News Article: Pink Floyd 'beast' won't be unleashed

This was originally from The Toronto Sun and was written by Kieran Grant. It is available on Jam! Showbiz at http://www.canoe.ca/JamMusic/oct4_pink-sun.html

Though we just saw his contemporaries in The Who and The Doors running over the same old ground, don't expect David Gilmour to be airing out the inflatable pig for a Pink Floyd tour any time soon.

"The Pink Floyd thing is such a weighty thing to pick up," Gilmour told us in a recent interview about his David Gilmour In Concert DVD, due Oct. 22.

"It's such a great lumbering beast. You can't really write, record, produce a record, and put together to make it worthwhile in much under two years."

Gilmour, who has eight kids, isn't about to sacrifice time with his family the way he did in his more ambitious days. He happily described himself as "semi-retired."

"I want to watch the younger ones grow up and enjoy that side of life, before it's too late at my hugely advanced age of 56," he said with a laugh.

David Gilmour In Concert was captured at three rare and intimate performances and is a far cry from what the singer-guitarist called the "over-production that was a Pink Floyd stand-by." He intends to keep his solo work going.

"People aren't encouraged much by their management or record companies to step outside," he said. "It's not in the interest of business. The record company wants to sell records to pay dividends to its shareholders. They know Pink Floyd is the way to do that. So sometimes they're not over-keen."

Last year, Gilmour and his wife sold their London manse and gave the proceeds to a charity for the homeless.

"One suffers a bit of charity-fatigue -- being invited to too many occasions by people who feel they're doing a lot of good by holding a charity ball of some sort," he said. "People could bypass all those arrangements and just send money."

Gilmour spends most of his time in the country. His non-musical pursuits include flying aeroplanes. "Not passenger jets or anything. Just little open bi-planes you can chuck around in and fly upside-down."

Dear Sir or Madam,


At the end of this month, the exhibition "Music Planet" will open in Brussels in a new exhibition center : "Les Brasseries".

This important exhibition will be devoted to the history of pop-rock music. Covering an area of some 4000 m2, this international event will outline the history of popular music from blues up to the more recent musical movements, outlining the sociological and economical aspects. This exhibition will be designed and produced by Euro Culture Production, which develops and organizes international exhibitions in Belgium and Europe. The evolution of pop/rock music will be evoked by original objects and documents, enriched with three-dimensional reconstructions and underpinned by advanced museographical technology.

Collaborations on this project include the Rock'n'roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Graceland, the Rock'n'soul museum, Stax Museum in Memphis, the Museum of Musical Instruments in Brussels, as well as numerous private collectors.

In the context of finalizing this exhibition, we are still in search of artifacts which would help us to illustrate the career of Pink Floyd. We would be very interested in any object or document which could be loaned for the duration of the exhibition in Brussels. We are conscious that we are now you very late (the exhibition will open on 29 November), but we would like to give Pink Floyd the place they deserves in our exhibition. Indeed, one or two important objects or documents (instrument, stage outfit, lyric manuscripts, contracts, original posters, etc.) would help us, we can also use facsimiles of good qualities.

Should you need some more information, please do not hesitate to contact us. We thank you very much in advance for your help and look forward to hearing from you shortly.

Yours sincerely.

Lara Feguenne
Project coordinator
+32 495 49 65 69

Sir or Madam?