Richard "Rick" Wright of Pink Floyd (1943 - 2008)

Pink Floyd: 'The Great Gig In The Sky' - tribute to Rick Wright

Wikipedia

Ø (Mika Vainio): Oleva

Helsinki's Sähkö Recordings announces a new Ø (pronounced "Ohm") album, called Oleva ("The Existing"), from Mika Vainio (Pan sonic); somewhat surprisingly including a cover version of 'Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun' (note: the track is credited on the sleeve as "Set the Controls to the Heart of the Sun"), a track from Pink Floyd's second album Saucerful of Secrets (1968)!

Cat.no.: SÄHKÖ-023
Artist: Ø
Title: Oleva
Format: 2x12"/CD
Release date: July 2008
Produced by: Mika Vainio

Tracklist:

1. Unien holvit
2. S-bahn
3. Set the Controls to the Heart of the Sun
4. Frekvenssi
5. Loihdittu
6. Vastus
7. U-bahn
8. Koituva
9. Mojave
10. Tasanko
11. Kausaaliton
12. Muistetun palaava taajuus

Credits:

All tracks by Mika Vainio except 3 by Roger Waters
Recorded in Berlin 2007-2008
Photographs by Mika Vainio
Graphics by Tommi Grönlund
Mastered by Denis Blackham at Skye Mastering
Cut by Rashad Becker at D&M

Info @ Sähkö Recordings

Reviews:

The Silent Ballet

The Piper at the Gates of Dawn 40 Years Anniversary

It's been forty years since Pink Floyd's debut album The Piper at the Gates of Dawn came out on the 5th of August 1967, mostly being the expression of the personal vision of the late lamented frontman Syd Barrett (1946-2006). Whenever asked for people's all-time favourite albums, this has been my own No. 1 choice for years. Always a joyous shock for the people who perceive the Floyd merely as a vehicle for sombre prog-rock ego trips of the Roger Waters-era and The Wall.

I first heard 'Interstellar Overdrive' in a documentary film about the making of The Beatles' Sergeant Pepper and the music scene of summer 1967, now also known as the "Summer of Love" (well, the people who went through the Egypt-Israeli Six-Day War in June '67 must have experienced it a bit differently).

In a black & white film excerpt I saw a bunch of weird guys in sunglasses playing that hypnotic, suggestive tune while their giant shadows flickered on the wall in strobelights. The tune (in fact, a combination of Love's rendition of 'Little Red Book' and the theme music of an old British TV show Steptoe & Son!) instantly caught me and haunted me like an insistent glitch in my nervous system; I had to know more about what was happening here. Soon I got to my hands a vinyl version of The Piper..., and that was like an explosion in my cortex. This was truly strange, even scary music.

AMM's lengthy improvisations, The Beatles, The Byrds, John Coltrane's jazz, Kenneth Grahame's children's book The Wind in the Willows (which gave the album its title), I-Ching, J.R.R. Tolkien, Stockhausen, The Who... all condensed into one lysergic free-for-all, Barrett's guitar painting the soundscape with spacey echoes from his Binson delay unit, Rick Wright's "Turkish Delight" organ and his jazzy piano licks, Roger Waters' pulsating bass and Nick Mason's turbulent drumming anchoring the whole madness down. Garage rock grooves of 'Lucifer Sam' and stereo panning to and fro going mad at the end of the album version of 'Interstellar Overdrive'.

The Floyd also drove their producer Norman "Hurricane" Smith mad, who afterwards called the album sessions "sheer hell" and accused the band of the lack of musical proficiency -- so pure psychedelic punk, then! Heavy tape edits are obvious in many places but only positively adding to the sense of psychedelic fragmentation and its time lapse experience. Sheer sonic fantasy, both futuristic and mythical, which always takes me into some other dimension outside of time and space; a realm of interstellar (overdrive) journeys, mystical cats called Lucifer Sam and fairy stories where a thousand misty riders climb up higher once upon a time...

There will be this month out a 3-CD 40th anniversary edition, including both stereo and mono mixes of the album, plus all Barrett-era Floyd singles and some out-takes (including an alternative lyrics version of Mathilda Mother) -- most of this material owned by fans and collectors already, and still no sign of the official release of such shelved-since-the-time-of-their-recording Barrett/Floyd gems as 'Vegetable Man', 'Scream Thy Last Scream' or 'She Was A Millionaire' (most of which, however, have found their way to the hands of aficionados as bootlegs or "Have You Got It Yet?" downloads).

The 40th anniversary edition also features a facsimile of Syd Barrett's 1965 Fart Enjoy book of his art, collages and text, even though for "legal reasons" omitting one page. You can see it here, though:

The 40th anniversary edition news @ Neptune Pink Floyd

OK, sorry about the old fart content again. Let's talk about dubstep now. Or...

YouTube

Syd Barrett's Sister Talks

Some mid-60s artwork by Syd Barrett

Here you can find a recent interview by the late Syd Barrett's sister Rosemary, deconstructing some of those popular myths in circulation about Barrett's post-musical life, but still probably only adding some more to the enigma of Syd Barrett.

It seems, for example, that one could not actually diagnose Barrett as mentally insane but more likely suffering from some sort of autism which made him quite awkward with any social contacts and rather to revert to his own inner world. Also, it becomes all the more obvious that Barrett's late-60s breakdown had far more complicated reasons than his reported huge LSD use; the strains of music business and heavy workload of extensive gigging and recording further contributing to the shattering of a sensitive, introverted mind. And one can speculate endlessly what effect such crucial events reported in most biographies as Barrett's father's early demise, for example, had on Syd's mental balance.

"He always had an extraordinary mind, bordering on the autistic or Aspergic. He had a rare talent to exploit ambiguities in language and also experienced synaesthesia -- the ability to 'see sounds and hear colours' -- which was to be a huge influence on his music in his psychedelic phase."

So Syd Barrett was also a gifted visual artist, and here you can find an art gallery dedicated to his works.

Syd

Roger Keith "Syd" Barrett, 6 January, 1946 – 7 July, 2006


Syd Barrett, the founding member of Pink Floyd (who also gave the band its name), has passed away. Barrett's history and the early days of Floyd have been well documented elsewhere, so I'm not going into them here; just follow the links below if you're still a neophyte and want to find out why this is so much of importance.

It's hard to describe my feelings at the moment because along the years Syd's influence has been enormous on me (probably you can hear some Syd traces here and there in Kompleksi's stuff), and also on numbers of musicians: David Bowie (who covered Syd/Floyd's 'See Emily Play' for his Pin-Ups) and Julian Cope only a few among them.

After Syd had left Pink Floyd in early 1968 troubled by his ever-increasing mental problems (thought to be caused by his gargantuan intake of LSD, though many historians consider the truth must be far more complicated here), Floyd became by the mid-70s the dinosaur band admired by the masses of "classic rock" fans and loathed by punks.

However, Pink Floyd never totally managed to escape from under Syd's giant shadow, and he still remained a cult favourite loved by everyone. Even Sex Pistols initially wanted Syd Barrett to produce their debut album, even though (or just because) Syd had badly lost marbles by this era and had totally left music after 1974, living as a recluse in his native Cambridge until the end of his days.

Pink Floyd's debut Piper at the Gates of Dawn (1967) is still my all-time favourite album, and I must have given countless plays to my personally custom-made MiniDisc featuring the album plus Floyd's first singles with Syd, unreleased bootleg rarities like 'Vegetable Man', 'Scream Thy Last Scream' (a crying shame that EMI still keeps these gems locked in their vaults), and 'Jugband Blues', Syd's swansong with Floyd, from the band's second album (1968). These songs -- full of trippy strangeness, playful whimsy and mystique but also deep humanity -- always take me to some other dimension beyond time and space, remaining a source of endless inspiration.

Thank you, Syd: you will never be forgotten.

"Won't you miss me?
Wouldn't you miss me at all?"

See also:

Syd Barrett's Sister Talks

Links:

Syd Barrett @ pHinnWeb

Syd Barrett videos @ YouTube

Syd Barrett @ Wikipedia


Syd Remembered:

ABC Australia

Associated Press

BBC News

David Bowie

Brain Damage

Cambridge Evening News

CNN

Julian Cope

E! Online

Guardian

LA Times

Momus

MSNBC

Neptune Pink Floyd

New York Times

NME

Pitchfork

Rolling Stone

Slate

Spin

Times Online

Uncut

USA Today

Washington Post

WFMU

Wikinews

Lost Syd Barrett Recording Found

Interesting, but personally I don't hold my breath for this, Syd having badly lost his marbles already by 1972, so this might be of interest to hardcore Syd fans only.

From http://www.brain-damage.co.uk/news/0511193.html

Last-Minute Put-Together Boogie Band tape

An incredibly rare recording of Syd Barrett, performing live on 27th January, 1972, with the Last-Minute Put-Together Boogie Band, at a show in Cambridge, has recently been unearthed, and plans are underway for a release!

Naturally, this news has spread like wildfire and anticipation is huge amongst the legions of Syd fans. Should the release of this show come to fruition (and the people behind it have outline permissions from all concerned to go ahead), it will be a fascinating, historical document for Pink Floyd fans.

The sound on the recording is uneven in parts and will require 'tweaking' in a studio before it will be suitable for release. Any release is therefore some months away.

The Last-Minute Put-Together Boogie Band's set consists of 5 blues songs before Syd comes on stage for a long jam ("Number Nine") followed by 3 blues songs/improvs ("Gotta Be A Reason", "Let's Roll" and "Sweet Little Angel"). The Hawkwind and Pink Fairies sets on the reel are also reported to be worth hearing.

Syd is on stage for 29 minutes in total - the jam "Number Nine" is around 9 minutes long but segues directly into "Gotta Be A Reason". None of the songs are Syd's or Pink Floyd's. Alan Barrett (Syd's brother who makes decisions on Syd's behalf) was pitched the story of the recording and the hopes to release it, and he has contacted PF Music Publishing to give them the "OK".

The story of this recording is interesting, and can be found by visiting: www.nsblog.co.uk/FraKcman and also www.spacewardstudios.ukf.net/stories.htm. The people behind the release are asking for as many people as possible to email them a one-liner stating 'I support this release', sent to: sydbarrettslostgig at hotmail.co.uk in order to exert extra leverage on the company that they are hoping will release it. Please note that emails will not be answered, and it's an inbox only facility. This could be a potentially historic release and your voice can help.

More news on this as we get it...

Date news posted: 19 November 2005

Syd Barrett @ pHinnWeb

(mpeg video) Syd Barrett/Pink Floyd: 'Jugband Blues'

http://blogfiles.wfmu.org/KF/0509/movies/syd_barrett_pink.mpg

I found this through WFMU's blog: a 3:21 MPEG video of Syd Barrett with Pink Floyd performing 'Jugband Blues' from Saucerful of Secrets (1968), Syd's swansong with Floyd. Suffice it to say that I was enthralled...

It's awfully considerate of you to think of me here
And I'm much obliged to you for making it clear that I'm not here.
And I never knew the moon could be so big
And I never knew the moon could be so blue
And I'm grateful that you threw away my old shoes
And brought me here instead dressed in red
And I'm wondering who could be writing this song.

I don't care if the sun don't shine
And I don't care if nothing is mine
And I don't care if I'm nervous with you
I'll do my loving in the winter.

And the sea isn't green
And I love the queen
And what exactly is a dream
And what exactly is a joke.

Stills from Syd/Floyd videos

Earlier

Pulpetti Blog And pHinn The Pink Floyd Apologist

My good friend Juri Nummelin, the pulp fiction expert extraordinaire, has opened his own blog at http://pulpetti.blogspot.com/. Expect a lot of Juri-esque rants about crime fiction, music and whatever.

Except I have to digress about Pink Floyd, Juri. Yes, it's true, pHinn is not just a closet Pink Floyd fan any more! Syd Barrett-era is the best for me, of course, but I'd be a big liar, if I didn't say I wouldn't have been listening a lot of their post-Syd albums too. I love their atmospheric cinematic soundscapes (I always get chills listening to those synths on 'Shine On You Crazy Diamond'), and their pioneering use of editing and segueing tracks plus sound effects (e.g. on Dark Side of the Moon) I see paving the way for the later electronic music and sampling too.

Some favourite Floyd tracks of mine: 'Careful With That Axe'/'Come Out Number 51, Your Time Is Up' (the version used in the "Apocalypse Scene" of the film Zabriskie Point) -- if you can, listen to those versions following each other: it starts as a slow atmospheric drone and just explodes at the end, blows my mind every time. 'Echoes' and 'One of These Days' -- just hypnotic, with Roger Waters' funky bass. Only with The Wall Waters' egomania got too much for me, but I even like that one half-much (post-Waters albums I don't even rate).

Of course every good punk worth their salt is supposed to hate the Pinkies, thanks to Johnny Rotten's famous "I Hate Pink Floyd" T-shirt (which should have had "Genesis" instead of Floyd, methinks), but I've just been listening to my favourite album from John Lydon's (a.k.a. J. Rotten) post-Pistols project Public Limited Image, Second Edition (a.k.a. Metal Box), and I have to say, with Jah Wobble's immortal liquid basslines, eerie soundscapes with chilly synths and all, even this album has its Floyd-esque moments! There's a little bit of Pink Floyd everywhere, eh? Ha ha, you old punks and wanna-be punks!