This month marks the 40th birthday of one of music’s most important albums, and if you were planning on celebrating the release of Pink Floyd’s legendary concept album by listening to the record and watching The Wizard Of Oz, well you might want to rethink your plans.
The British group are set to mark the milestone with their own form of celebrations and fans are being asked to pitch in.
Iconic and acclaimed album, The Dark Side Of The Moon is set to celebrate its 40th anniversary this Sunday 24th March and Pink Floyd are gearing up to join in the nostalgia with fans worldwide to celebrate the landmark 1973 album.
In a press release from the legendary English rockers, they’ve asked fans to contribute “each memory, thought and photo” to “unite to turn a specially designed moon dark.” What exactly does that mean? Well, Pink Floyd will be playing back the 1973 record on their official website, and are asking fans from all over the globe to send in their thoughts, memories and photos of the much loved record via twitter using #DarkSide40.
The group will then compile the social media nostalgia, and for the The Dark Side Of The Moon‘s 40th anniversary bash – Sunday starting at 11:01AM (EDT) to be precise – they’ll begin posting fans’ contributions to the website with the iconic album as the soundtrack.Pink Floyd have asked fans to contribute “each memory, thought and photo” to “unite to turn a specially designed moon dark.
The anniversary celebrations don’t stop there. Equally legendary musical figure, artist Storm Thorgerson of Hipgnosis, who designed the iconic album artwork 40 years ago has, with the help of Storm Designs, re-imagined the classic image in 14 new prism designs.
The graphic designer is famed for his album artwork and is responsible for some of music’s most iconic images in his work with Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath, and more recently, Muse and Biffy Clyro, and of course Pink Floyd. Design group Hipgnosis has a catalogue of work similarly impressive, with the group king of all things rock in artwork for 25 years before it dissolved in 1983.
Thorgerson created the original prism artwork after he was asked to create a “simple and bold” design for the record by the band. The 14 new designs are being revealed daily on the band’s website with a number of the re-imagined versions up online already. There’s lots to like too, including everything from a florally arranged prism on a bed of roses, to a Monet inspired painting, and the image painted across a woman’s back.
The end result will be a collage of prisms forming a celebratory poster that will be available to download in three different sizes on Sunday.
The critically acclaimed record has enjoyed phenomenal success since its release 40 years in the UK ago where it spent an incredible 30 years in the UK album charts. It went to number one in the US, Pink Floyd’s first number one there at the time, and remained in the charts for 741 weeks between 1973 and 1988.
Its influence on musicians and artists since is immeasurable, including countless musical tributes, but most notably a bona fide reggae-fied version from Easy Star All-Stars called Dub Side Of The Moon in 2003, and Oklohama’s favourite musical freaks, The Flaming Lips, who joined forces with Star Death and White Dwarfs (along with both Henry Rollins and Peaches) to completely rework Pink Floyd’s magnum opus, track for track.
Visit darkside40.pinkfloyd.com, or start tweeting at the band with #DarkSide40, to get in on the celebrations.
