Pink Floyd’s “Grantchester Meadows” (taken from The Early Years 1965 – 1972) is a Roger Waters song, originally performed solo on the Ummagumma album, that celebrates the English countryside, as in other compositions such as “Time”. This special group performance, taped for the BBC, with acoustic guitars and vocals from Roger Waters and David Gilmour, plus additional piano from Richard Wright and taped songbirds, successfully evokes a summer’s day in Grantchester, a small village close to Cambridge, England.

Grantchester’s famous former residents include the Edwardian poet Rupert Brooke, who moved there and subsequently wrote a poem of homesickness entitled The Old Vicarage, Grantchester.

Creative Director: Aubrey Powell, Hipgnosis. 2016 footage directed and edited by Nick Edwards. Performance footage director: John Coney for KQED, San Francisco 1970. Audio recorded for BBC Radio, 12 May 1969.

Pink Floyd will release The Early Years 1965-1972 on Friday, November 11th. A comprehensive 27-disc boxed set, it pulls together material from the Pink Floyd archive, as well as licensed Radio and TV recordings, to comprise a deluxe package that includes seven individual book-style volumes, (six of which are dedicated to particular years), featuring much previously unreleased material, as well as bonus content, reproduction memorabilia, and the band's first recording from 1965, released on CD for the first time.

The packages contain more than 100 photographs of Pink Floyd, the majority of which are previously unseen, as well as more than 40 items of memorabilia in special wallets. In addition, Pink Floyd's first five UK singles have been included in the box, on 7" vinyl with replica sleeves.

The Early Years 1965-1972 box set contains unreleased tracks, BBC Radio Sessions, remixes, outtakes and alternative versions. Ten CDs, nine DVDs and eight Blu-ray discs contain more than 130 audio tracks, as well as more than 14 hours of audio-visual material. There are more than 20 unreleased songs, plus previously unreleased live audio, rare concert footage, feature films and new sound mixes. Previously unreleased tracks include 1967's Vegetable Man and In The Beechwoods, both mixed especially for this release.

The six individual year-specific book-style packages will be released separately early in 2017, although the bonus volume, Continu/ation, will be exclusive to the box set, as will the larger memorabilia items, which are reproduced in actual size for the box.

Also released on Friday, November 11th will be a companion edition, Cre/ation – The Early Years 1967-1972, a 2CD collection of some of the highlights of the box set, focussing on the band's material from 1967 to 1972.

2CD tracklisting here. Full tracklisting here.

 

 

 

On September 23rd, Pink Floyd Records will continue the reintroduction of the Pink Floyd catalogue on vinyl with Atom Heart Mother, Meddle and Obscured By Clouds, all remastered from the original analogue master tapes. The Wall and The Division Bell are also back in stock on vinyl from August 26th.

Pink Floyd followed their 60s albums with their fifth studio album, 1970‘s Atom Heart Mother. Featuring the classic lineup of Roger Waters, David Gilmour, Richard Wright and Nick Mason, the LP went on to become the band‘s first UK No.1 record.

In a short break from touring Atom Heart Mother, in 1971 Pink Floyd released the experimental album, Meddle. The LP saw the band move musical direction away from their original psychedelic sound, especially highlighted by the 23-minute track Echoes which occupied the entirety of the b-side of the record.

Pink Floyd‘s seventh album, Obscured By Clouds was originally recorded as the soundtrack to the French film ‘La Vallée’ but released as a stand alone album in 1972.

The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn, A Saucerful Of Secrets, More, Ummagumma, are also available through Pink Floyd Records. For more information, head here.