Pink Floyd : BBC Radio 1967-1971 and Pink Floyd In De Goffert Books Released
Charles Beterams, Ian Priston, and Phil Salathé, authors and collectors, have just announced two new limited edition publications. The first publication documents Pink Floyd’s BBC radio sessions between 1967 and 1971, bridging the gap between their meticulously crafted studio albums and the ferocious improvisations of their live performances.
The 2nd publication documents Monday, July 10, 1989, when Pink Floyd played the immense Goffertpark. The concert had an audience of 60 thousand, which was to be the band’s biggest concert to date in the Netherlands.
Ian Priston & Phil Salathé – BBC RADIO 1967-1971
English, 240 pages in full-colour print, printed on heavyweight 170gms paper (22x22cm).
Published 3 June 2022.
Available as a hardcover and paperback edition.
Hardcover edition (signed, numbered and limited to 400 copies only) exclusively available from FLOYDSTUFF.com
Pink Floyd’s BBC radio sessions bridge the gap between their meticulously crafted studio albums and the ferocious improvisations of their live performances.
Each recording documents a band constantly evolving, dealing in turn with the collapse of their leader Syd Barrett, their unsuccessful attempts to recapture the pop charts, and their eventual self-reinvention as providers of multimedia extravaganzas.
In the crucible offered by BBC programmes like Top Gear, Pink Floyd forged a musical approach that would serve them for years to come. As high-profile advertisements for a young and hungry group, the role of these appearances in furthering the band’s career cannot be overestimated.
The collaboration of an English researcher and an American composer, Pink Floyd – BBC Radio 1967-1971 combines the authors’ extensive research into the details of each session with a thoughtful analysis of its contents. Every chapter contains new additions to the historical record and sheds fresh light upon the band’s creative process, which combined rigorous structure with spontaneous expression – and astonishing bursts of inspiration with unabashed recycling of existing work.
Inside are firsthand recollections from audience members and BBC engineers, and coverage of unpublished recordings, including one session that only survives in a private collection and is here described in detail for the first time. The authors delineate the best sources for all the recordings discussed, and provide up-to-date information on Pink Floyd’s other radio broadcasts.
The text additionally speaks to the unsung heroes: home tapers and engineers who preserved Pink Floyd’s legacy when the BBC did not; DJs like John Peel who advocated ceaselessly for their music and offered them a platform from their earliest days; and even the band’s own members and collaborators, whose contributions are often underrepresented.
Pink Floyd – BBC Radio 1967-1971 covers its subject in unprecedented depth, while telling a story of triumph and loss, interspersed with wit and pathos.
If you are keen to explore the early history of Pink Floyd, this is undoubtedly a book for you.
Charles Beterams – Pink Floyd In De Goffert
Dutch, 112 pages in full-colour print, printed on heavyweight 170gms paper (22x22cm).
Published 3 June 2022.
Available as a hardcover edition, limited to 500 signed and numbered copies exclusively available from FLOYDSTUFF.com
As if it was meant to be, Pink Floyd put up their tents in Nijmegen in the summer of 1989. Twenty years before that, the group is in town for the first time for a disastrously poorly attended gig at the Kolpinghuis. Things will be different now.
On Monday 10 July, the immense Goffertpark will be populated by no less than sixty thousand visitors. Never before has Pink Floyd played for so many people in the Netherlands as on that night. In little more than a day, the whole circus has come over from London after the last of six concerts. There is no hint of fatigue. The group led by David Gilmour is in top form that night.
The story begins two months earlier with a concert in Werchter, first stop of the tour. It is uncertain for a long time whether there is any room for a second concert in the low countries. Competing concert promoters, a logistical nightmare and a very special encore in the Venice lagoon – broadcast worldwide thanks to Dutch television pioneers IDTV and the Cinevideogroup – are the ingredients of a memorable summer.
Above all, it is the warm memories and unique, mostly never-before-used visual material of these concerts that make Pink Floyd In De Goffert a timeless document.
Although written in Dutch, the whole lay-out will certainly appeal to anyone not speaking Dutch.