Pink Floyd Story DVD USA Release
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The Pink Floyd and Syd Barrett Story DVD which was released on 24th March 2003 in Europe (region 2) is to be released in Canada on 30th Nov 2004 and and on the 2nd Jan 2005 in the USA. These are the new release dates as the release had to be pushed back from 16th Nov.
The new release features additional footage not seen on any other of the previous releases. Make sure you are signed up to the free NPF newsletter to receive updates about this.
Mark will be showing the original painting and selling a limited edition A2 print of it at an exhibition in Oberhausen, Germany November 19 (info) and at the ARC record fair in Utrecht on the weekend of 20/21 November (info).
Order!
You can pre-order a copy from Amazon.com for $11.89 saving 30%!!
New Artwork
The new artwork for the DVD was created by Mark Wilkinson who has also done work for the likes of Iron Maiden and Hawkwind. You can view the new artwork above by clicking on the relevant links.
Exclusive NPF insight from Mark Wilkinson
Here is what Mark said exclusively to NPF about being commissioned to create the art work…
“I remember those times when the Floyd first tarted…Piper At The Gates Of Dawn was the first album I ever bought at 15…from Stannards in Billericay! I can’t remember where I’d heard it…probably John Peel…as ever in those days. I was blown away by that album, I still am…it sounds as fresh today as it did then. It started a lifelong love for this band in whatever period they’ve existed. Alas I started to go to see bands live a bit later on when Syd had just left so I never got to see them with him. I missed the whole UFO period but was a regular visitor to Middle Earth at The Roundhouse, I think ‘Turn On The Tap Zap’ was one of my earliest memories of seeing Pink Floyd…with Roger Waters cooking bacon and moaning at Jeff Dexter (on the decks!) to turn the lights down! It was those early memories of seeing all those fantastic posters by Hapshash And The Coloured Coat around London that gave me the first inkling of what I wanted to do when I left school.
Unfortunately by the time I got to art college…that kind of art was considered very passé…Punk was in and the style was very different. 35 years later…after a career in doing artwork for bands for around 25 years…I was commissioned to paint a portrait of Syd Barrett for the US version of the Pink Floyd And Syd Barrett Story! I was determined to try a different approach than previous packaging for anything to do with Syd. I thought I’d trace a line back to those glorious days of the British Underground and try…at last…my hand at painting a sixties style of poster. I didn’t want to do a pastiche…but to imagine that if I had been painting in those days…what would I do?
Syd’s story is usually told in a pretty mournful way nowadays and the imagery of him appropriate with that mood. I wanted to go back a year or so from the Madcap period and do a celebratory painting of Syd. I watched the Floyd Live 66-67 by Peter Whitehead again and saw the footage of the 14 Hour Technicolour Dream which alas…they ran out of tape when the Floyd came on. But that cavernous building of Alexandra Palace I felt would be a good backdrop to the image of Syd. I wanted to paint some of the psychedlics of the period…with the bubble lights…so if you look carefully I think you can just make out the Ally Pally interior…and the lights and people around the middle of the backdrop. Jupiter and Saturn…at the top natch! With some ‘stars’ thrown in for good measure…that ill-fated band Syd was in with Twink. I have a beautiful poster on my wall of ‘Stars’ by Kellie Colby where I work…have been staring at it for years…the irony!
Once the painting of Syd was done I designed the lettering in the same balloon style of the period and sent a copy off to the producer of the programme..John Edginton. He loved it but felt that Syd…although he liked the celebratory feel…needed a hint of the vulnerability about him…in the eyes. So I worked on that for an afternoon…painting the eyes again, more heavy-lidded. John was pleased with this…the result is subtle…just enough there to hint of the troubled times to come I think.
That…at least was my intention…to do justice to him…I played Syd and Floyd back to back while I was painting. It nearly drove my wife and children crazy. There was always a joke in our house…whenever my children asked what my favourite band of all time was…they misheard what I said…to them it was always ‘Pink Fluid’! Yup…I had pink fluid running through my veins for about a month…and I loved avery minute of it!”
Source: [ Mark Wilkinson ]