World-renowned rock band Pink Floyd has reunited to record their first new material in 28 years, a protest song against the Ukraine war. Hey get up! As reported by BBC.com, David Gilmour and Nick Mason are on keyboards with longtime Floyd bassists Guy Pratt and Nitin Sawhney. The song is built around a spine-tingling performance by Ukrainian singer Andrey Khalivanyuk of the band Boombox.
Gilmour says that the song is a show of “rage at a superpower invading a peaceful nation”. But it is also a morale booster and a call for “peace” for the people of Ukraine. Work on the song began after Gilmour was shown Khalivanyuk’s Instagram feed a few weeks ago.
The singer had posted footage of himself in Kyiv’s Sofisskaya Square, fully armed and ready to fight the Russian invasion. Facing the camera, Khalivanyuk sang ‘The Red Viburnum in the Meadow’, a protest song written during World War I that has become the cry of a rally in Ukraine over the past six weeks.
“It surprised me that, as it is a cappella, one could turn it into a beautiful song,” Gilmour told BBC 6 Music’s Matt Everitt.
Coincidentally, Gilmour had performed live with Boombox at a benefit gig for the Belarus Free Theater in London in 2015 – and he contacted Khalivanyuk to obtain permission.
“I spoke to him, in fact, from his hospital bed, where he had suffered a fairly minor mortar blow,” Starr said. “So he’s right there in the front row. I played him a little song down the line. The phone line and he gave me his blessing.”
The song holds special significance for Gilmour, as his daughter-in-law is Ukrainian-born artist Janina Pedan.
She told the publication, “My daughter-in-law told us at the beginning of this conflict the story of a woman who gave sunflower seeds to Russian soldiers and said she hoped sunflowers would grow where they died.”
Gilmour said he found the “powerlessness of the West” in the face of Russian aggression “brutal”, but added that he supported the ongoing sanctions against the country. He also said that it is a matter of shame that the victims in the matter of imposing sanctions are ordinary people of Russia.
“It helps to create discontent in a country that expects, at some point, some sort of regime change,” he said.
Asked how he felt about the UK government’s response to the crisis, he expressed dismay at the bureaucracy facing Ukrainian refugees who want to settle here.
“A lot of Europe is saying ‘welcome’ and our [government] Saying, ‘You have to go to the computer and fill the form’. My idea would be to open the doors and do the paperwork later. But the government isn’t following this kind of thinking.” Roger Waters is not involved in the new recordings – he left the band in 1985 and made occasional appearances with them, such as at the Live 8 concert in 2005.
(with IANS inputs)
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