Just released is a new CD and DVD set, "Smoke On The Water - The Metropolis Sessions" which should be of great interest to David Gilmour fans. This is a special package released for the 21st anniversary of Rock Aid Armenia's "Smoke On The Water", which was released as a single in 1989, followed in 1990 by "The Earthquake Album", a compilation CD featuring a 1990 remix of Smoke On The Water recorded in 1989, plus 14 other titles from famous prog and hard rock bands (Free, Rush, Rainbow, Black Sabbath, Genesis, Yes, ELP, Whitesnake, Asia, Starship, Foreigner, Iron Maiden, Deep Purple and Mike And The Mechanics). In addition to the various mixes included on this new edition are some very interesting video features...

As you may know, David Gilmour participated to the 1989 recording sessions of Smoke On The Water (actually, he was the first artist to be contacted by Rock Aid Armenia founder Jon Dee, and he immediately agreed to participate and gave permission to use his name).

This new edition is housed in a fold-out digipack with an introduction by Jon Dee, talking of the reasons behind the reissue of this project. Called, at the time of the original release "the greatest array of hard rock talent ever assembled", the project is still raising money for Armenia, still affected by the 1988 earthquake, and the money from this release will go towards rebuilding the children's music school in Gyumri, which is still in ruins some 22 years later.

The CD is actually a 4-track CD:

1. Smoke On The Water (2010 Wermut & Dee Remix) 04:21
2. Smoke On The Water (1989 Original Mix) 05:53 (this is the full length version from the 1989 single, where it was called "extended mix")
3. Smoke On The Water (1990 Radio Mix) 04:06 (the version from "The Earthquake Album")
4. Smoke On The Water (1989 Ian Gillan vocal session) 04:40 (taken from "The Making Of Smoke On The Water" TV documentary)

The bonus DVD is arguably the most interesting part of the package, since it contains the 40 minute documentary "The Making Of Smoke On The Water" in original 4:3vformat, released for the first time on DVD (until now it was only available on VHS and Japanese Laserdisc with Japanese sub-titles). There are plenty of shots of Gilmour, especially during the session he did with Brian May. There is also the 6 minute promo video (EPK) featuring extracts from the documentary and the full song.

For those who want to explore this project further, there's a very interesting website documenting the sessions (photographs, studio banter, explanation of the sessions day by day) and explaining the project. This can be found at www.rockaidarmenia.com.

ORDERING INFORMATION
To order this release, which will result in aid going towards the project to rebuild the school in Armenia, you can use the following direct links: Amazon UK, Amazon.com, Amazon Canada, Amazon Germany, Amazon Italy and Amazon France. You can also order it from Play.com, HMV.com, and Zavvi.com.

Our thanks to Kees Nijpels and Marc-Olivier Becks for their help and information regarding this project, and to Jon Dee himself for his help and support.

Finally, here's a video clip to give you a flavour of this: