Pink Floyd confirmed today (September 27th) that a reworking of their live album and accompanying concert film, Delicate Sound of Thunder, is in the works. Originally released November 21st 1988, the Delicate Sound of Thunder reissue will see a fresh, digital remastering of the timeless live album. 

Although the exact date of the reissue is not yet known, it has been confirmed that Delicate Sound of Thunder will be rebirthed in November. Pink Floyd previously released the live album exclusively to their boxset, The Later Years, back in 2019. But now, the restored film and soundtrack will be made available on both streaming and physical platforms. 

The concert film, which was made for their 1987 A Momentary Lapse of Reason tour, has since been reworked from the initial 35mm film to an all-encompassing 5:1 surround sound. It will be distributed in both DVD and Blu-ray form. 

The legendary live album will also be made accessible in LP, vinyl and CD form. Bonus tracks such as A New Machine Part 1 and Signs of Life will be present on all of the reissue formats. Lifelong Pink Floyd listeners will also be pleased to know that a bespoke photo book containing forty pages of vintage posters and postcards of the band will also be thrown in. 

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20 November 2020 sees the release of Pink Floyd’s Delicate Sound Of Thunder on Blu-ray, DVD, 2CD, 3-disc vinyl and deluxe 4-disc edition with bonus tracks. Alongside the classic live album and full concert film (restored and re-edited from the original 35mm film and enhanced with 5.1 surround sound), which was included in The Later Years box set, all editions feature 24-page photo booklets, with the 4-disc box edition including a 40-page photo booklet, tour poster and postcards. The 3LP 180-gram vinyl set includes 9 songs not included on the 1988 release of the album, while the 2CD includes 8 tracks more than its original release. Filmed at Long Island’s Nassau Coliseum in August 1988 and directed by Wayne Isham, the 2020 release of the Grammy Award nominated Delicate Sound Of Thunder is sourced directly from over 100 cans of original 35mm negatives, painstakingly restored and transferred to 4K, and completely re-edited by Benny Trickett from the restored and upgraded footage, under the creative direction of Aubrey Powell/Hipgnosis. Similarly, the sound was completely remixed from the original multitrack tapes by longtime Pink Floyd engineer Andy Jackson with Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour, assisted by Damon Iddins. https://PinkFloyd.lnk.to/DSOT_Restored

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In other news, the artist of the Wish You Were Here art has revealed the iconic album cover’s backstory today (September 27th). Graphic designer Aubrey Powell, who also designed the cover of The Dark Side of The Moon, partook in lighting stuntmen Ronnie Rondell and Danny Rogers on fire in Warners Brothers car park that fateful day. 

The inspiration for the priceless photograph was Have A Cigar, the Pink Floyd anthem that satirises the detrimental effects of capitalism. Powell’s partner Storm Thorgerson asked: “Have A Cigar is about insincerity in the music business. What about an image of two businessmen, and one of them is getting burned in a deal?”

Powell said “I explained to Ronnie what I needed and he said, ‘it’s dangerous for a man to stand still on fire’…He was very reluctant but eventually agreed.” Powell explained that “We repeated the process 14 times, and got the shot on the fifteenth take. I knew I had got a great picture.”

Powell elaborated on the message behind the music, saying “They were making a statement about record company executives who regarded musicians as money-making machines, demanding one hit song after another – an absence of a different kind.”

The full tracklist for Delicate Sound of Thunder can be found below:

Disc 1 (Part 1)
1. Shine On You Crazy Diamond Parts 1-5
2. Signs Of Life
3. Learning To Fly
4. Yet Another Movie
5. Round And Around
6. A New Machine Part 1
7. Terminal Frost
8. A New Machine Part 2
9. Sorrow
10. The Dogs Of War
11. On The Turning Away

Disc 2 (Part 2)
1. One Of These Days
2. Time
3. On The Run
4. The Great Gig In The Sky
5. Wish You Were Here
6. Welcome To The Machine
7. Us And Them
8. Money
9. Another Brick In The Wall Part 2
10. Comfortably Numb
11. One Slip
12. Run Like Hell