Early Years

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.





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!





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.

Imagine seeing Pink Floyd for £1!

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

Their Mortal Remains

On 13th May the V&A opened Their Mortal Remains, an exhibition celebrating 50 years of Pink Floyd's career. I'd been counting down the days until it opened since I first heard of it last year, and yesterday I was lucky enough to go.

A technical drawing by Nick from when he was studying architecture; a painting by Syd from 1965 and a letter he wrote for Jenny Spires; David Gilmour's Höfner Club 60 guitar and his first fuzz pedal.

BBC apperance contracts. Notice that Syd's crossed out on one of them.

Nick's diary: "Kingston College. Really a fairly good gig, partly because the support group was so boring that everyone was glad to see us."

Letter from David to his parents: "Dear Mum & Dad, This is just to reassure you about the fact that I am playing again and will probably be playing in the States in April. I should be in New York about 20th April for a week or more. As you can see I joined the Pink Floyd, don't worry about what the cuttings say the reasons are and the spelling of Gilmur. That was a mistake by the Publisaist."

Fender Precision bass which originally belonged to Roger Waters, which he sold to David Gilmour in the 70s and he still continues to use.

Nick Mason's shirts from the late '60s and the hat he always wore.

It's got a basket, a bell that rings and things to make it look good. Syd's bike from the 1980s

Nick and Roger, drawn by Roger Waters in Washington, June 10th '75.

I'm doing my dissertation on Gerald Scarfe's artwork for The Wall so was pleased that there were a few original pieces on display.

I took so many photos it was a challenge to narrow them down! It was a pretty big exhibition, I think I heard that there are 11 rooms in total. I expected it might take me about 2 hours to walk around, but it took me 4.5. It's advertised as an "audio and visual experience" and you're given a headset to wear which automatically knows which section you're in and will play accordingly. It's quite an elegant system as you forget you're wearing it, but it's not without it's faults; several times my headset had difficulty tuning in when I was standing right in front of something, and it would sometimes loose connectivity halfway through, so trying to listen to interviews was a little frustrating. That's my only complaint of the entire thing though, I absolutely loved it. I liked that the exhibition allowed you to move at your own pace, and the headsets made it a completely immersive, individual experience.

You enter the exhibition through a model of the Bedford van, and then are immediately immersed into the UFO Club with psychedelic liquid oil effects projected onto the ceiling. The next room is where it really begins, with a section on Syd Barrett and then a display dedicated to each album from Piper at the Gates of Dawn through to Dark Side of the Moon. The section on Syd is very small, but honestly I felt it was just enough. It didn't downplay or dismiss his part in the band, and it treated him respectfully instead of like an oddball curiosity project which I appreciated. There was no speculation or psychoanalysis, it simply explained his role and that he was unable to cope with fame and left.

After the display of Dark Side of the Moon the exhibition slowed down to tell more of their history between and during each album from Dark Side of the Moon through to The Endless River. My first thought was that I wished they had placed equal emphasis on the earlier period of the band, but then again I didn't feel the exhibition lacked anything and there's obviously only so much they can focus on so I think they got the balance right.

At the end of the exhibition you removed the headphones and went into a large room where their Live 8 performance was being projected onto the walls so you could sit on the floor and watch. After Live 8, they showed the promotional videos for High Hopes and Arnold Layne complete with additional oil projections. I really enjoyed this as a note to finish on as it highlighted both ends of the bands career - their first ever release with Syd, up to their final reunion performance before the death of Rick.

After the end of it, I truly felt like I wanted to go straight back in and do the entire exhibition all over again. It was such a perfect day to be so deeply immersed in my favourite band, I felt almost under a spell when I left I was so happy.





Naturally you exit out into the gift shop! It's predominantly t shirts, remastered vinyl (ugh), button badges and books. I bought quite a few pins as I enjoy sticking them everywhere (I even bought duplicates of some), some postcards, a mug, a plush of Algie the pig which is probably my favourite thing for some inexplicable reason, and the official book of the exhibition which I can't wait to sit down and read. I did see a few other books I liked the look of, but they're not specific to the V&A and I didn't feel like lugging them round all day so I'll no doubt be ordering from Amazon soon.

The exhibition is open until October 1st 2017 and entry is between £18-£22 depending on if you have a concession. It's well worth every penny in my mind, I completely recommend going if you're able to!

Free to play alone with time

I haven't been drawing an awful lot lately, the negatives of being an art student is having barely any time to draw for yourself. And when I have had time, I've felt more inclined to sew instead. But I have drawn two portraits recently.




I wanted to draw Nick Mason as it was his 73rd birthday yesterday and as he's one of my favourite members of Pink Floyd I wanted draw something to both commemorate it and to have something to post on social media. I've been trying to simplify my portraits lately back like I used to. I've gotten into the habit of only drawing intricately detailed larger scale portraits which has made me feel intimidated to draw just when I feel like as I'm sure you can imagine they take several hours. I drew Nick in about 4 hours which is much better! It's exciting as it means my options for portraits opens up as if I'm drawing more simplified then I don't need massive HQ photographs to draw from. I'm just really excited to draw more throughout 2017 as I don't feel I did even almost enough last year.

Last month in December I also drew Rick Wright. This is one of those intricately detailed drawings I mentioned, I love how they come out but they just take too long! I had planned on doing one for each of Pink Floyd, but I'm not so sure now as I don't want to pressure myself with promises my heart is no longer into.

Piper At The Gates of Dawn

I consider this a birthday present although it was actually a present to myself from myself, but it still counts, right? The Piper At The Gates of Dawn has long been at the very top of my vinyl wishlist, which shouldn't come as any surprise if you know me and how much I adore Pink Floyd and Syd Barrett. It's Pink Floyd's debut album and is the only album that really features Syd. Because of this the album has a completely different sound to other Pink Floyd albums, much more psychedelic, and personally to me is their best. Debut albums are almost always worth more in general, but Pink Floyd's history with Syd really makes this one skyrocket and it can be difficult to find a genuine first mono pressing which is what I wanted. I always figured if I was going to spend big on this album one day, I may as well get the one I really wanted!

I got some money recently and knew straight away that I wanted to treat myself to this with it so went straight onto eBay and quite lucked out finding this copy. It hadn't been described very well and so didn't have many other bidders (only two others) and it ended in the middle of the night so I presume I was the only one dedicated enough to stay up for it to ensure it became mine. It's a true first mono pressing (mono is important as it's mixed differently. Pink Floyd mixed the mono themselves over a period of days, whereas the record company mixed the stereo without Pink Floyd's input in about 20 minutes and there's quite some significant sound differences) and it has a G1 matrix which means it was part of the very first batch ever made. Exciting, huh?? I still can't quite believe it's mine!