Remembering Syd Barrett (Jan. 6, 1946-July 7, 2006)
Raphael Ravenscroft dies at 60
Posted October 21, 2014 by Floydian Slip
Sax player Raphael Ravenscroft died following a suspected heart attack suffered Sunday. He was 60.
Ravenscroft appeared on Pink Floyd‘s “The Final Cut” (1983) and Roger Waters‘s “The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking” (1984). He also played live with David Gilmour during his “About Face” tour in 1984.
His best-known contribution to recorded music is certainly his soaring sax work on Gerry Rafferty‘s “Baker Street” in 1978. A #2 hit in the United States, the song reportedly earned him only £27 for his time. And the check allegedly bounced.
In a 2011 interview, Ravenscroft said his work on that song had always irritated him, “because it’s out of tune. It’s flat. By enough of a degree that it irritates me at best.”
Ravenscroft also worked with Abba, Robert Plant, Marvin Gaye, America, Kim Carnes, Mike Oldfield and many others.
“The Wall” actor Bob Hoskins dies
Posted April 30, 2014 by Floydian Slip
British actor Bob Hoskins has died of pneumonia. He was 71.
Though he had more than 100 film credits to his name going back to the early-’70s, Pink Floyd fans might know him best as the manager to Bob Geldof‘s character Pink in 1982’s “Pink Floyd The Wall.”
Hoskins had retired from acting in 2012 after learning he had Parkinson’s disease.
Pink Floyd stage designer’s estate worth £7 million
Posted January 24, 2014 by Floydian Slip
Mark Fisher, who designed elaborate stages for Pink Floyd, The Rolling Stones, U2 and many others, left behind an estate valued at £7,132,622.
Fisher, who died last year on June 25, designed the original show of “The Wall” in 1980, as well as Roger Waters‘ performance of the show in Berlin, Germany, in 1990 and its most recent world tour in 2010-13.
He also designed for Floyd’s A Momentary Lapse of Reason tour in 1987-89 and The Division Bell shows of ’94.
The £7 million figure was released by the Probate Office in London. The net amount after outstanding debt was settled was £6,835,331, the equivalent of $11.3 million.
Pink Floyd stage designer Mark Fisher dies
Posted June 26, 2013 by Floydian Slip
Architect Mark Fisher, who made a name for himself designing stages for bands including Pink Floyd, died yesterday at age 66.
He passed away in his sleep at the Marie Curie Hospice in Hampstead with wife, Cristina, at his side, after a long illness.
Fisher designed the original show of “The Wall” in 1980, as well as Roger Waters‘ performance of the show in Berlin, Germany, in 1990 and its most recent world tour in 2010-13. He also designed for Floyd’s A Momentary Lapse of Reason tour in 1987-89 and The Division Bell shows of ’94.
In 1984 he set up the Fisher Park Partnership with Jonathan Park, which he dissolved in 1994 when he established Stufish, the Mark Fisher Studio.
His resume includes work with The Rolling Stones, U2, Tina Turner, Madonna, Peter Gabriel, and Lady Gaga.
He also created designs for theatre productions including “We Will Rock You,” and “Ka” and “Viva Elvis” for Cirque du Soleil.
Fisher was the senior designer for the Beijing Olympics opening and closing ceremonies and was an executive producer of the London 2012 games ceremonies.
Pink Floyd sleeve designer Storm Thorgerson dies
Posted April 19, 2013 by Floydian Slip
Longtime Pink Floyd sleeve designer Storm Thorgerson died yesterday at age 69.
Along with Aubrey Powell, he co-founded design team Hipgnosis in 1967, and went on to became one of history’s most prolific designers of album covers.
Working for some of the best-known recording artists — Led Zeppelin, Genesis, Peter Gabriel, Wings, Black Sabbath, 10cc, Alan Parsons, Al Stewart and countless others — he and his team have been responsible for some of the most lasting images in the iconography of rock and roll, including the sleeve for Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon (1973).
During his career he likely created more than 300 sleeves. “I don’t really keep count,” he told Rolling Stone in 2011. “I’m privileged to work with music, so I’m happy to work. … As long as I can keep working, and paying the rent as they call it over in England, then I’m relatively happy.”
A childhood friend of members of Floyd, Thorgerson’s first sleeve for the band was its second album: A Saucerful of Secrets (1968). He would go on to design and photograph many others for the group, including Atom Heart Mother (1970), Wish You Were Here (1975), Animals (1977), A Momentary Lapse of Reason (1987) and Delicate Sound of Thunder (1988).
His work also included covers for Floyd’s David Gilmour, Nick Mason and Rick Wright.
Thorgerson died peacefully surrounded by friends and family, who released a statement saying, “He had been ill for some time with cancer though he had made a remarkable recovery from his stroke in 2003. He is survived by his mother Vanji, his son Bill, his wife Barbie Antonis and her two children, Adam and Georgia.”
Thorgerson met Floyd’s Gilmour when the two were in their teens. He served as best man at Gilmour’s wedding to Polly Samson.
“He has been a constant force in my life, both at work and in private, a shoulder to cry on and a great friend,” Gilmour said in a statement.
“The artworks that he created for Pink Floyd from 1968 to the present day have been an inseparable part of our work.”
Thorgerson was the first of only four guests we’ve welcomed to the “Floydian Slip” radio show in the program’s 20 years. In 1997 we spoke to him via phone from his London studio, following the release of “Mind of Matter: The Images of Pink Floyd.”
Cordial if not a little clownish, his first concern seemed to be for our well-being, considering the trans-Atlantic time difference that required the interview be conduct at 7:30 a.m. our time. “Are you awake?” he asked. “Are you on the ball? Are you focused?” he demanded with a rapid-fire British clip.
You can read the transcript of that interview at floydianslip.com.
Thorgerson’s work for Floyd has been enjoying a renewed appreciation with new variations he created for the Why Pink Floyd? reissue series. His reinterpretations of the “Dark Side” prism for the album’s 40th anniversary last month have been shared widely across the web.
Storm Thorgerson dead at 69
Posted April 19, 2013 by Floydian Slip
Long-time Pink Floyd sleeve designer Storm Thorgerson has died of cancer at 69.
A fuller appreciation will be posted soon.
David Gilmour, Syd Barrett collaborator Clive Welham dies
Posted May 9, 2012 by Floydian Slip
Drummer Clive Welham, one-time bandmate of David Gilmour and Syd Barrett, has died.
Welham played with Geoff Mott and the Mottoes in 1962, a band that included Barrett. A little later, he went on to work with The Ramblers and Jokers Wild, bands that included Gilmour.
In this photo from the Cambridge Press, February 1965 (Left to right): Gilmour, David Altham, John Gordon, Tony Sainty and Welham.
Pink Floyd roadie Alan Styles dies
Posted December 12, 2011 by Floydian Slip
Pink Floyd Web site Brain Damage reported that one-time Pink Floyd roadie Alan Styles died Dec. 8 of pneumonia. He was 75.
Styles, pictured here on the left with road manager/sound engineer Peter Watts on the back of the band’s 1969 “Ummagumma” album, was the namesake of the song “Alan’s Psychedelic Breakfast” from 1970’s “Atom Heart Mother.”
He can be heard throughout the avant-garde piece muttering to himself while going about his business preparing breakfast.
Roland Petit dead at 87
Posted July 11, 2011 by Floydian Slip
Celebrated choreographer and one-time Pink Floyd collaborator Roland Petit has died in Geneva, Switzerland. He was 87.
Petit formed his ballet company, Les Ballets de Paris de Roland Petit, in 1947, and would go on to work on a number of big Hollywood productions, including “Hans Christian Andersen” (1951), “Daddy Long Legs” (1955) “The Glass Slipper” (1955) and “Anything Goes” (1956).
But Floyd fans probably best know Petit for the project he staged with live music by the band in late-1972 and early-1973.
Suggested to him by his then-10-year-old daughter, “The Pink Floyd Ballet” was performed by Les Ballet de Marseille in November 1972 in Marseille and January 1973 in Paris, with Petit serving as artistic director and choreographer.
The band provided live renditions of “One of These Days,” “Careful With That Axe, Eugene,” “Obscured by Clouds/When You’re In” and “Echoes.”
Petit had lived in Switzerland for more than a decade. He’s survived by his wife, ballerina Zizi Jeanmaire, and his daughter, Valentine Petit.
YouTube offers some clips of the Pink Floyd Ballet performances.
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