2024-08-20 03:01:00
Giant images and intense sounds impact like everything and always in the iconic universe of Pink Floyd. The immense wall and its open bricks translated to a large scenographic scale. A stiff being, as if about to be devoured by the mouths of the two faces that illustrate the cover of The Division Bell. An original painting by Syd Barrettwhen he was into drawing. The performance of “Comfortably Numb” at Live 8 in 2005, which marked the group’s final appearance. The teacher The Wall, created by Gerald Scarfe swollen, and with his sick eyes. Display cases and shelves filled with memorabilia linked to song lyrics handwritten by Roger Watersmusical instruments – the ‘Hokusai Wave’ drum kit used by Nick Mason from 1975 or the “Ovation” bass that Waters wielded between 1974 and 1978, for example. The man in a suit and tie who catches fire, while shaking hands with another, on the inner sheet of Wish You Were Here. That other one -but in mannequin version- full of lamps and sitting on a bed, which lies on the lid of Delicate Sound of Thunder.
Everything – and much more – is what impacted him Daniel Grinbank when he attended the debut performance of The Pink Floyd Exhibition – Their Mortal Remains at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. And he was tempted. “I liked what I saw, I joined the queue to be able to present it and managed to take it two years later to the Madrid Exhibition Centre,” he tells Page/12 he Argentine producer and declared Pink Floyd fandays before the arrival of the exhibition to Argentina, where it will be displayed from Tuesday, September 10th at the Frers pavilion at La Rural“I was very interested because it cleverly combines all the visual material with the audio, not only the music but also with first-person commentary from each of the Pink Floyd musicians. On the other hand, it is the first exhibition of the musical genre, fully legalised and curated with the supervision of the musicians, and approved by them,” Grinbank explains.
The interactive-immersive experience It arrives in the country after having been widely accepted in London – where it was seen by some 400 thousand people, in addition to Grinbank –, Rome, Madrid, Dortmund, Los Angeles, Montreal and Toronto. Produced by Michael Cohl, curated by Aubrey “Po” Powell –creator along with Storm Thorgerson of Hipgnosis, the agency that designed the lysergic cover of A Sacerful of SecretFloyd’s second album, and The Dark Side of the Moonamong other great albums by Yes, Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath– and overseen by the band’s surviving members (drummer Nick Mason in particular), the exhibition features a number of 350 artifacts inherent to the development of the band from its founding in 1965 until its final days. “Something very good is also that the exhibition has well demarcated the different stages of the group: the psychedelic one under the marked leadership of Syd Barrett, the later progressive-symphonic one, the more to give birth;and the one after Waters’ departure, marked by the leadership of David Gilmour“, the producer highlights about this dreamlike, chronological journey through the audiovisual history of one of the most extraordinary groups that the West has ever produced.
“The exhibition also shows the last live performance they did together at Live 8, 2005, in London’s Hyde Park, and it is reproduced in very good sound quality. I know this because I was at that concert, which was held because the G8 was in Scotland and there was an appeal for the environment. I saw that performance, and for me it had a symbolic value to see Roger and David playing together, because I had only seen Floyd after Waters, Waters as a soloist, but never together. I also understood that the thing didn’t give for more than making that handful of songs they made and so it is an interesting document to be able to see it in the exhibition. In any case, it is something very, very even. If you compare it to an album, it is not one of those that has the hit and the rest as filler but a compact whole, in which the music lover will find little gems and the general public as well,” says the artist. titular de DG Experiencethe production company in charge of bringing the sample, whose total journey time is in the order of 90 minutes.
-What you say is very Floyd, not only conceptually, but in the synergy between the popular and the cult.
-Absolutely. The guys are obsessive, to the point that 18 people come to set up the exhibition, when normally only one or two come to supervise. They come as a recital concept, almost, and it is very important to add that, unlike the rest of the presentations, in Buenos Aires there will be a novelty in the incorporation of a series of videos that were made for the 50th anniversary of The Dark Side of the Moonwhich was last year.
-Until when will the exhibition be at La Rural?
-In principle, until November 10, but it may be extended until the end of the year. This is likely due to the background. Let us remember, to cite some examples, that Roger came to do nine shows in River with The Wall. A film that, in turn, was on the billboard for ten years, at the Select Lavalle in Corrientes, of course outside of the conventional cinema circuit.
-Given that you are a Pink Floyd fan, what happened to you sensorially the first time you saw the exhibition in London?
-I liked it, it filled me, it satisfied me. I thought it had a lot of material, very interesting. Example: Pink Floyd was always characterized by having an interesting care of the covers and I thought that the scenography of the vinyl covers was very well done. I also thought that the film material was extraordinary, because it had managed to convey in one sample what had been a band that had different processes and different leaderships. The most music-loving part, prior to Dark Side of the Moonwas also very well represented. If anyone wanted to have a complete film of everything that happened in the life of Pink Floyd, there it was from when they formed in 1965 until they stopped performing under Gilmour’s leadership. In short, it satisfied me a lot as a spectator and, as always, I start by believing it myself first, because if I don’t like it I think that others won’t like it. That doesn’t mean that everything I like is transferable to the general public, but in this case I felt that it was.
-You have some experience connecting the subjective with the social in musical terms, let’s say.
-Let’s say yes (laughs). Although I have suffered some blows, but yes… Out of ten, I hit seven, let’s put it (laughs).
-It is known that Nick Mason worked a lot with Aubrey Powell for the exhibition. Did Waters and Gilmour also wear the shirt?
-Yes. In fact, we are doing a raffle among those who buy tickets to see Gilmour in November at Madison Square Garden. And Waters, well, we know that there is a conflict between them, and his love-hate for the exhibition has a lot to do with his relationship with Gilmour. But, well, yes, let’s say that the one who pushes the most is Mason. In fact, he even came to the opening of the one we did in Madrid. Nick would be Ringo Starr if the exhibition were about The Beatles.
-And our Rodolfo García, if there had been an Almendra one at the time.
-Of course, Rodolfo on our scale. Well, Gilmour and Waters are two very strong personalities. In fact, when Roger left, he asked Pink Floyd not to continue and there was even a trial in that regard. In any case, the exhibition is something that is approved by everyone. What’s more, the managers have to approve the places where the exhibition goes, the producers, the marketing, what can be communicated, what can’t… There is quite strong supervision on their part. The exhibition belongs to everyone.
-It is ruled out that it was a bold attitude to undertake such a move in the midst of this terrible context that the country is going through.
-Everything that is charged in pesos and paid in dollars in Argentina is always difficult. Now, in this context of recession, of a middle class that is increasingly affected, one knows that one’s universe is shrinking, and so I, as a promoter not only of this exhibition but of shows, when before I looked for sponsors, now I look for the quotas that financial institutions give to the public to access the tickets. The quotas are increasingly the key so that people can have a certain level of consumption.
-When you first brought Waters (Vélez, March 2002) the context was similar. How did you handle it that time?
-Let’s see, I’ll take it back further: all of us who have the international production component, we have Palito Ortega-Frank Sinatra very much in mind. Then, the devaluations, the recessions, all these processes, these ups and downs of the Argentine economy produce an extra adrenaline to what it is, in relation to whether we did the marketing well, if we set the price well, if we did the location well… All this has an extra component for everyone. I’ll go back: when Waters came, despite the strong crisis, he filled two Vélez, because it was the first time he came. Then we did Dark Side of the Moon a River.
-But in a totally different country: 2007
-Absolutely, because in 2002 the convertibility was coming to an end. But, well, Waters was a very strong attraction, given that he was highly anticipated by the Argentine public. In any case, 2002 had elements of Argentine economic madness but with other nuances, it seems to me. I think that the middle class that consumes shows was not as affected as it is now. For me, this is the most complicated stage we are going through, although perhaps I will say the same in ten years.
-Don’t be so pessimistic!
-(Laughs) It’s just that everything is becoming more and more difficult. The proof is how much less competitive we have become in international terms, in terms of making tempting offers to groups that work in the northern hemisphere to come to the southern hemisphere; excluding the big festivals, of course.
-That is despite the passion that the Argentine public has for the great bands in the history of rock. It is a very strong emotional place…
-Absolutely. But unfortunately, I can’t take the emotion to the bank and convert it into dollars. (laughs)If we could pay with emotion, I have no doubt that we would have an extraordinary traffic of artists, but unfortunately emotion only gives us one plus: with equal supply, we are looked upon with more affection. In addition, there is an increasing incidence of the cost of transfers, hotels, and travel expenses. We have the most expensive management companies in the world and the highest taxes in the world. And with all this, together with the great distances, it becomes more and more difficult. The extra costs, independent of what the artists charge, become more and more cumbersome, and they cannot be transferred to the entrance, because people have increasingly restricted income. In short, I am trying to be a bit of a fool to see how I can play on the crisis.
-Experience must be key to avoid crises…
-It’s like ABC, yes. Let’s say that crises leave people behind and we are survivors, business-wise, especially in a period in which the concentration of corporations became greater. Twenty years ago, I was competing with companies that I can’t compete with today. So, I started to encourage my own content. Exhibitions, for example, are an interesting area of development. And then, well, we do what we can in terms of international shows.