Pink Floyd have announced a 50th anniversary edition of their iconic album Wish You Were Here.
Wish You Were Here 50 will be released via Sony Music on December 12 and will give fans a new perspective into one of the Shine On You Crazy Diamond band’s most popular albums.
The 50th anniversary edition features multiple discs of rarities, with the core of the special collection including six previously unreleased alternate versions and demos presenting Pink Floyd’s ninth studio album in a new way that urges repeat listening.
The album will be released in several formats including 3LP, 2CD, Blu-ray, digital and a Deluxe Box Set.
The digital release includes the original 1975 record with a new Dolby Atmos mix by James Guthrie, whose work with Pink Floyd dates back to the 1979 album The Wall.
It also features 25 bonus tracks made up of nine studio rarities and 16 live recordings captured by renowned bootlegger Mike Millard at the Money band’s Los Angeles Sports Arena concert in April 1975, which is now getting its first official release.
The Blu-ray edition will give fans the opportunity to see three concert screen films from the band’s 1975 tour as well as a Storm Thorgerson short film, while the 3LP and 2CD formats include the original record and nine studio bonus tracks.
The Deluxe Box Set includes aforementioned material plus a fourth clear vinyl LP. Live At Wembley 1974, a replica Japanese seven-inch single of Have A Cigar b/w Welcome To The Machine, a hardcover book including unseen photos, a comic book tour programme and a Knebworth concert poster.
Exclusive 50th anniversary merchandise along with limited edition product release will also be available at PinkFloyd.com.
To mark the album’s announcement, a previously unheard early demo recording of Welcome to the Machine originally titled The Machine Song has been released.
Shorter in length than the original epic, The Machine Song (Demo #2, Revisited) gives fan an exciting preview of what to expect from Wish You Were Here 50.
Other studio rarities being released include The Machine Song (Roger’s demo), the first home demo of the track that Roger Waters originally brought to the band, a previously unheard instrumental version of the title track Wish You Were Here featuring David Gilmour’s pedal steel guitar and, for the first time, a complete version of Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Pts 1-9) – that joins together the song’s two halves that have been newly mixed in stereo by James Guthrie.
Wish You Were Here has been a fixture of all-time greatest albums lists for decades with its themes of absence and isolation a powerful response to Pink Floyd’s global fame.