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  • Pink Floyd’s First New Album in 20 Years

    Pink Floyd’s First New Album in 20 Years

    The Division Bell, what has heretofore been considered Pink Floyd’s final album, was released in 1994. There were some other recordings done around the same time, and they have been in the vault for 20 years. Now that the anniversary of that record is coming around, bandleader David Gilmour has decided to pull out that material and do something exciting with it.

    Pink Floyd has a new album coming out.

    Floyd fans’ initial reaction will be to ask two questions:

    What about Rick Wright?

    What about Roger Waters?

    Rick Wright was Pink Floyd’s keyboard player. Wright died in 2008. It would hardly seem like a Pink Floyd album without Wright.

    Well, there is good news on that front.

    The sessions from 1994 include Wright. One of Floyd’s background singers expanded on that bit of news on her Facebook page.

    “The recording did start during the Division Bell sessions (and yes, it was the side project originally titled ‘The Big Spliff’ that [Pink Floyd drummer] Nick Mason spoke about). Which is why there are Richard Wright tracks on it. But David and Nick have gone in and done a lot more since then. It was originally to be a completely instrumental recording, but I came in last December and sang on a few tracks. David then expanded on my backing vocals and has done a lead on at least one of them.”

    But what about co-founder and bassist Roger Waters? So far there is no word on whether Waters will have anything to do with the album. Fans’ hope springs eternal, especially since Gilmour and Waters have tried repeatedly to bury the hatchet and perform together from time to sporadic time. But Waters has not appeared on a Pink Floyd album since The Final Cut in 1983.

    As Samson tweeted, the album will be called The Endless River, and is due out in October.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Roger Waters Returns To Wounded Soldier Benefit

    Roger Waters is making a return to the wounded soldier benefit, Stand Up For Heroes. He previously played the benefit in 2012, which was the 6th time the event had happened, in New York. He performed along with other musicians and young soldiers who had been injured in the war.

    The annual fundraising benefit supports wounded veterans through the Bob Woodruff Foundation. The foundation was started in 2008, and has supported more than 1 million veterans.

    While the young veterans are excited to play with the rock legend, he has great admiration for them as well, and is happy to be a part of the benefit. The aging legend mentioned during their rehearsal on Monday that he “feels a great sense of empathy for the people that live on the sharp end of conflicts and the ones that actually get injured.” He also discussed how he gets much more through the experience himself than what he puts into it.

    Roger Waters is known for his work as the co-founder and frontman of the progressive British rock band, Pink Floyd. He was the primary singer-songwriter for the group, and they have been hailed as one of the greatest rock bands of all time, with their hit albums such as “Dark Side Of The Moon” and “The Wall.”

    The issue of war is also very important and personal for Waters, who has written songs about the previous conflicts including “The Wall” and “The Final Cut.” He has also lost two family members to war, his father and grandfather. Before the performance last year, Roger Waters said “If any of us have a responsibility in our lives it is to tear down the walls of indifference and miscommunication between ourselves and our fellow men.”

    This year, for the annual benefit the 70-year-old rock legend will be joined by fellow rocker Bruce Springsteen, Jon Stewart, Bill Cosby, Jerry Seinfeld, and more. Last year’s benefit included Ricky Gervais, Robin Williams and others in addition to Springsteen and Waters who both performed last year.

    Roger Waters is set to play the Stand Up For Heroes benefit on November 6 at Madison Square Garden.

    Image via Youtube

  • Roger Waters of Pink Floyd: “Billboard” Speaker

    English singer/songwriter God, Roger Waters (yes, the same Roger of the badass rock band, Pink Floyd) is still influencing crowds. And no, I’m not talking about the impact he’s had on the thousands of fans gathering at his recent Wall Live tours either.

    Waters will be entertaining fans in a different, much-less “Broadway spectacle ” manner as he was named the keynote Q&A speaker at the 10th Annual Billboard Touring Conference & Awards. The special event will take place Nov. 13-14 in New York.

    Now that Waters is finishing up the last little bit of his Wall Live tour, he has some extra time to donate-and what better way to use his free time than to speak to large crowds?

    Check out the trailer to his Live Wall tour.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggkNk47HoLk[/embed

    Waters tour has become one of the most successful tours in history. It took home top honors at the 2012 Billboard Touring Awards as well as being a finalist in top Draw and top Boxscore.

    Ray Waddell, Billboard’s executive director of content and programming, touring and live entertainment had nothing but pleasant things to say about the upcoming conference.

    “Roger Waters is one of the most compelling subjects I’ve ever interviewed, and I am thrilled that he will be our keynote Q&A at the conference,” said Waddell.

    “His impact on music and the live experience is undeniable, but his interests and opinions transcend the music industry. This is guaranteed to be a fascinating session,” said Waddell.

    Waddell will be conducting the interview with Waters.

    Photo Credit: Wiki

  • Bob Geldof is a Rocket Man

    Irish rock singer, author, and political activist Bob Geldof has led an extremely eventful and successful life so far. Geldof, frontman of the Irish rock band “The Boomtown Rats”, gained popularity throughout the 70’s and 80’s for his unique brand of ‘New Wave’ vocals and has been continuing to ride that ‘new wave’ of success ever since. However, the announcement Geldof made yesterday sounded like it would truly be an “out of this world experience”.

    Yesterday, Sir Bob Geldof commented in an interview with a British publication called “The Telegraph”, that he is a confirmed passenger on board of XCOR Aerospace’s Lynx rocket ship. The XCOR Aerospace Lynx is part of the fleet of rockets responsible for catering commercial space flights in a company known as Space Expedition Corp., or SXC. The first public flights are scheduled to launch sometime in 2014. Vessels like the two-seater “Lynx” will undergo various tests before being put into practice.

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    Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

    Throughout Geldof’s career he has diligently worked towards helping remedy the poverty crisis throughout Africa, sometimes founding and others just helping organizations to raise money. Sir Geldof is responsible for founding the super-group ‘Band-Aid’, as well as the ‘Live Aid’ and ‘Live 8’ concerts that benefitted causes like famine relief in Ethiopia. He has also been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize, received an honorary knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II, and not to mention the fact that he starred as the protagonist Pink in the film “Pink Floyd’s The Wall”.

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    The Dutch Based SXC has claimed to have sold over 250 tickets, of which they were proud to say that Geldof was included. The flights are speculated to only last around an hour with the concept of a traditional airplane. Spacecraft like the “Lynx” are designed to take off on a runway, climbing the Earth’s atmosphere until reaching the point of zero gravity. Upon reentry the vessel will also land in an airplane runway fashion.

    SXC prices are said to run close to around $100,000 and all future passengers must commit to training in flight simulations in order to participate in this ground breaking new experience.

    Lead image: Wikimedia Commons

  • Pink Floyd Prop Confuses Pro-Jewish Groups

    A seminal Pink Floyd album, The Wall, was released in late 1979 – almost 34 years ago. Since then, maybe long before then, Floyd fans have laughed at all the straights and their misunderstanding of the contents of the album, as well as their completely missing the point of the band in the first place.

    As if it still needed to be said, Pink Floyd is not a person. It is a band. The guys poked fun at that misunderstanding in their song “Have a Cigar”, in which a record executive asks, “Oh, by the way, which one’s Pink?” But they took it even further by naming the protagonist of The Wall concept album “Pink”, further confusing parents.

    And it is Pink as a character, and all his stressed and drugged-out foibles, that is confusing people once again, 34 years later.

    At a recent concert by Roger Waters, the former bassist/vocalist for Pink Floyd, and the man who wrote most of The Wall material, a huge prop pig was flown over the audience. The flying pig has been a staple of Pink Floyd and Waters shows ever since the Animals album, which predates The Wall. Waters occasionally has other symbols and messages put on the pig, including anti-consumerism and anti-corporatism messages.

    At this particular show in Belgium, one Jewish man saw the pig, and noticed on it, among other symbols, a Star of David, the long-held symbol of Judaism. He was quite offended, as one blogger relayed.

    “I came to the concert because I really like his music, without any connection to his political stance toward Israel,” says Alon Onfus Asif, an Israeli living in Belgium. “And I had a lot of fun, until I noticed the Star of David, on the inflatable pig. That was the only religious-national symbol which appeared among other symbols for fascism, dictatorships and oppression of people. Waters crossed the line and gave expression to an anti-Semitic message, beyond all his messages of anti-militancy.”

    Since Asif’s statement, one rabbi has come out accusing Waters of anti-Semitism, saying, “With this disgusting display Roger Waters has made it crystal clear. Forget Israel, never mind ‘limited boycotts promoting Middle East Peace.’ Waters is an open hater of Jews.”

    If Asif had been listening, he would have heard Waters singing about a man, Pink, who was in the throes of a breakdown that made him hallucinate that he was a militant leader, akin to a Hitler character. He would have heard quotes attributed to this unstable man, such as:

    “Are there any queers in the theater tonight?
    Get ’em up against The Wall
    There’s one in the spotlight he don’t look right to me
    Get him up against The Wall
    That one looks Jewish
    And that one’s a coon
    Who let all this riffraff into the room?”

    Roger Waters himself is avowedly anti-militant. The album that immediately followed The Wall, called The Final Cut, was about his disgust with Margaret Thatcher’s military moves in the Falklands. Parts of both albums are about Waters’ father, who had been killed in World War II fighting Nazis.

    In short, all these people offended by a pig with a Star of David on it have missed the point. It’s about a character, a man no one would consider stable. He is not a hero. And he falls in the end. If Mr. Asif and the rest of the Anti-defamation folk really did “like his music”, or could even use Google, they would know better.

    Watch the video and see for yourself.

  • Pink Floyd’s Entire Catalog Now Streaming on Spotify

    Pink Floyd’s Entire Catalog Now Streaming on Spotify

    Hey you! Yeah, you. Are you a Pink Floyd fan who uses Spotify? Awesome. Starting today, the full Pink Floyd catalog is now available on the streaming music service.

    We’re talking hundreds of tracks here and all the classic albums. From Piper At the Gates of Dawn to The Division Bell, and from Dark Side of the Moon to The Wall. In all (including compilations and such), there are now 19 Pink Floyd albums for your streaming enjoyment.

    Last Friday, Spotify kicked off a fun little promotion. They said that they would release the entire Pink Floyd catalog on the service – just as soon as “Wish You Were Here” received 1 million streams. It took a few days, but it finally happened. Now let’s hope that there are some more promotions like this in the future.

    Pink Floyd was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame back in 1996 and have sold a ridiculous 250 million records worldwide. In the past, the band’s music hasn’t always been the most accesible – so this is a pretty big deal.

    Now, shine on you crazy diamond.

  • Pink Floyd Coming to Spotify as Soon as We Stream ‘Wish You Were Here’ 1 Million Times

    Pink Floyd Coming to Spotify as Soon as We Stream ‘Wish You Were Here’ 1 Million Times

    If you love Pink Floyd and want to see their entire catalog come to Spotify – there’s something you gotta do. No, don’t worry – it’s not that hard. All you have to do is go listen to one of the band’s most timeless songs, “Wish You Were Here.”

    And as soon as that play count hits 1 million, Spotify says that they’ll unlock it all. The whole catalog. If you know anything about Pink Floyd and their often adversarial relationship with internet music, you’ll see that this is a pretty big deal.

    Spotify announced the promotion on Twitter:

    Spotify did just start putting play counts on tracks alongside embeddable top-track charts – but there doesn’t seem to be an available play count on the Pink Floyd page. Some on reddit put the number at over 800,000 – but I’m not seeing it.

    As of 9:00 am EST on Friday, the only song that appears on Pink Floyd’s Spotify page is “Wish You Were Here” – so either Spotify is slow on the take or the 1 millionth stream hasn’t happened yet. Either way, go do your part. There could be worse things than having to listen to one of the best songs in rock n’ roll history.

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  • Pink Floyd Artist Dies; Storm Thorgerson Was 69

    Storm Thorgerson, the artist behind many classic album covers, has died at the age of 69.

    According to an Associated Press report, Thorgerson died “surrounded by family and friends” and his death was peaceful. He had reportedly been suffering from an unnamed illness for “some time.” The artist had suffered a stroke in 2003.

    Thorgerson grew up in Cambridge, England, where he attended the same high school as Pink Floyd members Syd Barret and Roger Waters. He was also a friend of Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour.

    After attending college, Thorgerson joined the art group Hipgnosis. There he designed many famous album covers, starting with Pink Floyd albums such as A Saucerful of Secrets, Ummagumma, The Dark Side of the Moon, and Wish You Were Here. Throughout the 70s, 80s, 90s, and 00s Thorgerson designed album covers for bands such as Black Sabbath, Genesis, Led Zeppelin, The Offspring, Phish, Ween, The Mars Volta, The Cranberries, and Muse.

    Gilmour this week released a statement on behalf of Pink Floyd:

    “We first met in our early teens. We would gather at Sheep’s Green, a spot by the river in Cambridge and Storm would always be there holding forth, making the most noise, bursting with ideas and enthusiasm. Nothing has ever really changed.

    “He has been a constant force in my life, both at work and in private, a shoulder to cry on and a great friend.

    “The artworks that he created for Pink Floyd from 1968 to the present day have been an inseparable part of our work.

    “I will miss him.”

    – David Gilmour