A reminder for you, in case you are free in mid-December and within reach of the O2 Arena in London: after 55 years of live performing, The Pretty Things - the iconic, 1st wave, R&B cult heroes, formed by ex-Rolling Stone Dick Taylor, and singer, Phil May - will retire from electric performances at the end of this year.
With a huge history of musical and cultural "firsts" at their core - the "longest hair in the world", first ever rock and roll drugs bust, most arrests of any band, first ever "garage" single, first ever rock-opera, first UK band to win Rolling Stone Record of the Year, arrested for discharging a sawn off shotgun, first band to regain full control of its entire recorded catalogue and so on...
With such influential work as their ground-breaking masterpiece and world's first rock opera S. F. Sorrow, which celebrates its 50th Anniversary this year, they remain a hugely significant artistic and creative force. They are now calling it a day on the road, and playing their final ever live show at the end of the year.
This farewell show - in London - will feature guest appearances from significant old friends David Gilmour, Van Morrison and Bill Nighy and promises to be quite a show.
They play this final performance, at Indigo at The O2 on 13 December 2018. Tickets went on sale in May, but unexpectedly there are still some available, via AXS.com.
With The Pink Floyd Exhibition: Their Mortal Remains now open in Dortmund, at the Dortmunder U, naturally the German media have been investigating, and an interesting video report, which also includes Nick Mason and Aubrey 'Po' Powell, can be viewed below.
This latest staging of the exhibition runs until February 10th 2019 and tickets are now available through this direct link at Eventim.de. As with the London and Rome stagings of the exhibition it is definitely recommended that you book your tickets in advance, to ensure entrance at a time that suits you. Tickets for popular times for the previous stagings (for example, late morning on Saturdays or Sundays) naturally sold strongly, with some time slots selling out completely, so please bear this in mind.
As a result of the acclaim from critics and fans for the European tour this month by Nick Mason's Saucerful Of Secrets (presenting an expanded version of the set heard at the London shows in May which similarly blew people away), and an indication how much enjoyment the band themselves seem to be getting from the performances, a further set of five shows have just been announced, for England and Wales next April/May.
Tickets for these shows, detailed below, go on sale at 10am on Friday (September 28th) through Ticketmaster, SeeTickets, and other official outlets, and as before, we urge you to snap up your tickets before they all sell out. This is in many people's view, a truly unmissable concert with a well curated set list covering material from the Floyd's early days right up to 1972.
Here's the all-important list of new dates. Which one(s) are you hoping to go to?
Don't forget, tickets go on sale this coming Friday. And those of you across the Atlantic? Nick's and the Saucers' social media make a mildly cryptic comment that "our friends in North America, [should] keep an eye out for an interesting announcement soon..."
In today's edition of The Guardian newspaper in the UK, an interesting interview with Nick Mason, as well as Guy Pratt and Gary Kemp, looks at the early days of Pink Floyd, and how Nick's new band - his Saucerful Of Secrets - came about.
Despite lacking the "considerable degree of luxury" he enjoyed touring with Pink Floyd in the latter years, he notes that the camaraderie of the Saucers has made a huge difference as they tour around Europe this month. Just two more shows are left on mainland Europe now - Milan and Zurich - before a run of six nights in England and Scotland, to conclude the tour.
Nick talks about the idea of revisiting those early days, and reminisced about them: "Playing a Top Rank ballroom somewhere, on a bloody revolving stage, with Geno Washington and the Ram Jam Band on the other side of it, and the whole audience wanting them to come on and us to get off."
For the Saucers, Nick looked at the band's pre-Dark Side material. "I hadn't really examined these songs in 40-something years. It was a real eye-opener. Syd's way of working and his writing, and some of the other things we did, you just think, 'God, this has got such a modern feel to it.' Obscured By Clouds! You could take that to Ibiza!"
Elsewhere in the piece, Gary Kemp talks about his involvement in the band, and the surprise which accompanied the initial announcement of the man that most knew from his Spandau Ballet career.
As we now start looking towards the end of the year (yes, we know it is still September, but Christmas isn't that far around the corner!), it's that time again... now available is the Official Pink Floyd 'Early Years' 2019 Calendar.
It's a perennial Floyd fan favourite - particularly as a gift at Christmas time - is this annual official wall calendar. An item which has been produced for many years now, the standardised format is roughly the same size as a vinyl album - roughly 12" (or 30cm) square, with the calendar opening up to have a double page spread per month.
The calendar this year - as the full title suggests - could be considered a companion piece to the band's lavish Pink Floyd The Early Years 1965-72 box set (and subsequent "breakout" year sets). Each month provides a blend of (mostly) black and white shots from the band's initial years, and includes live shots, backstage, studio and posed press pictures.
The calendar each year is often squirrelled away as a collectable for the years to come, and earlier examples are now quite sought after, and we're sure this one will prove just as popular.
