Pink Floyd said that their recent benefit song, “Hey, Hey, Rise Up,” raised £500,000 for groups that help people affected by the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
“Hey, Hey, Rise Up” was Pink Floyd’s first new song in more than 30 years. It came out in April. David Gilmour, the leader of the band, has Ukrainian ancestors and has spoken out against the conflict in the past. At the time, he said that the song had been recorded just weeks before to show support for the people fighting against Russia’s invasion.
In a press release, he said, “Like so many others, we are furious and upset about this heinous crime of an independent, peaceful, democratic nation being invaded and its people being killed by one of the world’s great powers.”
Gilmour said of the song’s release, “I hope it will get a lot of support and attention.” We want to boost morale and raise money for humanitarian organisations. We want to show our support for Ukraine and show that most people in the world don’t think it’s okay for a superpower to attack Ukraine, which has become an independent democratic republic.
Soon after the song was released digitally and on streaming services, Pink Floyd put it out on CD and 7-inch vinyl. The money made from collector pressings and the digital release went to charity events.
In a statement released on Christmas Eve, the band said that they had raised £500,000. (December 24). The last £50,000 came from Gilmour and his Pink Floyd bandmate Nick Mason, who was the only other member of the band who helped record “Hey, Hey, Rise Up.”
They said that the money would be given to five charities: Hospitallers, The Kharkiv and Przemyl Project, Vostok SOS, Kyiv Volunteer, and Livyj Bereh.
The band also asked fans to join them in their own charitable work, saying, “Let’s see what else we can do this winter…” with a link to a list of ideas. It would be great if you could give to any of these charities right away.”
Also, like Gilmour and Mason, former Pink Floyd frontman Roger Waters has been in the news because of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. In a heated interview with CNN, Waters said that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was at least mostly to blame for how the conflict started.
He then sent an open letter to Olena Zelenska, the first lady of Ukraine, asking her to tell Zelenskyy to start talking with Russia. He also sent a letter to Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, saying that he was on a “death list” of people who were against Ukraine.
In other Pink Floyd news, the band recently put a bunch of live albums from before the “Dark Side of the Moon” period and a five-song EP of “alternative music” from 1972 on streaming services.
It happened right after the long-awaited remaster of “Animals” came out in September, four years after it was first announced. A month ago, people thought Pink Floyd’s back library could be bought for £400 million.
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