Guy Pratt has been in touch to tell us that he is going to be a special guest at an event setup to promote one of Britain’s best-loved and most successful fanzines, Jamming!
Recently released as a paperback book, Documenting the Musical Landscape as it evolved between 1977 and 1986.
Fully illustrated throughout, The Best of Jamming! includes numerous stand-out pieces from the zine’s impressive 36 issue–run, from early features on The Jam, The Smiths, Run-D.M.C, Cocteau Twins, and The Beat, to surprise exclusive interviews with Paul McCartney, U2 and Pete Townshend. Personal letters from Mark E. Smith, Paul Weller, and others appear alongside arts, sports, and political features, poetry, and a foreword by Billy Bragg.
As part of a celebration of this book, Guy Pratt has been invited along as a special guest to conduct an interview in an intimate setting with author Tony Fletcher.
The event takes place at the Rialto Theatre, Brighton, UK, onThursday, February 24, 2022, at 7.30pm.
As part of the master plan to redevelop certain areas of the core site, we took the ultimate decision in late 2021 to close our highly visited Orphans section and replace it with a portal designed to showcase the various items and collections that some of the “super-fans” have curated over the years.
Designed in collaboration with the Pink Floyd Collectors social media group, A Fleeting Glimpse has been working tirelessly to create the ‘Collectors Hub‘
A collaboration to showcase a glimpse of the various ticket stubs, posters, adverts, promotional displays, t-shirts, and other memorabilia that have been accumulated by fans since the band’s inception in 1964.
With extensive galleries covering almost 60 years, we have very painstakingly organized every piece of material into the relevant categories to make it accessible for you the visitors, to navigate through.
Simply click the image above or the collectors tab from the menu navigation bar.
Unlike our previously launched Tour Book exhibition, this is something that we are sure will have continuous additions due to the sheer amount of items that are available in the public domain.
Throughout the years many people have been involved in our various projects and for the small majority these people often get overlooked, There’s one person in particular that has been a complete asset to our work here at A Fleeting Glimpse and we are delighted to say that she has kindly accepted our invitation to launch the A Fleeting Glimpse – Collectors Hub.
” There are many types of Pink Floyd collector. Some buy every studio, live, compilation and solo album on CD, and then stop there, content with their small but perfectly formed, hi-fidelity shrine. Others take it a step further, and amass a drawer of t-shirts, ranging from Primark crop-tops to authentic 1970s original concert t-shirts they’ve frantically bid on at 3am on eBay.
Then there are the Floyd collectors who devour shelves of books and stacks of magazines, scouring each page for minuscule details that might give them some insight into their elusive heroes. Others wallpaper their house with concert posters old and new. Some arrange ticket stubs of the dozens of gigs they’ve attended in an aesthetically pleasing way. Many fall down the rabbit hole of vinyl, and find themselves staring at a battered Mexican pressing of Dark Side of the Moon in an overpriced record store and thinking to themselves, “Yes, I need another copy of an album I already own 84 copies of, in eight different formats.” That’s part of the sheer joy of being a Pink Floyd collector. It can go as far as you want it to go, in whatever direction you want to take it. It may culminate in a pair of Wish You Were Here socks, or in the Pink Floyd branded VW Golf. It might even end with David Gilmour’s Black Strat hanging on your bedroom wall.
A Fleeting Glimpse is proud to present their ongoing collaboration with Pink Floyd Collectors group. Feast your eyes on a cornucopia of Pink Floyd goodies that will showcase the far reaches of uber-nerd collecting!
Delve deep in to the peculiar and beautiful artifacts that have been amassed for your viewing pleasure! And wonder to yourself, “Whose idea was it to release a promotional Dark Side of the Moon cherry flavored lollipop and where can I buy one? ”– Natalie Lyons (Long Serving AFG Associate)
Available on Amazon and all digital outlets, “Bang Bang” is the 2nd release by McNally Waters, the soulful collaboration of Larry John McNally and Harry Waters.
After a long, insanely successful career writing songs for other musicians – The Eagles, Aaron Neville, Bonnie Raitt, Mavis Staples, and Rod Stewart, to name a few — it was time for Larry John McNally to begin writing songs for himself.
One night, after mentioning to a friend that he was a fan of the Holy Grail of organs, the Hammond B3, that friend hooked him up with Harry Waters.
Waters, son of Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters, had already made his own name in the industry, having performed with his father 15 years, for The Wall and The Dark Side of the Moon tours, and most recently Desert Trip alongside The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan and Neil Young.
McNally Waters were only a few songs into their partnership when they were offered an international tour, where they solidified their sound night after night on stage. In 2019, McNally Waters opened five UK shows on the Nick Mason’s Saucerful of Secrets Tour.
With their second full-length album delayed by COVID-19, they released three songs on an EP named for its title track, “Bang Bang,” with a digital release of the full album through DashGo/Downtown, in conjunction with a short northeast US tour a physical release of the album is scheduled to be released on CD through Amplified Distribution on Friday, February 11, 2022.
Sadly due to the effects of the UK’s Current Storm Corrie, Our headquarters in the UK was without power for a few days this week.
We just wanted to send our belated wishes to Phil Manzanera who celebrated his 71st birthday earlier this week (31st January)
Starting with the song ‘One Slip‘ from the Pink Floyd’s 1987 A Momentary Lapse Of Reason album, Phil was a key person behind Pink Floyd’s The Endless River, as well as being a long-term collaborator with David Gilmour on his On An Islandand Rattle That Lock albums.
Rockonteurs is a podcast all about the real stories behind real music.
Presented by Spandau Ballet’s Gary Kemp, who wrote and performed megahits like ‘Gold’ and ‘True’, and Guy Pratt, a bass player who shaped songs for the likes of Madonna and Pink Floyd, you’ll hear exclusive stories of life on the road, in the studio and what really happened behind the scenes from artists who wrote, performed and produced the some of the biggest classic rock and pop tracks of all time.
Rockonteurs is a podcast all about the real stories behind real music.
This weeks upcoming episode is Number 70 and features guest Graham Coxon
Rockonteurs is a podcast all about the real stories behind real music.
Presented by Spandau Ballet’s Gary Kemp, who wrote and performed megahits like ‘Gold’ and ‘True’, and Guy Pratt, a bass player who shaped songs for the likes of Madonna and Pink Floyd, you’ll hear exclusive stories of life on the road, in the studio and what really happened behind the scenes from artists who wrote, performed and produced the some of the biggest classic rock and pop tracks of all time.
Rockonteurs is a podcast all about the real stories behind real music.
This weeks upcoming episode is Number 69 and features guest Miles Kane
In August of 2020, A Fleeting Glimpse were approached by Chris Hewitt, a vintage audio collector and, in our opinion, a guru in the technical aspects of all things related.
From a distance, it was fascinating to watch his expertise manifest itself, from idea generation to realization.
With 2020 seeing him recreate David Gilmour’s Wem Starfinder 4×12 speaker cabinets, which have been a prominent part of his live sound and back-line since around 1968, Under the alias Rawson Starfinder, Chris and his team managed to recreate the design of the original cabinets to the exact specifications all the way back to the late 60s, to the extent where the actual speakers and drivers were custom made with such outstanding detail that they even recreated the exact magnetic coils that were used in the cabinets all those years ago.
This begins our journey…
In September of 2021, A Fleeting Glimpse was personally invited to Cheshire for an event which had been put together to celebrate 50 years of the original Pink Floyd Live In Pompeii, a film which the band had released in 1971. Sadly, the stars did not align for us and other commitments got in the way.
Needless to say, this event was special in-itself as Chris, alongside his company CH Vintage Audio (a company which he set up to rent out vintage pa and back-line), acquired pieces to re-create the EXACT Pa system and back-line that were used in the original Pink Floyd Live At Pompeii film in 1971. Not only did he achieve his dream of making this a reality by having every exact speaker, horn, preamp, and wire that Pink Floyd had originally used for the film, but he even went to the extent of bringing along Stephen Mcelroy of The Australian Pink Floyd and a few of his friends to play the exact set that was originally played in Pompeii all those decades ago. And if that isn’t enough, he actually bought and restored one of the Avis Mk1 Ford Transit vans that Pink Floyd drove from London to Pompeii in 1971 with the original gear in.
The event was highly successful and was filmed and used to support an idea that a book could be written on the history of the Wem Watkins/Pink Floyd Live at Pompeii Pa System and the origins and development of audio equipment from this era.
Live in Pompeii 50th Anniversary Pink Floyd PA Recreation
The Development Of Large Rock Sound Systems Volume 2 by Chris Hewitt.
Very aptly titled, the book cover features a photograph of the 1971 Wem Watkins Live At Pompeii Pa System and a photograph recreated 50 years later, separated by the iconic gold gong that Roger Waters can be seen using in the song A Saucerful Of Secrets.
Simply by opening the book, you can instantly get a sense of the care and quality that was put into it. The pages are of very good thick quality with a nice gloss finish that one can assume Chris had thought about obsessively to compliment the photographic content.
Chapter 1 starts off with a brief history of why film director Adrian Maben decided to create a non-audience-based concert film in a Roman amphitheater. Many people will not be aware that this wasn’t actually Adrian’s original idea, and there are some antidotes of a conversation exchange between then Pink Floyd manager Steve O Rourke and guitarist David Gilmour in which he put a little bit of a spanner in the works, so to speak.
Elsewhere in this chapter, Adrian discusses the logistics of finding power and how troublesome it became to not have generators running due to the band’s maintaining the ability to record the audio live without any studio overdubs.
There’s a nice antidote about the use of the blue umbrella and its function, but you’ll have to buy the book to find out about that one.
Setting the scene for what’s in store, one gets a sense of just how much detail and care has been put in by Chris to explain the build up to the iconic film.
Chapter 2 segments from Adrian’s comments are actually cleverly transitioned. As we posted in the backstory above, the Live At Pompeii, Wem Watkins Pa was recreated by Chris in order to celebrate the 50th anniversary. This chapter is all about that recreation, but it goes deep into the depths of why this Pa System became so iconic and just how technically advanced the Pompeii sound system was.
It’s quite extraordinary to see the equipment in such clear quality as a result of modern technology advancement, and you definitely get a wow moment when you can see the Pink Floyd London words on the back of the cabinets (some of which are original pieces from Pompeii, we might add).
Echoes - 50th Anniversary of the Pink Floyd 'Live at Pompeii' Rig Recreation
Chapter 3, entitled “The Golden Days Of Vans For Groups And Their Road Crews,” talks about how awful it was for bands in the sixties if they had a gig quite far away. It features a rundown of how musicians and their technical crew moved their PA speakers and back-line without the use of today’s long-distance haulage vehicles.
The biggest breakthrough was the Ford Transit Mk1, which came along in 1965. This chapter talks about the evolution from having a car-like vehicle that was able to carry such a large load to how splitting a van to include more seating created what we now refer to as a Touring Splitter Van.
With photographs to compliment it, it is actually quite a cleverly written book. One cannot think of a source of information that is readily available on the market that actually takes into account the logistical transportation side.
The next chapter goes on to talk about Charlie Watkins of Wem Equipment and how he introduced festival speaker systems using stack-able cabinets. Chris also takes this opportunity to talk about the technical aspects of the cabinets and how these elements were all interlinked and chained together to create what we now recognize as a “Festival Pa”. In addition to talking about the development of having mixing desks out in front of the stages,
This segment is the most interesting in the book as it talks about Peter Watts, who was a Pink Floyd roadie up until his death in 1976. One didn’t realize how much of an impact he had on the early band sound. He really did help define the band’s sound in the early 70s and helped them pave their way to including quadraphonic elements. It is interesting to note that this section details the development of Pink Floyd’s live sound system from 1968 up to Hyde Park in 1970, in which the Pompeii defined back-line was created and implemented to compliment the band.
Those reading will note that this book leans heavily on Pink Floyd’s use of the Wem audio systems. Whilst this is true, it is justifiable due to the fact that they were developing the back-line to create essences that simply didn’t exist elsewhere. The combination of Peter Watts and Charlie Watkins is something that is often overlooked, but in this case it really signifies the importance of the history of audio systems.
Towards the end of the book, it does include a substantial segment with Led Zeppelin which details their use of the Wem Audiomaster mixing consoles.
At the end of the book, it talks about speaker manufacturer Mega and how they became the more well known speaker systems from 1976-1980. Again, featuring detailed pictures, it’s almost like time traveling through time.
In conclusion, this book has been created and very carefully put together by someone that shows so much enthusiasm and passion for what he does. We send our biggest thanks to Chris Hewitt of CH Vintage Audio for sending us a copy.
We really do recommend this to all fans. There doesn’t seem to be anything curated as in-depth and informative on the market and we really do wish Chris the best of success in his quest to share this.
The book is available for purchase worldwide for the small price of £29 by heading to Deeply Vale. You can do so by Clicking Here.
Guy Pratt has been in touch to tell us that he is going to be a special guest at an event setup to promote one of Britain’s best-loved and most successful fanzines, Jamming!
Available on Amazon and all digital outlets, “Bang Bang” is the 2nd release by McNally Waters, the soulful collaboration of Larry John McNally and Harry Waters.
Sadly due to the effects of the UK’s Current Storm Corrie, Our headquarters in the UK was without power for a few days this week.
