On 27th February 1973, the rock band, Pink Floyd, launched their album ‘Dark Side of the Moon’. The launch was at the Planetarium in London. The album took a year to write; they had started putting it together on 31st May 1972, and it was completed on 9th February 1973. The recording was produced at Abbey Road studios, which were, of course, made famous by the Beatles. The album, both vinyl and CD, had sold over 45 million copies by 1st March 2018. As far as I can tell, this was the last published detail on sales, although accurate sales figures are notoriously difficult to find out.
This year is the 50th anniversary of that album. The band has had many successful albums, but this one appears to have been the most well-known and successful.
I have been a fan of Pink Floyd, the band, since the 70s and still play their music at least once a week. I love the music, the lyrics and the structure of the songs and how they are presented. I have always felt invigorated by them. When I first listened to the music, it filled me with optimism that we could hope for the European Economic Community, on 1st January 1973. Even though my life wasn’t going too well, I was energised by the music.
We had a Conservative Government at the time; the PM was Edward Heath who came from a working-class background, it was a time of great change, but he alienated the workers, and the troubles in Northern Ireland were heightened .
Roger Waters, who left the band in 1985, has this year rerecorded the album as a solo artist. Some of his music has been described as ‘concept’. Most of his writing is about feelings and pain and politics. ‘The final cut’ was written about Margaret Thatcher and the Falklands war.
Roger Waters is a prolific campaigner on many issues. His support for Palestine is legendary, I have so much respect for him as an artist and a humanitarian. As a result of his support for Palestine, the wife of band member David Gilmour has labelled him antisemitic, which is, in my opinion, disgraceful and offensive to Roger. In addition, the word ‘antisemitic’ is becoming a worn-out word that has lost its impact and is therefore meaningless. Roger has also been greatly supportive of the campaign to free Julian Assange. He has used his platform, speaking at rallies, taking part in webinars and online meetings and raising awareness of Julian’s case at concerts, especially recently during the recent “This is not a drill” tour.
I hope Roger has huge success with his reworking of the album. Congratulations to Pink Floyd for this iconic work. Solidarity.