Showing posts with label early years. Show all posts
Showing posts with label early years. Show all posts

Wednesday, 16 May 2018

Magazine collection



I was flicking through my magazines the other day and thought they'd make an interesting thing to share as I've been collecting them for years! I didn't even realise how many I had until I piled them all up like this. I usually keep some in a magazine rack, some stacked up behind the magazine rack, some on the book shelf and some underneath the bookshelf, so they're usually all over the place! Some of these date back as far as 2001. I don't collect every magazine with Pink Floyd in it, just ones that catch my eye or have a significant article.


These are some of my oldest copies, the Uncut issues are from 2001 and the Classic Rock magazine from 2002. I wish there was a way I could share more of these magazines other than just the covers, I thought of scanning them in for Tumblr but I don't want to risk ruining the spines.


Mojo - October 2011; Classic Rock - October 2005; Mojo - November 2001


I mostly prefer issues with Syd in them ♥ They're occasionally full of the journalist's speculation, but they're more objective than a lot of the books published about him and I like that they usually include bits with people who actually knew him, as well as the other members of Pink Floyd themselves.


Getting into some of my more recent ones, the Uncut magazine was from last summer I think? The Shindig and Prog were from 2016. I'm posting them in the wrong order, but this Shindig included part 2 of a massive article about Syd, I really recommend getting both issues if you don't have them already.


Music Milestones I got a few years ago but I'm pretty sure it's still sold in WH Smith, it's more like a mook and goes through the bands history album by album. I think I got all three of these magazines in 2016 too, the issue of Prog was to mark the 10th anniversary of Syd's passing.


These were all from 2017, I could barely keep up that year as so many magazines were being released full of their early year stuff as the box set hadn't long been released and Their Mortal Remains was opening. The Mojo '60s was a Pink Floyd special, and the Shindig was Part 1 of the Syd article I mentioned earlier.


Inside the Mojo '60s


This Mojo is from March 2010, and the Pink Floyd guide is another mook, Uncut release a lot of these of various bands. I've had this one a long time, I'm not sure when it was released but I really recommend seeking out a copy! It's full of articles from various different publications throughout the time since the band started, I love reading stuff like this and seeing what they were saying about the band then compared to what we know now. I guess the Drum Heroes is kind of a cheat, although I consider it part of my collection. It's a mook by Rhythm magazine, as you can probably guess all about drummers! It's got a good interview with Nick in it.



This box was sold at WH Smith, I think they sell these kind of things on a lot of various topics. I've also seen an actual book in HMV with this exact same cover, so I don't know if it's the same thing in a slightly different format. Planet Rock was my most recent buy last week, it's got a little article in it with Nick about his Soucerful of Secrets project. And the Mojo magazine was from July 2016 to mark 10 years since Syd's passing.


And these are the final three, and the ones that always make me so sad to look at! They're all from 2006, and were the tribute issues to Syd after he died :( I took a photo from each:



Monday, 26 June 2017

Early Years

pink floyd early years box set

At the end of May I decided to spurge and buy something I'd been pining after for a while: Pink Floyd The Early Years, a box set containing 27 discs of their previously (officially) unreleased material from between 1965 - 1972. And after I saw Their Mortal Remains I wanted the set even more badly.

When this box set was released back in November I'd planned to hold out and wait for the individual sets. I watched an unboxing of the full box set on YouTube and had initially felt a little underwhelmed at what I felt was being sold for near £400, especially as I felt I probably only wanted the Cambridge St/ation set. So when I saw that the individual volumes had been released I jumped at the opportunity and was soon pouring over track listings to ensure I bought the right one for me. But the more I looked, the less certain I felt. Whilst I mostly wanted the Cambridge St/ation set for it's Syd material, I love the material directly after on the Germin/ation set too. And oh how Reverber/ation also looks good. And I knew if I got three, I'd soon want all of them because I'm a collector and it's how my mind works and at £40 a pop it would soon add up. So I reconsidered the entire box set, saw it had gone down considerably in price (it's since shot back up again, so do watch the ever fluctuating prices if you want it) and I was very fortunate to have savings so I went for it.

pink floyd early years box set
pink floyd early years box set
pink floyd early years box set

Honestly I fully realise how indulgent this box set is and that it won't be for everyone, but being such a huge fan of Pink Floyd it is very much for me. Holding it in my hands it's clear how much thought has gone into packaging this set and everything in it even feels nice. It covers my favourite period of Pink Floyd, from their beginnings before Piper at the Gates of Dawn (my favourite album of all time) up to just before their success with the release of Dark Side Of The Moon. It's when they were at they're most experimental, trying to find their footing after Syd Barrett and their sound after psychedelia. When they were working as complete equals, truly collaborating as a band before Roger Waters took the lead entirely.

When it arrived I spent hours just looking at everything, and I reckon it'll take me a good while to get through all of the content and that's if I watch and listen regularly! There's so much contained its hard to even mentally take note of it all. I've had this for a month now and having been devouring my way through all of the contents, can say that I'm so happy with my purchase and am only gutted I didn't invest in it sooner!

pink floyd early years box set
pink floyd early years box set
pink floyd early years box set

It's spans the years 1965-1972, from when Syd first joined up with Roger, Nick and Rick (and Bob Klose who left in 1965 but recorded a few demos with the band) and contains their earliest demos, BBC sessions, and live recordings. I've read a few criticisms over the sound quality, but these are demos and bootlegs, they were never supposed to be officially released. I'd much rather hear these recordings in their original state rather than all polished up, overproduced and "remastered" (I've spoken of my distaste for remastering many times so shan't bore you with that rant!) Listening to these CDs I feel transported back in time, I can close my eyes and imagine I'm actually there and that's the kind of experience I'd hoped for from this box set. Bits of it aren't perfect, but I don't care, it's an absolute treasure trove for a fan like me.

The little books contained with each volume are made up of mostly photographs, and there's nothing new in the essay by Mark Blake - certainly not to those of us who are Floyd crazy enough to invest this kind of money on them anyway! But it's nice to have all of the same, and I really enjoyed looking through all of the prints, posters, and bits of paper memorabilia. I need to find frames for all of the psychedelic posters, I've loved many of the designs for a long time and am pleased as punch to own proper copies of them at last! There's also five reproduction 7" singles which is a nice touch. I don't own too many of their 7" singles as they're so crazy expensive. They're your typical reissue, on heavyweight vinyl with sturdy card reproduction sleeves. I like the See Emily Play sleeve the best with Syd's artwork.

pink floyd early years box set
pink floyd early years box set
Imagine seeing Pink Floyd for £1!
pink floyd early years box set

What do you think of this box set? Would you invest in something like this of your favourite band?