Sunday, March 04, 2007

You can't beat a good old one


Driving over the Kingston Bridge the other day I heard the title track from Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here album on XFM. A really great track from a great album. But was it better than Dark Side of the Moon?

Don't think so, and that would probably go for most of the guys I was going around with around the time both albums were released. From what I can remember, and I'm sure Dek will correct me if I'm wrong, these were two of the albums that were played to death every weekend when we were out and about at someone's house, plus Yes albums if you happened to be in John McLaughlin's of a night. While the title track for me was the highlight on Wish You Were Here, the best song by a distance on the Dark Side of the Moon album is The Great Gig in the Sky. I'm sure I read somewhere that Clare Torry, the lead vocalist on the track, only got a few hundred quid at the time of the recording and it was only years later that Pink Floyd decided she deserved a good bit more for her 'singing' on that track.

I also got an email from an old boss and friend of mine, Nigel Paine who is probably instrumental in getting me to where I am today. He gave me a chance to move onwards and upwards when he was chief executive at SCET and I owe him a great deal for all the help and faith he had in me at that time.


Anyway, keeping to the music theme of this blog he tells me he is currently listenting to
the Cowboy Junkies; Red Hot Chillies (sad but true - Nigel's words); the Killers, the Strokes and the Skids (well into the Valley actually). Nothing much wrong with that selection big man. Anyway for all Nigel's old workforce and any others who know him, check out his blog and find out what he's been up to.

2 comments:

Dek said...

I always felt that Dark Side of the Moon was Floyd for the common man. Everyone had it and everyone sure played it to death. Personally, I felt Wish You Were Here was Floyd for the more sophisticated pallet. Jacky and myself were sophisticated in a sort of common way. Both of these great albums frequently adorned our turntables.

Yes, we listened to Yes. An acquired taste? A bit like drinking Guinness or eating pitted olives!! Let’s not forget the great Genesis and what a brilliant laser show they put at Apollo in Glasgow. Talking of which, check out http://www.inthewilderness.com/apollo/. A real trip down memory lane for the bold Jacky and myself.

The best concert I ever saw? In the Apollo perhaps Wings. At Strathclyde Uni Radio Stars. At the Barrowlands, The Silencers. At the Tramway, The Bathers. The concerts I would most like to forget: the Nolan Sisters at the Magnum in Irvine (a long story) and the Village People after a baseball game in San Diego, California. Perhaps the best concert ever was U2’s Zoo TV tour at the SECC in the 90s.

Anonymous said...

Shine on you crazy diamond has to be the song especially for us older gits still seeking motivation and purpose
Great Blog hope the new offices go well
Keep up hte good work
John