Just published is the latest issue (number 29 - cover date April 2017) of the Pink Floyd fanzine "Heyou" run by our friends over at the Italian website of the same name.
The 52-page dual language magazine (in Italian and English), which is published every six months or so, catches up with things in the Floyd world this year. The major focus for this issue is the 40th anniversary of Animals.
The magazine starts with the final part (looking at Animals) of the Capital Radio interview with the band from 1976/77 which they have used my transcription of - all six parts of this fascinating interview can be seen in full here on BD. There's plenty of coverage of the Animals tour, and press coverage, too.
As with most issues of Heyou, there's a chronological look at things that have happened in the last few months in the news pages, ranging from various magazines published with Floyd content, to exhibitions and more. Finally, there's a tribute to the late Gianluigi Soldi, an Italian fan familiar to at least some of you, and a key member of the Floydseum group of enthusiasts.
More details of the Heyou fanzine can be found at www.heyou.it/fsubscrbd.html, where you can get individual copies, and subscription enquiries (four issues costing 30 euros within Europe, and 40 euros outside Europe) should go to
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- make sure you mention Brain Damage when you write!
A quick bit of advance notice for our friends in the USA - this coming Monday evening's Late Show with Stephen Colbert, which airs on CBS, includes actor Rami Malek, educator and mechanical engineer Bill Nye, and most interestingly, a musical performance by Roger Waters.
The show airs at 11:35pm/10:35pm central, and you'll find more details in your local listings. For those outside the US, segments from the show are made available online at CBS.com, so let's hope Roger's performance is included. As yet, no details obviously as to what he is going to play; one could guess at the recently released Smell The Roses, but equally could be something else from his forthcoming album, Is This The Life We Really Want?, or from his extensive back catalogue...
Our friend José Abellán who runs the Spanish Animals Pink Floyd Magazine has been in touch with the latest issue, number 19.
With a typically well designed, eye-catching cover, it has been a little while since the last issue, and this is acknowledged in the editorial. Rather than try and cover everything in detail that has occurred over the three years since they last published, there is a degree of condensing the information to present alongside the normal, more in-depth features.
With the text all in Spanish, that limits the reach of the magazine, although there are a decent selection of black and white pictures throughout. The fanzine includes news and information on all sorts of Floyd related topics, including Roger Waters The Wall Live, a look at the 20th anniversary of The Division Bell, there's coverage of The Endless River, Amused To Death, Rattle That Lock, a brief look at The Early Years box set, and more. For more details and to place your order for this, visit their website.
Last night, New York Times music critic John Pareles and Roger Waters were joined by an audience of 350 for a live interview as part of The New York Times’ TimesTalks series at New York City’s Florence Gould Hall. The interview spanned discussions about the scale Pink Floyd brought to rock music, Waters’ upcoming new album, American politics, and many other topics. A video of the whole interview can be seen at the foot of this piece.
When Pink Floyd and Roger Waters parted ways in the 1980s it was a division not only of musical journeys but also of political presences. David Gilmour’s Pink Floyd shared general philosophical ideas with Waters but the specificity and force with which Waters criticized particular politicians or policies was amplified as he began his solo career.
Waters’ voice on this plane has been rising since and has often demonstrated good instinct for portension: as New York Times music critic John Pareles noted, after 25 years Amused to Death not only remains relevant but has actually turned out “prophetic.”
Given what we know about Waters’ Mexico shows last year (the source of some of the footage shown during the interview) and what he shared with Pareles this evening, it seems we are about to experience the most intense of Waters’ political statements on his new album, Is This the Life We Really Want?, and his upcoming Us + Them Tour. As Waters himself acknowledged following an audience question, it will be interesting how the album and tour is received in proverbial ‘Kansas City.’
The discussion began with questions that were largely focused on the scale, legacy, and impact of Pink Floyd, balanced with questions about Waters’ new album and its construction.
To give you a taster of the new album, a track from it - Smell The Roses - has been released and can be heard in full here:
With many of you out there committed vinyl enthusiasts, we're sure that edition will be a very popular release. Thus, below we list dedicated ordering links for the vinyl AND the CD editions - using these will give a small but vital contribution to the running costs of Brain Damage, without costing you a penny/cent extra, and we really appreciate it!
NOTE: Some of the stores above are yet to list the releases as available to buy but the pages are there for when they do. If your chosen store doesn't have it yet, please keep trying, or consider an alternate store - Amazon ship vinyl worldwide.
A quick bit of advance notice for our friends in the USA - this coming Monday evening's Late Show with Stephen Colbert, which airs on CBS, includes actor Rami Malek, educator and mechanical engineer Bill Nye, and most interestingly, a musical performance by Roger Waters.
