STACK Magazine November Issue 121

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NOVEMBER 2014 JB Hi-Fi
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EXTRAS NEWS
P ink Floyd have
been through many
incarnations in the last
50 years. Co-founder and main
songwriter Syd Barrett, who
died in 2006, left the band in
1968. Later on, RogerWaters –
who led the band through their
’70s heyday and classics like
Dark Side of the Moon, Wish
YouWere Here andTheWall
– left, quite acrimoniously, in
1985. After the remaining
members toured the world and
released A Momentary Lapse of
Reason (1987) and The Division
Bell (1994), things went quiet.
Barring a reunion withWaters
for Live 8 in 2005, and a brief
appearance at a Syd Barrett
tribute in 2007, Pink Floyd
have not played live or
released a studio album in
20 years. After the death of
keyboardist RichardWright
in 2008, and the refusal of
several lucrative tour offers,
Pink Floyd had long been
assumed to have finished up.
But, in typically enigmatic style,
guitarist David Gilmour and
drummer Nick Mason of Pink
Floyd have been working
furtively on a largely
instrumental project dubbed
The Endless River. However,
Gilmour confirmed that this
really will be the final studio
album, telling the BBC
“It’s a shame, but this is the
end” last month.While the
album doesn’t feature any
contribution fromWaters
(who issued a rather grumpy
edict about it on Facebook
recently), it includes a vocal
contribution from legendary UK
physicist Stephen Hawking, on
Talkin’ Hawkin’. Tellingly, the
new album however, does
include music written by late
keyboardistWright. Gilmour and
Mason have dug up several
pieces of instrumental music
featuring their late colleague,
and added to it over the last
12 months. Over 20 hours
from 1994’s Division Bell project
have had parts added, edited or
reworked, although some of the
Wright-related material dates all
the way back to 1969.The
four-sided album is entirely
instrumental, barring one track
entitled LouderThanWords,
with lyrics written by Gilmour’s
wife Polly Samson. Pink Floyd
have always been noted for their
visual imagery. However,
Hipgnosis designer Storm
Thorgerson passed away
in 2013, so this new image
(below) was created
by 18-year-old digital artist
Ahmed Emad Eldin, after it
was discovered by Aubrey
‘Po’ Powell,Thorgerson’s
original partner in Hipgnosis.
FLoyd’s River ends
Rowland s. howard
Six Strings
that drew blood
“I’ve been contemplating suicide, but it really
doesn’t suit my style.”Walking a tightrope
between teenaged nihilist and droll underworld
dandy, Rowland S. Howard made some entrance
back in 1977. Given the melodramatic flourish of
Nick Cave, Shivers would become an underground
classic as theYoung Charlatans’ guitarist fell into a
distinguished company that would soon be called
The Birthday Party.That was just the beginning of a
tortuous road that this lovingly selected double-disc
anthology describes, from key roles with Crime and
the City Solution and Nikki Sudden, to control of his
own destiny at last inThese Immortal Souls, then
two classic solo albums that preceded his premature
death in late 2009.To say the least, there’s quite
a historic narrative between the near-comical new
wave bleat and stab of the Boys Next Door’s After
a Fashion and Howard’s sweetly doom-laden
duet with Adalita on Magic Dirt’s 2009 swansong,
Summer High. An earlier duet with Lydia Lunch,
Lee Hazelwood’s Some Velvet Morning, is also
included here in all its dark and twisted magic.
The revelation for most is likely to be the grinding
and clamouring brilliance ofThese Immortal
Souls, the late ‘80s/ early ‘90s band that focused
Howard’s energies so spectacularly, whether in
the exhilarating crash of Insomnicide or the slow-
spiralling dissolution of Black Milk. But the lion’s
share of the compilation, and of the glory, lies in the
last ten-song stretch of tunes from Teenage Snuff
Film and Pop Crimes – two albums of high drama
and magnificent noise that find him at the height of
his powers as a unique singer/guitarist, wry romantic
and apocalyptic visionary. A 36-page booklet of
photos, doodles and handwritten gags and musings
complete a vivid portrait of a talent that will probably
be remembered in the shorthand of history as
“wasted”.These couple of score songs, at least,
beg to differ. Michael Dwyer
(Liberation/Universal)
The Endless River by Pink Floyd
is out now on Sony Music.
Pink Floyd’s
David Gilmour
(left) and Nick
Mason (right).
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