The Australian radio station, ABC Coast FM, have interviewed local Gold Coast singer Venetta Fields, who has had a star-studded career, performing with the likes of Diana Ross, Aretha Franklin and, most notably for us, Pink Floyd, taking part in such things as the 1973 Dark Side Of The Moon tour of Europe and the US.

The interview itself is fascinating, and can be read here and if you want to give your eyes a rest, and hear the whole interview, you can listen to it here. In the interview, much reference is made to Pink Floyd, who she didn't even consider as musicians when she first heard them:

"They were more like technicians. They all had college degrees and everything. They really didn't come from the same place as most musicians I knew. They were the most interesting band I have ever worked with. It was the whole package, even their personalities. They had the airplanes, they had the smoke, the movie. It was just absolutely fascinating."

On getting the call to sing with the band: "We were in a little tiny motel in Epping where Robin Hood's forest used to be. Dave Gilmour brought the tape over for us to learn the songs. We just laughed when we heard what we had to sing. We thought we were kind of cluey in the business. We didn't have a clue. The tape was absolutely different from anything I had sung."

Fields remembers the band members playing backgammon on the first trip she made with them to Austria. By that time she was already spending weekends on Dave Gilmour's farm but says the other band members were more standoffish. That all changed when they played their first gig together. "The beautiful old hotel kept the restaurant open for us and when we got back in it was really, really late and we had opulent food and wine and the next thing we knew we were all under the table singing 'Summertime' with a bottle of wine in our hand. So that broke the ice. From then on we were included in everything."

Be sure to check out the full interview - some fascinating insights into those early days, life on the road, etc...