Now, as the singer has just turned 65, Dickinson has revealed that he has had to take a massive step back from flying-at least with the commercial plane variety. Speaking to Triple M Rock, Dickinson said, “I just turned 65. In most jurisdictions in the world, if you’re a pilot – a commercial pilot – at 65, they sneak you round the back and just put a bullet in your brain. Like an old dog or an old horse, gotta put it down now. The last time I went near a commercial aircraft to fly it was in 2017.”

The Iron Maiden frontman has also embarked on a few solo projects over the years, recently announcing his seventh solo endeavour The Mandrake Project which is due for release sometime in early 2024. And the singer still somehow manages to find the time to indulge in his passion for fencing-a sport he has participated in since the 1980s.

Dickinson continued, “I’m still fencing. I’m a veteran now. There’s a vets team and I still do Commonwealth championships. Being a vet is brilliant, actually, because all you have to do is survive and wait, and eventually everybody else will die, then you get in the team.”

Dickinson recently revealed that Iron Maiden have absolutely no plans to call it a day, with enthusiasm within the band still at its highest. Demand for the group could not be any more apparent as the band are set to continue their highly successful Future Past Tour in Australia and New Zealand in September of 2024. Dickinson will also be touring his solo project in the Spring in Mexico and South America.

Waters spoke to The Telegraph about embarking on this project, saying, “not enough people recognised what it’s about, what it was I was saying then.” He believes this to be the perfect opportunity to point fans in the right direction, stating in the accompanying caption to the snippet of ‘Us and Them’ that reworking the album would provide a good opportunity to “re-address the political and emotional message of the whole album.”

Waters acknowledged that “it’s not a replacement for the original which, obviously, is irreplaceable.”

He continues, “But it is a way for the seventy nine year old man to look back across the intervening fifty years into the eyes of the twenty nine year old and say, to quote a poem of mine about my Father, “We did our best, we kept his trust, our Dad would have been proud of us”. And also it is a way for me to honor a recording that Nick and Rick and Dave and I have every right to be very proud of.”

Relationships between the ex-band members haven’t always been the best since Waters’ exit in 1985, with Waters anticipating backlash to this rerecording project. He told The Telegraph, “I wrote ‘The Dark Side of the Moon’. Let’s get rid of all this ‘we’ crap! Of course we were a band, there were four of us, we all contributed, but it’s my project and I wrote it. So… blah!”

Waters also revealed to The Telegraph that this project had been “secretly” in the works for months, reworking the entire track list “from scratch” unbeknownst to ex-band members David Gilmour and Nick Mason.

He is reportedly “planning a lavish vinyl release” of the rerecording, with the release date pushed back from March to May as Waters keeps “tinkering with recordings.”

To celebrate the 50^th anniversary of ‘The Dark Side of the Moon,’ Pink Floyd have also announced a reissued version, due to be released on 24^th March. The reissue will also include a live recording of Pink Floyd’s 1974 Wembley Stadium show.

A book will also become available on 24^th March, titled ‘Pink Floyd – The Dark Side of the Moon: 50^th Anniversary.‘ The book will include rare and unseen photos taken during tours between 1972 and 1975.

Additionally, harking back to Pink Floyd’s successful stargazing events at the London Planetarium in 1973, fans will also be able to experience ‘The Dark Side of the Moon’ stargazing events at planetariums around the world.

Full details of the 50^th anniversary reissues and events can be found here.

Purchase tickets for Roger Waters’ tour here.

31/05/2023 – Utilita Arena – Birmingham

02/06/2023 – 03/06/2023 – SSE Hydro – Glasgow

06/06/2023 – 07/06/2023 –  The O2 – London

10/06/2023 – Manchester AO Arena – Manchester

Stream ‘The Dark Side of the Moon’ here.

Unfortunately, you’ll have to wait a little longer to truly appreciate Romy’s banger, because it’s practically begging to be played in a club. This total burst of energy is certainly reminiscent of some of the major 90s dance-floor fillers – and also, I would point out, an eighties synth vibe of the Tears For Fears variety. To me it also has just a twinkle of ‘Life In A Northern Town’ about it. What I’m saying is, if ‘Lifetime’ had come on at the eighties night at university, it would hardly have been out of place.

Romy wants us to understand that dance hits are important to her, from the eighties to the Ibiza scene; she wrote on social media, “I’ve always loved club classics that unite a room, big emotional dance songs, that you can sing along to as well. I’m excited to have the opportunity to show my love for dance music with ‘Lifetime’.

She added with a bittersweet note, “I loved working with a very talented and inspiring group of people on this song, thank you so much Fred again, Marta Salogni, Joy Anonymous and Jamie xx. I had dreamt that we could be dancing in a room together to this song by now, but until then I hope you can dance to it wherever you are!”

Afterwards I’ll be premiering the lyric video on YouTube at 6:45pm BSThttps://t.co/bdGeQDzGpu

— Romy (@romyromyromy) September 28, 2020

Beneath its catchy, neon, dance surface, ‘Lifetime’ is wrestling with greater concepts of time and making the most of everything. “Once in a lifetime / something matters,” Romy declares as the music falls away and we are suspended in the moment, thinking about how special everything is. She has spoken about the song wanting “to appreciate the moment before its gone”.

We’re all familiar with this urge these days, and Romy is clear that the moment could be anything, from a huge night out to a quiet moment with your loved ones – “simple moments of togetherness, meant the most to me,” she began to realise during the pandemic. But it also feels like the perfect sentiment for those few minutes on the dance floor where you’re having the time of your life and its all lights and colours and you don’t know what the time is or how long you’ve been there. Inevitably, clubbing can’t sustain that perfect haze for very long, but the stars might just align for three minutes when you hear ‘Lifetime’ on the dancefloor for the first time.