Weekend news wrap-up
Written by Matt   
Sunday, 16 November 2008

We've got a few bits of news for you this Sunday morning, covering a variety of very different things - details of Storm at the cover artists' meeting in Amsterdam, a Spanish park devoted to Pink Floyd, and musical tributes to Richard Wright and Pink Floyd, performed by Ultravox front-man Midge Ure and also The Smashing Pumpkins on their current tour, both of which you can see via video clips we have for you...


storm thorgerson in amsterdamYesterday (November 15th) saw the "Covers By Artists" meeting in Amsterdam, which featured legendary album cover artists talking about their craft. Sadly, Storm Thorgerson wasn't able to attend due to ill-health sadly, but still participated thanks to a filmed interview which was shown on the large screens at the venue [picture thanks to Willy Willemse].

Before Storm there was an hour-long interview with Peter Saville, notorious for his album covers for Joy Division and New Order. Storm gave answers to the obvious questions and thereafter illustrated his craftmanship with five examples (covers from Led Zeppelin, Muse, Mars Volta, Peter Gabriel and of course Pink Floyd's Division Bell).


proposed pink floyd park in atarfe The City Council of Atarfe, in Spain, where Roger Waters performed his Dark Side Of The Moon concert last May, was obviously impressed by the show. They have earmarked some 6,000 square metres of the old fairground in the city, and some 600,000 euros (around 760,000 US dollars) to build a park commemorating it and the music!

With ponds, trees, and long, lush, winding corridors of bamboo, the park, in the heart of the city, is "an allegory and a lasting memory to the legendary concert that Roger Waters gave last May".


BD regular Maurits Dohmen attended the Night of the Proms concert in the Gelredome in Arnhem on Friday night (14 November), where Sinead O'Connor, Ultravox singer Midge Ure, Simple Minds and Live were on the bill.

During the show Ure was amongst the artists performing the Ultravox hit 'Vienna'. Later, a Dutch performer (Erik Mesie) performed, and when he was finished doing two of his own songs, Ure joined him on the stage. The Dutch artist told the audience that he and Midge "wanted to dedicate the next song to Pink Floyd's Richard Wright, who passed away recently, and for all the Pink Floyd fans that [according to him] would be in the audience, as there are so many". The crowd reacted enthusiastically to this. They gave a really wonderful performance of 'Hey You' where Midge Ure's guitar playing amazingly sounded just like Gilmour's original playing. A huge surprise and had the crowd on their feet. As you can see from this clip:



Finally, those who are catching The Smashing Pumpkins on their current tour have a good chance (depending on the setlist chosen each night) to catch the band performing their own tribute to Pink Floyd, with an impressive rendition of Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun... as the following example, from a recent concert in Florida, demonstrates: