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Roger Waters re-records “The Dark Side of the Moon”

Posted February 10, 2023 by Floydian Slip

Roger Waters revealed he has re-recorded Pink Floyd‘s 1973 album “The Dark Side of the Moon.” He broke the news to German newspaper Berliner Zeitung Feb. 4, and provided more details to the U.K.’s The Telegraph on Feb. 8.

Roger is one of only a handful of people to appear on the redo, which he began months ago without the participation or knowledge of any of his former Floyd bandmates.

“I’m the only one singing my songs on these new recordings, and there are no rock and roll guitar solos,” he told Berliner Zeitung.

“The new concept is meant to reflect on the meaning of the work, to bring out the heart and soul of the album — musically and spiritually.”

In addition to Waters, his long-time collaborator Gus Seyffert plays keyboards on the new work; and Seyffert’s girlfriend, Bedouine, provides backing vocals.

“I wrote The Dark Side of the Moon. Let’s get rid of all this ‘we’ c—p!,” he told The Telegraph. “Of course we were a band, there were four of us, we all contributed. But it’s my project and I wrote it. So blah!”

The album will be released in May, according to The Telegraph.

News of the redux album was overshadowed by an inflammatory tweet posted by David Gilmour‘s wife and writing partner Polly Samson, perhaps in response to Waters’s German interview.

“Sadly @rogerwaters you are antisemitic to your rotten core,” Samson posted to Twitter. “Also a Putin apologist and a lying, thieving, hypocritical, tax-avoiding, lip-synching, misogynistic, sick-with-envy, megalomaniac. Enough of your nonsense.”

Gilmour retweeted the post, and added “Every word demonstrably true.”

Waters acknowledged Samson’s tweet by posting to social media: “Roger Waters is aware of the incendiary and wildly inaccurate comments made about him on Twitter by Polly Samson which he refutes entirely. He is currently taking advice as to his position.”

 


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Roger Waters releases The Lockdown Sessions

Posted December 9, 2022 by Floydian Slip

Sony Music today released Roger Waters‘s “The Lockdown Sessions” on all digital music platforms.

The collection of six songs were recorded remotely by Waters and his band during Covid lockdown; with the final track coming from a live show during his North American “This Is Not a Drill” tour:

  1. “Mother” (from The Wall)
  2. “Two Suns in the Sunset” (from The Final Cut)
  3. “Vera” (from The Wall)
  4. “The Gunner’s Dream” (from The Final Cut)
  5. “The Bravery of Being Out of Range” (from Amused to Death)
  6. “Comfortably Numb” (from The Wall)

The tracks were produced by Waters and Gus Seyffert. Appearing on the recordings are Waters – Vocals, Guitar and Piano; Seyffert – Bass, Cellos and Vocals; Joey Waronker – Drums and Percussion; Dave Kilminster – Guitar and Rhythm Guitar; Jonathan Wilson – Guitar and Vocals; Jon Carin – Keyboards and Vocals; Lucius (Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig) – Vocals; Bo Koster – Hammond (on all tracks except “Mother”); and Ian Ritchie – Saxophone (“Two Suns in the Sunset”).

Videos of the first five were originally posted by Waters on social media during ’20 and ’21. The videos were produced and directed by Sean Evans. “Comfortably Numb” was released last month.

“Our ‘Us and Them Tour’ lasted three years. At every gig we did an encore after the main show closed with ‘Comfortably Numb.’ The encore was always ‘Mother.’ I can’t remember why I decided to start doing other songs,” Waters says.

“At some point after the end of the tour, I started thinking, ‘It could make an interesting album, all those encores.’ ‘The Encores.’ Yeah, has a nice ring to it!

“Then I’m in England doing the Ginger Baker tribute gig one Tuesday night at the Hammersmith Odeon with Eric Clapton and the following Saturday marching from The Australian Embassy to Parliament Square to make a speech in support of Julian Assange, when bugger me, Covid. Schlummmm! For me it was Friday, March 13th, 2020. Lockdown! So much for the ‘Encores’ project. Unless,” he adds.

“We’ve tacked ‘Comfortably Numb’ on the end of the collection, as an appropriate exclamation point in closing this circle of love.”

Waters first announced his intention of releasing the collection under the title “The Lockdown Sessions” during a podcast appearance last month. “I’ve given all these things away,” he said. “They’re all out there. Anybody can find them on the internet.”


Posted in Merchandise, Personnel, Recordings, Roger Waters | 2 comments

David Gilmour appears on new Donovan album

Posted November 26, 2022 by Floydian Slip

David Gilmour is featured on two tracks from the new Donovan album,”Gaelia,” which drops Dec. 2.

The first Gilmour recording, “Rock Me,” has been released ahead of the album. The other track is “Lover O’ Lover.”

Donovan explains his connection to Gilmour goes back to the ’60s, when the Pink Floyd guitarist purchased Donovan’s cottage. “He said my album track ‘Three Kingfishers,’ off my ‘Sunshine Superman’ album of 1966, had launched him in a celestial music direction,” according to Donovan. “And so when I was selling my cottage, where so many of my songs were written, he wanted to be in my creative space. Makes sense in a Floyd sort of way.

“David had already learned to fly (he wrote a song about it, too ) and flew himself in to Ireland for the session,” he adds. “David brought his guitar roadie, who set up two amps in the studio, handed David his pink Strat, and his unique signature sound enthralled us all.”


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Roger Waters releases new recording of “Comfortably Numb”

Posted November 18, 2022 by Floydian Slip

Sony Music released today “Comfortably Numb 2022,” a new recording of the Pink Floyd classic from Roger Waters‘s recent “This Is Not a Drill” tour.

The new track is available on streaming platforms.

“During lockdown I made a demo of a new version of ‘Comfortably Numb‘ as an opener for our new show,” Waters explains. “I pitched it a whole step down, in A Minor, to make it darker and arranged it with no solos, except over the outro chord sequence, where there is a heartrendingly beautiful female vocal solo from Shanay Johnson, one of our new singers.”

The accompanying video was produced and directed by Sean Evans. Photography by Kate Izor.

The track was produced by Waters and Gus Seyffert. Appearing on the track are Waters, vocals; Gus Seyffert , bass, synth, percussion, vocals; Joey Waronker, drums; Dave Kilminster, vocals; Jonathan Wilson, harmonium, synth, guitar and vocals; Jon Carin, synth, Vocals; Johnson, vocals; Amanda Belair, vocals; Robert Walter, organ/piano; Nigel Godrich, strings, amp and backing vocals from Roger Waters The Wall Sessions.

Waters’s “This Is Not A Drill” will tour Europe in 2023 with 40 shows across 14 European countries, starting in Lisbon on March 17, 2023, at Altice Arena.

Listen to the track now

Watch the video:


Posted in Merchandise, Personnel, Recordings, Roger Waters | 3 comments

Pink Floyd exhibit coming to Montreal

Posted October 29, 2022 by Floydian Slip

“The Pink Floyd Exhibition: Their Mortal Remains” will open in Montreal, Quebec, on Friday, Nov. 4, for an 8-week run at Arsenal Contemporary Art.

The exhibit, created by members of the band working with album sleeve designer Aubrey “Po” Powell, features more than 350 artifacts collected over the band’s career — including handwritten lyrics, musical instruments, letters, stage props, original artworks and more.

The show is designed by Stufish, longtime stage designers for the band, which was founded by the late Mark Fisher.

“Their Mortal Remains” premiered in London in 2017 after a three-year delay from its originally scheduled debut in Milan in 2014; and has travelled to Rome, Dortmund, Madrid, and most recently, to Los Angeles. This will mark the exhibit’s first showing in Canada.

Montreal plays a unique and somewhat notorious role in the history of Pink Floyd. The band first played Montreal in November 1971, at a sold-out show at the Centre Sportif de l’Université de Montréal. They returned to the city several times, performing at the Montreal Forum, the Autostade, and Olympic Stadium.

At was at the Stadium, on July 6, 1977, the final show of Floyd’s “In the Flesh” tour, when Roger Waters, frustrated with an inattentive audience, spat at a fan from the stage. The experience served as an epiphany, as he realized a divide had grown between the band and its audience. That revelation helped inform his creation of “The Wall.”

Base rates for tickets to the exhibit run from $28 to $45 CA, are good for specific times of entry, and can be purchased online.

Curators estimate a walk through the exhibit will take 60-90 minutes. But you and I both know we’ll be there all day.

Learn more at the exhibit’s website.


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Vegetable Man lyric sheet to be auctioned

Posted October 27, 2022 by Floydian Slip

Bonhams will auction Syd Barrett‘s handwritten lyrics to “Vegetable Man” next month.

The song was recorded by Pink Floyd in mid-October 1967 to be included on the band’s second album “A Saucerful of Secrets” (1968). The track was instead shelved for nearly 50 years, when it was finally released as part of the boxset “The Early Years: 1965–1972” (2016).

According to Bonhams, the lyric sheet “was acquired by Pink Floyd’s first manager at the time the song was written and has been in his possession since.”

It consists of each verse and the chorus written across 32 lines over two pages of lined paper in blue ballpoint pen with handwritten musical chords. It’s being sold with a letter concerning its provenance.

Bonhams indicates this will be the first time a complete set of lyrics handwritten by Barrett will be offered at auction. It estimates the item will sell for £30,000 to £40,000, approximately $35,000 to $46,000 in U.S. currency.

Copyright is not included with the sale, with all rights remaining with Barrett’s estate.

The auction takes place Nov. 16 at 1 p.m. GMT in London. Learn more at the Bonhams website.


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Happy Birthday, Roger Waters

Posted September 6, 2022 by Floydian Slip

Roger Waters (b. Sept. 6, 1943)


Posted in Personnel, Roger Waters | 2 comments

Hipgnosis documentary completed

Posted August 26, 2022 by Floydian Slip

Deadline reports director Anton Corbijn has completed “Squaring the Circle (The Story of Hipgnosis),” a feature-length documentary about the venerable album sleeve design shop.

Founded by Storm Thorgerson and Aubrey “Po” Powell in the ’60s, the collaborative produced many sleeves for Pink Floyd and its members, as well as many other bands.

“Growing up in the late ’60s and ’70s, I was obsessed with music and everything connected to it – especially the album covers,” Corbijn tells Deadline. “The record sleeves were a huge part of my education and I really enjoyed making this film as it allowed me to revisit the things I loved from that time. I clearly recall the moment I first saw the sleeve for ‘Atom Heart Mother’ by Pink Floyd, and the Peter Gabriel sleeves.”

The film includes new interviews with Roger Waters, David Gilmour and Nick Mason.

It’s produced by Raindog FilmsGed Doherty, Trish D. Chetty and Colin Firth.

No release date has yet been announced.


Posted in Aubrey Powell, Films, Merchandise, Personnel, Storm Thorgerson | 1 comment

“Floydian Slip” songlist #1357

Posted April 18, 2022 by Floydian Slip

“Storm Effect — Remembering Storm Thorgerson”

  1. Martian Landscape
    No Heavy Petting (UFO) (1976)
  2. Mambo Sun
    Electric Warrior (T. Rex) (1971)
  3. From the Beginning
    Trilogy (ELP) (1972)
  4. All My Love
    In Through the Out Door (Led Zeppelin) (1979)
  5. (In All of My Dreams) You Rescue Me
    New England (Wishbone Ash) (1976)
  6. Live and Let Die
    Wings Over America (Wings) (1976)
  7. Merry-Go-Round
    Jump On It (Montrose) (1976)
  8. Crying Song
    More (Film soundtrack) (Pink Floyd) (1969)

Posted in Personnel, Radio show, Songlists, Storm Thorgerson | Comments Off on “Floydian Slip” songlist #1357

“Floydian Slip” preview #1357

Posted April 12, 2022 by Floydian Slip

Join us for a special show called “Storm Effect.”

We’ll remember long-time Floyd sleeve designer Storm Thorgerson (d. April 18, 2013) by playing from albums all designed by Storm and the team at Hipgnosis.

Hear cuts from Wings, Montrose, T. Rex, Led Zeppelin, UFO and many others … including, of course, Pink Floyd.


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