Роджер Уотерс / Roger Waters

Part 5; Capital Radio, London, 14th January 1977.
The following is one part of the legendary Capital Radio Pink Floyd Story - the history of the band, told by the band themselves in a set of interviews undertaken in 1976, and broadcast at the end of 1976/start of 1977. This transcription done by Matt Johns, Brain Damage - please seek permission from us before using elsewhere.


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The programme presenter was Nicky Horne. Abbreviations used as follows:
NM: Nick Mason, RW: Roger Waters, DG: David Gilmour, RWr: Rick Wright
ST: Storm Thorgerson, NH: Nicky Horne


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RW: We were all rather badly mentally ill - well, I was! [laughs]

NM: I was!

DG: It's catching! [laugh]

NM: [laughing] Rick certainly... he's not even prepared to admit it!

RW: No, it was... um... I'll tell you what happened. When we were putting that one together, right, we were all completely exhausted for one reason or another. And although a great deal of effort and energy had gone into doing various bits of it, it was compiled in a mad, mad rush. And...

DG: We were in a desperate rush to get out of there! [both laugh]

RW: To be "not there". We should've called it "Wish We Weren't Here", you know? [laugher] [mumbles: "It's all there - it's all there on the record"]

NH: But presumably there were a lot of pressures from record companies, etc.?

DG & RW: No, no, no...

NH: Well then, what were the pressures?

RW: Personal problems. Stop being so nosey! [rest drowned out by David's laughter]

DG: Personal problems on DSOTM I think.

RW: He's got a point there.

NM: He's got a point. I think, you know, just a minor thing, an element...

RW: [simultaneously] DSOTM came into it I think... [mumbles] ...must've done...

DG: We were frightened, I think, to some extent...

NM: Speak for yourself!

NH: No, seriously though... [drowned out by assorted laughing and indistinct comments]

RW: Some of the lads were a bit, you know...! Needed to be jollied along a bit!

NM: I mean, there was a danger, I suppose... and... the danger that exi... I mean, if it is a danger that bands break up, which is not necessarily the case... um... but there was a point after DSOTM where it could... we might very easily have broken up on a sort of "well, we've reached all the various goals that rock bands tend to aim for" - maybe that sounds preposterous but I think one is motivated to some extent by goals in terms of doing well, and so on. And perhaps we've... bit nervous about continuing on. Some sort of disbanding might have solved that one - the problem that would follow or whatever. It's very hard to say whether things get - for all the difficulties that arise in those sorts of directions, on the other hand, hopefully we all get better at living with each other. I say hopefully - I'm not entirely sure if that's true!

But - that's really what - I don't think that the band was much more likely to break up there than at other times. I've said before it goes in waves - that sometimes everyone's thinking "well, this is a pretty wanky way to spend one's life" and other times everyone's thinking "well, actually this is really... it's alright really".

RW: Because we'd been rehearsing for the show, the live show - we're doing the whole of WYWH in the second half of the live show. I've listened to it quite a lot recently and the only thing that worries me about the album WYWH is the same thing that worried me when we'd finished it. It worried me quite a lot when we were doing it. And that is the very drawn out nature of the... overture "bits" that go on and on and on and on. It's 12 minutes I think before there's a voice in it, which I think was a mistake. I thought it was a mistake then and I was constantly trying to cut out things. But it's very difficult you see because you get something and get to like phrases, guitar phrases in the solo or something, or bits of Moog or something, and you get - you grow to like things. It's very hard to cut things out once you've got them down. I think we made a basic error in not arranging it in a different way so that some of the ideas were expanded lyrically before they were developed musically.

NH: As the Floyd themselves said earlier, there were quite a few problems during the recording of WYWH. I asked Roger Waters if all of the band were really committed to the album:

RW: I don't think that people were less committed to that album than any others, really. Well, maybe - no, I don't think they were. People's level of commitment to what we were doing fluctuates; relationships we have with each other fluctuates; and that was a very difficult time because we were all exhausted, I think. But, I don't think there was any... I don't think it was specially worse then than it has been at lots of other points. It was really just a disagreement between myself and Dave. Dave was... I was the main protagonist of making the album hang together conceptually as I saw it anyway - and make it an album of absence of one kind and another... as that is something that we were all experiencing... what I'm saying when I said it wasn't any worse than, you know, I said it wasn't any worse than... it wasn't a specially bad time, it is something that we all experience quite a lot in this band, I think.

Bands that keep going for a very long time with the same people don't keep going for a very long time with the same people because they're all committed to the same ideals - they keep going because people get used to the security - emotional, I suppose, and economic and whatever. But it's mainly... economic security is only a substitute for emotional security anyway. So they tell me. And, so people keep going in the same band really for reasons of security, not because they're like... the four of us aren't together because we all think and feel the same way and we all love each other and we're working to a common cause towards better music or anything like that. It's... we're motivated by fear largely - to stay together. I mean, if Nicky was saying about his drumming when we were doing WYWH, Dave was getting well, very pissed off with him because he was being too flowery in his drumming, and Dave likes very solid, straight, kind of drumming and Nicky tends to naturally not play like that... and oh, there's all kinds of - the problems are absolutely endless.

NH: It's generally accepted that Nick Mason was affected more than the others by a lethargic attitude during the recording of WYWH, and I asked him specifically what those problems were:

NM: Well, of course, I'm not prepared to even tell you what the problems specifically were, but I mean, for me I clearly remember WYWH as the most... [breathes like knocks on table] my interviews are full of these pauses, with strange breathing [does some more!] Pa, Pa, Pa, Pa, Pause for thought. No, I mean, I just found the time in the studio extremely 'orrible. I really did wish I wasn't there. But it wasn't specifically... to do with what was going on with the band, so much as what was going on for me outside the band.

Because of the way we work, and WYWH was a very typical example, it represents a period of about 9 months of one's life, day to day living. Because we'd be in the studio maybe 3 - 4 days each week from, say, midday or something like that. So you very much felt as though you... the morning you sorted out all the day to day business of living, then you went into the studios, then you came home, and then you went in again. It just... it's not an isolated experience so you can say, "well, that's the record". It's... it's integrated with your... with everything else. With the rest of your life. I just... I suppose I just am very bad at closing off my mind to whatevers bothering me. But my alarm and despondency manifested itself in a complete rigor mortis [laughs] I think I'd describe it! No I mean I just became like something off the Troggs tape - if you know what I mean! That's really unfair on the Troggs, but I became... eeuurrrggghhh... I didn't have to quite be carried about, but I wasn't interested. I couldn't get myself to sort out the drumming. I think that's just one of those bits of real life... that, of course, drove everyone else even crazier, because it was almost impossible to get the backing tracks sorted out with this so called drummer who really couldn't sort it out at all. I'm very interested now listening back to WYWH because it's a record that I never, until recently when we started work on the film... I never play it. I don't play any of our records much, but WYWH - I NEVER PLAY!

NH: What do you think of it?

NM: Well, surprisingly good. That's what's so odd. But in the end it all got licked, but it took about a million months to do it! I think... it's alright.

NH: One of the tracks on WYWH features Roy Harper as lead vocalist. I asked Roger Waters why he was used:

RW: I tell you why I think it was. It was because... I'd already started singing "Shine On" and it is right at the edge of my range. I always felt very insecure about singing anyway because I'm not naturally able to sing well. I find it very difficult to pitch notes right, and the whole thing's really difficult for me. I know what I wanna do but I don't have the ability to do it well, so I feel very insecure about it anyway, and I'd just been doing a lot on "Shine On" and it is right on the edge of my range and it was incredibly difficult and fantastically boring to record, 'cos I had to do it line by line, doing it over and over and over again just to get it sounding reasonable. I suppose... there are several reasons why I did it rather than Dave. One is because if it's right on the edge of my range, it's outside his, 'cos my voice goes about a tone higher than his does.

So anyway I was feeling very down about singing and very insecure about it anyway, and when WYWH... and when "Have A Cigar" came up Roy was recording in the studio anyway, and was in and out all the time, and I can't remember who suggested he did it - maybe I did, probably hoping everybody would go "ooh no Rog, YOU do it!" but they didn't! They all went "Oh yeah, that's a good idea". And he did it and everybody went "Oh, terrific!" So that was that.

I think it was a bad idea now. I think I should've done it. Not that he did it badly. I think he did it very well. It just isn't us anymore. And there's something about people singing things that they've written themself. If somebody's gonna think it's wrong, it's gonna be me 'cos I wrote it, and it doesn't sound quite right.

ST: So the cover's wrapped up in black plastic, okay? So you can't see it. The sleeve is absent from your first gaze. The sticker on the front is what we have to do in order that people will know this record from Geraldo. I'd imagine they aren't the same people, who'd buy Geraldo and Pink Floyd, but there's somebody out there that does... you have to write down the piece of information. So we had to put something that said, "Pink Floyd" on it, okay? Well, Ian... hold on a second. At the time that the album was being made and also in reference to various business decisions that were or were not being made, there were considerations about... the ethics of the business, the way the business people operated; and one of the... this is where I started in fact - one of the greatest... one of the best motifs for indicating absence but presence, or presence but absence, where somebody says "well, of course I'm here" really is the old handshake, which is as phoney as you can get. Specially in rock'n'roll. You shake hands with a whole room of executives and that means sod all. Okay?

So the handshake was a symbol if you like of the whole notion of how you may get hold of somebody, shake them by the hand, and they're trying to tell you how much they're really there 'cos they gripped you, but in fact they're miles away. Miles away emotionally or miles away intellectualy or whichever you may care to name it. Do you not know what I'm talking about? It's the shaking hands with an American - they shake the hand quite strongly and say "it's wonderful to meet you" and all that and it's bullshit. They don't know you from Adam. There's some honesty in it sometimes they mean it, but a lot of times they don't mean it.

So that means that the currency of that action, the value, the currency of that piece of negotiation between humans is devalued, it's undercut, it doesn't contain the weight it should contain.

That's kind of one of the motifs of presence and absence - a person stands and says "yes, I'm really here" looking you in the eyes and in fact they're not. They're miles away. That would refer to the Floyd as well - it's also about them and how much they are present - see, so that if they, or you, or anybody were to agree or partially agree with my notion of why the album was flawed, then it would be partially a reflection on themselves as well. That they weren't totally present.

NH: That leads me on to the burning man, 'cos I can't see the analogy.

ST: No, well, one of the ways in which Hipgnosis works is that you take a theme, intellectualise it, right, in order that you don't think of a million images. If you imagine your brain as a respository of possible images, it's immesurable. There are millions, okay? Whether you can drum them up is another matter. But I mean for everybody they just think of their dreams or their fantasies if you ask them to think of outer space or inner space, or ask them to imagine the 4.15 from Paddington, they can do it. They can do any variation. They can imaginge a train painted pink, but you don't get pink trains particularly. So the number of images that are in your brain or in your body are limitless. So that for a designer or somebody who has the facility for producing images then it becomes a problem not of finding the image but finding the right one.

So you get a brief - this is for a commercial artist, not perhaps for the artist in his garret - but it's for the commercial artist. Often it's not a problem - it is for some - maybe I should just talk about myself; it's not particularly a problem for me to think of images I like. Pictures or scenes, or events, or things like that. 'Cos I like looking - voyeuring and all. In all possible ways I like looking. I like seeing things.

So, you need a brief in order to cut down - because of that vast repository, you want to make sure you isolate the right one, or the one that's appropriate at the time. So we have a brief and we may make it up ourselves a bit. I got this from the Floyd about absence and if I cut it down I start to intellect on it and that gives me a theme for me to hang my images on, so that I don't get too many. But the image itself is irrelevent to all that. You see, once I arrive at an image - I don't only work that way, that's one way in which we work, one way which I work. Okay, so then the image of the burning man has thematic and intellectual explanations, but it seems to me to be pretty irrelevent. You either like it or don't like it, or usually... I mean people are usually pretty positive in reaction to our stuff I think. They like Hipgnosis sleeves or they don't like Hipgnosis sleeves. I think they don't tend to think of them as just mundane... you know, people either can't stand them - "rubbish" - or they quite like it.

But I think the burning man is... I like it a lot. I find it really moving. And when I thought of it, when it came to me as an image, when it came up on the old telescanner, I thought, "oh yes, that's definately exciting". How do you look at it? Do you look at it and think... if you're moved by it, think that it's curious, haunting - I think it's in a haunting place... so it's got that space, see? Okay? And they're doing the handshake, right? And that's where I started. And that's why there's a handshake on the front... this sleeve's actually very complicated [laughs] if you wanted me to go on I could spend half an hour! Explaining, 'cos there's quite a lot of other complexity there...

NH: What about the splashless dive?

ST: What? Yeah, right. The dive. Well, yes. So one of the ways of doing absence, one of the favourite ways in graphics is to do the traces and not the person. So a bed is sort of rumpled; so we just just turned it around. But maybe it harks back to the thing I was saying earlier about how there might be recurring riffs or tunes that go through... something like Paul McCartney who must write an awful lot of material, I mean it can't all happen consecutively, sequentially. You might come up with something that you were half toying with two - three years earlier, and the same for me. So maybe that comes back... the diving, right? And the splashless dive... I dunno, just tickled my fancy, I suppose you could say. But... in discussing pictures I think it's down to whether they move you or not, really. Same for the music. If it moves you, it doesn't matter which way, and it's worth giving your time to, 'cos you're getting something back from it.

NH: I asked Roger Waters why he keeps going back to Syd Barrett:

RW: I don't keep going back to Syd Barrett.

NH: Well, "Shine On" is...

RW: Well, that's one instance. The ONLY reference to Syd in the last, what, 8 years, in any of our work, to Syd Barrett. It's YOU LOT that keep going back to Syd Barrett. That's the only instance, and it seemed like a very natural progression from DSOTM... was a statement about, much more an obvious statement about... state, our contempory state, and WYWH is a less obvious statement about the same thing.

NH: And as you said to me the other day "and when your band starts playing different tunes, I'll see you on the DSOTM"... that's a direct reference to...

RW: Alright, yes, okay, that is a direct reference. This is true.

NH: And "Shine On You Crazy Diamond", the madness, the paranoia element... as I said to you the other day, was something that you continue to write about all the time... seems to be a major preoccupation...

RW: It IS a preoccupation of mine. Yes. It is.

NH: Why?

RW: Well, because... continually with it, as are we all, from within my own feelings and from what I see and experience, of other peoples feelings. The way people behave, people including me behave in a very... bizarre way. The quality of life is very bizarre. I think. And very, very full of stress, and pain. And a kind of real despair is very close to the surface in most people that I meet.

NH: And in yourself?

RW: Yeah. And in myself, yeah. Yes I would say so, the kind of... you know, the... kind of feeling of not really being able to grapple with it or... 'cos everything is too complicated... and it's all too quick and everybody knows too much... because, I dunno why. I think probably it's the telly that's done it mainly. Since the War. I think news changed quite a lot after the Second World War... a kind of... very severe social revolution...

RWr: Why he's preoccupied with writing things like that, you'd have to ask Roger. We have asked him. I think it's probably getting less now... but as I said, I've noticed that and I'M not sure that I really like it either. This... it's all the time, and it's a phase of his life obviously, that he's going through... [laughs] as I say, speak to Roger!

NH: Why? It affects you all...

RWr: Yeah, well...

NH: Not just the emotional, but also the fact that you're playing in it, and you're involved in it...

RWr: It does, yes. And it gets very heavy, obviously. A lot of personal differences, anyway, all the time through this... "Dark Side" and "Wish You". Roger's preoccupation with... madness, the business, is something that I didn't feel nearly so strongly at the time. So that made it very difficult for us to communicate about it.

NH: One of Roger Waters' other preoccupations seems to be about the music business:

RW: I don't... I'm not really preoccupied with it, it's just that, you know, it does impinge on you and it's... I suppose it's because those are the only people - record company executives, particularly a couple I've met at CBS are the only people who are like that, that I ever speak to. I'm sure marketing executives are the same whether they're selling baked beans or LPs. It doesn't make any difference. Completely irrelevent, what you're selling, and... so that's why I wrote the song. Just because something impinged upon me strongly, so strongly enough so that when I'm sitting somewhere, the whole thing starts bubbling out, or one phrase does and that's enough really. Because songs are so bloody thin on the ground, songs and ideas and things, so difficult, that once a bit of one comes out of you, you work on it and try and finish it.

http://www.brain-damage.co.uk/interviews/pfcap5.html

Part 6; Capital Radio, London, 21st January 1977.
The following is one part of the legendary Capital Radio Pink Floyd Story - the history of the band, told by the band themselves in a set of interviews undertaken in 1976, and broadcast at the end of 1976/start of 1977. This transcription done by Matt Johns, Brain Damage - please seek permission from us before using elsewhere.


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The programme presenter was Nicky Horne. Abbreviations used as follows:
RW: Roger Waters, NH: Nicky Horne


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NH: In this, the sixth and concluding part of the Pink Floyd Story, Roger Waters explains the Floyd's new album, "Animals". The front cover of "Animals" features a picture of Battersea Power Station, here in London, with a pig flying between the enormous chimneys. So why Battersea?

RW: I think it's a very nice building. It's very doomy and inhuman...

NH: It's a very doomy picture as well, isn't it?

RW: Yus.

NH: Very sort of, depressing... oppressive...

RW: Yus.

NH: Is that the general atmosphere that you wanted to convey for the album, or was it just a...

RW: Yes. Yes, I mean I... quite like the very crude symbolism of BPS anyway; and I like the four phallic towers, and the idea of power I find very appealing, in a strange way.

NH: But why the pig between the phallases?

RW: Erm... well that came up because of that little song about, you know, it's the, that's the flaw, you know, the pig, the flying pig... I dunno, I've never tried to put it in words really. The flying pig is the...? Symbol of hope.

NH: But the opening sequence on the album, the acoustic bit, is for you, almost a rare love song.

RW: Yes, this is true. That's why... I've written a lot of love songs but they tend not to find their way onto... there was a certain amount of doubt as to whether that one was gonna find its way onto this album, but I thought it was very necessary, otherwise the album would've just been a kind of... scream, you know, of rage!

NH: But it's a very direct love song for you.

RW: Yes... well, I'm in love. Let it be said that although the violence is tempered with sadness, and even a smidge of compassion here and there, it is a very violent album. It's, you know, when you're doing... and note that they're quite violent songs. And so I think that's why our music is a bit punchier than our older stuff is. I've had the idea for "Animals" in the back of my mind for many years... many years. It's a kind of old chestnut, really, isn't it? Sometime during the middle of recording it, it seemed like the right thing to tie it all together.

It gave me the lead to re-write the lyrics to "Sheep" - "Raving And Drooling", and turn it into "Sheep", 'cos "Raving And Drooling" was just another shout, but it was a rather incoherent shout of abuse, in a way that "Pigs" is very... well, "Pigs" is a kind of, fairly compassionate scream of abuse, if you can scream abuse in a compassionate way. Just by virtue of the last lines... whereas "Raving And Drooling" as it used to stand was [laughs] just a real, you know...

And I found myself getting deeply depressed about it, so I took it off and I haven't listened to it since. And I'm not going to listen to it until I get, you know... "Not For Sale Factory Samples" and then I might have another listen to it. But, rehearsing the tracks off it, in fact it's going to be the first half of our show, the live show... and rehearsing it's great, terrific. So, it's probably alright. I've probably just had too much of it.

NH: Part two of "Animals" starts off with a track called "Pigs (3 Different Ones)" and one of the verses mentions anti-pornographic campaigner Mary Whitehouse:

RW: I kept throwing that verse about Mary Whitehouse away. I've been throwing that verse away for 18 months. But I never managed to write anything else, you know, and I kept coming back to it and changing it a bit and it worried me a lot at the time 'cos I thought really she doesn't really merit it, she doesn't really merit a mention, you know... except that in a way, she does. I think maybe the reason I didn't want to do it - use it even though I'd written it - I obviously did want to do it otherwise I would've never written it in the first place. But the worries that I had about it...

NH: I was going to say I didn't think she meritted the...

RW: Attention. No, well, she doesn't really merit the attention, but... you know... she is "really a cry". I mean she's a terribly frightened women, isn't she? Don't you think?

NH: Frightened?

RW: Yeah. Terrified. And why does she make such a fuss about everything if she's not motivated by fear? Why doesn't she just quietly get on with... she's frightened, isn't she, that we're all being perverted.

Maybe you're right, maybe - certainly the lyrics are easier to understand, but they're not... why I say they're less direct is because they are not the direct expression of my feelings, as the lyrics on WYWH were. They're - more of them, anyway - are put into a third person and about more distant events. Particularly something like "Sheep", right, which has got nothing to do with me at all really; it's a kind of weird tract; a kind of weird jumbled tract... some kind of agonition, and a warning but it's not really you know, 'cos it's confused. A song about revolution, Nick!

NH: Revolution?! [startled]

RW: Yes, that's what that's about, mate.

NH: Well, you certainly with this album lost your space cadet image.

RW: Oh no, we'll never lose that! People will think this is about outer space... I mean people thought - I know it was a bit confusing because it was called the DSOTM - but if anybody can think DSOTM is a space cadet album they'll think anything is. I mean, you couldn't hope to find an album that was more about more earthly... could you, really? Except for that one phrase, "I'll see you on the DSOTM". It's all terribly - not terribly, but very, down to earth. The DSOTM.

NH: This [Animals] is even more - I mean, this is like, bargain basement...

RW: Yeah, right. Maybe, it's a bit less flowery.

NH: One of the things that has come out all the way through this thing is that you have this great ability - I use the word "bastardise" and you disagree with that - to change the lyrics to suit. It's one of the great abilities you have to change things. The concept of the album, I mean the "sound" of the album, is certainly a lot different from anything else you've ever done. Is this something that happens in the studio, that the raunchy aspect of it... changes and becomes something else when you start working on it... do you see what I mean? That it assumes a shape...

RW: No, certainly not for "Dogs" - that was very clear what "Dogs" was going to be like except for the middle section, you know, with the synthesisers and the dogs through the vocoder and you know that bit in the middle of "Dogs". We were quite clear what that was going to sound like, really. There are obviously things that developed in the studio, like, oh, I don't know... the sound behind the guitar solo's, those two... fairly uptempo solo's of Dave's. There's one in the first half and one in the second half with lots of tom-toms in the background. Those sounds developed while we were recording, but basically we knew what the arrangements were gonna be, more or less anyway, and we knew what it was gonna sound like, before we'd started because we'd been doing it live, with slightly different words and in a shorter form than it is now, for a long time, and the same with "Sheep".

"Pigs" has never been done before and that did change a lot because when we started recording it was only a song sung to a strummed acoustic guitar. So that grew a lot in the recording.

NH: Turning to look at the future, I know you're a band that does look to the future. This tour that is being planned is getting terribly complicated...

RW: Yes.

NH: What do you see yourselves doing? It's a very trite question... but what do you see yourselves doing in the future? Because the Pink Floyd gig machine is becoming enormous. The process of recording is becoming more and more complicated...

RW: It's not. The gig machine hasn't grown measurably in the last 2-3 years. Since we started using movies, which was 3 years ago, 4 years ago, something like that... that was the last major thing. We used, in the quad stations we now carry a greater weight with us, simply because we would... what we were taking before was inadequate...

NH: Yes, but the degree of sound sophistication...

RW: That hasn't changed in the last 4 - 5 years. It really hasn't.

NH: Keypax?

RW: Well, yes but I mean that's... what's a few keypaxes? [laughs]

NH: Yes, but...

RW: We've always, yes it's true we've always been like that. We've always tried, within our means, to get it working as well as it could. And to make the sound as good as we could. And we've failed monumentally on many occasions. In fact we reached a kind of "peak" a few years ago and then we completely lost control of it, or... I think it's back under control now... we're making the right decisions again. There was an Earls Court gig a few years ago where we reached a real kind of peak considering the acoustics of the place, we'd really got it under control, and it was very good. And after that we changed our PA and we didn't get it quite right and we were saving money by buying cheap mixers, and things like that... we were buying 36 channel quadrophonic mixers for Ј1500! [laughs] Which is just silly! 'Cos of course the things are gonna fall to pieces and be endless trouble, but that's all we could afford at the time.

NH: Are you looking forward to going on the road?

RW: Erm...

NH: 'Cos the last tour, you said before, was not...

RW: No... no, the last tour was absolutely appalling. This one's gonna be much better. Yes, I'm looking... I'm quite excited. Definately I'm excited about the first 10 days or so - I dunno about the rest of it. But there are quite large gaps between the gigs, we're not working all the time. So that's a great danger, really, that you're booked into 50 cities, albeit over a very long period of time and, after the first ten, you know, it's [very large yawn] you know, not again! But I think the show is new enough, and with the new film that... the film looks as though it's going to be very good, this time...

NH: This the Gerald Scarfe things?

RW: Yeah. And... the pig won't be a bad diversion from time to time...

http://www.brain-damage.co.uk/interviews/pfcap6.html

The January/February 2006 issue of TapeOp Magazine, which focuses on the nitty-gritty of recording technology and is published in the US, features an indepth interview with Nick Mason, with a focus on Pink Floyd sessions over the years.

The interview covers the gamut of recording sessions, right from the early days, with their initial work in Sound Techniques Studio in London - Nick's razor-sharp memory even recalling which tracks were used for which instruments - through to the late seventies and the use of Abbey Road, and then their own Britannia Row studios.

Along the way, Nick discusses how tracks such as "Saucerful Of Secrets" were created, by drawing up a chart of "what was going to happen" and at what stage. Interestingly, the track was worked on as three seperate pieces, and "assembled further down the line."

A lengthly segment talks of the Atom Heart Mother sessions, and the problems in recording and touring with a large bunch of musicians. "It was bloody difficult. The whole logistics of travelling with them, and recording them, and mic'ing them up - frankly, I would have said we were pretty relieved when we got back to being a four piece."

Nick also talks of the future. With the forthcoming translations of his book, "Inside Out", into Czechoslovakian, Romanian and Bulgarian, he can forsee plenty of work around them. He also reiterates a comment that he has made elsewhere, that he "really enjoyed writing and perhaps... will look to write something else."

More details of the magazine, including how to obtain it, can be found through TapeOp.com. Our thanks to TapeOp's Larry Crane, and also Todd Quade, for their help.



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Date news posted: 6 February 2006

http://www.brain-damage.co.uk/news/0602062.html

A fascinating new interview in well-respected Italian newspaper La Repubblica has David Gilmour talking bluntly about the rumoured future of Pink Floyd. "The band? It’s over. Reunited because of the good cause, to get over the bad relationship, and not to have regrets”.

The interview, kindly translated here for us by cambridgiano, probes David about the Floyd, and also his forthcoming solo album On An Island. The newspaper is not known for embellishing, and so David's reported comments have added weight. Whilst his comments will make many fans sad, the remarks are not overly surprising. At the very least the band is retiring gracefully, and on a high from the July 2005 Live 8 appearance.

David told them: "I think I've had enough. I am 60. I don’t want to work much anymore. It’s an important part of my life, I have had enormous satisfactions, but now it’s enough. It’s much more comfortable to work on my own". And we are not talking about the reunion with Roger Waters, already considered improbable ("Roger has worked in an absolutely autocratic way in the last 20 years; he would find difficulty in being part of a democratic band"), but about the Pink Floyd trademark itself, belonging to Gilmour, Richard Wright and Nick Mason after several legal actions. They recorded two albums and played live in incredible gigs all over the world. "It’s over" specifies Gilmour.

"The issue about Roger is irrelevant, because even without him I don’t want to go on as Pink Floyd. I’m happy with my life. Playing as Pink Floyd is a business too big for me now. When you move as a band, all is gigantic, the expectations are enormous, the pressures very high. We have been asked to play one hundred gigs! I am fine as I live now. It was fantastic but now I don't feel like any more."

The interview then turns more towards his forthcoming solo album, On An Island, released on March 6th.

Is it a coincidence that the album will be released very close to your 60th birthday?

No, it's not a coincidence. It's a choice.

Many people will find it difficult to distinguish from a Pink Floyd album...

I can't understand the difference very much! It's not important. In fact, I am the voice and the guitar of Pink Floyd. It's natural that part of my album sounds like Pink Floyd's. The difference is clear only in my head... Anyway, although I always felt free within the band, that was a group work. This one is more intimate, personal. I recorded most of it at home. I played many instruments, including saxophone.

What does the album title refer to?

The island is not Lindos, where I own a house. It's a Greek island called Castellorizo, like the first track in the album, 3 miles from the Turkish coast, where the Italian film Mediterraneo was shot. There is a song called On An Island too, it's about an evening spent with friends on that island.

It's a strange island. Until the 1920s the coast opposite belonged to Greece. Now it's Turkish; the island is almost deserted, many people have left, it's like a ghost island. The track is about leaving, abandonment, and then the phrase born on an island, very important for an Englishman...

There's a sensitive passion in this record. A simple beauty..

I hope... I hope the music is simpler but it can mean more. There are echoes in this simplicity. After all, when you write you try to compose just simple songs, but then other, deeper meanings and complications arrive. My wife Polly wrote a lot of the lyrics in the album.

Isn't it complicated to work with your wife?

I find it very natural at this stage of my life. Of course there are several problems, but the advantages are much greater! She wrote some songs by herself, like The Blue - that is perfect, the music and lyrics seem to be born together. Sometimes she is inspired by my music, sometimes she tries to come into my head and see with my eyes in order to understand what I was trying to say.

Why have you waited 20 years for a new solo album?

Well, I have been very busy. Two albums with Pink Floyd, and I felt free to do what I wanted to do, without restrictions. Then I got married again, new babies, I don't want to work much now, I am not an ambitious person anymore.

You played with Crosby & Nash. Was it the first time you worked with them? Were you friends?

I've known Graham Nash since he was in the Hollies, and through him I met Crosby. Two fantastic guys. They played in London in June, I went to say hello backstage and asked them to sing on my album. They said yes immediately, and I recorded their voices two days later.

Talking again about Pink Floyd, why the reunion at Live8?

For many reasons. Firstly because of the cause, obviously. Secondly because Roger and I had had a very bad relationship and this was something very bad to have in your heart. And finally because if I hadn't done it, I would have had regrets forever!

It was a good signal. How did you live that moment?

Actually I had very difficult guitar parts and then I had to sing. I felt a very big responsibility; I spent three weeks training myself and I was very concentrated on what I had to do. I felt the incredible emotions only when we finished playing.

And then Syd Barrett, the "crazy diamond", Pink Floyd founder. When the band was recording Wish You Were Here, he appeared at Abbey Road. Mr Gilmour, is that story true?

Yes, absolutely. I don't remember which song we were recording, I don't remember which one recognized him first, and I don't remember what we talked about. But it's absolutely true. Syd appeared in a moment!

Have you ever seen him, after that day?

No, never.

How's is it possible? Haven't you ever wanted to go to Cambridge to visit him?

Yes, I would have, but his family think Syd has to stay alone. But maybe in the future...

How would you like people to react to your new album?

I'd like that everyone feels like being in a different world where only the music exists. I wouldn't like that people listen to the surface only but that they listen deeply. I'll be happy if my music were important, at least during the minutes you're listening to the album...


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Our thanks to cambridgiano, Riccardo Fiandra, Massimiliano Mascolo, Massimo Varrone and Luca for their help with this story.

http://www.brain-damage.co.uk/news/0602061.html

BBC повторило показ фильма Pink Floyd's The Dark Side Of the Moon из серии Classis Albums
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The 2003 BBC Television programme, "Classic Albums", is getting a repeat run at the moment, and on Friday, 10th February, the episode showcasing Dark Side Of The Moon is broadcast on BBC2 in the UK at 23:35hrs.

The fifty minute show, subsequently released on DVD (cover shown to the right) is a track-by-track look at the album, with all the band interviewed and performing key segments of the music in the studio, some 30 years later.

There are also rare snippets of demos and live tracks, too. For those who have not seen it, it is essential viewing, only bettered by the feature-packed DVD that is now available, and reviewed here - http://www.brain-damage.co.uk/reviews/dsclas.html.

BBC2 is available on terrestrial, cable, freeview and digital systems, and can be viewed in many European countries too (normally via satellite).

For those who haven't yet bought the DVD, it really is a recommended addition to your collection. You can order it through these special links, at present giving a healthy discount on the normal price: US/International, UK, Canada, France, or Germany. Buying any item through our Amazon links helps this site - and we appreciate it!

http://www.brain-damage.co.uk/news/0602075.html

The latest issue of the UK's Record Collector magazine has a large Pink Floyd and Harvest Records feature, as well as showing the band draped in pink cloth on the cover.

The magazine, which hits UK shelves on 16th February (and available in selected outlets worldwide as an import), has a huge overview of the history, and the best releases, of the legendary Harvest label. Harvest was an EMI imprint, which was established and run by Malcolm Jones in 1969, and a number of Pink Floyd and Syd Barrett releases appeared on the label - a major part of the article.

Harvest focused its efforts on some of the best psychedelic and progressive artists of the time, making many of its releases highly desirable now.

Alongside this article, is a large feature on the top 50 collectable Floyd singles, compiled by our good friend, and renowned singles collector and expert, Hervé Denoyelle. The top ten include some achingly rare singles, some of which were pressed in minute quantities - with just one or two known to have ever existed! A fascinating, mouthwatering read...

Other artists covered in the magazine include Richard Thompson, Marillion, Roy Harper, and Barclay James Harvest.

Our thanks to Jason Draper, Production Editor at Record Collector for getting in touch with this news.

http://www.brain-damage.co.uk/news/0602073.html

Ник посещает Германию для раскрутки своей книги Inside Out
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Last week, Nick Mason visited Hamburg and Berlin as part of his ever growing world tour to promote his book, "Inside Out - A Personal History of Pink Floyd".

Whilst there, he took part in a few press interviews, and public presentations with signing sessions. With thanks to Chris McKay, we have a couple of shots here of Nick in Berlin, where he was met by a large, appreciative bunch of Floyd fans.

Whilst in Germany, Nick undertook a couple of interesting interviews. The first of these which was published is currently being translated for us, and we should have it for you in the next day or so. The other you can now read, as we have a full translation here -> http://www.brain-damage.co.uk/interviews/nm050206.html , thanks to Jens.

The interview, published in Die Welt, finds Nick covering some slightly different ground - including an amusing sequence looking at some of the more outlandish ideas for concerts that were never used.

These ranged from a giant crane that was in danger of crushing the band had it fallen over, to a super-powered projector which could never be powered down!

He also talks of flower power, the psychedelic sixties, and the Floyd's place in it all. He also reiterates the circumstances that could result in another Live 8 type reunion performance. Click here to read the whole interview - http://www.brain-damage.co.uk/interviews/nm050206.html .

http://www.brain-damage.co.uk/news/0602072.html

Ник также посетил Софию...
--------------------------
Yesterday, Nick Mason literally made a flying visit to Sofia in Bulgaria, to promote the latest translation of his book "Inside Out - A Personal History of Pink Floyd".

Having flown in earlier the same day, he presented his book personally to the enthusiastic local audience, and told the assembled Bulgarian media that "It's a pity that I only came here as a writer and not as a drummer!"

The Sofia News Agency reported that he talked about the creation of the book, which started whilst the band were on their Division Bell tour of 1994. "I've simply tried to capture the elements that I think give a picture of what I thought was happening at any one time, and to try to be honest about both the triumphs and the complete shambles that make up a band's existence," Mason said about his writing.

We apologise for the lack of advance notice of this - and we're just waiting to hear if Nick is planning any other upcoming visits to promote his book. We'll let you know as soon as we hear anything!

Brain-Damage.co.uk/

Скоро выйдет книга о ранних записях Флойд!
==========================================
A new book focusing on the formative years of the Floyd is coming on 9th October this year.

"Pink Floyd: The Early Years" is being written by Barry Miles. Miles saw the band play when they were still called "The Pink Floyd Sound" and he wrote the first ever article about them for a New York underground newspaper in 1966.

He also knew the band members socially, witnessed the rapid decline of Syd Barrett and became actively involved in setting up some of Floyd's major gigs.

The book promises an "authentic and compelling story of the group that gave alternative London its first real soundtrack and launched on the rock world a radical combination of music, light shows and pyrotechnic stage effects, a revealing diary of Pink Floyd's daily routine, from their roots in Cambridge to cult status in Sixties London."

It covers the period of their career right up to Dark Side Of The Moon, and we've been assured that it is going to be lavishly illustrated with a larget number of unusual, early shots of the band. As and when further information is available, we will let you know...

In the meantime, this book can be ordered through the following special links, for delivery upon release: Amazon US/International, Canada, UK/Europe, France, or Germany. Any item bought through these links at Amazon (not just Floyd items) helps with the running costs of the site, and we really appreciate it.

http://www.brain-damage.co.uk/news/0602081.html

ПОДРОБНОСТИ О ПРЕДСТОЯЩЕМ ROCK IN RIO LISBOA, ГДЕ ХЕДЛАЙНЕРОМ ВЫСТУПИТ РОДЖЕР УОТЕРС!!!
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Fans of Roger Waters should head for Bela Vista Park in the heart of Lisbon, Portugal, where the musician will be playing his first live concert since the Live 8 reunion with his old bandmates, Pink Floyd.

The concert, on June 2nd, is part of the Rock In Rio 2006 Festival - the largest music event in the world. Roger has visited Portugal before, playing his "In The Flesh" show there in 2002. As in the previous editions, the organization behind the festival will donate part of the revenues to several charities. Apart from Roger, some of the most notable names in the Portuguese and International music scene will be present during the five days of the festival. Attendance is expected to be more than 500,000 people, with about 100,000 people every day on average.

Tickets are not yet on sale, although if you are not able to make it over to Portugal for the concert, all is not lost.

Network LIVE, a joint venture between AOL, XM Satellite Radio and AEG, announced recently that the company has secured exclusive rights for Rock in Rio, the world’s largest multi-day music event. The agreement provides Network LIVE with the exclusive US and international sales and rights for all broadcast and media partners, outside of Portugal and Brazil. This will be the first year that Rock in Rio will also be made available for licensing to all broadcast distribution platforms including (where applicable) Internet, wireless/mobile, satellite and terrestrial radio and television, and on a global basis. So, Roger's fans across the world will hopefully be able to tune in to the show.

All the information you might need about Rock in Rio-Lisboa can be found at the official website at rockinrio-lisboa.sapo.pt.

Our thanks to Josй Mendes, Nuno Miguel Gil Fonseca, and Carlos Sardinha for their help in bringing this story to you.



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Date news posted: 8 February 2006

http://www.brain-damage.co.uk/news/0602083.html

Португальская телесеть SIC показала репортаж о предстоящем фестивале,
в котором 2 июня этого года примет участие Роджер Уотерс.
Смешно было увидеть во время репортажа фотографии
...Дэвида Гилмора времён Division Bell Tour in Portugal вместо фоток Уотерса.

На следующий день в новостях репортаж шёл уже с "правильными" фотками.

Португальская телесеть SIC первой подтвердила, что будет транслировать
фестиваль в полном объеме в прямом эфире.

Tickets should go on sale on March 1st
and will cost around 55 euros for each of the six festival days.

Тем временем португальская страничка фестиваля в интернете
обзавелась своей английской сестренкой.

http://rockinrio-lisboa.sapo.pt/index.html?lang=en

http://bobclose.narod.ru

В этой прграмме Роджер коснулся темы, когда он понял что
ПИНК ФЛОЙД отправился к своему концу. - Во время записи Wish You Were Here

Предстоящее турне известной трибьют-группы по Великобритании
============================================================
The increasingly popular tribute band, The Australian Pink Floyd Show, have just announced an updated list of 2006 UK tour dates. Tickets are now on sale for these dates, through the normal outlets, and are already selling very well.

The band have been running for many years now, and have performed sell-out shows worldwide, helped in part by the fact that David Gilmour was impressed enough by the band to have booked them for his 50th birthday party! With a number of ex-Floyd crew on their staff, the show is an impressive one, with a good balance of great musicianship and eye catching visuals. We last saw them in Malta - read our review ( http://www.brain-damage.co.uk/general/apfsmalta.html ) and thoroughly enjoyed it.

For the 2006 shows, the first half of the evening will alternate between a full rendition of Dark Side Of The Moon, Wish You Were Here, and Animals. The second half of the show will be a different selection drawn from the entire back catalogue, including Meddle, Atom Heart Mother, The Wall and Division Bell.

Here's where you can catch the band:

25 Mar Dublin The Point
26 Mar Belfast Waterfront Hall
27 Mar Preston Guild Hall
29 Mar Manchester Evening News Arena
30 Mar Glasgow SECC
31 Mar Glasgow SECC
02 Apr Aberdeen Music Hall
03 Apr Perth Concert Hall
05 Apr Newcastle Metro Radio Arena
06 Apr Birmingham NIA Academy
07 Apr Bristol Colston Hall
08 Apr Cardiff International Arena
10 Apr Plymouth Pavilions
11 Apr Bournemouth International Centre
12 Apr Portsmouth Guildhall
18 Apr Llandudno North Wales Theatre
19 Apr London Royal Albert Hall
21 Apr Sheffield Hallam FM Arena
22 Apr Brighton Centre
23 Apr Ipswich Regent
25 Apr Southend Cliffs Pavilion
26 Apr Leicester De Montfort Hall
28 Apr Cambridge Corn Exchange
29 Apr Oxford New Theatre
30 Apr Norwich UEA

For more information on the Australian Pink Floyd Show's past, present and future activities, visit www.AussieFloyd.com.
http://www.brain-damage.co.uk/news/0602103.html

The Gerald Scarfe-designed poster for the movie of Pink Floyd's The Wall has become an iconic image, calling to mind Munch's "The Scream". Back in December we brought you details of an exclusive offer for you ( http://www.brain-damage.co.uk/news/0512202.html ), thanks to those nice people over at Bob Geldof's official website ( http://www.bobgeldof.info/ )!

They are in the process of putting the finishing touches on a special edition of just 500 copies of the poster, each of which will be individually signed by the architect of Live 8, and the star of the film (playing the "Pink" character) Bob Geldof himself.

The poster measures 680mm x 1000mm (27inches x 39inches), and will cost Ј30 plus shipping. Orders are being taken now, for despatch in March.

Due to the popularity of this offer, they have also arranged for Bob to sign 500 copies of the DVD of the movie, again for despatch in March. The signed DVDs are only available to UK residents at this time, and are priced at Ј50 plus shipping.

Both offers are proving to be very popular indeed, and we urge you to get your order in quickly to avoid disappointment.

For your chance to own a piece of movie, rock, Pink Floyd and Bob Geldof history, place your order now through the merchandise section at www.BobGeldof.info or click on this direct link -> http://bobshop.libertybloom.com/Store/DisplayFeaturedItems/46/1/F/1/ .

http://www.brain-damage.co.uk/news/0602102.html