Are Pink Floyd about to recreate the Animals sleeve at Battersea Power Station?

By Natasha Scharf
( Prog )
last updated

Cryptic message appears on Pink Floyd's social media accounts hinting that something special could be taking place at Battersea Power Station in late September

Pink Floyd Animals 2018 remix cover image of Battersea in 2018 with a flying pig
(Image credit: Pink Floyd/Press)

Pink Floyd have taken to social media with a cryptic message surrounding the long-awaited release of Animals (2018 Remix). And fans want to know what it means!

The post, which appeared on Twitter and Facebook after lunchtime on September 23, was accompanied by the image of a modern Battersea skyline with a flying pig visible it the sky. It reads:

"To mark the release of Pink Floyd's Animals 2018 Remix, London's Battersea Power Station will be an eminently suitable canvas next Wednesday and Thursday, between 8:30pm - 11pm, with a sneak preview on Tuesday night at the same time, as a test run..."

Could Algie, the inflatable pink pig from the original artwork, be about to take flight again? Will the remaining members of the band be making a rare special appearance? We'll be keeping an eye on the London sky on September 27, 28 and 29!

Animals was originally released in 1977, just two years before the hugely ambitious multimedia concept piece, The Wall. Its cover image, showing Algie floating above Battersea Power Station, was conceived by top English design team Hipgnosis and took three days to shoot. The Grade II listed power station was decommissioned in 1975 and has since been subject to various building proposals.

The cover of Pink Floyd's recent remix album shows a more contemporary view of Battersea with a pink pig floating between the chimneys, but the skyline has since changed due to ongoing modernisation works. According to the official website, the former power station is due to reopen as a leisure and entertainment space on October 14, 2022.

Pink Floyd's last official studio album was The Endless River in 2014. David Gilmour and Nick Mason briefly reunited in April 2022 to perform on the charity single, Hey Hey Rise Up.

 

Natasha Scharf
Natasha Scharf
Deputy Editor, Prog

Contributing to Prog since the very first issue, writer and broadcaster Natasha Scharf was the magazine’s News Editor before she took up her current role of Deputy Editor, and has interviewed some of the best-known acts in the progressive music world from ELP, Yes and Marillion to Nightwish, Dream Theater and TesseracT. Starting young, she set up her first music fanzine in the late 80s and became a regular contributor to local newspapers and magazines over the next decade. The 00s would see her running the dark music magazine, Meltdown, as well as contributing to Metal Hammer, Classic Rock, Terrorizer and Artrocker. Author of music subculture books The Art Of Gothic and Worldwide Gothic, she’s since written album sleeve notes for Cherry Red, and also co-wrote Tarja Turunen’s memoirs, Singing In My Blood. Beyond the written word, Natasha has spent several decades as a club DJ, spinning tunes at aftershow parties for Metallica, Motörhead and Nine Inch Nails. She’s currently the only member of the Prog team to have appeared on the magazine’s cover.