Sophia Michaels
A 25-year-old secret – albeit poorly kept and widely known – can finally be confirmed: Yes, that is Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour playing one of his trademark guitar solos during a pivotal scene in the 1995 film/techie time capsule Hackers.
Sometime in The Division Bell era, Gilmour visited the home of Guy Pratt, Pink Floyd’s touring bassist since Momentarily Lapse of Reason, while the bassist was working on music for the 1995 movie about teenage computer whizzes — including Angelina Jolie in her first big-screen role — “hacking the world.”
The meet-up became an impromptu jam session that became “Grand Central Station,” an instrumental that appears during the film’s climactic scene in the New York transit hub. Credited only to Deep Cover in the end credits, the song — while distinctly Gilmour — was never tied officially to the guitarist, and the track itself didn’t feature on any of the three techno-heavy Hackers soundtracks.
That changes on Record Store Day on April 18th, when the Hackers soundtrack makes its vinyl debut and, with it, the first official release of Pratt and David Gilmour’s “Grand Central Station.”
“This was such a fun thing to do, had to quickly knock it up at home and then David swung by and did his inimitable thing in one take,” Pratt told Rolling Stone of the quickie collaboration.
The 2-LP Hackers reissue, marking the film’s 25th anniversary, boasts four more tracks excised from the original soundtrack — Pratt’s “One Combination” and composer Simon Boswell’s “Hackers Suite,” as well as Leftfield’s “Open Up” and Massive Attack’s “Protection” — and is packed in a gatefold, new notes from director Iain Softley and unreleased photos of the cast.
Tracks from electronic music mainstays like Underworld, Prodigy, Stereo MC’s and Orbital also feature on the reissue, which will also arrive next month as a double-disc CD set complete with additional tracks from Boswell’s score.
Hackers Soundtrack Reissue Vinyl Track List
- “Halcyon and On and On” Performed by Orbital
- “Hackers Suite” Performed by Simon Boswell
- “Open Up” Performed by Leftfield
- “Cowgirl” Performed by Underworld
- “Voodoo People” Performed by Prodigy
- “Connected” Performed by Stereo MC’s
- “Original Bedroom Rockers” Performed by Kruder & Dorfmeister
- “One Love” Performed by The Prodigy
- “Good Grief” Performed by Urban Dance Squad
- “Protection” Performed by Massive Attack
- “One Combination” Performed by Guy Pratt
- “Grand Central Station” Performed by Guy Pratt, featuring David Gilmour
- “Heaven Knows” Performed by Squeeze
Featured via: Rollingstone
