For BBC Music Day tomorrow (Thursday June 15th) BBC Local Radio has teamed up with the British Plaque Trust to unveil 47 historic Blue Plaques celebrating iconic musicians and venues. Amongst those to be honoured is Syd Barrett, who will have a plaque in his name unveiled outside the city's Cambridge School of Art at Anglia Ruskin University - Barrett was a student there.
Syd's plaque will be unveiled by members of his family including his sister and brothers, and will be broadcast live on BBC Radio Cambridgeshire between 12 noon and 3pm BST. There will also be a live interview with members of Syd's family on the Cambridge News Facebook page tomorrow lunchtime.
David Harvey, editor of BBC Radio Cambridgeshire, said: "Syd Barrett is one of the UK's most iconic musicians of our time. It's a real privilege to be honouring a true music legend and we're going to do it in style, with a live broadcast from Anglia Ruskin University. We'll hear from a singer-songwriter who, like Syd, studies at the School of Art and from a former band member who played with him at his last ever gig at the Corn Exchange in Cambridge.
"It will be a fantastic tribute to Cambridgeshire's 'Crazy Diamond'. There will also be musicians placed across Cambridge in key places who will play at the timed moment. It's going to be a brilliant day."
One of David Gilmour's early side projects was working with UK country rock band Unicorn. Three of the band's albums, produced by David and featuring musical contributions from him too, have just been released by Cherry Red/Esoteric in remastered and expanded editions - 'One More Tomorrow', 'Blue Pine Trees' and 'Too Many Crooks'. They come with extensive liner notes and bonus tracks.
As the following attests, the coming together of Unicorn (possibly the godfathers of the country rock genre) and David Gilmour is an interesting story...
Early in 1973 Unicorn played at the wedding reception for Transatlantic publicist Ricky Hopper. One of the guests was David Gilmour, who at the end of the evening got up and jammed with Unicorn on Neil Young's "Heart of Gold". Afterwards Gilmour told the band that he really liked Country Rock. A week later the Pink Floyd guitarist phoned the band to say that he had just installed a studio at his country retreat and asked if they wanted to demo some songs there. The band immediately accepted. A few days later they travelled up to Essex to Gilmour's estate. He showed them into the studio and said there was no need to bring any of their gear in from the van. Hanging on the walls was his collection of vintage Fender, Gibson, Rickenbacker and Martin guitars and underneath them Fender amplifiers and a Premier drum kit. They recorded three songs and David added some Fender Pedal Steel Guitar which he had just bought on his last American tour and was learning to play. They were invited back on several occasions to record.
"Unicorn were playing at the wedding reception of an old friend of mine, Rick Hopper," related David Gilmour, "when I first saw them and while I was impressed by their vocal harmonies, their tightness and the fact that it was the drummer that sang the lead vocals, it was the songs themselves that I liked the best. Ken Baker's songs, while firmly seated in the American country rock genre had a very original and unusual wry English feel in the stories he told. The one that really made me notice was 'Sleep Song', about a trip to the dentist. Not a common subject for the popular song. Largely on the strength of this I invited them to my tiny home studio in Essex to record some demos. This was the start of an association that was to cover two and a half albums over the next couple of years."
Starting this coming Friday evening, June 16th, is a special V&A Pink Floyd Weekender, three days of special events, music and performance taking place across the Museum, to celebrate The Pink Floyd Exhibition: Their Mortal Remains.
There are still some events to be announced, including face painting, pop up performance, film screenings and hands-on workshops, but from those already announced, there's everything from relaxing music in the museum cafe, guitar workshops, and a fascinating sounding study day with participation from the likes of Nick Mason and Peter Wynne Willson!
Most of the events are free and drop in sessions, although a few need booking ahead. For more details of all the events, download the programme here.
The Floyd at 50 study day runs from 11am on Saturday, through to 5pm. Join the V&A to explore the music, design and staging of Pink Floyd. You'll get to meet key collaborators and passionate advocates as they celebrate half a century in the music business. Book now through this link.
This morning in the US, Roger appeared on the CBS show "Sunday Morning", discussing the new tour, which he notes is bigger and even more technically complex, and is likely to be his last. "I would think so, yeah. I can't imagine I'll ever do another one after this, but I'm going for it. I mean, I'm going all over the world with this thing."
The interview delves into his time with Pink Floyd, and is an interesting piece. You can watch it below. "Sunday Morning" also streams on CBSN beginning at 9:30am ET, and is available on cbs.com, CBS All Access, and On Demand. You can also listen to "Sunday Morning" audio podcasts at Play.it.
Tomorrow morning in the US, Roger will be appearing on the CBS show "Sunday Morning" which airs at 9am ET including at cbssundaymorning.com. "Sunday Morning" also streams on CBSN beginning at 9:30am ET, and is available on cbs.com, CBS All Access, and On Demand. You can also listen to "Sunday Morning" audio podcasts at Play.it.
In the interview, Roger discusses the new tour, which he notes is bigger and even more technically complex, and is likely to be his last. "I would think so, yeah. I can't imagine I'll ever do another one after this, but I'm going for it. I mean, I'm going all over the world with this thing."
To underline his keenness for the tour, and heavy demand, he has just added a further six dates to the North American tour, bringing the tally up to 61. This includes third shows in Chicago, Philadelphia and Toronto; second shows in Washington and Vancouver; and a new show in Buffalo. Tickets are on sale June 9th, through the main ticketing outlets of Ticketmaster.com for the US shows, Ticketmaster.ca for the Canadian shows, or AXS.com for selected US and Canadian shows. The exception is tickets for the newly announced Buffalo show, which are through Tickets.com. Using our links also helps toward the ongoing running costs of this site, and is appreciated! And as with the whole of the 2017 Roger Waters Us + Them tour, we've set up dedicated show pages for each of the below, with more details and ticketing links.
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