Pink Floyd - a moment in time 30 years ago

Above: a compilation of news reports on Pink Floyd's 1988 concert near Perth, Australia.

When Pink Floyd took to the stage at East Fremantle Oval exactly 30 years ago, I was not expecting a concert that would live so vividly in my memory. But the magical sense of place and feeling of that evening has not been diminished by the passing of three decades.

As the sun went down on a sultry mid-summer day in Australia, beneath the twinkly stars of the southern sky, some 25,000 people gathered at the outdoor sports ground to witness the music and laser show spectacle. It wasn't cheap; tickets were $37, which was a sizable bite into my budget at the time. I was 21, and living cheaply as a backpacker on a one-year working-visa. However, my budget took secondary consideration next to the draw of such a big night. Pink Floyd were part of the pantheon of modern music greats, alongside The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and The Who.

Big night: concert ticket and photo of the Pink Floyd
gig at East Fremantle Oval, February 24, 1988

Up until that evening the music of Pink Floyd had drifted in and out of my life, mostly through the 1979 hit Another Brick in the Wall. When I arrived in Western Australia at the start of 1988, I found the band's new single On the Turning Away was receiving heavy radio airplay. I was deeply struck by this song - then and now - and regard it as one of their greatest moments.

The Pink Floyd of 1988 was a patched together, not quite complete version of the band that created a string of masterpieces in the 1960s and 1970s. The group had fractured in the early 1980s with Richard Wright, the keyboard/singer, the first to depart followed by singer-songwriter Roger Waters. At that stage, with only two core members remaining, it seemed the band was done. But in the heat and ashes of bitter legal wrangles, singer-guitarist David Gilmour and drummer Nick Mason re-engaged with Wright, recorded a new album, A Momentary Lapse of Reason (1987), and set about self-financing a world tour.

I'd been immensely impressed by On The Turning Away, not at all by its follow-up The Dogs of War, but mesmorised again by another track Learning to Fly. I was staying at Travelmates, a backpackers' hostel in Perth. A group of fellow travellers who were seriously into Pink Floyd convinced me it would be worth shelling out $37 for a ticket. And so I went to East Fremantle Oval that evening.

There was a uniqueness to the night. As we stood in the sweet, warm evening air we were bathed in more than simply music; it was an experience and total immersion in sound and laser lights. Giant inflatables soared above the crowd, one a pig, another the frightful schoolteacher immortalised in the video for Another Brick In The Wall.

It was jaw-dropping and intangibly uplifting.  The Cold War was thawing, the world seemed to be shifting and Pink Floyd, the musical kings, were providing a timeless soundtrack. The evening captured something of that moment, a feeling of freedom, of new beginnings and new possibilities.

Not everyone was happy. The staging of an outdoor rock concert by one of the biggest bands in the world, in the middle of suburbia, caused plenty of local criticism - as evident in the contemporary newscasts in the video above. I also remember one amusing quip in the press the following day from a retired music teacher who lived nearby, he derided the night claiming Pink Floyd "wouldn't know a tuning fork from a pitch fork".

Others have reminisced about vast plumes of marijuana smoke that hung heavy above the crowd that evening. There certainly was a thick fragrance, which may have had some baring on the laid back attitude of the police who peacefully monitored the event from a distance.

As it turned out it was the last concert Pink Floyd ever played in Australia. They had one more world tour, in 1994, which had no Australian dates. After that they were gone, bar for a last-minute, unexpected reunion by all four members to perform three songs in London's Hyde Park during the Live 8 charity event in 2005.

Having seen and heard the reinvigorated Pink Floyd, I kept their music by my side for the rest of my year-long adventure in Australia, and for years later. The live album of that tour, Delicate Sound of Thunder, to this day sparks vivid memories of that time - but no track more so than On The Turning Away.

Even as the decades have ticked by, I hoped that I would get a chance to see Pink Floyd one more time. But following the death of Wright in 2006 that possibility all but vanished, and the gap between the last tour and today is now wider than Pink Floyd's entire recording career (1967-94)*. However, I shall always treasure that night of warmth, joy and togetherness at East Fremantle Oval.

* Excluding The Endless River (2014). My review can be read here.
Video: Pink Floyd perform On the Turning Away during the 1987-90 world tour


Video: Nick Mason interview the day before the East Fremantle concert

Dolphin Girl and the wartime secret keeper

Book comments: Jim Humphreys' faxed letter about Dolphin Girl.

A man who knew one of the big secrets of the Second World War has died at 100.

James Humphreys Jr also wrote kind words about Dolphin Girl shortly after it first appeared in the Eating Clouds collection in 2008. He felt it should be turned into a movie and suggested who might be the perfect producer.

More on that in a moment, but first some words on Jim. He was a US Navy Lieutenant during the Second World War and was stationed in Bermuda in 1944, where he met his future wife Shirley. She was a volunteer nurse's aide and tended to patients at the US military hospital in Southampton. She was tasked with looking after a German U-boat commander, Admiral Harald Lange, who along with his submarine and crew members had been captured by the Americans.

The big secret was that the capture in 1944 had resulted in an Enigma machine and assorted codebooks falling into the hands of the Allies. While codebreakers in the UK had already cracked many of the Enigma codes, the additional resources from the captured U-boat gave further insights, including a coordinate code for locating the rendezvous locations of the submarines.

Of significant value was the capture of the submarine U-505. It was towed to Bermuda, where its acoustic homing torpedoes were analysed and tested. This gave the Allies crucial information on ways to counter the technology.

It was vital that the capture of the U-boat and its crew remained a secret - lest the Germans find out how much the Allies had learned from the codes and torpedoes. Shirley was sworn to secrecy, although she shared the secret with her beloved Jim. Together they kept the information under wraps for 50 years. The couple married and after the war lived in the US before returning to Bermuda in 1980. It was only in 1992 that the wartime secret was revealed during interviews.

Shirley died in 1999. By all accounts, Jim felt Bermuda was his home as it had played such a significant part in his life and he remained on the island for the rest of his days.
I met Jim in November 2005. He was a wartime veteran taking part in the annual Remembrance Day parade on Front Street, Hamilton. I was compiling a report for The Royal Gazette newspaper and I spoke to him and a number of the other veterans. Jim was 88, and in our brief exchange he did not mention the drama of the U-boat secret.

Three years later, the original edition of Eating Clouds was published. It contained a mixture of journalism and life stories that I had collected over the years. The second part of the book featured the short novel Dolphin Girl, which became an expanded and improved standalone novel in 2015.

An article about Eating Clouds appeared in the newspaper in December 2005, and two weeks later a fax arrived at the newspaper office from Jim. It was addressed to me, and in it Jim wrote he had enjoyed the book "especially Dolphin Girl" and added: "I recommend that you consult Michael Douglas and ask him to consider being the producer of the film, Dolphin Girl. Special effects rendition of Dolphin Girl changing from a dolphin to a gorgeous blonde as the Scottish team, led by Josh and Katrina, save her is an Academy candidate winner."

Jim also mentioned that I had interviewed him a few years earlier. I wrote back thanking him for his words, which were among the first positive feedback received regarding Eating Clouds and Dolphin Girl. I've yet to take up Jim's recommendation to approach Mr Douglas (who occasionally resides in Bermuda) regarding a Dolphin Girl film.

It was sad to hear of Jim's passing this week. However, I'm glad he lived a full and remarkable life, that our paths crossed and that he stayed happy and engaged with the world to such a grand age - as evident by an interview a colleague conducted with him last year on his 100th birthday.
This is a salute to retired US Navy Lt Jim Humphreys. Fair winds and following seas.

A Royal Gazette obituary article on Mr Humphreys: https://tinyurl.com/y7cmvd7r

Please Stand By for a great movie

On a mission: Wendy has to reach Los Angeles
before the screenwriting competition deadline

It's always a pleasure to come across a movie out of the blue that entertains, tugs on emotions and is enjoyable to the last.

Please Stand By tells the story of a young woman with autism, played by Dakota Fanning, who runs away from her caregiver in order to submit a screenplay she has written to a Star Trek contest.

This new film has been released simultaneously at theatres and through iTunes and Amazon.

Fanning plays the role of Wendy, who has some remarkable yet under-appreciated talents. Even as her erratic mission to deliver her Star Trek screenplay falls apart, she overcomes her fears. At one point she does this by following the wisdom of Spock - in the words that she wrote - where the only logical direction to go is "forward".

Toni Collette, in the role of caregiver Scottie, was the reason I took a chance on this new release. Collete has given a string of great performances over the years, including her breakthrough hit Muriel's Wedding, and she is masterful in this outing, as is Alice Eve, another newcomer to me, who plays Wendy's sister Audrey.

Perfect casting: Dakota Fanning's performance as Wendy is memorable

While the strong and clear plot revolves around Wendy's attempt to deliver her screenplay before the competition deadline, the theme of Please Stand By is very much one of relationships, empathy and family. The upsets are believable, and even in the seemingly most hopeless moments there is an underlying positivity, a flickering flame that refuses to go out. We never want to give up on Wendy.

All together, Please Stand By handles an interesting topic in a sensitive and uplifting way. Fanning is a star on the rise, and Collette and Eve are on point in their supporting roles. My emotions were tugged repeatedly by this film, which in moments reminded me of David Lynch's wonderful Straight Story.

The scripting is tight and believable; the cinematography and accompanying music are a delight. The soundtrack features the melodic Au Revoir Simone and also the relatively obscure group Lavender Diamond, whose play out tune Open Your Heart perfectly captures the mood.

At a time when Hollywood seems to be losing the plot with soulless blockbuster franchises, it is good to know that little films such as Please Stand By are also being made and seeing the light of day.

Official trailer for Please Stand By: