UNITED KINGDOM/FILE: Legendary British rock band Pink Floyd re-issue their entire catalogue as well as previously unreleased material.

Record ID: 830694

  • Title: UNITED KINGDOM/FILE: Legendary British rock band Pink Floyd re-issue their entire catalogue as well as previously unreleased material.
  • Date: 4th November 2011
  • Summary: LONDON, ENGLAND, UK (NOVEMBER 2, 2011) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) NICK MASON, ASKED WHAT HE MAY MISS IN TODAY'S MUSIC, SAYING: "I don't miss anything in terms of the ability of musicians today I mean they all play brilliantly, a lot better than we did when we started. I think what's much more of a problem is the way that music is treated these days , that's it's being devalued that it's no longer seen as being so important and that's partly because of downloading because people feel that music should be free, which is very curious really, and it's very hard for young musicians to break through and earn a living. CUTAWAY MASON TALKING TO REPORTER (SOUNDBITE) (English) NICK MASON, ASKED WHAT IT WOULD BE LIKE FOR PINK FLOYD IF THEY STARTED OUT TODAY, SAYING "I don't think we would have made it. First of all we wouldn't even have been allowed on the X-Factor. I think so much about music is about right place right time. I think we would have hardly appealed to dance tracks."
  • Embargoed: 19th November 2011 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: United Kingdom
  • Country: United Kingdom
  • Reuters ID: LVA7L9QWEPKU8NDZC33U32FQEL04
  • Story Text: It's fantastic news for all Pink Floyd fans. The band's entire catalogue, spanning almost forty years of rock music is being digitally remastered and re-released. The mammoth CD reissue programme undertaken by the iconic band is an acknowledgement that the era of physical CDs and lavish artwork is coming to an end, as fans increasingly opt to download music digitally, drummer Nick Mason said on Wednesday (November 2).
    "Time is running out for physical record sales. There is now so much downloading that this was perhaps the last chance for the people who do like to collect actual physical boxes of CDs and so on to actually do that."
    He added: "We also found that some of the material could be processed now using modern digital technology...the quality of which is acceptable, that ten years ago ... we considered releasing it ten years ago and the quality just wasn't adequate."
    Two years after the Beatles unveiled a similar programme, the British progressive rock band is reissuing digitally remastered versions of all 14 of its studio albums, both individually and as a boxed set.
    But Pink Floyd is doing something the Beatles never did, to the disappointment of Fab Four fans. Three albums will also be reissued with plenty of rarities in multi-disc versions. Revised and expanded artwork was a heavy priority for a band with a history of visual innovation.
    The band's 1973 album 'The Dark Side of the Moon,' one of the biggest selling albums of all time, will additionally come out on six- and two-disc configurations. Exact details of the contents were not available, but EMI previewed several previously unreleased tracks including a fast-tempo live version of "Money," and an early mix of "The Great Gig in the Sky" without the soaring vocals of session singer Clare Torry.
    When asked whether there was anyone album that possibly defined Pink Floyd for who they were and still are, Mason pointed towards 'The Dark Side of the Moon: "Well the problem is there isn't one defining album in a way because they define different periods of our existence. I mean I suppose if you know nothing about what we ever did or have done then 'Dark Side of the Moon' is perhaps definitive because it's been around for such a long time it's seen as being a stereo-test record as well as being interesting musically."
    Talking about today's music and whether there was anything he missed, Mason said: "I don't miss anything in terms of the ability of musicians today I mean they all play brilliantly, a lot better than we did when we started. I think what's much more of a problem is the way that music is treated these days, that's it's being devalued that it's no longer seen as being so important and that's partly because of downloading because people feel that music should be free, which is very curious really, and it's very hard for young musicians to break through and earn a living."
    He added laughing that he didn't think Pink Floyd would have made it in today's music scene had the band started off now:
    "I don't think we would have made it. First of all we wouldn't even have been allowed on the X-Factor. I think so much about music is about right place right time. I think we would have hardly appealed to dance tracks."
    At a time that sees some bands reunite, Stone Roses being the most recent example of that, Mason says he's all for that:
    "All bands are entitled to do whatever they like because at the end of the day the people who are going to make the decision are the fans. If they want to see them fantastic, if they don't then it won't work. In Stone Roses' case it looks like it absolutely works, I think everyone has an absolute right to do whatever they want to do in terms of me forming a band, starting a new band, whatever I mean when you think about how cross people get when bands split up, they absolutely have the right to reform if they wish to."
    While there are no plans for a tour -- singer/guitarist David Gilmour has firmly quashed any speculation of that over the years -- but Mason said he hoped the three surviving members might reunite for a charity performance, as they did in London in 2005. That show marked Waters' first appearance with the band since he angrily left in 1985.
    "If there is, they haven't told me yet. There's no plan to do anything. I'm an optimist, I still like the idea of being able to do something, maybe another Live 8, that sort of thing but it certainly won't happen in the near future."
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2011. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register