Mark Blake draws on his own interviews with band members as well as the group's friends, road crew, musical contemporaries, former housemates, and university colleagues to produce a history of one of the biggest rock bands of all time. We follow Pink Floyd from the early psychedelic nights at UFO, to the stadium-rock and concept-album zenith of the seventies, to the acrimonious schisms of the late '80s and '90s.
The definitive history of Pink Floyd by founding member Nick Mason, this reading edition brings up-to-date the band's incredible story as told uniquely from the inside out. Including the complete text of the original in an easy-toread format, a new chapter covering the passing of Rick Wright and the release of the group's final album, and 80 pages of images from Mason's archives plus new photos, Inside Out is a masterly rock memoir and an eye opener for both veteran fans and those just discovering the group.
To some, he is the face behind classic Pink Floyd. To others, he is the temperament behind some of the greatest albums of the rock era. And to others still, he is one of the most original songwriters of a generation that overflows with notable talent. To all, he is an enigma: a rock star who not only eschewed stardom but also spent much of his career railing against it. But to call Roger Waters a mass of contradictions is simply taking the easy way out. He is so much more than that. Roger Waters: The Man Behind the Wall is the first full biography of the author of The Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here, and, of course, The Wall. It traces his life from war-torn suburbia to the multitude of wars he has fought since then – with his bandmates, with his audience, and most of all with himself. Packed with insight and exclusive interviews with friends and associates, Roger Waters: The Man Behind the Wall dismantles the wall brick by brick, revealing the man who built it in all his glory.
Interest in Pink Floyd remains as intense as ever even 40 years after the release of Dark Side of the Moon, with lavish box-sets collecting demos and out-takes, and Roger Waters’ world tours of The Wall playing to packed stadiums. Now, Mark Blake’s superbly comprehensive and engrossing history of the group, rightly acclaimed as the definitive book on the band, has been fully revised and extended with new interviews to bring the story up to date with the recent appearances of David Gilmour and Nick Mason with Roger Waters at a London date on his The Wall tour.
A comprehensive look at the unique recording history of Pink Floyd, one of the world's most commercially successful and influential rock bands. Pink Floyd All the Songs tells the full story of every recording session, album, and single that the band has released. Since 1965, Pink Floyd been recording sonically experimental and philosophical music, selling more than 250 million records worldwide, including two of the best-selling albums of all time Dark Side of the Moon and The Wall. In Pink Floyd All the Songs, authors Margotin and Guesdon describe the origins of the band's nearly 200 released songs, including details from the recording studio, what instruments were used, and behind-the-scenes stories of the tensions that helped drive the band. Organized chronologically by album, this massive, 544-page hardcover begins with the band's 1967 debut album The Piper at the Gates of Dawn—the only one recorded under founding member Syd Barrett's leadership—and runs all the way through their 2014 farewell album, The Endless River, which was downloaded 12 million times on Spotify during its first week of release. Packed with more than 500 photos, Pink Floyd All the Songs is also filled with stories that fans will treasure, such as Waters working with engineer Alan Parsons to implement revolutionary recording techniques on The Dark Side of the Moon during sessions at Abbey Road Studios in 1972, and producer Bob Ezrin's contributions that helped refine Waters' original sprawling vision for The Wall.
A revealing investigation into the life of a reclusive cult genius. Syd Barrett was Pink Floyd's founder, singer, guitarist and principal composer, who left the group in 1968 amidst tales of acid-induced madness. Barrett's brief flash of erratic brilliance is now the stuff of rock legend, and his post-Floyd recordings have become cult classics. Revised in 2006, this book draws on years on research to relate the story of an epic rock tragedy.
From gigs in tiny church halls in the mid-sixties to multimillion-selling albums and spectacular stadium shows all around the world, the Pink Floyd story is a pop legend. Pink Floyd: In the Flesh combines, for the first time, a detailed listing of every single Pink Floyd show with a biographical account of the band's collective and individual careers. Illustrated throughout with scores of previously unpublished photographs and a wealth of rare graphic memorabilia, including posters, advertisements, handbills and tickets from every era of the band's remarkable thirty-year history.
“I don't think I'm easy to talk about. I've got a very irregular head. And I'm not anything that you think I am anyway.”—Syd Barrett’s last interview, Rolling Stone, 1971 Roger Keith “Syd” Barrett (1946–2006) was, by all accounts, the very definition of a golden boy. Blessed with good looks and a natural aptitude for painting and music, he was a charismatic, elfin child beloved by all, who fast became a teenage leader in Cambridge, England, where a burgeoning bohemian scene was flourishing in the early 1960s. Along with three friends and collaborators—Roger Waters, Richard Wright, and Nick Mason—he formed what would soon become Pink Floyd, and rock ’n’ roll was never the same. Starting as a typical British cover band aping approximations of American rhythm ’n’ blues, they soon pioneered an entirely new sound, and British psychedelic rock was born. With early, trippy, Barrett-penned pop hits such as “Arnold Layne” (about a clothesline-thieving cross-dresser) and “See Emily Play” (written specifically for the epochal “Games For May” concert), Pink Floyd, with Syd Barrett as their main creative visionary, captured the zeitgeist of “Swinging” London in all its Technicolor glory. But there was a dark side to all this new-found freedom. Barrett, like so many around him, began ingesting large quantities of a revolutionary new drug, LSD, and his already-fragile mental state—coupled with a personality inherently unsuited to the life of a pop star—began to unravel. The once bright-eyed lad was quickly replaced, seemingly overnight, by a glowering, sinister, dead-eyed shadow of his former self, given to erratic, highly eccentric, reclusive, and sometimes violent behavior. Inevitably sacked from the band, Barrett retreated from London to his mother’s house in Cambridge, where he would remain until his death, only rarely seen or heard, further fueling the mystery. In the meantime, Pink Floyd emerged from the underground to become one of the biggest international rock bands of all time, releasing multi-platinum albums, many that dealt thematically with the loss of their friend Syd Barrett: The Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here, and The Wall are all, on many levels, about him. In A Very Irregular Head, journalist Rob Chapman lifts the veil of secrecy that has surrounded the legend of Syd Barrett for nearly four decades, drawing on exclusive access to family, friends, archives, journals, letters, and artwork to create the definitive portrait of a brilliant and tragic artist. Besides capturing all the promise of Barrett’s youthful years, Chapman challenges the oft-held notion that Barrett was a hopelessly lost recluse in his later years, and creates a portrait of a true British eccentric who is rightfully placed within a rich literary lineage that stretches through Kenneth Graham, Hilaire Belloc, Edward Lear, Lewis Carroll, John Lennon, David Bowie, and on up to the pioneers of Britpop. A tragic, affectionate, and compelling portrait of a singular artist, A Very Irregular Head will stand as the authoritative word on this very English genius for years to come.
Fun Facts & Trivia Questions! - Special Launch Price Pink Floyd's music has resonated with listeners of all ages on a deep personal level for more than half a century. They were one of the most prominent British rock bands to achieve worldwide fame after the initial "British Invasion" led by The Beatles and The Rolling Stones in the early 1960s. Founded in 1965, the band reached the height of its popularity and influence in the 1970s and early '80s. Pink Floyd is one of the most commercially successful bands of all time, with an estimated 250 million albums sold, and the band remains highly influential among fellow musicians. To help you connect, or perhaps reconnect, with the lives, music, and legacy of this fascinating band, interesting facts and historical moments are highlighted in this book, Pink Floyd Trivia Book. We will cover the history of Pink Floyd, beginning with the origins of the band, through changes in personnel and musical philosophy, up to their influence and reputation today. A series of multiple choice and true/false questions opens each chapter, with the corresponding answers on the following page. The "Did You Know?" section consists of interesting facts and stories, which close each chapter so that you can develop a stronger understanding of the life and music of Pink Floyd. Use this book to test your knowledge with a round of trivia questions and perhaps review or gain information along the way. Whether you consider yourself a die-hard fan or are only faintly familiar with Pink Floyd, this book offers the opportunity to reinforce your knowledge of one of the most innovative and influential bands in the history of popular music. Let's see how much you know about Pink Floyd! Get yours today.
The legendary frontman of Judas Priest, one of the most successful heavy metal bands of all time, celebrates five decades of heavy metal in this tell-all memoir. Most priests hear confessions. This one is making his. Rob Halford, front man of global iconic metal band Judas Priest, is a true "Metal God." Raised in Britain's hard-working, heavy industrial heartland, he and his music were forged in the Black Country. Confess, his full autobiography, is an unforgettable rock 'n' roll story-a journey from a Walsall council estate to musical fame via alcoholism, addiction, police cells, ill-fated sexual trysts, and bleak personal tragedy, through to rehab, coming out, redemption . . . and finding love. Now, he is telling his gospel truth. Told with Halford's trademark self-deprecating, deadpan Black Country humor, Confess is the story of an extraordinary five decades in the music industry. It is also the tale of unlikely encounters with everybody from Superman to Andy Warhol, Madonna, Jack Nicholson, and the Queen. More than anything else, it's a celebration of the fire and power of heavy metal. Rob Halford has decided to Confess. Because it's good for the soul. Named one of the Best Music Books of 2020 by Rolling Stone and Kirkus Reviews
