A Great Day For Freedom
In April 2022, Pink Floyd announced they were releasing their first new music since 1994’s The Division Bell. The single, Hey Hey, Rise Up!, saw David Gilmour and Nick Mason reuniting to raise money for Ukraine Humanitarian Relief. But was the regrouping – which also included bassist Guy Pratt and Nitin Sawhney with a special guest appearance from BoomBox’s Andriy Khlyvnyuk – the shape of things to come? Or a one-off? Prog looks at one of this year’s biggest surprises.
Words: Daryl Easlea Images: Sarah Lee
Rising up.
L-R: Nitin Sawhney, David Gilmour, Guy Pratt, Nick Mason.
“I wouldn’t do this with many more things, but it’s so vitally, vitally important that people understand what’s going on [in Ukraine] and do everything within their power to change that situation.”
David Gilmour
In the very first Prog magazine, published in 2009, this writer was asked to “gaze into his crystal ball to see what the future holds for Floyd fans the world over”. The article, titled The Final Cut?, concluded with the summation that Pink Floyd’s “ownership of rock’s mystical high ground is forever assured… Their music still throws shapes and curves, hidden alleyways for an inquisitive mind to wander… With Pink Floyd, as with The Beatles, there will always be a considerable amount of interest in and scrutiny of what David Gilmour, Roger Waters and Nick Mason do… Whatever happens, Pink Floyd’s legend grows ever more mythical.”
In the intervening years, more mythical they became. Aside from the sundry reissues, exhibitions and solo albums, few would have foreseen a ‘new’ Pink Floyd album in 2014. The Endless River was a mixture of offcuts from The Division Bell and new material as a tribute to Richard Wright, very much a final word from the group. The praise for Mason’s drumming on that album, so often hidden in plain sight, brought about the unforeseen plot twist: he was to lead his own Pink Floyd, Nick Mason’s Saucerful Of Secrets, with Gary Kemp from Spandau Ballet and longtime Floyd bassist Guy Pratt, plus Lee Harris and Dom Beken. This seemed to underline that, as a collective, Pink Floyd had screamed their last scream.