Article Contributed by Gratefulweb
Published on October 29, 2025
Photo Credit: Sony Music Entertainment
Pink Floyd have inspired generations of artists, and now UK Poet Laureate Simon Armitage adds to that legacy with a new poem and performance titled Dear Pink Floyd. Revealed today, the piece honors the band’s era-defining 1975 album Wish You Were Here and arrives ahead of the 50th Anniversary Deluxe Box Set, out December 12 via Sony Music.
Watch Simon Armitage perform “Dear Pink Floyd”
Dear Pink Floyd is one of the treasures bundled within the Wish You Were Here 50 Deluxe Box Set, reimagining the spirit of the album’s liner notes through Armitage’s poetic lens. The poem channels multiple points of view—from the awe of a first listen to five decades of affinity—while echoing the album’s themes of absence, transience, and the enduring tribute to Syd Barrett.
“I was thinking about the album and their noise, and what effect that has had on people right across the globe,” says Armitage. “I wanted to write something album-shaped—something that would fit onto the side of an LP and bleed right to the margins of a square. The bigger voice in the piece is all fans in the world trying to say something.”
The Wish You Were Here 50 collection gives fans a fresh perspective on one of Pink Floyd’s most revered albums. At its core are six previously unreleased demos and alternate versions that illuminate the creative process behind the band’s eighth studio masterpiece.
The first preview, The Machine Song (Demo #2, Revisited)—an early version of Welcome to the Machine—offers a stripped-down, haunting glimpse into the album’s mechanical soul. Other highlights include Roger Waters’ original home demo of The Machine Song, a pedal steel instrumental mix of Wish You Were Here spotlighting David Gilmour’s phrasing, and, for the first time, a complete Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Pts. 1–9) newly mixed in stereo by James Guthrie.
Available in 3LP, 2CD, Blu-ray, digital, and Deluxe Box Set formats, Wish You Were Here 50 also features a new Dolby Atmos mix, restored live recordings from the Los Angeles Sports Arena (April 26, 1975), and concert screen films from the 1975 tour. The live audio—captured by renowned taper Mike Millard—has been meticulously restored and remastered by Steven Wilson.
The Deluxe Box Set includes:
Exclusive 50th anniversary merchandise and limited-edition releases will also be available at PinkFloyd.com.
First released in 1975, Wish You Were Here remains a cornerstone of progressive rock and one of the greatest albums ever recorded. Featuring the multi-part elegy Shine On You Crazy Diamond, the searing Have a Cigar, and the haunting title track, the album captured Pink Floyd at their creative and emotional peak.
It became the band’s first album to top charts on both sides of the Atlantic and endures as a meditation on fame, loss, and the price of success. In 2025, fascination with Pink Floyd is as strong as ever—bolstered by the restored Pink Floyd at Pompeii – MCMLXXII, which stormed the charts and drew fresh acclaim.
📌 Wish You Were Here 50
Release Date: December 12, 2025
Label: Sony Music
Formats: 3LP, 2CD, Blu-ray, Digital, Deluxe Box Set
More Info: pinkfloyd.com
