Pink Floyd have raised £500,000 with Ukraine relief charity single

Virgin Radio

28 Dec 2022, 16:17

Five humanitarian charities will receive the dosh.

Here's a nice story for this festive time of goodwill.

Pink Floyd have revealed that, thanks to their recent benefit single ‘Hey Hey Rise Up’ - the group's first new song in nearly three decades - they’ve raised £500,000 for humanitarian charities.

In a statement shared on Christmas Eve (December 24th), the band confirmed that they’d reached the momentous half-million-pound milestone. 

The track sees founder members David Gilmour and Nick Mason joined by long-time Pink Floyd bass player Guy Pratt, and Nitin Sawhney on keyboards.

It also features a vocal performance by Andriy Khlyvnyuk of Ukrainian band Boombox.

Entitled ‘Hey Hey Rise Up’, the song was released back in April, with the aim of raising money to aid those affected by the ongoing Russian-Ukraine war.

The charities who will receive the money are HospitallersThe Kharkiv And Przemyśl ProjectVostok SOSKyiv Volunteer and Livyj Bereh.

When the song was put into the world, bandleader Gilmour – who has a Ukrainian family – said the track was recorded just weeks prior as a show of solidarity to those fighting against Russia’s invading military.

He said in a statement, “We, like so many, have been feeling the fury and the frustration of this vile act of an independent, peaceful democratic country being invaded and having its people murdered by one of the world’s major powers."

On his ambitions for the song’s release, Gilmour continued: “I hope it will receive wide support and publicity. We want to raise funds for humanitarian charities, and raise morale. We want express our support for Ukraine and in that way, show that most of the world thinks that it is totally wrong for a superpower to invade the independent democratic country that Ukraine has become.”

This is great news... unless you're Roger Waters, that is...

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