Well, it's felt a long time coming, but it has finally started. As we type this, Nick Mason's Saucerful Of Secrets are currently midway through the first half of their opening show on their Australian tour - part of The Echoes Tour - with the band playing the first of a brace of nights at the Forum Melbourne. There are still a few tickets for tomorrow night's show, and for some of the other Australian shows - so if you are in or near the cities in question, it really would be worth your while snapping them up before they all go, and enjoying a fabulous gig filled with early Pink Floyd gems! Here are details of all the upcoming shows.
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- and to kick things off, here's a picture of the band in action a very short time ago, during the first number in Melbourne! Our thanks to John, on the scene at the Forum... if you visit the show page you'll find more of his pictures!
With the start of their Echoes Tour in Australia just two days away - they play a brace of shows in Melbourne this weekend - the first of the interviews to coincide with the dates on local media has taken place. Nick Mason and Gary Kemp talk about the Saucerful Of Secrets, with Nick also talking about the early days of Pink Floyd, in an entertaining chat that's worth watching:
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 the very special occasion of his 80th 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 recent 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, with the home release of it on Blu-ray, 2CD, 3LP vinyl and DVD that followed. He also released his latest full 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.
2022 finally saw him back on tour for This Is Not A Drill, originally due to start in 2020 but delayed due to Covid-19, with the stage presentation being "in the round". The powerful presentations, with the unique staging which sees Roger wandering around, addressing attendees on all sides of the arenas, have already thrilled audiences in many countries with more shows to come in South America.
June also saw the release of the six-song album, The Lockdown Sessions, which gathered together new versions of Mother, Two Suns In The Sunset, Vera, The Gunner's Dream, The Bravery Of Being Out Of Range, and Comfortably Numb 2022.
Finally, Roger's Redux version of The Dark Side Of The Moon is released next month, and he presents this in a pair of shows at the legendary London Palladium.
The official Pink Floyd social channels this morning also shared a birthday wish for Roger, with a message looking back in fondness to all the work they all did together:
We hope you have a great day, Roger. Many happy returns!
Just announced is the release - on October 13th - of breakout sets from Pink Floyd's The Dark Side Of The Moon (TDSOTM) 50th Anniversary box set.
Coming on that date, from Warner Music (Sony Music outside Europe) are the hoped for stand-alone releases of the newly remastered TDSOTM on CD, LP and Blu-ray.
First released as part of the box set which appeared in March, this will be the first time that the new remaster of the classic album will be available on its own. The Blu-ray contains the Dolby Atmos and a 5.1 Surround mix as well as the remastered Stereo version. The package comes with commemorative postcards, stickers and a 24-page booklet.
The 50th Anniversary continues to be celebrated as Pink Floyd invited a new generation of animators to enter a competition to create animated music videos for any of the 10 songs on the album, and a number of entries have been lodged already. Pink Floyd has a rich history of collaborating with animators (Ian Emes, Gerald Scarfe, etc.), and in some cases the visuals that accompany the songs have become synonymous with the music itself. Animators can enter up to 10 videos, one per song on the album. A winner will be selected from a panel of experts which will include Nick Mason and Aubrey 'Po' Powell (Pink Floyd's creative consultant). The deadline for submissions is November 30th 2023. To enter and for more information go to pinkfloyd.com/competition.
A live streamed Q&A has also been announced, featuring Powell in conversation with animators who have created some videos in promotion for the competition and who will discuss their work and the creative process. The event will take place on September 6th at 5pm UK time on YouTube, via Pink Floyd's official channel there.
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Time has now been added to Money as the second full publicly available track from this new version of the Pink Floyd classic. Together they give a decent clue as to how the album should sound - a fairly stripped back, almost introspective and certainly atmospheric take, which is quite different from the original.
The album will be available on digital platforms, as well as CD, and as mentioned above, the range of double vinyl editions, which includes standard black (links below), a selected-store-only blue vinyl (please check with your local record store for this, or order below through HMV.com), an Amazon exclusive violet vinyl (links below), a white vinyl which is a German exclusive through jpc.de, a yellow through FNAC in France, a red (limited to 500 copies) from Newbury Comics in the US, and Roger's official store has an exclusive transparent orange vinyl edition, bundles with exclusive numbered prints and standard CD and vinyl editions, and even a gold cassette! There's now also a transparent edition via Feltrinelli in Italy, and a green vinyl from RecordStore.co.uk.
Interestingly, the fourth side of the vinyl includes "an original composition", which isn't on the CD or cassette editions (we don't yet know about the digital offerings). The Times newspaper noted that "a new 13-minute original ambient bonus track inspired by the re-recording will feature on the ten-track album, which will be released on the record label Cooking Vinyl on October 6 and supported by a series of live shows." The live shows, being held at the London Palladium on October 8th and 9th, are sold out, although it is worth checking from time to time in case they have production tickets released.
ORDERING INFORMATION:
All purchases made after using one of our links make a small but vital contribution toward the site running costs, and we really appreciate it! Also see Roger's official store for other options that they are offering.
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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 the very special occasion of his 80th birthday today!
Just announced is the release - on October 13th - of breakout sets from Pink Floyd's The Dark Side Of The Moon (TDSOTM) 50th Anniversary box set.
