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Pink Floyd 1968WOW - it's now the 27th YEAR of Brain Damage, your Pink Floyd, David Gilmour, Nick Mason, Syd Barrett, Richard Wright and Roger Waters news resource!

Marking the 50th anniversary of Pink Floyd's iconic 1975 album, a range of Wish You Were Here 50 celebratory editions: deluxe box set, blu-ray, 3LP set, 2CD set and coloured vinyl single LPs came out at the end of last year. Full details here. The LA 1975 concert, recorded by Mike Millard and remastered by Steven Wilson, came out as a standalone item on 4LP for Record Store Day, and 2CD across most of the world.

The stunningly restored and remixed Pink Floyd At Pompeii MCMLXXII on Blu-ray, 2CD, 2LP, DVD, and digital was also released in 2025 - and is NOT to be missed. As is the 4K UltraHD edition out now!

Also last year, celebrating the concerts to coincide with David Gilmour's album, Luck and Strange, cinema/IMAX screenings, and a book, 2Blu-ray, 3DVD, 4LP, 2CD and deluxe box set options were also released and are getting very high praise.

The Nick Mason's Saucerful Of Secrets 2024 Set The Controls tour revealed a band in even better form than the 2022/23 shows which managed to exceed everyone's hopes and expectations! Our sincerest hopes are that they continue, but in the meantime, there's their RSD release, and the earlier live recording from London's Roundhouse on Blu-ray, DVD/2CD, and 2LP which is really excellent.

Of course, Roger Waters read three extracts from his memoirs in October 2023 at the London Palladium, so it might not be too much longer before that is published...he's also working on his new album based around The Bar - we'll let you know as soon as we get all the info! Before all that though is the release of Roger Waters This Is Not A Drill Live In Prague on 4LP vinyl, Blu-ray, DVD, 2CD and digital which is out now.

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Etienne Roda-Gil, Ca Ira libretto author, passes on Print E-mail
Written by Matt   
Friday, 04 June 2004

Etienne Roda-Gil, renowned French lyricist, who wrote the libretto for Roger Waters forthcoming opera, Ca Ira, sadly passed away in Paris, France, aged 62, last weekend following a stroke.

Roda-Gil, who wrote songs for Julien Clerc, Mort Shuman, Juliette Gréco, Barbara, Louis Bertignac, Malicorne, Claude Francois, Johnny Hallyday, most famously wrote a song for Vanessa Paradis (when she was only 14) entitled "Joe Le Taxi", a massive hit in Europe in 1988.

Born in Catalunia, Spain, in August 1941, he had a turbulent life as a child and young man, which inspired songs of revolution - making him a natural choice to collaborate with Roger on his opera. Roda-Gil approached Waters with his libretto of Ça Ira in 1988 via mutual friend Phillipe Constantin, as he felt that Waters would write the perfect music for his French libretto.

However, he was a long time friend of Roger's, and a little known anecdote is that he was responsible for the French version of Summer 68 (Maquillez Vous) sung by french artist Michel Marceau in 1977. Our good friend Hervé sent us a scan of the back cover where you can see the credits, and we show a section of this to the right, under the picture of Roda-Gil (the single failed to bother the French charts!).

A good, thorough obituary can be read at the website of UK newspaper The Independent.

 
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