Pink Floyd to release their first song in 28 years, in aid of Ukraine

After a break of 28 years, Pink Floyd will release a new song, in aid of Ukraine

After 28 years out of the recording scene, legendary musicians Pink Floyd have announced today, Thursday, April 7, that they are to release a new song. It is being made to raise proceeds for the Ukrainian Humanitarian Relief.

The track is due out tomorrow, Friday 8, and is titled ‘Hey Hey Rise Up’. Two original members of the iconic band will feature on the song, 76-year-old Dave Gilmour, and 78-year-old Nick Mason. They will be joined by regular band member, Guy Pratt on bass, and Nitin Sawhney on keyboards.

You have to go back to 1994’s ‘The Division Bell’ for Pink Floyd’s last original material release. Joining them on the recording will be Andriy Khlyvnyuk, the vocalist from the Ukrainian rock band Boombox. An Instagram clip of him singing in Sofiyskaya Square in Kyiv will be used to involve him.

‘Hey Hey Rise Up’ is a translation from the last line of a patriotic protest song that Khlyvnyuk sang on that occasion. Acclaimed director Mat Whitecross was involved in the production of the video made to promote the song. It shows Andriy singing on the screen while the band plays.

‘We, like so many, have been feeling the fury and the frustration of this vile act of an independent, peaceful democratic country being invaded and having its people murdered by one of the world’s major powers”, Gilmour commented. The vocalist has a Ukrainian daughter-in-law and grandchildren.

‘In 2015 I played a show at Koko in London in support of the Belarus Free Theatre, whose members have been imprisoned. Pussy Riot and the Ukrainian band Boombox were also on the bill’, he explained, relating to his first meeting with Boombox.

‘They were supposed to do their own set, but their singer Andriy had visa problems, so the rest of the band backed me for my set, we played ‘Wish You Were Here’ for Andriy that night. Recently I read that Andriy had left his American tour with Boombox, had gone back to Ukraine, and joined up with the Territorial Defence’, he continued.

Adding, ‘Then I saw this incredible video on Instagram, where he stands in a square in Kyiv with this beautiful gold-domed church and sings in the silence of a city with no traffic or background noise because of the war. It was a powerful moment that made me want to put it to music’.

Khlyvnyuk is actually in hospital recovering from a shrapnel wound, and Dave Gilmour managed to speak with him as the track was being recorded. ‘I played him a little bit of the song down the phone line and he gave me his blessing. We both hope to do something together in person in the future’, he said, as reported by dailymail.co.uk.

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