In an expected move, Nick Mason's Saucerful Of Secrets have this morning announced that they have cancelled the brace of concerts they had lined up in Russia as part of their upcoming 2022 Echoes tour. The shows which were to be held on May 23rd at the BKZ Oktyabrsky Concert Hall in St Petersburg, and May 25th at the State Kremlin Palace in Moscow, will not take place.

The band issued the following statement:

“Due to the current events happening in Ukraine, we are cancelling all of our shows in Russia that were due to take place this summer.

“Our thoughts and support are with all those in Ukraine.”

We assume the ticket agents will issue refunds automatically to ticket holders, and any queries should be directed to them for resolution.

The 2022 Record Store Day list of limited edition, one-day-only releases sold via participating stores over the counter (and not via mail order) has now been revealed, and for Floyd fans there's a potential gem tucked away amongst the items, which may be of interest.

Mercury Studios will be releasing, for the very first time on vinyl, Pete Townshend's Face The Face album recorded live at MIDEM in Cannes on January 23rd 1986 and broadcast live by Rockpalast, the German TV show. The album was released on DVD/CD in 2016.

The new 2LP set is pressed on bright yellow vinyl and includes 14 songs from the concert.

The band, known as Pete Townshend's Deep End, included David Gilmour on guitar for their limited run of shows in late 1985 and early 1986, and also featured Townshend on guitar and vocals, Peter Hope-Evans on harmonica, Chucho Merchan on bass, Simon Phillips on drums, John ‘Rabbit’ Bundrick on keyboards, and Jody Linscot on percussion.

They were joined by the Kick Horns: Simon Clarke, Roddy Lorimer, Tim Sanders, Pete Beachill and Dave Plews, with backing vocals provided by Billy Nicholls, Ian Ellis, Chris Staines, Gina Foster and Coral Gordon.

TRACK LIST:

SIDE ONE
Won’t Get Fooled Again
Secondhand Love
Give Blood
Behind Blue Eyes
SIDE TWO
After The Fire
Slit Skirts
Blue Light
SIDE THREE
Hiding Out
The Sea Refuses No River
Face The Face
Pinball Wizard
SIDE FOUR
A Little Is Enough
Rough Boys
Night Train

As with the other RSD 2022 releases, it is a limited edition: often the RSD releases are pressed up as just a couple of thousand or so worldwide. As yet we don't know how many there will be of these to snap up on the day.

And, as we've mentioned previously, all the limited edition items are released via RSD participating stores on 23rd April 2022 - go to RecordStoreDay.com or RecordStoreDay.co.uk for more details of who those will be. A reminder that it will ONLY be these stores participating; the stores themselves can't sell it online - the record will become available for customers coming through the door of the store from the morning of the 23rd (and not before), in limited quantities - first come, first served, and only one copy per customer. After RSD, if copies remain, they may put them for sale online (and of course, there'll also be copies on eBay inevitably...).

Some rather wonderful news for all those of you in Greece... Nick Mason's Saucerful Of Secrets are making not just one, but TWO stops in your country in June this year, as part of their delayed, and highly anticipated 2022 Echoes Tour!

As is common with Saucers dates, tickets for both the shows noted below have just gone on sale, to coincide with the announcement. The direct link to tickets is shown with the date and venue details:

• June 3rd 2022 - Dassous Theatre, Thessaloniki, Greece - TICKETS
• June 4th 2022 - Technopolis City of Athens, Athens, Greece - TICKETS

Both venues promise to be very interesting places to see the band play - Thessaloniki's venue is an amphitheatre overlooking the Greek port city, and the Aegean sea, and the venue in Athens is a former gasworks converted into an arts and culture space, close to the Acropolis.

If you are thinking of going to either, a reminder that the sale of tickets started today at 13:00 EET (local time) / 11:00am UK time, via Ticketmaster for Thessaloniki tickets, and from Viva.gr for Athens tickets.

In an unexpected move, the official Roger Waters Spotify and YouTube channels have just posted some selections from a live FM radio broadcast of a Radio KAOS show in 1987. Thus far, there's the Jim Ladd intro and Radio Waves, Money, In The Flesh/Have A Cigar, Pigs/Wish You Were Here, Mother, The Powers That Be, Breathe and Another Brick part 1.

Obviously this is just part of the show that was presented mainly in the US and Canada, with a pair of shows at Wembley Arena in London (featuring guest vocalist Clare Torry). One wonders if this is to precede a proper release, or if the missed songs will be along later. The sound quality is very good indeed and it's fun to hear the show again after all this time - 35 years later! It seems like not THAT long ago...time really does fly.