The new single features David Gilmour and Nick Mason alongside Pink Floyd longtime bassist Guy Pratt and Nitin Sawhney on keyboards and includes vocals by Andriy Khlyvnyuk of Ukrainian band Boombox. The song, which was recorded last week in David Gilmour’s barn, uses Khlyvnyuk’s vocals from an Instagram post singing the Ukrainian World War I protest song The Red Viburnum In The Meadow in an empty Sofiyskaya Square in Kyiv. The title of the Pink Floyd song comes from the last line of the song which translates as “Hey Hey Rise up and joice”. “We, like so many, felt the anger and frustration of this vile act of an independent, peaceful democracy whose people were invaded and killed by one of the world’s greatest powers,” said Gilmour, who has a Ukrainian daughter. . in-laws and grandchildren. “In 2015 I played a play at Koko in London to support the Belarus Free Theater, whose members have been imprisoned. Pussy Riot and Ukrainian band Boombox were also on the bill. They were supposed to do their own set, but their singer Andriy had visa problems, so the rest of the band supported me on my set – we played Wish You Were Here for Andriy that night. “I recently read that Andriy had left his American Boombox tour, returned to Ukraine and joined the Territorial Defense. Then I saw this incredible video on Instagram, where he stands in a square in Kyiv with this beautiful gold-church “with a dome and sings in the silence of a city without movement or noise due to the war. It was a strong moment that made me want to set it to music.” Gilmour wrote the music for the song and was able to speak to Andriy from a hospital bed in Kyiv, where he is recovering from a gunshot wound. “I played some of the song to him on the phone and he gave me his blessing. We both hope to do something together personally in the future. “I hope it will receive widespread support and publicity. We want to raise funds for humanitarian charities and boost morale. “We want to express our support for Ukraine and in this way show that most of the world believes that it is completely wrong for a superpower to invade the independent democracy that Ukraine has become.” Hey Hey Rise Up will be available digitally from midnight tonight and you will be able to watch the new video on Prog’s website. Get Hey Hey Rise Up. (from midnight)
(Image credit: Press)
