Pink Floyd has reunited in solidarity to support Ukraine. Yet, David Gilmour, Nick Mason, Nitin Sawhney, and Guy Pratt are the working lineup that has resulted in the new single: “Hey Hey, Rise Up!”, a new track that will result in all proceeds going to Ukrainian humanitarian relief. Still, one name will be famously absent from this effort, group co-founder Roger Waters, with Pratt again in his place
Last month Pink Floyd made this 2022 announcement Pink Floyd’s last studio album was the 2014 effort, ‘The Endless River’, which would end up being the group’s final album to date and only the third after the departure of bassist Roger Waters in 1985. In the US, ‘The Endless River’ would debut at number 3 on the Billboard 200 with 170,000 copies sold in its first week.
It has been no secret that over the years that Waters’ relationship with his Pink Floyd bandmates has been strained. However in a recent conversation with the Guardian. Fellow group, co-founder David Gilmour stated how the new collaboration came to be.
Gilmour would say: “I rang Nick up and said: ‘Listen, I want to do this thing for Ukraine. I’d be really happy if you played on it and I’d also be really happy if you’d agree to us putting it out like Pink Floyd.’ And he was absolutely on for that.”
He would continue: “It’s Pink Floyd if it’s me and Nick, and that is the biggest promotional vehicle; that is, as I said, the platform that I’ve been working on for my whole adult life since I was 21. I wouldn’t do this with many more things, but it’s so vitally, vitally important that people understand what’s going on there and do everything within their power to change that situation. And the thought, also, that mine and Pink Floyd’s support of the Ukrainians could help boost morale in those areas: they need to know the whole world supports them.”
