from 50 to 70 years for everything recorded in 1963 and beyond,” a Sony representative told Rolling Stone in 2013. “With everything before that, there’s a new ‘Use It or Lose It’ provision. It basically said, ‘If you haven’t used the recordings in the first 50 years, you aren’t going to get any more.’”

A source close to the band tells “Floydian Slip” the recordings are “bootlegs” and might not remain permanently available.

Audio quality of the recordings is sketchy.

The titles include:

• They Came in Peace, Live, Leeds University 1970 Washington University 1971
• Live at Grosser Saal, Musikhalle, Hamburg, West Germany 25 Feb 1971
• Mauerspechte Berlin Sportpalast, Live 5 June 1971
• Live, Lyon 12 June 1971, Tokyo 16 March 1972
• Live in Rome Palaeur 20 June 1971
• Amsterdamse Bos Free Concert 26 June 1971 (Live)
• Live in Montreux 18 & 19 Sept 1971
• KB Hallen, Copenhagen, Live 23 Sept 1971
• KB Hallen, Copenhagen, Vol II, Live 23 Sept 1971
• Over Bradford Pigs on the Groove Bradford University, Live 10 Oct 1971
• Embryo, San Diego, Live 17 Oct 1971
• The Screaming Abdabs Quebec City, Live 10 Nov 1971

Warner Music/Sony Music will reissue Pink Floyd’s 1987 album “A Momentary Lapse of Reason” on Oct. 29.

The updated album is remixed from the original ’87 master tapes by Andy Jackson with David Gilmour, assisted by Damon Iddins, and will be the same as the one found in 2019 “The Later Years: 1987–2019” boxset.

But the standalone version of the album coming next month includes 360 Reality Audio, “a new immersive music experience that closely mimics the omni-directional soundscape of live musical performance for the listener using Sony’s object-based 360 Spatial Sound technologies.”

This ’19 remix restores some original takes by keyboardist Rick Wright, and includes newly-recorded drum tracks by Nick Mason.

“Some years after we had recorded the album, we came to the conclusion that we should update it to make it more timeless, featuring more of the traditional instruments that we liked and that we were more used to playing,” says Gilmour.

“We also looked for and found some previously unused keyboard parts of Rick’s which helped us to come up with a new vibe, a new feeling for the album,” he adds.

Mason offers, “Initially it seemed a bit odd to start re-assembling a record after 35 odd years, but the public’s appetite for alternate views of the same work has undoubtedly increased immeasurably over time.

“I enjoyed re-recording drum tracks with unlimited studio time. ‘Momentary Lapse’ had been recorded under considerable stress and time constraints, and indeed some of the final mixing was done at the same time as rehearsals for the forthcoming tour,” Mason says.

The album will be available as a single CD; a CD +DVD set; a CD + Blu-Ray set; and a 180 gm double-LP set, cut at half-speed at 45 rpm for enhanced sound quality.

A special  version of the video “Learning To Fly” will be available simultaneously with Sony 360RA immersive audio: If you watch the video on YouTube with headphones you experience simulated 360RA sound.

“A Momentary Lapse Of Reason” 360 Reality Audio, Dolby Audio and UHD versions will be available via multiple digital service providers on Oct. 19. Physical formats will drop on Oct. 29.

Pre-order now.

Warner Music will release “Pink Floyd Live at Knebworth 1990” for the first time on CD, double vinyl, and digital platforms on April 30.

Only two Pink Floyd tracks from the 1990 Silver Clef Winners performance at Knebworth House, Hertfordshire, were included in the 1990 album “Knebworth: The Album.” Floyd’s entire set made it into “The Later Years: 1987–2019” boxset released in 2019.

Floyd topped the bill for that June 30, 1990, event. Other artists included Paul McCartney, Dire Straits, Genesis, Phil Collins, Robert Plant (with Jimmy Page), Cliff Richard, Eric Clapton and Tears For Fears.

Approximately 120,000 fans attended the event, which supported the Nordoff Robbins charity; and MTV broadcast the concert globally.

“There is something special about Knebworth. We all still have fond memories of playing there in the ’70s, and this show was no different,” says Floyd drummer Nick Mason.

“As a North London boy this was almost a home game, but with the added delight of being the re-assembly of the band after a fairly mega-tour that had lasted for well over a year.

“It was also an opportunity to get the wonderful Candy Dulfer to play,” he adds. “I had been a fan of hers for quite a while, and it was just a shame we didn’t have an opportunity to utilize her for more.

“We also had our dear friend Michael Kamen guesting. Michael had contributed so much to Pink Floyd over the previous 10 years, it’s great to have something of his playing on the recording.”

Also joining Floyd’s Mason, David Gilmour, and Richard Wright for the performance were Guy Pratt, Jon Carin, Tim Renwick, Gary Wallis, Durga McBroom, Sam Brown, Vicki Brown and Clare Torry.

Songlist

1. Shine On You Crazy Diamond, Parts 1-5
2. The Great Gig In The Sky
3. Wish You Were Here
4. Sorrow
5. Money
6. Comfortably Numb
7. Run Like Hell

The album was produced by Chris Kimsey and Steve Smith; and recorded and engineered by Mike Fraser. It’s been remixed  by Andy Jackson with David Gilmour, assisted by Damon Iddins.

Warner will handle the album’s release within Europe; Sony Music will release it outside Europe.

Pre-order the 2-LP set for $49.98. Pre-order the CD for $15.98.

Sony has informed “Floydian Slip” it will not be able to provide giveaway copies of the release. “Unfortunately we have no physical give-aways or promotional items,” a Sony rep tells us. “The pandemic, understandably, has made things challenging.”