Pink Floyd will release the group’s first new music for 28 years, in support of the people of Ukraine.
Tomorrow (Friday) the group release new single Hey Hey Rise Up - the first original music they have recorded together as a band since 1994’s The Division Bell.
David Gilmour, 76, and Nick Mason, 78, were joined by long time Pink Floyd bass player Guy Pratt, 60, and Nitin Sawhney, 57, on keyboards during a secret recording session last Wednesday.
The new track features vocals from Ukrainian rockstar Andriy Khlyvnyuk, from the band Boombox, who quit his US tour to return home to fight for his country.
His vocals are taken from an Instagram post of him singing war protest song The Red Viburnum In The Meadow, filmed in Kyiv’s Sofiyskaya Square.
The title of the new track is taken from the last line of the song, which translates as: “Hey Hey Rise up and rejoice.” Proceeds from the track will benefit the Ukraine Humanitarian Relief Fund.
Singer and guitarist Andriy chatted to David from his hospital bed in Kyiv, where he is being treated for shrapnel injuries.
“I played him a little bit of the song down the phone line and he gave me his blessing,” says David. “We both hope to do something together in person in the future.”
David has a Ukrainian daughter-in-law and grandchildren - his son Charlie is married to Janina Pedan, and the couple share two daughters together.
David says: “We, like so many, have been feeling the fury and the frustration of this vile act of an independent, peaceful democratic country being invaded and having its people murdered by one of the world’s major powers.”
Speaking about the track he adds: “I hope it will receive wide support and publicity. We want to raise funds for humanitarian charities, and raise morale. We want express our support for Ukraine and in that way, show that most of the world thinks that it is totally wrong for a superpower to invade the independent democratic country that Ukraine has become.”
The video for Hey Hey Rise Up was also filmed last Wednesday, shot by Mat Whitecross.
David explained: “We recorded the track and video in our barn where we did all our Von Trapped Family live streams during lockdown. It’s the same room that we did the ‘Barn Jams’ with Rick Wright back in 2007.
Janina Pedan made the set in a day and we had Andriy singing on the screen while we played, so the four of us had a vocalist, albeit not one who was physically present with us.”
The artwork for the track features a painting of a sunflower - the national flower of Ukraine - by Cuban artist, Yosan Leon.
It references a woman who gave sunflower seeds to Russian soldiers, telling them to carry them in their pockets so that sunflowers would grow if they died.
Pink Floyd’s David went on to explain how he first met Andriy and his band Boombox.
He said: “In 2015, I played a show at Koko in London in support of the Belarus Free Theatre, whose members have been imprisoned. Pussy Riot and the Ukrainian band, Boombox, were also on the bill.
They were supposed to do their own set, but their singer Andriy had visa problems, so the rest of the band backed me for my set - we played Wish You Were Here for Andriy that night.
“Recently I read that Andriy had left his American tour with Boombox, had gone back to Ukraine, and joined up with the Territorial Defense.
Then I saw this incredible video on Instagram, where he stands in a square in Kyiv with this beautiful gold-domed church and sings in the silence of a city with no traffic or background noise because of the war. It was a powerful moment that made me want to put it to music.”
