Wednesday, July 12

Happy, sad... slightly indifferent

I know: lazy, me...

First off, some happy news - in fact, very bloody happy news:

Twelve years ago - still cannot believe it's been that long - Pink Floyd performed their last tour, and I along with two mates from University found ourselves in Earl's Court, London on a dreary, wet October day, waiting for the concert to begin...

Three hours later, we made our way to the car dumbstruck; awed: Did they really play Dark Side of the Moon in it's entirety?

Words just failed to try and describe it to other people, which is why (and despite a VHS release a few years ago, along with a live CD recording) only now with a dvd release can those who were unlucky enough to go to concert fully understand how much they missed.

Mind you, the dvd was announced late last year, but the wait has definitely been worth it: picture and sound quality are beyond comparision - all future music dvd's will be compared to this. Get it, now.

Of course, you may not be a Floyd fan (!) but this dvd will convert you. :)

Now, the sad: Syd Barrett, the Floyd's founder, died yesterday - despite slipping into obscurity almost forty years ago, his input into the UK music scene was that he proved you could sing in your normal accent, and not resort to a faux US-style drawl to be "famous".

The Floyd's debut album ("Piper at the Gates of Dawn"), which Barrett mostly wrote, is poles apart from what most recognise the Floyd for, but then it typified the UK 60s scene.

It's doubtful whether they would've achieved the same level of success if Syd hadn't succumbed to far too much LSD, but the demise of their songwriter pushed Roger Waters into the role of lyrical genius, and David Gilmour likewise with the guitar, which ultimately spelt the downfall of the band has a foursome.

'Tis a pity, but we'll always have the music.

Shine on Syd. :)

And finally, and moving away from music: I updated the Pendragon site on Monday, with free PDF downloads of the four titles that are recommended for a British Fantasy Award - these will only be available up until 15th August when voting ends.

Of course, I and the authors would prefer you buy the actual finished book, and hopefully once you read the pdf then you will, but it's not has if the pdf will be available for ever...

And remember: a book is for life. :)

And can be ordered quite easily using Paypal... go on, you know you want to.

1 comment:

Mr Frictionless said...

Hello Chris. I've finally put a Pedragon facing link on our Blog, just like I said I would. Your stock is rising!

Hope books are doing well.