Hey, Hey Rise Up

The first new Pink Floyd song in 28 years

I have been a Pink Floyd fan since the age of probably 12. I have lots of stories about Pink Floyd, concerts I have been to, playing along with their music at home on my 200 Watt PA, loud enough to rattle the windows, playing solos of Wish You Were Here, listening to Time on a Quadaphonic record, to playing Meddle on a horn speaker from a cassette player mounted on my motorbike riding to Kaiteriteri Beach in Nelson.

Today I want to just share their first new song in 28 years. A collaboration with Andriy Khlyvnyuk, singer for the Ukrainian rock band BoomBox, singing the century-old Ukrainian protest song “Oh, The Red Viburnum In The Meadow” in military fatigues outside St. Sofia Cathedral in Kyiv. Here is a translation of this song, which was written in 1914. It could have been written yesterday.

It’s great to see David Gilmour and Nick Mason performing together again as Pink Floyd. This song is now on my Top 500 Playlist on Spotify. If you read, listen to and follow my autobiography, you will perhaps understand why what is happening in Ukraine matters to me. Pink Floyd and Roger Waters have always used their concerts as political statements. Is music a subversive activity? Will it bring more people together? I hope so.