Blue Light

http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/PFArchives/blulight.htm

David Gimour released a new album! in 1983 the Pink Floyd released an album titled "The Final Cut" which for all Pink Floyd's fans was outstanding. In the article "Is a Blue Light the Next Shade of Pink?" the author Vernon Fitch writes about the new Gilmour's solo album "About Face." This article was published in the Amazing Pudding Magazine, issue #12, in 1985. Vernon Says that nobody expected Gilmour to come up with a new LP, because the Pink Floyd had just released "The Final Cut."

After Rick Wright left the Pink Floyd, there were some rumors that possibly Eric Clapton would join the band, of course for many people, this was too good to be true. I personally think that David Gilmour is much better guitarist than Clapton, but it is only my personal opinion. Besides, it is how the author says: "David Gilmour was as much responsible for Pink Floyd's sound as anyone." He was indeed, a great contributor to the band's song's lyrics. And Vernon is definitely right, there could be no Pink Floyd without David Gilmour.

David is a very hard worker person, and he just couldn't wait to come up with a new album. The author says that he couldn't wait either to go and buy it for himself. So he got an extended mix pre-release sampler from the album. And for his surprise he didn't like it, at all! But it wasn't the guitar work, because we all know that Gilmour wouldn't mess out with his incredible guitar playing; what he didn't like was its style. But it was all because the record company picked the most commercial song on the album.

So this album came out the following week, with the announcement of a tour to back the album. No-one could wait to see a David Gilmour tour. Vernon says that even if the best thing Gilmour had to offer was Blue Light, he wouldn't miss too see him live. Come on, who would? For the author's opinion, he thinks that Blue Light was the weakest song on the entire album, and that the rest of the album was worth the wait. This album proved that Roger Waters wasn't the only lyricist on the Pink Floyd.

Gilmour had to organize his own band, it consisted of Milk Ralphs on guitar, Mickey Feat on Bass, Chris Slade on drums, Raff Ravenscroft on sax, Jodi Linscott on percussion, and Greg dechart on keyboards. For this tour he incorporated only songs from his two solo albums. His tour officially began in Ireland, on March 31st 1984. From Ireland he went to Holland, Belgium and France. Then from Paris they went to Switzerland, Germany, Sweden and then to London, his hometown, where he also included songs from the Pink Floyd's repertoire, in which Nick Mason showed up to play drums on Comfortably Numb.

From London, they took over to North America for dates in the United States and Canada. In this last country, Canada, two shows had to be cancelled, due to lack of ticket sales. "The folks in the great white north didn't realize what they were missing." The first appearance in the U.S. took place in New York, on May 16, 1984. The author says that Gilmour's performances were incredibly great. The band took turns doing improvisations, everyone was enjoying themselves immensely. The audience felt like if they were part of the event, not witnesses to the event. They were controlled by the music, which has always been Pink Floyd's style.

The tour concluded at New York, on July 16, 1984; and it was considered a big success by everyone involved. There's even a video of it for us who missed it, as for me I wasn't born yet, and I think that if Gilmour isn't too tired (because of his age), he should do another tour again so I could see him live. The author's conclusion in this article is that Blue Light wasn't the next shade of Pink, but that was the only song, because the rest of the album was a bomb. He also gives thanks to Dave "for having satisfied the hunger of the thousands of Pink Floyd fans worldwide who neede to see their heroes in person."

Underground Bands

http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/PFArchives/softs.htm

Pink Floyd worked with the Soft Machine when they first started. These two bands came from the London underground scene in the late 1960s. They would play in the same places because neither of them played the kind of music that fit in anywhere else. "The Soft Machine and the Pink Floyd" and article written by Vernon Fitch, for the Amazing Pudding, issue #12, 1985; talks about these two bands and their beginnings. The played at many underground scenes like the UFO and the roundhouse.

These two bands were experimenting with new ideas and stretching the boundaries of the, then, rock establishment. Of course they all became friends, and took to helping each other out at various critical periods of each others existence. One of those moments was the Gilmour tour in 1984, when some of the Soft Machine played with Gimour as his band. These two bands were moving away from the short pop tunes and into longer improvised pieces. The only difference between these two bands was their direction. The Soft Machine pursued more of a jazz direction, using very unusual and complicated time signatures, while the Floyd expressed themselves using a basic 4/4 time signature.

These different directions can be traced back to the roots of both bands, the Floyd being rhythm and blues oriented, and the Soft Machine basing their ideas around jazz rhythms. Robert Wyatt from the Soft Machine once said that the businessmen didin't know what to do with them, because in that time in order for any/one to have a LP, they were supposed to come up with a hit, but for them it was different, because with every jazz recording they made, they would come with a straight LP. That's why none of their recordings never appeared in any hit parade. Pink Floyd's influeces served the Soft Machine in their first years, because the Floyd knew exactly what to do, and also because they were closer to rock than the Softs. Wyatt also says that Pink Floy's formula could be reduced to a single, and theirs could not.

Vernon Fitch says that these two bands changed in the 1970's, and they grew into business, escpecially the Pink Floyd, they would play entire concerts without the need of any back up band, this was very good for them because they grew apart from other bands' business. Except one time when in 1973 Robert Wyatt had an accident that left him paralyzed from the waist down, and his career as a drummer ended, so the Pink Floyd gave a benefit concert for Robert and their back up band were the Sotfs. Although time later in 1974 he made a comeback as a keyboardist, and he chose Nick Mason as his drummer replacement. Mason even produced some of Robert's single.

In 1976 Mason countinued working with Robert and in 1981 when Mason came up with his solo album, Robert worked with him too. But the albums made by these two friends were influenced even more by the Soft Machine than by the Pink Floyd. In the author's opinion, he thinks that the one who made the best solo effort was Mason with his album called "The Fictitious Sport."
When Syd came up with his "Madcaps Laughs" the Soft Machine worked with him too. Kevin Ayers, bassist from the Softs was a great admirer of the Pink Floyd, especially of Syd, he even wrote letters to the Syd Barrett Appreciation Society. All the members of the Soft Machine showed appreciation in their songs to Syd and to the Pink Floyd. Daevid Allen, guitarist of the Softs said that he learned a glossando guitar techinque from Syd who taught him how to do it.

This proved that the Soft Machine, besides being all good friends with the Pink Floyd, and having worked with them, they were also big fans of them. On the last paragraph, Vernon says that Daevid Allen once had a picture stuck on his amplifier during a tour to France, and it was "just for inspiration." Who knows, maybe Daevid had a crash on him!