On YouTube alone: 3,180,216 views. At the time of writing these words, a few hours after the arrival of the song and its music video on digital platforms (at the stroke of midnight), this is the number that appears, at least until the next screen refresh. Where are we, all platforms added up? It feels like the whole world will have listened or/and watched hey hey rise up by… the end of the war.
Event-driven is a weak word to describe what is happening. Let’s recap. Andriy Khlyvnyuk, Ukrainian singer of the BoomBox group, broadcast on Instagram on February 27 his performance in the heart of kyiv of a hymn calling for an uprising, a protest song of the First World War titled The Red Viburnum In The Meadow. More than touched, David Gilmour decides to do something. The ex-Pink Floyd singer-guitarist has known Andriy since at least 2015: they shared a London stage during a support show at the Belarus Free Theatre. ” I had played Wish You Were Here with him that night,” Gilmour said in the Sony Music statement. What’s more, Gilmour’s daughter-in-law is Ukrainian. It doesn’t hit far from home, as they say. How to react effectively? By reforming Pink Floyd, of course!
The most famous support group in the world
Of which act. That’s how last Wednesday, after rallying friend and drummer Nick Mason to their cause, along with back-up musicians Guy Pratt and Nitin Sawhney, the legendary group was revived. Starting with the performance in kyiv, shown on the big screen, accompanied by a montage of images of Russian aggression in Ukraine, the new music composed by Gilmour on the century-old tune was played live. For the first time since the album The Division Bell in 1994, new Pink Floyd sounded, carrying the strong and beautiful voice of Andriy Khlyvnyuk.
The reactions are diverse: it is discussed intensely on social networks. We unanimously applaud the gesture. We want the effect to be real and to raise awareness. We also complain a lot about the absence of Roger Waters. “When it’s Nick Mason and me, it’s Pink Floyd,” Gilmour wrote on his page. Waters, it must be said, left the band in 1985, and was only seen again once with Gilmour, Mason and the late Rick Wright, in 2005 at the big Live 8 benefit concert. No new music in the program.
Right to rejoice
What’s it worth hey hey rise up ? Opinions are more than divided. It’s pinkfloydian Pink Floyd, to put it simply. The throbbing and inexorable rhythm given by Nick Mason is punctuated by a batch of characteristic rolls, and the immense and very long guitar solo of Gilmour, eminently melodic, gains in scope from measure to measure. Yes, it is poignant, and very beautiful. And more than predictable. Would we have wanted something else? Yes, it took a terrible war and personal motives for Pink Floyd to exist again. The whole difficulty is not only to rejoice. We are now at 3,469,356 views.