This article is classified "Real"
After some twenty-eight years in the rock and roll business you might
expect that supergroup Pink Floyd would be beyond needing gimmicks to
sell their albums. But no.
Their latest release at time of writing is a cunningly packaged and
expensive collection of live performances of classic Floyd songs. You
would have thought that since Pink Floyd are quite capable of selling out
Earl's Court [1] they could sell enough copies of an album to keep their
royalties rolling in.
Unfortunately for us we have to suffer some smart-alec publicity manager
[2] who came up with the idea for Pulse. For those of you who haven't
seen it - the box for the CD Pulse contains a red LED which flashes at a
constant rate. The packaging notes explain that the battery will run out
after six months. The packaging even suggests that you find other uses
for the box. It suggests that you can use it to slow your own pulse or
you can put it in your car as a substitute for a car alarm.
In the recycling tradition that grew with the eighties, here are other
uses for the packaging to Pulse.
1) You can put it on your amplifier and pretend that it is a
graphic equalizer.
10) You can strap it to your push bike as a warning light when
riding at night.
11) You can hang it above a baby's crib as a fascinating
mobile.
100) You can wait for the battery to fail so that you know when
six months have passed since you bought Pulse.
101) You can use it to give people epileptic fits.
And you can use it to count in binary.
[1] I said "selling out Earl's Court", and not "selling bits of the
Earl's Court stands until the audience sat on it and it collapsed."
[2] I hope it was some suit's idea and not one of the band.
[3] I must admit that I haven't heard Pulse nor gone to any Pink Floyd
concert, but I have most of their albums.