Pink Floyd: What's on the first album in two decades?
Wife of lead guitarist David Gilmour, Polly Samson, released the bombshell news on Twitter this weekend, sparking a frenzy of interest and anticipation.
Pink Floyd bandmates David Gilmour and Roger Waters reunite in a rare join appearance at a London concert in 2005.
Pink Floyd, the prominent 1970s progressive rock band, announced that it would release a new, long-anticipated album this October.
As the first album since "The Division Bill" was released in 1994, “The Endless River” uses the same two-decade-old recording sessions and profiles never-before-heard pieces by keyboardist Richard Wright prior to his death.
The wife of lead guitarist David Gilmour, Polly Samson, released the news on Twitter this weekend, labeling the album as “Rick Wright’s swansong.”
A Pink Floyd backup singer, Durga McBroom-Hudson, confirmed the news on Facebook. “[The album] was originally to be a completely instrumental recording, but I came in last December and sang on a few tracks. David then expanded on my backing vocals and has done a lead on at least one of them,” McBroom-Hudson wrote.
The announcement did not state whether a live tour would accompany the album’s debut.
It was also unclear if band co-founder, Roger Waters, would perform with David Gilmour. The two musicians are enmeshed in an infamous legal and personal feud since Waters quit the band in 1985.
McBroom-Hudson took to Facebook to tell band fans to “stop asking me to tell David [Gilmour] to tour here or there, or to reconcile with Roger [Waters].
The band last performed all together in London at the Live 8 concert in 2005.
According to the BBC, Waters tours with acts that profile Pink Floyd’s most iconic albums, Dark Side of the Moon and The Wall.
Waters has also generated controversy with his support of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel.
According to the Sun, a British tabloid, a source “close to the project” indicated that the album would be “the closest we will ever come to a Pink Floyd comeback.”
The announcement garnered intense publicity among Pink Floyd enthusiasts, with ecstatic responses on Twitter.
One fan, Stephen Silk, wrote that it was “wonderful, wonderful news…[I] can’t wait, but will.”
The band has sold more than 250 million albums, the BBC reported, and the new album will be sold separately from the 20th anniversary set of The Division Bell, which was re-released last week.