To help celebrate the 35th anniversary of the release of Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here album, the respected US radio broadcaster Redbeard is airing a special show on September 6th in North America. His "In The Studio" specials have built a great reputation due to their mix of detailed interview and music.
Whilst his interviews with the band members were recorded in 2006, Redbeard tells us that this upcoming show features an all-new script and the latest music mastering. The show can be heard across North America - check his website for participating radio stations, and then local listings for exact time and date of broadcast.
Through the wonders of the internet, for the first time this particular special will be available to hear worldwide at www.InTheStudio.net, where you can also find some of his other Pink Floyd specials to stream at your convenience (The Wall, and The Division Bell). Definitely worth a listen! Our thanks to Redbeard and to Terrence Reardon.
Roger Waters is to be the cover star of the upcoming issue of Classic Rock Presents Prog magazine that features an in-depth interview with Roger in which he talks about taking The Wall back on the road, David Gilmour's offer to perform Comfortably Numb at one of his shows as well as pondering what the future might hold in store for him.
Also in the issue is an exclusive interview with David Gilmour and The Orb plus mention of the new Syd Barrett compilation - a real Floyd fest!
And if that's not enough there will be a free CD featuring tracks from Hawkwind, Touchstone, Eden and others. The new issue goes on sale in the UK on August 25th, and is available in selected locations worldwide as an import, or via MyFavouriteMagazines.co.uk for international mail order of this issue.
UPDATE, August 22nd: Certain retailers in the UK already have this issue on their shelves, and as you can see from the outer cover [click thumbnail] it is eye-catching and hard to miss! Taking the magazine out of the card envelope, you get a different front cover to the magazine itself - a nice portrait of Roger, on a black background.
Inside the magazine, there's a four page interview with Alex Paterson of The Orb, talking at length about how he got David Gilmour involved in the upcoming album we told you about on August 17th. Elsewhere, the interview with Roger Waters covers six well illustrated pages, is a fascinating look at his views on The Wall, and the upcoming concerts. Excitingly, he notes that "I'm definitely going to put The Wall [original concert] out [on DVD] at some point". He also squirms at the length of time since his last solo album was released, noting he has "so many songs written, I keep meaning to get round to organise it..."
Marking the 40th anniversary of the release of Meddle, the Pink Floyd 2011 Calendar is now available to buy. As you will see from the images of the front and back cover, to the right [click the thumbnails], the calendar focuses on the earlier days in the band's history, with pictures from 1967 through to The Wall concerts, with a couple of 1994 shots for good measure.
As with previous year's calendars, these official ones are well produced, and become quite a collector's item as time goes on. The calendar is 12" x 12" (30cm x 30cm), the same size as a vinyl LP (for those who remember them), and has a month per double-page view.
Over a month ago, and now being reported in the media, the removal took place of a number of Pink Floyd albums from online stores such as iTunes and Amazon MP3s. It's all their albums from Wish You Were Here onwards (with The Division Bell disappearing over a year ago as an online entity).
EMI and the band failed to reach a new distribution contract, which means that EMI do not have the authority to distribute the band's works electronically or on CD. The albums up to and including The Dark Side of the Moon are handled under a different contract, so those are still available. EMI can continue to sell its stock of Pink Floyd CDs, but once they're sold, it cannot produce more. If there are gaps in your collection, might be worth filling them now!
The CD production restriction doesn't, however, apply to Sony Territories which still have The Division Bell and Pulse CD (i.e. North and South America, Australia, Japan, etc.).
Just announced, and coming in October, is a new collaboration between David Gilmour, and ambient wizards The Orb. You might recall that last year, David had been in the studio jamming with Martin “Youth” Glover, who was at the time working on an ambient mix of the 'Chicago' re-recording, which was released to raise awareness of the plight of Gary McKinnon.
Dr Alex Paterson (the one constant through the history of The Orb) was not involved in the sole jamming session and the only plan initially was for David to play guitar on 'Chicago'. However, the result of that jam session has now been spread across the next Orb album, Metallic Spheres, which will be released as "The Orb featuring David Gilmour".
Metallic Spheres is designed to be heard in two parts – 'Metallic Side' (24'48"), and 'Spheres Side' (25'09") – each 'side' containing five movements. The album features David's guitar and lap steel guitar, plus some of his vocals from 'Chicago'; Alex Paterson contributes sound manipulation, keyboards and turntables, while Youth adds bass and keyboards and handles the production.
It will be released in multiple formats worldwide in October this year: October 11th in the UK, and October 12th in North America. All artist royalties will go to helping Gary McKinnon's campaign against his extradition.
In addition to the standard CD album, there will be a 'Deluxe' 2CD version: the first disc is the same as the standard, the second is a 3D60™ version, a new sound production process developed by Youth, Mike Brady (The Jam's live sound engineer) and Ian Thompson (musician and multimedia producer), which allows you to listen in three-dimensional sound. As with the earlier QSound format, you don't need special equipment, and it is said to "sound amazing on any headphones in any format".
The album will also be available from iTunes, and there will also be a vinyl version, exactly the same as the standard CD, but including a download card permitting you to download an additional ambient bonus track. More details as we get them...
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To help celebrate the 35th anniversary of the release of Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here album, the respected US radio broadcaster Redbeard is airing a special show on September 6th in North America. His "
