Tag Archive for "Pink Floyd" tag

According to Friday’s Times, as part of an attempt to cut costs, the BBC plans to shut down two of its radio stations by the end of 2011. One of these is BBC Radio 6, better known as 6 Music.

Naturally, online campaigns protesting against the proposals have sprung up, and one name that has been mentioned repeatedly is that of much-loved and greatly-missed DJ, John Peel, who died suddenly following a heart attack in 2004.

As Phill Jupitus so simply yet perfectly put it, killing off 6 Music would be “an affront to the memory of John Peel.” David Bowie added that “6 Music keeps the spirit of broadcasters like John Peel alive, and for new artists to lose this station would be a great shame.”

Best known for his legendary Peel Sessions, which began in September 1967 and ran for 37 years, John Peel undoubtedly helped launch many a career, often by championing music that others would not play. In a 2002 BBC poll to discover the 100 Greatest Britons, he was even voted 43rd, some recognition for his services at BBC Radio 1 and with pirate radio station, Radio London, before that.

For anyone passionate about music, his Top Gear show on Radio 1 every Tuesday and Thursday night made for essential listening. Due to Musicians’ Union rules, he had to include a sizeable portion of non-recorded music in each programme, and, mercifully, live recordings were preferred to the usual chatter.

There exists a vast archive of Peel Sessions, containing 4,000 in all by more than 2,000 artists; including six by Pink Floyd and many from associated acts such as Roxy Music, Roy Harper and Robert Wyatt. Browse by artist or by year.

And so we return to 6 Music…

If you’d like to hear any Peel Session again, Marc Riley invites listeners to share which session they’d most like him to play – and why.

Everyone can listen to 6 Music online, so what better way to help a station in distress?

If you could, I’d like lots of Peel appreciation, as well as Sessions, today.

My favourite has to be Syd Barrett’s. Accompanied by David with Jerry Shirley on drums, recorded in February 1970 and aired the following month, this was later released on Peel’s Strange Fruit label and is an absolute must for any Syd fan.

Thoughts on 6 Music and the BBC in general are also quite welcome; I’m sure I’m not alone in thinking up other imaginative ways in which the corporation could cut back, rather than by scrapping their only radio station with a genuinely ‘alternative’ playlist and where, in true Peel tradition, new acts can be heard on a daily basis.

By the way, if you missed the John Peel tribute single – a version of the Buzzcocks number, ‘Ever Fallen In Love (With Someone You Shouldn’t've)?’, featuring David on rhythm guitar and benefiting Amnesty International – do look/listen out for it.

I thought this rather interesting when I belatedly stumbled across it today: the shortlist for the BRIT Awards’ ‘Best Album of 30 Years’ accolade, representing the finest of 30 years of previous BRIT Award-winning albums.

They are as follows:

- Coldplay, A Rush of Blood to the Head
- Dido, No Angel
- Dire Straits, Brothers in Arms
- Duffy, Rockferry
- Keane, Hopes & Fears
- Oasis, (What’s the Story) Morning Glory?
- Phil Collins, No Jacket Required
- Sade, Diamond Life
- The Verve, Urban Hymns
- Travis, The Man Who

The thing is, the BRITs being the music industry’s own awards, to be eligible you had to have already won a BRIT Award – in the Best British Album category – and you win this in the first place based on sales figures.

So, I had a look and found the other past winners… and realised that the shortlist probably is as good as it can get, although I would definitely substitute the two Manic Street Preachers albums at the expense of pretty much any of them bar Brothers in Arms and Urban Hymns. I would also like to see Annie Lennox (Union Jack-et negotiable) win a BRIT each year, even though she has seven already.

Do you favour any of these over the actual nominees? If, as many believe, Britannia ruled the (air)waves in the ’60s and ’70s, are these award-winning albums conclusive proof that things have gone downhill dramatically ever since?

- Adam and the Ants, Kings Of the Wild Frontier
- Blur, Parklife (Pink Floyd’s The Division Bell had been nominated)
- Coldplay, Parachutes and X&Y
- The Darkness, Permission to Land
- Fairground Attraction, First Of a Million Kisses
- Fine Young Cannibals, The Raw and the Cooked
- Annie Lennox, Diva
- Manic Street Preachers, Everything Must Go and This is My Truth, Tell Me Yours
- George Michael, Listen Without Prejudice
- Seal, Seal
- Stereo MCs, Connected
- Sting, Nothing Like the Sun

If, like me, you initially find the idea of the ten albums in contention representing the pinnacle of 30 years of British music as depressing as a bowl of cold porridge on a wet winter’s morn (and the use of ‘Best’ as contentious as, well, the last equivalent survey we discussed), you might find this stirs you from your malaise.

Ten ‘better’ albums, even if they weren’t as commercially-successful – from 1980 onwards, please. From UK artists only, don’t forget. (The Division Bell… Hello?)

Should you care to vote, voting closes at 9pm (UK) tomorrow – Thursday 28 January. The winning album will be the one with the most votes when voting ends.

You have to register to vote and the registration form asks for everything other than your shoe size, which may prove off-putting to some. (Slight exaggeration there, but why should one’s date of birth, not to mention telephone number, be required? Presumably the only advantage to registering is being able to cast a vote and leave a comment, not buy cigarettes, and nobody should expect a ring-back.)

The 2010 BRIT Awards will take place on 16 February. Will you be watching?

Top of the charts in the UK on this day was ‘Sugar Sugar’ by The Archies.

Not one of David’s favourites, this, but equally annoying and slightly less grammatically irritating than the US sing-along-a-No.1 of this day 40 years ago, ‘Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye’ (by Steam). Remember that one?

I can’t bring myself to say a bad word about the wonderful Roy Orbison, so I’ll just quietly point out that ‘Penny Arcade’ was No.1 in Australia at the time and leave it to you to decide whether or not that nicely rounds off a hat trick of truly terrible chart-topping songs which paint 1969 a hideous, nauseating shade of ‘Fun’.

There were some classic stand-out tunes, though: ‘Albatross’ by (Peter Green’s) Fleetwood Mac, which obviously is one of David’s favourites, and ‘Suite: Judy Blue Eyes’ by Crosby, Stills and Nash, to name just two of them.

As we’ve been talking about him this week, ‘Give Peace a Chance’ by (John Lennon’s) Plastic Ono Band is another.

Great albums, too. All the best acts did well, I thought, and their record covers were often equally impressive: The Beatles’ Abbey Road (and Yellow Submarine); Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere, Neil Young’s first album with Crazy Horse; Frank Zappa’s Hot Rats; Leonard Cohen’s Songs From a Room…

Do note Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band’s Trout Mask Replica sleeve at this point, if you will. Words fail me each time I see it.

There were two records from Pink Floyd, of course: More and Ummagumma. I’d like to know which remain your favourite moments from those two, please.

So, your favourite songs from 1969. Hopefully this list of 100 will help start you off, and this just might jog a few memories.

Here are five of my favourite tracks:

- King Crimson, ‘21st Century Schizoid Man’
- Elvis Presley, ‘Suspicious Minds’
- Rolling Stones, ‘Gimme Shelter’
- Stevie Wonder, ‘For Once In My Life’
- Neil Young, ‘Down By the River’

A special mention for Tommy’s ‘Underture’, which is one of my most favourite instrumentals, but we can talk about that and those another day.

Until then, have a good weekend, everyone.

We’ve looked at 1966 and 1975, now it’s time for something from the Eighties.

The decade’s best year for music, I feel (and you are free to tell me that you disagree just as long as you can back it up with better examples), is 1983.

From Pink Floyd, the vastly under-rated The Final Cut; ZZ Top produced their most successful, Eliminator; Metallica released their first (Kill ‘Em All), The Police their last (Synchronicity) and U2 their most delightfully political, War.

It was, of course, the year of Thriller, even if it was released in late-1982.

It’s also remembered as the year that Karen Carpenter and Beach Boy, Dennis Wilson, died. Both in tragic circumstances, Karen was just 32 and Dennis, 39.

Which are your favourite songs from 1983? Here are five of mine, starting with another respectful tip of the hat to that great evergreen, Ray Davies:

- Eurythmics, ‘Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)’
- The Fixx, ‘One Thing Leads to Another’
- Michael Jackson, ‘Billie Jean’
- Elton John, ‘I Guess That’s Why They Call It The Blues’
- Bonnie Tyler, ‘Total Eclipse of the Heart’

Thinking of it, it’s probably quite possible to compile an A to Z of chart artists from 1983 (-ish) without great effort. If you’re feeling up to it, in need of a pointless distraction from whatever you should be doing right now, see how far you can get with those unforgettable names, such as Kajagoogoo and Prefab Sprout.

You have to admit, the Eighties were and will forever remain… strangely amusing.

I’ll start you off with Adams, Bryan (‘Cuts Like a Knife’)…

A completely random, yet hopefully moderately useful post today; I’m sure it’s one that everyone can make a contribution to one way or another, should they feel so inclined, particularity should they have a propensity to compile subject-specific music playlists, which is so very easy to do nowadays.

Which songs make driving more enjoyable, tolerable or relaxing?

Five that I’d confidently wager are guaranteed a swift mention, so I’ll get them in early so that your lists are more imaginative than mine, are:

- Beatles, ‘Drive My Car’
- Canned Heat, ‘On the Road Again’
- Eagles, ‘Life in the Fast Lane’
- Chris Rea, ‘Road to Hell’
- Steppenwolf, ‘Born to Be Wild’

Whether you favour the Beach Boys’ ‘Little Deuce Coupe’, Wilson Pickett’s ‘Mustang Sally’ or Prince’s ‘Little Red Corvette’, do tell which songs sound at their very best when you’re behind the wheel (or handlebars, even).

If you can’t think of any, just have a look at the many ‘drive-time’ compilations that record labels, possibly with a little help from radio DJs, have put together.

How about Pink Floyd’s La Carrera Panamericana (were it legally available in a format other than VHS, of course)? Have you seen it and do you have a favourite instrumental from those recorded specifically for the film?

Lastly, as an excuse to let off some steam, which are your pet hates when you’re on the road? The apparent inability of other road users to indicate, particularly at roundabouts, probably grates on my nerves more than anything else.

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Although released in the first week of August, Pink Floyd’s debut album, ‘The Piper at the Gates of Dawn’, entered the UK album charts in this week of 1967. It would spend seven just outside the Top Five.

So, why not turn off whatever you’re listening to and give it a spin? Take some time to remember with a smile the beautiful talents of the late Syd Barrett and Richard Wright (as well as producer Norman ‘Hurricane’ Smith, who passed away last year) and share whatever you feel like sharing about this fine piece of work; be it your favourite track, most whimsical lyric, memories of acquiring the original LP, or thoughts on the 30th and 40th anniversary CDs (both of which were re-mastered by James Guthrie, the latter includes two rare takes of ‘Interstellar Overdrive’, rescued from EMI’s archives, plus a previously unavailable version of ‘Matilda Mother’ – click here if you need to learn more).

I’d also care to know how you like the first three Pink Floyd singles, all released in 1967 (‘Arnold Layne’, ‘See Emily Play’, ‘Apples and Oranges’) and their respective B-sides (‘Candy and a Currant Bun’, ‘The Scarecrow’, ‘Paintbox’).

Add to that a fourth single, 1968’s ‘It Would Be So Nice’, only officially available as part of the 1992 ‘Shine On’ box set and the less well-known budget releases, put out in selected parts of the world in 1970 and 1974 to capitalise on the band’s growing popularity, entitled ‘The Best of The Pink Floyd’ and ‘Masters of Rock’.

The B-side to ‘It Would Be So Nice’ was ‘Julia Dream’, David’s first recorded Pink Floyd vocal.

Interestingly, if not somewhat worryingly, the UK’s most popular albums of 1967 were (in order of sales, no surprise about the biggest-seller):

- The Beatles, Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
- ‘Sound of Music’ soundtrack
- ‘The Best of The Beach Boys’
- ‘The Monkees’
- ‘Doctor Zhivago’ soundtrack
- ‘More of The Monkees’
- ‘Fiddler On the Roof’ (Original London Cast)
- Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass, ‘Going Places’
- Seekers, ‘Come the Day’
- Tom Jones, ‘Green, Green Grass of Home’

How many of those will you still admit to having in your collection, then?

The musical highlight of Live8, no doubt, was Pink Floyd reforming momentarily to perform for the first time in 24 years.

In another worrying example of time just flying by, the ten concerts held simultaneously to persuade political leaders to make poverty history took place on this date four years ago.

The leaders of the eight richest nations – Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the UK and USA – followed the festivities by pledging, at Gleneagles, to double aid to poor nations by 2010, half of which would go to Africa.

Figures show that, in fact, the G8 have only delivered one third of the additional assistance promised, despite being two thirds of the way towards their deadline.

By the end of this year they will have only delivered about half of what they promised, with Italy and France responsible for 80% of the shortfall.

This is because France cut aid to Africa last year and Italy has delivered only 3% of the aid increase it promised.

But it’s not all doom and gloom. There are some 34 million more children in African schools, an estimated three million people on life-saving AIDS treatment, and death rates from malaria have more than halved in Ethiopia, Rwanda and Zambia.

The next G8 Summit will be held in L’Aquila, Italy, from 8 July.

Despite agreeing with many of the cynical sentiments expressed in articles by Michel Chossudovsky and Ann Talbot, who insist that the events were more a profit-making exercise for its corporate sponsors than a means of averting yet another avoidable humanitarian disaster, I like to believe that Live8 truly did increase awareness and turned apathy into activism in some quarters.

Yes, the 10 concerts cost £25 million to stage (the cost in terms of carbon emissions is something else, of course), performers at the Philadelphia gig received obscenely inappropriate gifts and the CD sales of the performers boomed (David, I think it only fair to point out, was the first to promise that any such profits would be donated to charity and encouraged others to follow his example).

What do you think of Live8 now: Success or failure? PR stunt or genuine political mass movement? Did you wear a white wristband, rumoured to have been made in a Chinese sweatshop? Did you wonder where all the black performers were performing that day? And what of the broken promises of financial assistance?

Your thoughts on any of this, and the rest, please.

As an aside, if you have yet to read David’s recollections of the 1969 moon landings – entitled “My moon-landing jam session”, in today’s Guardian – you can find them here. That’s certainly a topic for later this month, though.

Some band called Pink Floyd, with an album entitled ‘The Dark Side of the Moon’, or something, made it 1,056 weeks on the US album charts this week – back in 1997.

Released in the States on 17 March 1973, it would go on to be the first recording to spend 1,500 weeks on the Billboard charts (a milestone reached in May 2006), occupying 164 different positions in the Top 200.

Incredibly, it remained in the Top 200 for a record 736 consecutive weeks (741 non-consecutive, as it dropped off briefly in July 1988) before falling out in October 1988 (and only then because of changes to chart methodology), which is by far the longest chart run of any album ever.

Billboard’s Top Pop Catalog – where older albums are now listed – credits the album with a cumulative total of 1,660 weeks notched up. That’s nearly 32 years.

So, all in all, it did – and continues to do – rather well.

I won’t bother to ask what you like best about the 43-minute-long progressive epic, although you’re very welcome to share; what I’d love to know is how many copies you’ve got in your collection. (Makes you wonder, doesn’t it?)

In addition, I’m curious to discover your thoughts on album sales and chart positions today. Do you believe that anyone can possibly over-take the tremendous run that ‘Dark Side’ has enjoyed now that album sales are in decline and digital sales are up? And what of the part that variable pricing has played in encouraging full-album downloads as opposed to only paying for single tracks?