Pink Floyd are removing their music from streaming sites in Russia and Belarus in protest at Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine.
David Gilmour is also removing his solo material.
“To stand with the world in strongly condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the works of Pink Floyd, from 1987 onwards, and all of David Gilmour’s solo recordings are being removed from all digital music providers in Russia an Belarus from today,” the band wrote on Twitter.
To stand with the world in strongly condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the works of Pink Floyd, from 1987 onwards, and all of David Gilmour’s solo recordings are being removed from all digital music providers in Russia and Belarus from today. pic.twitter.com/lTV7T3y29u
— Pink Floyd (@pinkfloyd) March 11, 2022
Gilmour, whose daughter-in-law is Ukrainian, also took to Twitter.
“Russian soldiers, stop killing your brothers,” he wrote. “There will be no winners in this war. My daughter in law is Ukrainian and my grand-daughters want to visit and know their beautiful country. Stop this before it is all destroyed. Putin must go.”
Russian soldiers, stop killing your brothers. There will be no winners in this war.
My daughter-in-law is Ukrainian and my grand-daughters want to visit and know their beautiful country. Stop this before it is all destroyed.
Putin must go pic.twitter.com/VE4oMsUIRf
— David Gilmour (@davidgilmour) March 1, 2022
All of Pink Floyd’s pre-1987 albums will remain available in Russia. The band have yet to confirm the reason behind this but it would seemingly have something to do with Roger Waters, who left the band in 1985.
A Ukrainian fan, Alina Mitrofanova, wrote to Waters on Facebook urging him to speak out against Russia.
“I ask Roger to speak publicly about this war, because I still cannot understand how a person, who wrote a significant number of anti-war lyrics, hasn’t spoken about tragedy yet,” she wrote. “However, a man who speaks about risks of nuclear catastrophe and about the senselessness of the war cannot be silent in this situation.”
Waters replied through an open letter.
“I read your letter, I feel your pain, I am disgusted by Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, it is a criminal mistake in my opinion, the act of a gangster, there must be an immediate ceasefire,” he wrote.
In his lengthy response, Waters went on to hold Western powers responsible for the escalation of tensions between Russia and Ukraine and compared the situation to the conflict between Israel and Palestine.
“I will do anything I can to help effect the end of this awful war in your country, anything that is except wave a flag to encourage the slaughter,” he wrote.
You can see his full response in the video below.
Pink Floyd recently released a dozen live albums from the early 1970s online for the first time.
The live shows span from a Leeds University appearance in February 1970 to a Tokyo concert in March 1972. The latter features seven tracks from Dark Side of the Moon, a year before that album’s release.
