Reviewed by Ian Phillips.
By Pink Floyd, Columbia Records 2022.
Pink Floyd has released their first new song in 28 years (1994’s Division Bell was their last album) to raise funds to assist Ukrainian charities coping with feeding, clothing, and housing their displaced population because of Russia’s invasion of the Ukraine.
Hey, Hey, Rise Up is based on a patriotic Ukrainian folk song Oh, The Red Viburnum in the Meadow and features the lead singer of the Ukrainian band Boombox on lead vocal.
The story goes that David Gilmour’s son is married to a Ukrainian and she sent David a video link to Andriy singing the folk song unaccompanied in Kyiv’s Sophia Square.
When the war broke out Andriy had left his band, who were touring in America, and returned to Ukraine to enlist and help his country fight off the enemy.
David was very moved by Andriy’s performance, and he immediately contacted Nick Mason and they decided to see what they could do with the song.
David wrote a new section that allowed him to insert one of his trademark guitar solos and Nick, David and bassist Guy Pratt and Keyboardist Nitin Sawhney developed the backing track to go with Andriy’s impassioned vocals.
Before releasing the track David had to locate Andriy to ask his permission to release the song.
Considering what was happening in the Ukraine that was no easy task, but he was eventually able to locate him and send him the track they had produced.
Andriy was very pleased and surprised that his performance was to be broadcast to the world.
He was unaware of just how much information about what was happening in his homeland was making word news headlines.
On the day of release of the song Pink Floyd made a video, directed by Mat Whitecross, where Andriy’s performance in Sophia Square was projected onto a wall and the band played along with him.
I was really moved by the performance. Andriy’s powerful and emotional vocal is brilliantly blended with the impeccable musicianship of pink Floyd to produce a memorable song.
When David Gilmour climbed into his solo the emotions rose and I had to wipe away the tears.
Watch the video and buy the song. All proceeds go to the Ukraine Humanitarian Fund.
