At the time of writing this, more than 23 million people have already viewed the trailer for the upcoming film adaptation of Dune, Frank Herbert's sci-fi classic, and interest in the music included in the trailer has skyrocketed.
In the 1970s, director Alejandro Jodorowsky never got past plans for a Dune film, and famously approached Pink Floyd about writing the score. With this new version, director Denis Villeneuve decided to give a serious nod to that, and includes Eclipse (from The Dark Side Of The Moon) as the key underscore of the trailer.
The legendary Hans Zimmer came up with the new version for the trailer, which involved a hefty cast of musicians and singers. He and his choral contractor Edie Lehmann Boddicker put together a 32-voice Los Angeles ensemble, with 12 performed the lyrics with choral parts by the remaining 20. Lehmann Boddicker said: "He wanted to pay homage to the original, very back-phrased sound, a little spaced-out, so the vocals would not sound urgent. There's a kind of joy happening in the track, a lot of hopefulness. It's not despondent, just very peaceful and sounding not of this planet."
Musicians included in the trailer were programmer Steven Doar, Chinese-American cellist Tina Guo, Colombian bassist Juan Garcia-Herreros and English guitarist Guthrie Govan (well known for his work with Steven Wilson). Zimmer told Variety in June: "I can keep a lot of musicians busy – in Australia, in Europe, in England, in America. I'm sort of working on four continents. Time zones are not my friend right now."
Our thanks to those who have got in touch regarding this, including Vaughan Burton. Here's the trailer for the film, including THAT music:
As the publisher's rightly note, "legendary Pink Floyd founding member Syd Barrett's songwriting was unique, memorable and utterly brilliant." Viewers of the recent Von Trapped events, put on by Polly Samson, David Gilmour and family, will be aware, David has recently been working away on checking Syd's lyrics for publication in an upcoming book.
That book has now been announced: The Lyrics of Syd Barrett. It is published by Omnibus on February 18th, 2021 in Europe, and May 6th, 2021, in North America.
Featuring 56 songs and a foreword by Pink Floyd's first manager, Peter Jenner, and an introduction by Rob Chapman (author of Syd Barrett: A Very Irregular Head), this beautifully illustrated and official book compiles Syd's extraordinary lyrics together for the very first time.
It is bound to be a popular choice for many, and pre-orders are now open for this book. You can order it through the following links, taking advantage of Amazon's free pre-order price guarantee - should their asking price drop at any point between you ordering it, and publication, they will automatically charge you the lowest price during that period! Ordering through our links also helps with BD's ongoing running costs, and we really appreciate it:
Amazon UK, Amazon.com, Amazon Canada,
Amazon France, Amazon Germany, Amazon Spain and Amazon Italy.
The combined wishes of all of us on the Brain Damage team, along no doubt with many of you reading this, go to Roger Waters, who celebrates his 77th birthday today!
Roger was born in Great Bookham, Surrey, in 1943, moving to Cambridge when he was two years old. It was there that he met, and became childhood friends with, a number of key people in the story of Pink Floyd.
Of course, Roger has been extremely busy over the last few years, having successfully taken Dark Side Of The Moon on tour in 2006, through to 2008. On completing that, he immediately started work on a new version of The Wall - which finally opened in September 2010. That tour was spectacularly successful, wrapping up in Paris for show number 217 in September 2013. Recordings of that tour turned into the film, shown in cinemas and released on DVD/Blu-ray and as part of a mammoth, Super Deluxe Edition.
More recently, he performed his highly acclaimed Us + Them world tour, which was filmed and was shown in cinemas worldwide last October, with the home release of it on Blu-ray, 2CD, 3LP vinyl and DVD coming out early next month (more details and ordering links here). He also released his latest solo album, Is This The Life We Really Want? as well as overseeing the release of the late Nick Sedgwick's book about the band, and in particular, the 1974 tour of The Dark Side of the Moon.
Ahead of the release, in just two week's time (on September 18th), of Nick Mason's Saucerful Of Secrets Live At The Roundhouse on Blu-ray, DVD/2CD, and 2LP, Guy Pratt has recently undergone a couple of great interviews.
The first of these was for the Upwards at 45 Degrees website, where Guy talks the Saucers, Floyd, Bowie, and much more. Find out who are "the sun-dried tomatoes of rock and roll" and why, the significance of Frank Sinatra, and get some great detail on the development of the Saucers set list. You can read the interview here: https://bit.ly/2EOOExt.
The other interview is in podcast form, with the episode titled More Than The Sideman, and focuses on Guy and his extensive career. Conducted by The Vinyl Guide, Guy details how he landed the Floyd gig after Roger departed, and provides 'behind the scenes' insight into the world of Pink Floyd, the touring, the recordings, the reunions and more. Additionally Pratt provides a detailed insight to the highly regarded Toy Matinee project with Patrick Leonard and Kevin Gilbert, his history in comedy and much more. It's an incredible, one hour and fifteen minute listen, and as with the interview in the first paragraph, we heartily recommend it. Hear it at: https://bit.ly/2GyMDpH or via your favourite podcast platform - search for The Vinyl Guide, and Guy's interview is episode 237.
For those of you in or near to the beautiful Cambridgeshire city of Ely, there's an exhibition on at the moment which sounds well worth checking out - so, our thanks to Gary Summers for letting us know! 'Storm Warning' is a fascinating exhibition of around 50 pieces of Storm Thorgerson and his studio's album work; these are more recent, 90’s onwards designs, but include plenty of Floyd. All are for sale and are original limited edition prints, some signed by Storm, with StormStudio's team signing others.
The exhibition is being held in the Haddenham Arts Centre, a small village 5 miles outside Ely, until the end of October. UPDATE: this has now been extended into December, giving people more opportunity to visit! As the centre is manned purely by volunteers, and in these days where the arts are struggling hugely, it's good to give encouragement and patronage where possible (they have a cafe on site too!).
The exhibition is open each Tuesday to Saturday, between 10am and 4pm, with private appointments possible outside of these times (which might be handy for those who would want to maximise social distancing). There's free parking onsite too. The Haddenham Arts Centre website has further details of the exhibition, opening times, directions, etc., to make your visit as easy as possible.
Older News Archive 
As the publisher's rightly note, "legendary Pink Floyd founding member Syd Barrett's songwriting was unique, memorable and utterly brilliant." Viewers of the recent Von Trapped events, put on by Polly Samson, David Gilmour and family, will be aware, David has recently been working away on checking Syd's lyrics for publication in an upcoming book.
The combined wishes of all of us on the Brain Damage team, along no doubt with many of you reading this, go to Roger Waters, who celebrates his 77th birthday today!
Ahead of the release, in just two week's time (on September 18th), of Nick Mason's Saucerful Of Secrets Live At The Roundhouse on Blu-ray, DVD/2CD, and 2LP, Guy Pratt has recently undergone a couple of great interviews.
For those of you in or near to the beautiful Cambridgeshire city of Ely, there's an exhibition on at the moment which sounds well worth checking out - so, our thanks to Gary Summers for letting us know! 'Storm Warning' is a fascinating exhibition of around 50 pieces of Storm Thorgerson and his studio's album work; these are more recent, 90’s onwards designs, but include plenty of Floyd. All are for sale and are original limited edition prints, some signed by Storm, with StormStudio's team signing others.
