Pink Floyd The Endless River, Rick´s Swan Song

The Endless River is the first Pink Floyd record in 20 years... but it´s not.

When "The Division Bell" was released back at 1994, the idea was release a double record, one of them just with instrumental music, as for that record they jammed a lot together and recorded many ideas for songs. The project of the double record was abandoned and the songs were filed.

Before Rick Wright died in 2008, they (David Gilmour, Nick Mason and Rick Wright) talked about it and the idea of revisite that songs was a kind of promise to Rick by David and Nick, so they started to listen to the many hours of music recorded and trying to figure out what pieces make sense to built songs. It took time, but they found it, and started to re-record almost everything except, obviously, Rick Wright´s keyboards parts.

The critics are being quite hard to this last record, that has to be understood as a homage to Rick Wright, and to the Pink Floyd´s legacy. There are references to many of the Pink Floyd catalogue in all this songs, pieces that reminds you to some Wall´s sounds, to Shine On You Crazy Diamonds, to Animals,even to songs from the very early years of the band, being Rick Wright always the main focus of it.

Of course it's not a record that follows the Pink Floyd standards, even the David/Rick/Nick trio encarnation, which was weaker in comparation with the last records with Roger Waters (exception made with The Final Cut, which was a Waters solo record with David and Nick playing around, and realesed under the Floyd name), but this is not really a new record of a living band, it's the Swan Song of one of the greatest bands ever, closed with "Louder Than Words", the only song with lyrics, that talks about the Pink Floyd History, and closes it forever.

Rock and Roll Tree: GENESIS

Genesis it´s one of the most famous rock bands and it´s also one of that bands that provides a good number of branches to the rock history.

Genesis is a band that started playing progressive rock at the 70's, with Peter Gabriel as their singer, Mike Rutherford on guitar and bass, Steve Hackett on guitar, Tony Banks on keyboards and Phil Collins on drums.

When Peter Gabriel left Genesis after their famous "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway" record in 1974, they had to find a new singer, and after some auditions, the decide that they liked Phil Collins voice so why keep looking for a singer when they already had one on the band, behind the drums. Peter Gabriel started a very successful career as a solo singer.

So, we have the first branch (Peter Gabriel) from the tree (Genesis)

With Phil Collins on vocals and having more importance in the compositions, the band changes his style, and Steve Hackett leaves the band in 1977 starting a solo career, the second branch of our tree.

In the 80's, Phil Collins and Mike Rutherford decide to start an alternative career to the main group, Genesis, so Phil Collins starts to release records under his name having great success, and Mike Rutherford starts a new band that also gets very well known, "Mike And The Mechanics"

Mike And The Mechanics has also its own branch as one of his members, Paul Carrack, who played previously in "Squeeze", starts a solo career

Genesis official members right now are Phil Collins, Tony Banks and Mike Rutherford, and Peter Gabriel and Steve Hackett still play and record as solo artists, while Mike And The Mechanics and also Paul Carrack still record and tour.

Our first Rock and Roll Tree, GENESIS, has 4 branches, PETER GABRIEL, STEVE HACKETT, PHIL COLLINS and MIKE AND THE MECHANICS, and this last, have his own branch in PAUL CARRACK.

The Rocket Dolls debut album

The next generation of Rock and Roll. Thats what they say about rock bands that have a son of a famous rock and roll star in their band. "Fiction Plane" has Sting´s son playing bass and singing, Kofi Baker is Ginger Baker´s, the legendary drummer of Cream playing drums for many artists, including duets with his father and a tribute band to his father´s band, "Cream Experience".

The Rocket Dolls is a band from Brighton that have another rock star son in the band, Benji Knopfler, son of Mark Knopfler, from Dire Straits, but the big surprise here is that Benji didn´t followed his father steps on guitar, Benji is a drummer, and a very good one, and the band where he plays has nothing to do with his father´s career, something of a great value.

The Rocket Dolls is more than a band with a famous name on it. Its a great band that sound really great. They play a mixture of hard rock, grunge and metal with a very good voice that fits perfectly well every single song, powerful guitar riffs, great bass lines and a very energetic and precise drums, always doing what its meant to be done, always doing whats best for the song.

Nikki Smash is on vocals and guitar, and also writes the lyrics, Tommy K plays bass and Benji Knopfler plays drums. They released their first record "Eyes" which totally deserves to be heard.

Check their website
You can follow them in twitter
Also in facebook

And buy his record here