Clare Torry

Clare Torry (born 29 November 1947) is a British singer best known for performing the wordless vocals on the song "The Great Gig in the Sky" by the group Pink Floyd on their 1973 album The Dark Side of the Moon. She also covered the Dolly Parton single Love Is Like a Butterfly for the opening titles of the BBC TV series Butterflies, which ran for 4 series between 1978 and 1983.

Career

By the end of the 1960s, Clare Torry managed to start a career as a performer, mainly based on covers of popular songs.Alan Parsons asked her to take part in Pink Floyd's recording of the album The Dark Side of the Moon, on the instrumental song penned by Richard Wright going under the name of "The Great Gig in the Sky".

Since then, Torry has also performed as a session singer (singing on a number of 1970s UK TV adverts) and as a live backing vocalist with Kevin Ayers, Olivia Newton-John, Shriekback, The Alan Parsons Project (for which she also sang lead vocal on one track on their 1979 Eve album), Procol Harum mainman Gary Brooker, Matthew Fisher, Cerrone, Meat Loaf (a duet on the song "Nowhere Fast", and the hit single "Modern Girl") and Johnny Mercer. She reprised her Pink Floyd appearance during a few 1980s concerts with Roger Waters' band, and also contributed to Waters' 1986 soundtrack When the Wind Blows and to his 1987 album Radio K.A.O.S.. She sang with the David Gilmour-led Pink Floyd at a 1990 concert at Knebworth.

Torry

Coordinates: 57°08′12″N 2°04′49″W / 57.1367°N 2.0803°W / 57.1367; -2.0803

Torry is an area within the city of Aberdeen, Scotland, UK.

Setting and historical development

Torry, lying on the south bank of the River Dee, was once a Royal Burgh in its own right, having been erected a burgh of barony in 1495. It was incorporated into Aberdeen in 1891, after the construction of the Victoria Bridge, itself made possible by the 1871 channelling of the River Dee which had previously followed an unstable course to the sea. The channelling also enabled further expansion of the harbour.

Torry is connected to the north bank of the Dee and the centre of Aberdeen by three bridges. Leading most directly to the centre of Torry, the Victoria Bridge was completed in 1887, following a ferry disaster in 1876 which claimed the lives of 32 people returning from a visit to the Bay of Nigg. The bridge also has facilities for carrying water and gas services across the river. To the west of the Victoria Bridge lie the Queen Elizabeth Bridge of 1983, and the narrow Wellington Suspension Bridge. The suspension bridge was designed by Captain Samuel Brown and opened in 1831, replacing the Craiglug ferry. Refurbished in 1930, the Category A listed building was closed to vehicular traffic in 1984 and to pedestrians in March 2002. Aberdeen City Council engineers have strengthened the bridge, and have reopened it as a public footbridge.