Pink Floyd have debuted the first of a four-part series of podcasts with David Gilmour in conversation with BBC Radio’s Matt Everitt ahead of the release of the Pink Floyd The Later Years box set.
The Later Years combines all of the post-Roger Waters Pink Floyd recordings with previously unreleased live recordings and outtakes from ‘A Momentary Lapse of Reason’ and ‘The Division Bell’.
In episode one Gilmour talks about the departure of Roger Waters and the faults he hears now in the first non-Waters album ‘A Momentary Lapse of Reason’. ‘It’s a difficult thing to discuss. It is a painful thing for all of us to discuss. Roger’s departure had damaged people. I talked about it at the time. Its very tricky,” Gilmour tells Everitt.
About the album he says, “We got to Los Angeles and pretty up to that moment we had used clicktracks and drum machines. We started in Los Angeles by adding drums to these tracks and it was really coming together. We had the good songs, we had ‘Learning to Fly’, ‘On The Turning Away’, ‘Sorrow’, for me those were the big moments. Rick was coming in and working sometimes, Nick was there but there were difficulties”.
Gilmour, Mason and Wright were like kids in the studio with all the new toys to play with and that, David says, is where they went wrong. “The thing about the time was that there was a mass of new technology, new keyboards, synthesizers. We were keen to make a record that was of its time. We embraced the new technology with enthusiasm. That was a fashion and fashions go out of fashion. I think in the years after ‘Momentary Lapse Of Reason’ there were times when I felt we hadn’t followed the timeless template that we should have done at that time. I think we wanted to go back, temper down some of those things, replace some of those jangly keyboards with nicer Hammond organ. That’s what we’ve been doing in the recent past. We got Nick to come and play the drums on every track. We found old takes of Rick playing Hammond organ which for some reason we didn’t use at the time. We had a clear idea of what we were doing and how we wanted it to sound but years later you realize that it was the 80s”.
Listen to Episode one of the Pink Floyd podcast.
*THE LATER YEARS* Included on ‘The Later Years’, a 16-disc box set (5xCDs, 6xBlu-Rays, 5xDVDs) covering the material created by David Gilmour, Nick Mason and Richard Wright from 1987 onwards, with unreleased audio and audiovisual material, including the 1989 Venice and 1990 Knebworth concerts, as well as updated, restored and remixed audio and video, 2 x 7” singles, 60-page hardback Photo Book, 40-page hardback Credits Book, Lyrics Book, 3 x reproduction tour programmes, card envelope containing collectible memorabilia, plus Blu-rays and DVDs in individual wallets. Release date is 13 December 2019, with a 12-track ‘Highlights’ package (2-LP or 1-CD) available on 29 November 2019.
You’ll discover music news first following Noise11 on Twitter
Comment on the news of the day, join Noise11 on Facebook
