John Foxx and The Maths have covered the classic Pink Floyd track Have A Cigar for the cover CD on the October edition of Mojo Magazine.

I'll shortly be posting an exclusive interview with John and Benge where they reveal how they put this track together.

The track Have A Cigar originally appeared on Pink Floyd's 1975 album Wish You Were Here.

Rob

Not sure if I'd be buying Mojo Rob, but very interesting choice and I'd definitely like to hear that one from John and Benge, oh, and by the way, which ones Pink?

It's well worth the cover price...

Rob

That exclusive interview I mentioned earlier today is now on-line...

Rob

thanks for that Rob, really interesting interview. I'd love to hear the Maths do some of those covers as suggested by John, he had my hopes up for a moment that Have A Cigar might be played at a forthcoming gig, but have to agree about the lyrical content and dated theme, and I did think it was a strange choice from the album, but explanation from John has cleared that one up. I like the 'which ones Matt' line, but pity they were pipped to the Machine post, what did you dream, its alright we told you what to dream...

Thanks Rob.

Looking forward for a copy of MOJO.

Great!

Will definitely get this issue of Mojo. Cheers Rob.

Excellent stuff! Just a word of warning - looks like there are two CDs - one covering Dark Side of the Moon, one Wish You Were Here so be careful to pick up the right one! I'll probably get both ...

I think "Wish You Were Here" (the song) would have worked too, in an "Interplay" (the song) kind of way.

Nice mention of The Wooly Fish. I wonder if that song exists ...

Thanks for the advice! I noticed the cover on Rob's interview suggests Dark Side Of The Moon is covered.

Weird...

Looking forward very much to the release of this exclusive and unique track

where's the interview? link please...

http://www.metamatic.com/zHaveacigardocs/201108interview.html

Rob

Just to make it clear (thanks to Garry Hensey for pointing this out)

There is only ONE CD on the MOJO cover that contains BOTH albums "Wish You Were Here" and "Dark Side Of The Moon"

It is OUT NOW in a newsagent near you...

Yes, my bad, I do apologise. It's the kind of thing I've seen happen before though, so congratulations to Mojo on this occasion for not being tempted down that route.

thanks, very good interview. An interesting choice of possible cover versions!

I would certainly like to hear John do "Neon Lights".

The full-track-listing to Mojo's cover CD is as follows...

**

Return To The Dark Side Of The Moon

01. Speak To Me : Gallops
02. Breathe : Our Broken Garden
03. On The Run : The Oscillation
04. Time : Wolf People
05. The Great Gig In The Sky : The Last Hurrah!!
06. Money : The Pineapple Thief
07. Us And Them : Doug Paisley Featuring Garth And Maud Hudson
08. Any Colour You Like : Matt Berry
09. Brain Damage : Neville Skelly
10. Eclipse : of Arrowe Hill

Wish You Were Here Again

11. Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Part One) : Malachai
12. Welcome To The Machine : Beak>
13. Have A Cigar : John Foxx And The Maths
14. Wish You Were Here : Lia Ices
15. Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Part Two) : The Orb

**

Rob

What always fascinates me about things like this is how they exemplify John's relevance to the underground sub-contemporary scene.

Time and again John Foxx appears on compilation albums that feature no other artists I've ever heard of.

It's wonderful sign of exactly how much his music matters to people, and how much of an influence he still is.

I bought the magazine today. I also like The Pineapple Thief so that was two artists that I'd heard of. The John Foxx And The Maths track is different. I like that in covers. More electronic which I suppose you'd expect. A good track.

I love this version of Have a Cigar, it sounds just like its off Interplay, well done John and Benge.

I like it. Very good, very Maths.

I'm yet to hear it. Although I love the album, Cigar is probably my most skipped one on it. With that in mind, they can only have improved upon it!

It's a great version you won't be disappointed.

However, I've never "got" this skipping tracks thing. At least in those days, an album was 'an album' not a collection of songs.
Each track in some way affected by, related to, a reaction to those before and following.
The artists put tracks in a particular order for a particular reason, so I've always been one for listening to things in context.

We're all different of course, but in this case I reckon you have to listen to the rest of the album to get the fiull benefit of John's role in the project.
Just my opinion, for what its worth. Guess I'm Old Skool

The following has just been posted on MOJO's website...

**

First, the bad news. Following an unfortunate production error, John Foxx And The Maths' version of Have A Cigar on this month's MOJO covermount CD, Return To The Dark Side Of The Moon / Wish You Were Here Again, is not the finished version of the track.

And now for the good news. You can download the correct and completed track right here for free! MOJO would like to apologise to John and his band for this fault. The technical gremlins have now been silenced.

Download Have A Cigar HERE. (Click 'Save Link As')

And there's more. John Foxx And The Maths' excellent new single Evergreen is also available to download for free. You can do that right HERE. (Click 'Save Link As')

John will be performing classic Ultravox songs and tracks from his new album Interplay when he tours the UK in October.

Check out all the dates and details of how to buy tickets HERE.

**

Rob

Oh well, at least everybody who bought Mojo just for the track now has the collectable version!

Never been keen on the track itself, but I like this. Substantially different.

And a good choice of single with Evergreen. Subtle differences.

Cheers Rob,

Hope I can play aif files (my Ipad probably will:)

Brian

Yup,my HTC Desire won't play it.Will try my Ipad later.

Unbelievable! Thanks Rob.

One wonders how Mojo got the 'wrong' version...?

Just played it on my iPad,yup sounds more finished. but I still like both versions.

Will convert the aif file into something my pc and phone can play later

Brian

Thanks for the link, Rob!

Great version. Would be nice to hear it live on the tour.

Wonderful job, John and Benge!


Is there a big difference to the Mojo version?

Hi Andreas,

Beginning & end are the main differences but the whole mix sounds thicker with a lot more elements.

Brian

Thank you Brian.

I will look if I can get a copy - would be interesting listening to the "unfinished version " too.

Really nice work...

So, you like John Foxx and the Maths? and you like those two great albums by Pink Floyd? so making a trip into town especially to buy a copy of MOJO is a no-brainer right?

Hmm, 'wish I'd stayed here and not gone there', or at least kept off the grass from the lunatics, cos this 'album' is truly abysmal.

Putting aside for the moment the argument that one should never remake a classic created by another artist - and DSOTM is undoubtedly one of those works - the heart and blood of Pink Floyd's idiosyncratic art at a towering peak, and of course if certain styles of music don't appeal to you then you'll be unable to embrace all of the styles present on this mixed bag, or 're-booted' as MOJO describe it, and thus, I'd like to boot some of its tracks all the way up to the dark side of the moon forever.

John and Benge thankfully are one of the saving graces here for me, one of the few attempting any difference - the only thing that didn't gell I felt with their take on Have A Cigar stemmed solely from the Floyd camp, the original lyrics just don't seem to do John's vocabulary any justice. Also, it seemed that although the song was on the right path it was not quite there yet, well mystery solved, having got the admission from MOJO that they screwed up, after downloading and hearing the tastier version that should have been on the disc its clear that John and Benge tweaked that Floyd track into a worthy addition to the Maths studio style.


As for the rest of the disc, well, its personal taste of course, its the indifferent, the bad, and the good on my ears:

Gallops Speak To Me, and The Oscillation's On The Run, are instantly forgettable, and Neville Skelly's Brain Damage was plain boring. The verdict is still out for me with The Last Hurrah's easy listening version of The Great Gig In The Sky - though I do like the sound of lounge, so I'm likely to play this one again. The Orb, who I liked last century up until their lame Pomme Fritz album, put in a nicely dubby but overall lazy version of Shine On You Crazy Diamond Part Two.

Annoyingly, I like the music on Breathe and Shine On You Crazy Diamond Part One but Our Broken Garden and Malachai respectively spoil it all for me with their unavoidable and potentially irritatingly weak female vocals, and then Lia Ices goes one better, or worse rather, with its singer trashing Wish You Were Here.
Wolf People had me racing for the off switch with their pubrock Time, as does the Pineapple Thief's Money, and Of Arrowe Hill had me reaching for the shotgun and blasting my CD player at point blank range to obliterate from memory that goddamn awful version of Eclipse.


It leaves only four tracks from this venture that I'd happily play on repeat, Beak> with their Welcome To The Machine and its Wire/Elastica influenced tempo, which leads smoothly into John and Benge's contribution. The biggest unexpected surprise for me was finding myself loving Doug Paisleys Us And Them (there's a kind of Besnard Lakes quality to it that appeals to me), and this is followed really neatly by Matt Berry's short but trippy Any Colour You Like.

I've added JF&M cover version to the Have a Cigar wikipedia page (in English)

Call me a bit of a purist, but I find the whole idea of John doing cover versions a bad idea. For me, when an artist starts covering songs by other acts he’s saying two things;
i) that he’s run out of original ideas
ii) that he’s admitting he lacks the ability to write a song as good as the one he’s covering.

I don’t think in John’s case, either of the above is true so I’m mystified as to why he accepted this commission. Yes, it may gain him a new fan or two but is it really worth compromising his artistic integrity to do so? I hope John’s list of songs to cover in the interview was tongue in cheek – if it wasn’t he might as well pack in doing original material altogether and join the other karaoke acts on the X Factor!

I don't have a problem with John doing a cover version myself.

Had it been released and marketed as a single, then that's a bit of a worry, but as an ode to a great band who has indeed influenced his work (as mentioned in the interview), then that's totally fine by me. Some of the greatest artists ever have done covers in their time, and take a look at a vast bulk of electronic music: it's built up on sampling other pieces.

If it were him singing over the original backing track, then I'd feel a real need to be concerned.

Phil Oakey of The Human league on cover versions in examiner.com

I have tried to download these two tracks twice, whats an AIF file anyway. If I save it as that or as "all files" all I get is a loud scratchy feedback on both Have a Cigar and Evergreen, so I am unable to enjoy these two.
Is anyone able to assist me with an mp3 of them, I dont like to ask, but feel left out of not being able to enjoy. Or can Mojo put them into some other format so they can be downloaded in a conventional manner?
Many thanks
Peter

This all seems a bit odd to me. I downloaded both tracks (.aiff) files, opened them with itunes and they play perfectly...??

well i for one cannot get them to play, maybe they dont like Real Player?

Have just downloaded again, they are fine on i-tunes but dont seem to like Windows or Real player's. Finally I can enjoy these two.

I had a similar problem. Soundforge (which normally plays just about any audio formet) had a hissy fit and refused to load the aiffs. In the end I had to use the freeware "VLC player" to hear them on my PC.

As for converting to mp3, there are plenty of audio convertor programs knocking about. Just type "aiff mp3 convert free" into your favourite search engine and take your pick!

iTunes will convert it too.

Brill! I love it - I'm secretly pleased about getting access to the track as finding a copy of Mojo out here? Not easy! Will do my best though, as I'd like to hear the wrong version too!

Covers are a special place, and I find myself agnostic to the concept and just listen to what I hear. I love Die Krupps version of Metallica's "Sandman", but would never buy the original. Similarly (although probably less enthusiastically) the Revolting Cocks version of "D'Ya Think I'm Sexy" blows away Rod Stewart's version!
Conversely, what was Rita Coolidge thinking when she re-did "We're All Alone"? "Let me sing out of step and pretend it is fashionably cool?"?? Nah, that is Boz Scaggs at his best.

Anyway, love the song - will listen to the original (oops -admits he hasn't heard it yet), and then judge!

Nice to get these oddities now and then!

Downloaded the version today , not what I expected, a bit "heavy"

It reminded me that One Two , the Claudia Brucken/Paul Humphrey project had done a cover of the track a few years ago.

Found this youtube link if anyone wants a listen. A bit more traditional in a "Propaganda" stylee.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjoxViwLLbs

Use audacity. It's free, and it handles AIF files.
You'll need the LAME encoder installed as well, to export as mp3.
I already had it installed and configured.

** You can get audacity to record ANYTHING ypu can play on your computer. You then export as mp3.. all it takes is a bit of fiddling to enable the "WAVE" output (disabled by default).
So you can record myspace.. **

Re: OneTwo version:
Very Nice.
Shame it just stops abruptly. (see my earlier post about audacity..)

Cheers for posting, never heard anything before by OneTwo, their cover reminds me a bit of Frankie's Two Tribes, but yikes! that ending is painful. I'm really enjoying the downloadable Cigar version from John & The Maths, and its been a worthy project for them to undertake, don't know if its just down to the familiarity of the track but I've had it constantly going around in my head without having to actually play it, so its definitely passed the whistle test.

Regarding the rest of the album, I've still no interest in the majority of tracks but those few I do like have been getting constant replay, so £4.50 well spent afterall!

Can't find a copy of MOJO..
Does anyone have an MP3 version of the (COVER DISK version of the)track?

I like OneTwo. The tracks on their myspace page are quality, although they haven't been updated for years. (OMD revival probably getting in the way, and I note that Claudia has a new single out - not keen on that, look on Youtube for the vid....)

Cancel that! Just got a copy of MOJO from Smiths.. just come in.

Yeah I love OneTwo as well, saw them at Leicester Cathedral a few years back when they did a mixture of OneTwo, OMD,Propaganda and Act stuff. It would make a great venue for John for a future gig.

Stand out tracks off the CD for me are:

Time by Wolf People and Breathe by Our Broken Garden (great name but real name Anna Brønsted - she's Danish y'know).

Cheers much MemberD, your enthusiasm got me searching outwith the box, or outwith the moon rather. I was less than impressed by those covers but thought to myself that all of the artists involved have been taken out of their natural context and that it might be worth investigating what their own material sounds like, also it helps to illuminate why Mojo selected them for the project.

I think I'd have to wear a patchwork waistcoat and a pair of maroon coloured loon pants before embracing Wolf People but Our Broken Garden turned out to be a really good find for my ears. There are some very fine tracks indeed to be found across Anna Bronstead's two albums - When Your Blackening Shows, and Golden Sea. Certainly on the first album there is a Floyd sound at play in some of her work together with an element of 60's girl pop.

I particularly love these beautiful tracks -
Watermark:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8_4TeCUKHM

The Departure:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKCcI_vUKdQ

JF&M cover version added to "Secon Hand Songs" list

http://www.secondhandsongs.com/performance/177399

(NB I notice OneTwo's version is not listed!)