Customer Reviews

Pink Floyd-The Press Reports

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Pink Floyd The Press Reports 1966-83 by Vernon Fitch is a must-have for fans of the band and classic rock in general. This book delivers the best manner of telling the stories that make up the history of the band. Why? Because this book gives you chronological press reports and numerous interviews with the band members as they were happening. Many authors have written excellent books on Pink Floyd but who is more qualified to tell the Pink Floyd story better than Pink Floyd themselves? Vernon Fitch has compiled this book from an incredible list of resources. Most impressively, the book begins with press reports about Pink Floyd that were published in 1966. Even then, the press took notice that the band was an important force in the London Underground and seemed destined to become one of rock's most innovative recording and touring acts. The reports follow through the band's first album and Syd Barrett's subsequent departure to their experimentation to forge an identity for themselves as they built towards the pinnacle of their success, "The Dark Side Of The Moon" which stayed on the American Billboard Top 200 album charts for an unprecedented 741 weeks. The book continues and explores the band members' feelings about the pressures of the record business that followed the success "Dark Side" through the mid-70's to their landmark double album release, "The Wall," which would become a multimillion selling album, elaborate stage show and full length feature film. The book ends in 1983 when Roger Waters, the conceptual force behind the band, made his final album with Pink Floyd, "The Final Cut." The history of Pink Floyd, since Waters' departure, has been well publicized. Thanks to Vernon Fitch, we now have an insight into the publicized press reports that preceded Waters' departure.

I thought the book was great for a harder based floyd fan, which I am. I can possibly see where a more casual fan would find some of the information tedious. If you are looking for a true biography you should check out "A Saucerful of Secrets" by Nicholas Schaffner. That was phenomenal, but if you've read that and were still compelled for more Floyd info, I highly recommend giving this one a try!

Let's face it, you are not going to buy this unless you are a Pink Floyd fan. That understood, this is a work of love that will probably appeal to the fans of the Floyd who were there at the time. By that I mean the fan that was buying the albums as the band evolved from the Syd Barrett model, to the one dominated by Roger Waters.
The story between `63 and `83 is told via newspaper and music press articles interviews and news reports and is basically a lift of content. So, for instance, NME might have featured an interview in 1974 with Nick Mason and this will be reprinted in full and in chronological context. Published rumour and debate are also printed and it makes it interesting because we see it in hindsight. We know what happened next and how many of the albums have become acknowledged classics, but at the time there was debate based on instant views and reactions. Perhaps most telling are the interviews which give a great flavour of the individuals and the relationships at the time, and also cover frustration with the fans and the press.
As a young Londoner at the time, I even recall driving over Battersea bridge and seeing the famous pig floating above the power station - it was a couple of months before I realised it was destined to be on a Floyd album cover!

It's a great nostalgic read, 3.5 stars probably and would have raised to a 4 if there had been more detail of the reviews at the time - would have liked to see full album reviews at the time of publication.

This book is a timeline of the Floyds history as probably no Pink Floyd as probably no Pink Floyd Fan has ever had access to. Would you have to be a hardcore fan to really enjoy it?, probably, I am one and I really enjoyed this book, it contains the press reports of almost every single Pink Floyd activity since they started playing, it gives the reader the chance to relive a history they never lived (unless you've been a fan since 1966 and have been keeping track of it all since then), with reviews of their album and shows as they were happening or being released, interviews with band members, managers, technicians , and also very good explanations of what happened to Syd. And you'll find everything in here, good and bad reviews, critics praising them or ripping them, like the guy who reviewed "Wish You Were Here" days after it was released and said that he didn't like it, that it was as bad as DSOTM. I've seen recent interviews of Roger Waters and David Gilmour, and very often, on a particular topic, I've heard them say they don't remember exactly happened on this or that, well maybe they should also read this book to try refreshing their memories.