My mom told me once that we were all born into this world with a special talent that’s unique to us. Well I’m sure glad excellence in handfarting isn’t my skill, but I can still appreciate the HandFartMaster.
This gentleman has shared his “Handmonica” talents with the world through covers posted on his YouTube channel. Let’s start with HFM’s take on Comfortably Numb by Pink Floyd…
Now how about Mumford and Sons’ oh so solemn The Cave…
Lots of musical legends are in New York City this week for tomorrow night’s 12-12-12: The Concert For Sandy Relief at MSG and NBC’s Late Night With Jimmy Fallon has snagged two of them for visits. Former Pink Floyd bassist Roger Waters will stop by 30 Rock this evening for a chat with Jimmy, while on Thursday Long Island’s own Billy Joel will sit for an interview about performing at the benefit.
Waters has appeared on Late Night multiple times including a performance of In The Flesh with Foo Fighters during the show’s Pink Floyd Week. Both guests are not to expected to perform.
After three years and 160 dates in 27 countries, Roger Waters massive The Wall tour concluded, for now at least, in front of over 75,000 fans this past Saturday at The Plains of Abraham in Canada’s Quebec City. For The Wall finale, Waters’ crew built an 800-foot version of The Wall, the biggest of the tour and nearly as huge as the one the former Pink Floyd bassist used in Germany 22 years ago to commemorate the falling of the Berlin Wall.
The Wall Tour has grossed more than $350 million since 2010 and has been seen by over 3 million people. Not only was it the highest grossing tour of 2010, it currently holds that honor for 2012. For a look at just how big the Quebec City Wall was, check out this just posted montage…
On Friday at noon, SiriusXM satellite radio will launch its newest artist-branded channel when The Pink Floyd Channel launches on Channel 27. The commercial-free Pink Floyd Channel will feature music, interviews and historic concert broadcasts from the Pink Floyd archives.
Channel 27 will host the Pink Floyd programming until Monday, May 28. Then, the channel will be available Friday, June 29 through Monday, July 9 on Sirius channel 142 and XM channel 43. Additionally, the Pink Floyd Channel will be available as a 24/7 channel online on channel 802 and through the SiriusXM Internet Radio App for smartphones and mobile devices beginning Friday, June 29 for an extended period.
In other Pink Floyd-related news, Roger Waters has announced that the final The Wall gig of 2012, and perhaps ever, will take place at Quebec City’s Fields of Abraham on July 21st. According to a report in Pollstar, “The Wall fans will see in Québec City at Fields Of Abraham July 21 will be more than two-times as large as the wall that’s been constructed before hundreds of thousands of fans since the tour launched in 2010.” Waters’ latest video blog discusses The Wall finale…
The last TBA date on Roger Waters’ The Wall initial 2012 North American Tour docket has been announced as the bassist will bring his massive production to Boston’s Fenway Park on July 1. A pre-sale will take place on February 13, while the public onsale will take place on February 20.
Our news feed heated up this morning following a report by UK’s Daily Express newspaper hinting that Pink Floyd would reform to play at this summer’s Olympics in London. The news spread like wildfire but if you read the actual article, you’ll see there’s not much to the report but conjecture.
David Gilmour – The Blog, an unofficial website for the Pink Floyd guitarist that has a strong track record when it comes to debunking or verifying rumors tweeted that fans should ignore the Olympics stories as Gilmour won’t be there. The surviving members of the band have made it clear it would take an incredible cause to bring Pink Floyd back together and reuniting for a sporting event, even the grandest sporting event, doesn’t seem in tune with those past statements.
Elsewhere, Bill Clifford and Stu Cook of Creedence Clearwater Revival shot down the possibility of a reunion with John Fogerty. Fogerty made headlines last summer when he told Rolling Stone that he was open to a reunion. According to WENN.com, Cook told Uncut Magazine, “Leopards don’t change their spots. This is just an image-polishing exercise by John. My phone certainly hasn’t rung.” Clifford added, ”It might have been a nice idea 20 years ago, but it’s too late.”
Late Night with Jimmy Fallon finished Pink Floyd Week on Friday by welcoming Pearl Jam for their version of Mother. When Eddie Vedder covers other artists, he generally doesn’t try to imitate their tone or phrasing as much as the PJ lead singer tries to add his own spin. For Mother, Vedder does seem to go for the Roger Waters vibe by singing in the same octave and style as Rog through the first few verses. Yet, as the tune went along, Eddie put his signature on The Wall classic. Instrumentally, Vedder is backed by just Stone Gossard on acoustic guitar Boom Gaspar on keys at first before the whole band comes in for a majestic climax featuring Mike McCready tearing through the guitar solo David Gilmour made famous. Take a look…
I’ll be the first to admit it – I never gave Jimmy Fallon’s talk show career much of a chance. Boy was I wrong, Fallon puts out the best late night show on a nightly basis and his master stroke was hiring former Billboard writer Jonathan Cohen to book musical acts. This week on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon has been Pink Floyd Week. On Monday, Jimmy welcomed Nick Mason and The Shins for Breathe, on Tuesday Roger Waters performed In The Flesh with the Foo Fighters and last night MGMT were augmented by Bradford Cox for the early Floyd track Lucifer Sam.
MGMT w/ Bradford Cox – Lucifer Sam
READ ON for the other Pink Floyd Week videos…
Last July Roger Waters made big news when he announced that his former Pink Floyd band mate David Gilmour would join him on stage at a The Wall gig to play and sing Comfortably Numb. Apparently tonight’s the night as Gilmour’s blog includes an entry stating that David will join Rog at the 02 Arena in London this evening.
Those hoping for future Gilmour guest spots will be disappointed to know that this is a one-off appearance…
I should also remind you that tonight is most definitely a one-off; David is not repeating his special guest performance at a later occasion, I’m sorry to disappoint those of you with fingers crossed and tickets for later shows.
We’ll be sure to share some videos and photos as they surface.
[via CoS]
UPDATE: As expected Gilmour did join Waters for Comfortably Numb. The other surviving Pink Floyd member, Nick Mason, joined Gilmour and Waters for the Outside The Wall finale. Mason joined his old mates on tambourine. READ ON for a photo and a video of Dave tearing shit up…
If you’re like us you wore out your copies of Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here, The Wall and other Pink Floyd albums in high school. On September 26 there will finally be a reason to pick up new copies of Floyd’s 14 original studio LPs as a feature-loaded set of remasters will come out that day on CDs, DVDs, Blu-ray discs, an array of digital formats, viral marketing and iPhone Apps.
The new remasters come in four different varieties - Discovery, Experience, Immersion and Vinyl. The Discovery series are for newcomers to the music of Pink Floyd as they will feature all 14 albums ”painstakingly digitally remastered” by The Wall co-producer James Guthrie in “newly crafted packaging and booklets created by the band’s long-time artwork collaborator Storm Thorgerson.” You can buy all 14 albums together in the Discovery Box Set or individually.
Unreleased material starts flying in the Experience series which features the remastered versions of Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here and The Wall, each with a bonus disc of additional material and expanded liner notes. The Dark Side set includes a previously unreleased recording of the album performed at Wembley Stadium in 1974, Wish You Were Here features outtakes and live material from that era, while The Wall’s bonus material is still to be determined.
READ ON for more on the new Pink Floyd remasters…
If it seems like a long time since Roger Waters took to his Facebook page to break the news that his old Pink Floyd band mate David Gilmour would perform at one of Waters’ The Wall Tour performances that’s because it was. Way back on July 15 Rog wrote a note mentioning that Gilmour told him ““If you do ‘To Know Him Is To Love Him’ for The Hoping Foundation Gig, I’ll come and do ‘C. Numb’ on one of your Wall shows,” which led to a guessing game about which concert the guitarist would appear at.
Gilmour never wound up sitting in with Waters last year during the North American leg of the tour, but according to a new Waters’ interview with Sky News, the sit-in we’ve all been waiting for is still on the table. ”I hear the rumours – I think it’s beginning to look now as if he’ll do one gig, he’ll do Comfortably Numb at one gig,” Waters told Sky. Funny that Rog refers to them as “rumours” considering he’s the one spreading the news. Waters is still coy as to which particular concert Gilmour will join him at.
The European leg of The Wall Tour kicks off tonight at the Mediolanium Forum in Milan and does a big circle of the continent before ending at the same venue on July 7.
[via NME, h/t @TheWeightOnline]
When Roger Waters and David Gilmour reunited for a one-off charity gig, thoughts of hopeful music fans turned to the possibility of a more substantial Pink Floyd reunion since the famously feuding pair were able to put their conflict behind them for an evening. Floyd drummer Nick Mason recently told UK’s BBC6 that the door isn’t completely shut on a Pink Floyd reunion, but that we shouldn’t be expecting a tour anytime soon.
“No one has said we will never work (together) again.”
However, that does not mean we should expect a full Pink Floyd tour anytime soon:
“I think it is very unlikely we are going to go out on tour however I live in hope we would absolutely do another Live 8 or play together for the right reasons,” the drummer told 6 Music.
[via BBC6]
Waters is just about to kick off the European leg off his The Wall tour tonight in Lisbon and we’re still waiting for the Gilmour sit-in that Rog promised on Facebook. Sadly, keyboardist Richard Wright passed away in 2008 making a full reunion of the ’70s era Floyd lineup impossible.
At a performance at Congress Theatre in Chicago on New Year’s Day, influential Rock & Roll legend Chuck Berry collapsed on stage. According to an official statement on Berry’s website, the incident was attributed to exhaustion. The 84 year-old guitar player was coming off playing two shows the night before at B.B. King’s Blues Club in New York City, and is now back home in St. Louis and resting. We here at HT want to wish Mr. Berry a speedy recovery and quick return back to the stage, which is currently scheduled for January 19 at the Blueberry Hill.
Finally, several months back we told you about Pink Floyd’s legal battle with their longtime record label EMI over the digital distribution of their albums. The seminal psych-rock act contended that the deal they had in place, which was signed in the pre-digital age, applied to downloads and stated that their “seamless” albums couldn’t be unbundled, and songs weren’t allowed to be sold as individual tracks. A UK court ruling sided with the band back in March, and now has rejected the appeal of EMI, who was claiming “the word ‘record’ in the band’s contract applied ‘to the physical thing – there is nothing to suggest it applies to online distribution’.
Roger Waters – The Wall @ MSG, November 6
All in All, You Were All Just Bricks in My Wall
We all build walls. Everybody has their bricks. The question is, just how high do we let them go? And what is the difference between having a robust set of personal defenses and being alienated, alone, and generally mad?
The bricks that built Roger Waters’ wall are things that many people can relate to: a father he lost to war and never ultimately knew, an overprotective mother who didn’t let him grow, abusive educators and a lover who seized on his vulnerabilities. But for Waters, the last straw, or rather the final set of bricks, was being adored by people he did not respect.
It was this final trigger that caused him to create his magnum opus, released in 1979, Pink Floyd’s The Wall. And 31 years on, it is safe to say that this piece of music stands shoulder to shoulder to the beloved operas of Venice and the sophisticated chamber music of Vienna.
So Ya, Thought Ya, Might Like to Go To the Show
A late-career revival of an album/tour of such epic proportions reeks of cashing in, and given the sheer number of shows, and particularly the endless add-ons to the tour, even the most dedicated Roger Waters fans had their reservations. READ ON for more on Roger Waters’ The Wall…
Roger Waters – The Wall tour kicked off last night at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto and the first reviews of the 150-minute show are positively glowing. Most of the videos on YouTube thus far are unwatchable.
Here are a few decent clips that have surfaced…
Roger Waters – Comfortably Numb
Roger Waters – One of My Turns
READ ON to be spoiled with last night’s setlist from Toronto…
