PINK FLOYD got the band back together for a united cause: the ongoing war in Ukraine.
The English rock legends released Hey Hey Rise Up on Thursday, their first single in 28 years, which reunites founding member and drummer Nick Mason with guitarist David Gilmour, longtime Pink Floyd collaborator and bassist Guy Pratt and keyboardist Nitin Sawhney.
All proceeds will go to humanitarian relief in Ukraine.
“We, like so many, have been feeling the fury and the frustration of this vile act of an independent, peaceful democratic country being invaded and having its people murdered by one of the world’s major powers,“ said Gilmour.
The 76-year-old has a Ukrainian daughter-in-law and grandchildren, in a statement.
The track features vocals from Andriy Khlyvnyuk of Ukrainian band Boombox, taken from a recent Instagram video of him singing Ukrainian protest song Oh, the Red Viburnum in the Meadow in Kyiv’s Sofiyskaya Square.
The title of the Pink Floyd song comes from the last line, which translates to “hey hey rise up and rejoice.”
Gilmour discovered the video after Boombox backed him at a 2015 show in London.
Most recently, Khlyvnyuk left Boombox's U.S. tour and returned to Ukraine, where he's joined the Territorial Defense Forces and is currently recovering from a shrapnel injury.
“Then I saw this incredible video on Instagram, where he stands in a square in Kyiv with this beautiful gold-domed church and sings in the silence of a city with no traffic or background noise because of the war,“ Gilmour recalled.
“It was a powerful moment that made me want to put it to music.”
Gilmour has since spoken Khlyvnyuk over phone from his Kyiv hospital bed.
“I played him a little bit of the song down the phone line and he gave me his blessing,“ he said.
Pink Floyd previously announced that they were removing all of their music since 1987, as well as all of Gilmour's solo recordings, from digital music providers in Russia and Belarus.
