2nd MAY: FREE ON FOUR – FLOYD NIGHT ON 23rd

Assuming that you live in the UK, and have a Freeview digital set-top box, you can enjoy the BBC FOUR PINK FLOYD NIGHT on May 23. FOUR are showing the documentary ‘Which One's Pink?’ at 21.00 on Friday May 23, followed by Classic Albums: The Dark Side of the Moon at 22.00 and John Edgington's film about Syd Barrett and the band, ‘Syd Barrett: Crazy Diamond’ at 22.50.

The BBC couldn’t give us any more details, but if you miss the first showings, they do say: ‘Most of these programmes are then repeated on the following Sunday evening, May 25, with a showing for the David Gilmour at The Royal Albert Hall concert [‘Remember That Night’]. Times tba’.

10th MARCH: HURRICANE NORMAN BLOWS OUT

We are sad to report the passing, on 3rd March, of early Pink Floyd producer Norman Smith, who went on to have hits in his own right as Hurricane Smith.

An EMI engineer who had worked closely with George Martin on the Beatles recordings at Abbey Road, Norman was the designated producer when EMI signed Pink Floyd in 1967, replacing Joe Boyd, who had produced ‘Arnold Layne’ independently. Norman acted as producer on the early Pink Floyd recordings, including ‘The Piper At The Gates of Dawn’ and ‘A Saucerful of Secrets’, ceding production control as the band gradually took over, culminating in his Executive Producer credit for ‘Atom Heart Mother’.

Norman’s other production work included one of the first rock concept albums, ‘S.F. Sorrow’ by The Pretty Things, while he also developed a role as a solo singing star: using the pseudonym ‘Hurricane Smith’, he had his first of three UK Top 40 singles in 1971. His self-penned composition ‘Oh Babe What Would You Say?’ was originally a song demo, which Mickie Most decided was good enough as it was; in 1972 it went to Number 3 in the US Charts and No. 4 in the UK.

In recent years, he had been working on an expanded version of his book ‘John Lennon Called Me Normal’ which covered his career, including his time working at Abbey Road Studios.

MONDAY 10th DECEMBER: ‘OH BY THE WAY’ RELEASED

THE MUCH ANTICPIPATED STUDIO ALBUMS BOXSET IS RELEASED TODAY.

To explore the boxset please click here.

WEDNESDAY 5th DECEMBER: ‘OH BY THE WAY’ ANIMATION

If you'd like to get a better impression of how the forthcoming 'Oh By The Way' boxset appears please click here for a 3D animation.

THURSDAY 22nd November: ‘OH BY THE WAY’

PINK FLOYD BOX SET NOW AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER

Both the physical boxset & the digital bundle are now available to pre-order - please click here for full details.

TUESDAY 30th October: ‘OH BY THE WAY’

The 40th Anniversary year of Pink Floyd ends with a typical flourish, the release of, Oh By The Way, a spectacular limited edition box set which contains, for the first time ever, the band’s 14 studio albums. These classic albums are presented in mini vinyl wallets with all the original extras also miniaturised. Floyd’s longtime design wizard, Storm Thorgerson, has designed a sumptuous box, as well as miniaturising the original sleeve artwork. Oh By The Way is released on EMI Records on 10 December (11 December in the US).

This unique box set is the first time in Pink Floyd’s incomparable history that all of their standard studio albums have been packaged together and made available as a set. In addition to the albums and their extras the set comes with a specially designed 40th Anniversary Storm Thorgersonposter featuring 40 Floyd images.

Oh By the Way contains:

• THE PIPER AT THE GATES OF DAWN (Single wallet) August 1967
• A SAUCERFUL OF SECRETS (Single wallet) July 1968
• MORE (Single wallet) June 1969
• UMMAGUMMA (Gatefold 2 discs) November 1969
• ATOM HEART MOTHER (Gatefold) October 1970
• MEDDLE (Gatefold) November 1971
• OBSCURED BY CLOUDS (Single wallet rounded corners) June 1972
• THE DARK SIDE OF THE MOON(Gatefold + 2 posters + 2 stickers) March 1973
• WISH YOU WERE HERE (Single + liner + postcard + black shrinkwrap) September 1975
• ANIMALS (Gatefold) February 1977
• THE WALL (Gatefold 2 discs) December 1979
• THE FINAL CUT (Single wallet) April 1983
• A MOMENTARY LAPSE OF REASON (Gatefold) September 1987
• DIVISION BELL (Gatefold) April 1994

Many of these 14 Pink Floyd albums regularly appear in the ‘Greatest’ lists of all time. They represent a body of artistic work which captured the imagination of fans across the globe.

Oh By The Way will be a must for the legion of Pink Floyd fans worldwide, who will note the careful reproduction of the original classic labels. The box set will no doubt be figuring high on the Christmas wish list of many of the new generation of Floyd fans, as the band’s musical legacy continues to exert a powerful appeal some 40 years after it played its first notes.

Wednesday 29th August: David Gilmour DVD - 'Remember That Night'

David's new DVD will be released on Monday 17th September in Europe and Tuesday 18th September in North America.

The 2 part concert on Disc 1 features the full live performance of Gilmour's Platinum album On An Island, mixed with Classic Pink Floyd, performed by Gilmour's band that includes Richard Wright, Roxy Music's Phil Manzanera, Crosby & Nash, Dick Parry, and Pink Floyd regulars Guy Pratt and John Carin.

Other Guest performers in the show include David Bowie on Arnold Layne and Comfortably Numb, Robert Wyatt on Then I Close My Eyes, and the aforementioned Crosby & Nash on an incredibly emotional pared-down version of Shine On You Crazy Diamond, amongst others.

Disc 2 features some amazing extras including;
- bonus tracks from other nights at the RAH not included on the main concert disc,
- live performances from The Mermaid Theatre and Abbey Rd,
- 3 documentaries: behind the scenes on tour, the making of the album, playing in California,
- 2 promo videos,
- photo gallery,
- Island Jam 2007, a new recording of the track streamed for a day on DG.Com last Christmas and previously unrelease,
- and more!

The concert was shot in High Definition on 23 cameras by award-winning director David Mallet, with sound in stereo 2.0, and 5.1 surround sound.

Remember That Night is now available on Amazon

Monday 27th August: Special Edition of Pink Floyd’s ‘The Piper at the Gates of Dawn’ Featuring Three Previously Unreleased Tracks Now Released on 3 September 2007 in UK*

* Please note for our US readers - the 2CD package will now be released on September 4th & the 3CD edition on September 11th.

While searching the EMI and Abbey Rd archives for the original master tapes to be used in this release, it became clear that the producers had unearthed some previously unreleased versions of tracks from the 'Piper' sessions. In order to allow thee rare and previously unreleased new versions to be included on this special anniversary edition, it has been necessary to move the album release date back 1 week.

As previously reported the 40th anniversary release is newly remastered by James Guthrie from the original recordings, with Discs 1 and 2 containing the full 'Piper' album, represented in both stereo and mono versions. Disc 3 includes bonus tracks, including the following: all the Pink Floyd singles from 1967, ('Arnold Layne', 'See Emily Play', and 'Apples And Oranges'), plus the B-sides 'Candy And A Current Bun' and 'Paintbox' as well as previously unissued versions of 'Matilda Mother', 'Apples And Oranges' (1967 stereo version) and two rare edits of 'Interstellar Overdrive', one previously only available on an EP in France (French Edit) and take six of the track from the original recording sessions discovered in the EMI archive.

When the re-mastering of this groundbreaking album started to come together, a collector loaned EMI a copy of the original French EP, much to the surprise of Guthrie it was a different version of 'Interstellar Overdrive' to what had been supplied from the EMI archive...

James Guthrie explains "Whereas the French release used the same take as that later used on the album albeit in a shortened and pre-overdubbed form, this version was more structured and clearly not from the same take. The tape box information was emphatic this was the French edit. The 40 year old job files were pulled and only confirmed the same information listed on the tape box."

Following investigation into the reason behind this, it was discovered that this version was an unreleased mix from take six of the original session, it also materialised that a different version of 'Matilda Mother' had been recorded - it had the same backing track as the album version, but the verse vocal and lyrics are different.

The Piper at the Gates of Dawn is now available on Amazon