Shine On – The Definitive Oral History of Pink Floyd

Author:Mark Blake

“There are three sides to every story: my side, your side and the truth. And no one is lying”. Blake kicks this oral history off with Roberts Evans line from “The Kid Stays In The Picture” and by the end of the book it’s hard to imagine a more apt quote.

“Shine On” is the latest work from this prolific music writer, whose previous subjects include The Who, Queen, Fleetwood Mac and Peter Grant. This is his 3rd Floyd related tome, after “Pigs Might Fly” and “Us And Them” which focuses on Hipgnosis, designers of many iconic album sleeves including “Dark Side Of The Moon”. This book draws on material gathered by Blake stretching back to 1992.

As someone whose record collection has largely been untroubled by Floyd, I’m some way away from the target audience of this type of book (published just head of the 50th anniversary of “Wish You Were here), but nonetheless I found it a really absorbing read. Blake has pulled off the neat trick of telling the Floyd story in a way that manages to be both detailed and snappy.

Whilst Blake has gathered a wealth of material from Waters, Gilmour, Mason and Wright, it’s the breadth and depth of the other contributors that really pays off. He starts with insights from Syd Barrett’s sister Rosemary – “I never liked Pink Floyd to be honest” – and fleshes out a rich picture by tracking down teachers, ex girlfriends and school friends. Blake mixes the central storyline of how the band comes together – and Syd falls apart – along with some gorgeous trivia – such as touring Floyd guitarist Tim Renwick telling the story of how Syd was his scout group pack leader.

Blake adds narrative to flesh out the timeline and adds the occasional vignette describing his conversations with the various contributors. His tone is always neutral and he relies on his interviewees to set out the squabbles, insults and insights. There’s no shortage of players to describe how determinedly difficult – and at times just flat out unpleasant Waters chose to be. Mason comes across as an affable but resolute fence sitter whilst Gilmour talks a great deal about his muse but was clearly also a bloody minded foil to Waters bullying. By the end there’s a strong sense of melancholy around the depiction of the diffident Wright as a gifted musician whose motivation was crushed between the ego’s of Waters and Gilmour, described in retrospect by Mason as “the George Harrison” of the band.

For many bands, their story artistic achievements are overshadowed by their financial naivety and the outright exploitation that would often follow. Not so here. All of the band (bar Syd) quickly latch on to the financial value of getting their songs on records, quickly wise to the extra royalties that accrue by dividing long tracks into shorter ones. One of the few significant players in the Floyd story who is neither quoted or spoken to in any detail in the book is manager Steve O’Rourke. I’s evident that he took few prisoners when negotiating on Floyd’s behalf, managing them for 35 years until his death in 2003 and opting to stay in the Gilmour / Mason camp when the wall went up.

Along the way Blake speaks to the creators of Floyd’s light shows, documents the friendship with Aubrey “Po” Powell and “I can’t draw for toffee” Storm Thorgerson that morphs into the design group Hipgnosis. There are diverting sidebar around Floyd’s collective obsession with football, motor racing, snooker and even golf (a favorite of Water’s), and the “boy’s club” that Floyd quickly grew into.

Floyd wanted to become successful musicians, pop stars even, and slowly they shed Syd – “we just stopped picking him up” (Mason) and their performance art / psychedelic roots even though their new direction frequently seems unclear to them. Blake includes Barrett’s work as an artist as well as attempts to sustain his recording work and throughout the rest of the Floyd timeline and occasional sightings and encounters with him are referenced as Floyd finally find their groove with Water’s writing the words and Gilmour the music (mostly).

Along the way there are revelations great and small such as the name of 56 year old widow who was the actual Atom Heart Mother. Clare Torry nearly turned down the session request for “Great Gig In The Sky” because she had tickets to see Chuck Berry, and so charged double her usual fee for working on a Sunday. She has to buy a copy of the album when it comes out to find out what made the final cut and go to court (in 2005) to get credit (financially and publicly) for her vocals work “Great Gig”; not the only time Floyd Blake highlights Floyds sticky fingers when it came to royalties.

The first half of the book takes the reader to “Dark Side” with the second half documenting the gradual dissolution and divorce as well as the brief reconciliations. Water’s ego grows even faster than his bank balance. He maintains he could have sung “Have A Cigar” better than Roy Harper, and fallouts with Gilmour become more frequent. By “Animals” 80% of the writing credits are Water’s, with Mason and Wright’s names totally absent. The oral history format allows Blake to alternate the protagonists contributions against each other as well as occasionally responding to each others jibes.
Solo albums are released, Mason produces Steve Hillage and Robert Wyatt, Gilmour gets Kate Bush’s career off the ground.

One poignant part of the book (for me at least) was the recruitment of Andy Bown to be the bass player in the surrogate Pink Floyd band on the tour of “The Wall”. It took me back to my mid teens, when my ownership of Status Quo’s “Piledriver”, plus the absence of any Floyd or Gong from my modest LP collection marked me out as a musical Neanderthal. Some irony therefore when Bown, (over 20 years in Quo) was recruited by Gilmour and ended up not just in the surrogate band but playing most of Water’s parts too.

The last third of the book documents the chaos around making a film of The Wall, fights over the money tied to production credits and friction of Waters wanting total control. Waters quits, mistakenly thinking that would be the end of Floyd. When Gilmour and Mason carry on as Floyd (Wright signs on for on a salary) for “Momentary Lapse of Reason” Waters tries to shut them down, and Blake has Gilmour’s account of the financial and mental strain of having to resist Waters. Says Gilmour “Roger …. Is the most aggressive pacifist I have ever met” and “All threats, no action”. They finally met face to face on Dec 23 1987 with an accountant, a computer and a printer. Divorce papers are signed. Mason is tellingly absent. Blake notes that receipts and record sales show Floyd remain a much bigger draw than Waters, something even he acknowledges.

Live 8 finally prompts a reunion (Gilmour nixed it for Live Aid) and Gilmour despairs at Waters suggestion they perform “Another Brick In The Wall” for starving kids in Africa. Gilmour points out Waters was a guest of Pink Floyd and that the tour offers that followed were for the same money with or without him.

The book wraps with Syd’s death and reflections from Waters and Gilmour – Syd’s sister acknowledges that Floyd collectively respected her wish that they left Syd alone over the years as contact unsettled him. Gilmour is credited with ensuring Syd got his royalties – Mick Rock claims worth £2.5m a year from “Echoes” alone, most of which he never touched.

Blake notes that the arrival of social media permits grievances to continue to be aired to millions with no PR filter, and the “playground” spats that subsequently play out between Gilmour, wife Polly Sampson and Waters. Mason mentions that Waters invites all of Floyd’s ex wives to gigs but not the existing band members.

When Mason wrote his account of his time in Floyd, Waters and Gilmour were unusually aligned in disputing the accuracy of Mason’s account. Mason’s response was they could always publish their version and one has to wonder why Waters ego hasn’t produced one. In the meantime there’s this impressive – and refreshingly informative tome from Blake.

Length of Read:Long

Might appeal to people who enjoyed…

Any and all things Floyd

One thing you’ve learned

The “Animals” pig was called “Algie” and escaped his mooring at the start of the shoot over Battersea despite a police marksman being hired to burst him if he tried to escape – he actually deflated in a field in Kent and was patched up in time for his big shoot the next day.

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