Pink Floyd In The Studio New Documentary

Another story that has no direct relevance to the product of the Gonzo Multimedia group of families. However, various Pink Floyd alumni have played on various Gonzo records (for example David Gilmour on the recentTom Newman double CD), and I suspect that practically everyone who reads the Gonzo Daily, will be interested in this Pink Floyd story courtesy of those jolly nice people at 'Neptune Pink Floyd'.

The Excellent In The Studio series of radio documentaries has a new program to celebrate Pink Floyd's A Momentary Lapse of Reason 25th Anniversary.

A Momentary Lapse of Reason was the bands 13th studio album and the first to be released by Pink Floyd after the departure of bassist and principal songwriter Roger Waters. The album is not critically acclaimed, nor is it a favourite with fans. However, it does have some nuggets on and featured heavily on Pink Floyd's Pulse tour.

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PINK FLOYD DRUMMER AT OLYMPICS CLOSING

I have been resisting the temptation to do any Olympic-themed postings over the last few weeks. This is partly because I find the excess of the whole thing expensive, and the fact that in a country where people are having their Disability Benefits slashed we can spend £27 million on the opening ceremony alone is highly distasteful and smacks of bread and circuses. However, there are some interesting proggy themed links to the whole affair, and now it is all over I feel happier about writing about it.

Pink Floyd's drummer Nick Mason performed Wish You Were Here at the Olympics Closing Ceremony with pop star Ed Sheeran. Although there was no appearance from David Gilmour or Roger Waters, the "Burning Man" was recreated from the Wish You Were Here album cover and the band were made complete by Mike Rutherford from Genesis and Richard Jones from The Feeling.

Many thanks to those jolly nice chaps at Neptune Pink Floyd for the picture and link:

Read on...

HOW IT ALL BEGAN

My name is Jon, and its been, ummm 38 years since I first heard the sort of music I now write about every day. It was the autumn of 1973 when I spent a weekend at my friend Tim's house. His elder brother who had a moped, sideburns and a blonde girlfriend called Christine who looked a bit like a goldfishk, played us this weird record called The Dark Side of the Moon and neither me or Tim had ever heard anything like it before. But it blew me away, and I realised for the firtst time that there was life outside the top 20.

Then the next spring one of the older boys on the school bus gave me a copy of something called The New Musical Express and I read it avidly from cover to cover. The nextr week I bought my own copy, and soon I was reading all of the music papers each week. Then one day in the summer term I read in the pages of the NME that a band called Gong were selling an album for 49p. Gosh I thought, and I went and bought it.

I had no idea what it was going to sound like. I vaguely thought that it might sound a bit like a Deep Purple album that someone had taped for me, and was totally confused by it when it didn't. But it was the only LP I owned and I had spent several weeks pocket money on it, so I persevered and grew to love it. And so, my life was changed for good.

Cos it was through my love of Gong that I met Rob Ayling in 1988, and if I hadn't met him and spent the next twenty years blagging free CDs off him until he finally decided that it would be better if he gave me a job, then I wouldn't be here now, and my world at least would be an entirely different thing.

Thank you for letting me share that...

TROY DONOCKLEY: Nightwish's Uilleann Pipes Virtuoso Troy Donockley Releases New Compilation CD 'Messages'

3/19/2012 - London, UK - Troy Donockley has built up a formidable reputation as both a composer/arranger and as a multi-instrumental musician/performer. He is a leading virtuoso of the Uilleann Pipes (and the Low Whistle) and has performed and is known all over the world. His music, which has been described as “A peculiar brand of epic classical-folk-progressive fusion”, can be heard in TV, media and movies (such as 'Robin Hood' and 'Ironclad') and through various commissions. Troy co-founded the BBC Award Nominated band The Bad Shepherds and as a producer/musician has recorded and toured with various artists such as Nightwish, Maddy Prior, Barbara Dickson, Maire Brennan (Clannad), Midge Ure, Iona, Roy Harper, Lesley Garrett, Status Quo, Del Amitri, Alan Stivell, Mostly Autumn and many, many more.

Troy's first album 'The Unseen Stream' released in 1998 was critically acclaimed globally for its unique fusion of traditional/classical forms. His second album 'The Pursuit of Illusion' (2003) continued to push the boundaries with a highly individual blend of the English classical and Irish folk traditions. And then, onto the latest album 'The Madness of Crowds'...featuring a large cast of brilliant musicians it goes even further than before in the quest to make the most emotional and uncommercially driven music possible. If any modern music can shake off the ravages of fashion and hark back to a time when music was created and listened to as Art rather than as commodity and accessory, then by definition this does precisely that...the essence of that 'lost world'. “I have a massive range of influences,” says Troy. “From Pink Floyd to Mahler, Johnny Cash to Vangelis, Planxty to YES, and Vaughn Williams to Neil Young”.

And now, particularly for the uninitiated, a compilation of Troy's work 'Messages – A Collection of Music From 1997-2011' is available from Gonzo MultiMedia, UK. “I have been asked many times to put together a good overview of my work and so here we are,” says Troy about 'Messages'. “All the tracks are from my previous three solo albums, but there are two new and unreleased pieces, both of which I am very proud.”

In other news, Troy just begun a year-long world tour with Nightwish, although has some 'Grand ideas' in the pipeline for his next solo project. Lastly, Troy has this to impart to his listeners: “I really hope you enjoy the two new pieces on 'Messages'. Do try and listen in a darkened room, with headphones – just like you did when you were a kid.”

For more information visit http://www.troydonockley.co.uk/

To purchase Troy Donockley – 'Messages' CD
http://www.gonzomultimedia.co.uk/product_details/15429/Troy_Donockley-Messsages.html

PS: For you Nightwish fans like my wife and younger step-daughter, here is the man himself playing alongside them:

A TOTALLY FEEBLE EXCUSE FOR POSTING: Dave Gilmour on stage last week

I like this job. I wanted to post these two clips of Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour on stage last week at a party to celebrate the 'virtual' 60th birthday of Douglas Adams, author of The Hitch-hikers Guide to the Galaxy but I couldn't think of an excuse. Neither Gilmour or Pink FloydProcul harum are Gonzo artistes. So I wrote to Gonzo head honcho Rob Ayling who has been a mate of mine for about 25 years. Several days later he replied:



"Dave Gilmour guests on the Tom Newman / Pete Gibson album....'join together' "



So that's alright then. Thanks Rob...

REVIEW: 'All the Madmen' by Clinton Heylin

As the more observant of you all will have noticed, whereas there are exceptions to the rule (the ever lovely Mimi Page being an obvious one) a lot of the music that Gonzo Multimedia puts out is from the sixties and seventies, which were somewhat of a golden age in British music.
So I felt justified in getting hold of a copy of Clinton Heylin's new book, because OK, Syd Barrett, Pink Floyd, The Kinks, The Who and Nick Drake are not actually Gonzo recording artistes, but they are very much part of the artistic milieu that Gonzo covers. The book covers - broadly - the links between mental illness and creativity in a disparate bunch of classic British recording artistes. And that is where the problem with this book lies; the artistes in question are too blasted disparate.

Not that this is a bad book. It isn't. I am a great fan of Clinton's writing (Great White Wonders - his book about the history of bootlegs, is probably my favourite), and I don't actually think he is capable of writing a bad book. This book is excellently researched and very well written, and I enjoyed it immensely. Then why, I hear you all ask, am I complaining about it?

I'm not complaining exactly, but I do have a problem. I'm not sure what the purpose of this book is. It tells some fascinating stories, and furthermore it tells them in an engaging fashion; one that kept me happily entertained for a couple of days when - in between doing more onerous tasks - I curled up in my favourite chair with the cat on my knee, sipped tea, and read. At the end of it, I look back at what I have read and I realise that - for me at least - there was no real conclusion. I learned stuff I dodn't know before about some of my favourite artistes, but at the end of the day, there was no great a-ha moment to tie it all together. I wanted to put the book down with a big sigh, and the thought that I had finally got my head around one of life's great truisms. But I didn't.

I finished the book, finished my tea, scratched the cat behind his ears, thought "well, that's it I guess", and came in to write this review. Sadly, when it comes to an author of Heylin's calibre, that is no longer enough...

But then again, like so many of the artistes whose stories are recounted within, I am bi-polar, and perhaps, like Nick Drake, David Bowie, Ray Davies etc I am never satisfied...