aaamusic | On 26, Sep 2011

EMI Music today celebrated the release of all 14 Pink Floyd studio albums as newly remastered Discovery editions, as well as The Dark Side Of The Moon collectors’ Immersion and Experience editions, by recreating the legendary Pink Floyd ‘Animals’ sleeve. This was the first time in 35 years that the Pink Floyd Pig had floated above Battersea Power Station.

Working together with Battersea Power Station and the inflatable specialists, Air Artists, creators of all the Pink Floyd inflatables since 1976, the 30 foot long by 15 foot high Pig was inflated at dawn reaching full height above the station around 7:00am.

Based on an idea by Roger Waters for the Animals album cover, the original Pink Floyd Pig was created by Hipgnosis with Jeffrey Shaw. Storm Thorgerson commissioned Howard Bartrop to photograph the pig during its flight and the sleeve image was completed over three days.

The final artwork combines two shots: the background, shot on 2 December 1976 and the Pig from 4 December. On 3 December the Pig famously slipped its moorings floating into the Heathrow flight path, eventually being recovered safely by a farmer in Kent. Ironically, a marksman had been hired for the shoot in case the pig got away, but as nothing untoward happened on day one, he was not hired for the second day. He did return for the third day but typically was not needed.

For the past 35 years, the pig has been living in a workshop in Halesworth, Suffolk.

Differing from the original 1976 floatation, the 2011 event saw the Pig fly at the north end of Battersea Power Station next to the river. Sadly, two weeks prior to the flight, and despite repairing a split and creating a new bridle, the original neoprene glued pig was officially declared not airworthy and a brand new high frequency welded PVC replica Pink Floyd Pig was made for the occasion. The Pig was inflated with helium gas from 12 canisters containing 220 cubic feet of gas each.

Pink Floyd’s Nick Mason said, “I think the pig now has more Air Miles than I do….”

Today, under the banner ‘Why Pink Floyd…?’, EMI Music released all 14 Pink Floyd studio albums remastered as brand new Discovery Editions on CD and available digitally. All 14 studio albums are also available as one Discovery Box Set. Also released today were the Immersion and Experience editions of The Dark Side of The Moon, extended to feature unreleased music from the Pink Floyd archives.

‘Wish You Were Here’ Experience and Immersion editions and ‘A Foot In The Door – The Best of Pink Floyd’ follow on November 7. ‘The Wall’ Immersion and Experience editions will be released on 27 February 2012.