Jul 7: 1979

1979 saw some excellent albums released.

Led Zeppelin released their last proper studio album: 'In through the Out Door'

Supertramp's 'Breakfast in America' was released, and was in the charts several times that year.

Pink Floyd's 'The Wall' was one of the main albums released this year. This included several tracks which are now famous. The first featured some students from a school in London.

The students were from a school in London

They sang 

We don't need no education
We don't need no thought control
No dark sarcasm in the classroom
Teacher, leave them kids alone

Here's the story of the song and the Islington Green School students who sang on it.

There's an interesting connection between David Gilmour and my present school: King's Ely. For his most recent album (at the time of posting) he wanted some choristers to add to the 'vibe' of the first track to be released.

He came to the Lady Chapel in Ely Cathedral, where he recorded the choristers singing, and they had to keep this secret for months.

Here's the result...

Here are some colleagues and students along with David Gilmour.

The school's media team shared this update.

Pink Floyd star, David Gilmour, has released 'Luck and Strange', which is his first original album in nine years. The album features eight new tracks, along with a beautiful reworking of The Montgolfier Brothers’ ‘Between Two Points’, and has artwork and photography by the renowned artist, Anton Corbijn.

Keen to have Cathedral acoustics on the album, David recorded four of the songs at Ely Cathedral.

Thanks to our Director of Music, Mr Neil Porter-Thaw's contacts, King's students, Ivana Peat, Kit Attwater, Olivia Williams, Isobel Holland, Elizabeth Raynes, Alastair Wright, Freddie Wright, and Teacher of Music, Mrs Kirsty Wright, were invited to record with David. Old Elean and former Cathedral Chorister, William Gardner, did the choral arrangements.

Speaking about the once-in-a-lifetime experience, Mrs Wright said: "Our evening of recording with David was an amazing experience. Some of the younger singers had never been part of a recording session that required the use of individual headsets, so we immediately felt like rock stars! They meant that we could hear David and the team singing and playing in one ear all of the time, and we sang "with" him, which was such a thrill! As with all recording sessions, there were a lot of takes, and every so often David would give us the thumbs up or ask for a specific note or lyric to be highlighted, and when he did the next take it was always a really good one! Polly Samson, David's wife, was there taking photos and videos, which can already be seen in the music video for 'A Piper's Call'. We sang in both the Lady Chapel and under the Octagon. Even though it was a lot of concentrating and a late night, it was a musical experience that we will never forget, and I know that we are all very grateful to Mr P-T for organising and conducting us, to Will Gardner for his fabulous choral arrangements, and particularly to David for trusting us with his very precious songs."

The classic track from the album is of course 'Comfortably Numb' - a point towards which all Pink Floyd / David Gilmour concerts build....

A film of 'The Wall' was made by Alan Parker. I went to see it at the cinema in Huddersfield when it was released with Bob Geldof playing a lead role. I saw a lot of films around that time and had a Halliwell's guide where I highlighted all the films I saw. 

When I was a student at the Polytechnic I was a member of the film club. I remember the first time I saw Carrie at one of their events: a great film which produced a great response in those watching.

As a post script, this version of 'Another Brick in the Wall' was something I used in my teaching for a while...

By Eric Prydz.

What other key albums were released in 1979 which deserve a mention here? Let me know...

This made an impact at the time...