Spanish translation of Schaffner's Floyd book out now
Written by Matt   
Monday, 30 May 2005

Nicholas Schaffner's long-respected book about Pink Floyd, "A Saucerful Of Secrets", has now had a Spanish translation completed, and the book was released this month.

The 288-page book, "La Odisea De Pink Floyd", is published by Manontroppo, and is based on the text that was first published back in 1991, but which still sells strongly today.

Here's the translation of the publicity for the book:

La Odisea de Pink Floyd" is the translation to Spanish for the Book "A Saucerful of Secrets: The Pink Floyd Odyssey" By Nicholas Schaffener from 1991.

In 1967 the Pink Floyd were apostles of psychedelia and the toast of underground London. They were at the centre of anarchic happenings at the Roundhouse, where they were bathed by avant-garde light shows and surrounded by giant jellies.

In 1977 Pink Floyd, the creators of "The Dark Side Of The Moon", one of the biggest-selling LPs of all time, were dismissed as dinosaur rock by rising punk prophets.

In 1987 the Floyd were torn apart by internecine warfare, almost suing each other out of existence. By 1990 Pink Floyd had risen from their performance a triumph of magisterial music and high-tech theatrics impeccably staged.

Nicholas Schaffner traces the history of these extraordinary transformations, from the early Floyd´s flowering in the Summer of love with the inspired but impossibly erratic Syd Barrett, to the Floyd wars of the 1980s and Roger Waters acrimonious departure.

When Syd left they said the band would never be the same and it wasn't - it was ultimately stronger. David Gilmour, Nick Mason, Roger Waters and Richard Wright ignored the conventions of mainstream music and defined their own limits, creating their own rock genre. When Roger Waters left some said the band would never be the same but it produced vintage Floyd and was massively successful. At a time when the charts are dominated by groups formed in the 1960s, "A Saucerful Of Secrets" explores and analyses Pink Floyd's extraordinary longevity and the lives of the players who created it.

Our thanks to José Abellán of the Spanish Animals Pink Floyd magazine for the information and translation given here.