Preview of upcoming BBC specials on Pink Floyd
Written by Matt   
Sunday, 18 September 2011

Earlier this month we told you about the UK's BBC Radio 2 who have scheduled a range of Pink Floyd programming for their Autumn season.

Musicweek have been looking at what's coming up, and note that Pink Floyd pioneered certain modern business models. According to Steve Levine, the man behind the programme on producers, the band's management paid for studio time with Joe Boyd (who discovered Pink Floyd at the UFO Club) producing. "They were originally going to sign for Polydor and the management said, 'If we pay for studio time and we own masters we will make the decision of what to do'," said Levine. After the independent production of that single the band signed with EMI. He also noted that Floyd had "free use" of Abbey Road studios because they negotiated a slightly smaller percentage deal with EMI, in exchange for EMI paying for studio time. "That was very unusual for the time. These are very interesting models."

Levine and Allinson interviewed Gilmour at Astoria. The producer said: "The forthcoming focus on Pink Floyd will be one of our most revealing programmes yet. Gilmour talked at length about how the guitar sound is important in the band's music and how the various overdubs and unique production sounds and techniques make up the totality of a song – as well as stories about individual tracks".

Radio 2 and 6 Music controller Bob Shennan said: "This is one of the opportunities for us to do something I am really keen for Radio 2 to do – take an iconic artist or band, particularly one you don't get to hear that often on the radio, or certainly outside of the BBC, and really celebrate them, give them more depth. Rather than doing one-off documentaries we are trying to get really intelligent analysis as well as a celebration of the artists". He also revealed that talks were currently ongoing about bringing some of the Pink Floyd programming to sister station 6 Music.

Read more on this story over at Musicweek.com. Our thanks to Mark Jennings for the info.