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a promotional brochure distributed to the media and press magazines to support the band after the release of their first album (sample)
MAIN EVENT | 1st August 1967 The participation of the band at the beat club is cancelled because Syd «is exhausted». The press spreads the rumor of a band split.
Andrew King (Pink Floyd manager):
« It is not true Syd has left the group. He is tired and exhausted, and has been advised to rest for two weeks. We have decided the whole group will holiday for the next fortnight, and any bookings which have to be cancelled during this period will bere arranged for a later date »
« Floyd split is denied », New Musical Express, 5 August 1967
Trying to find a viaticum for Syd Rick Wright took Syd to Formentera in order to straighten him out. This was in the August when the band's gigs were cancelled because of the state that Syd was in. Roger Waters was in Ibiza at the same time and visited Formentera, or so it has been said. Yet Aubrey Powell said that Syd, Roger Waters and Rick Wright plus their girlfriends all went to Formentera that August and stayed for a month. With them was Sam Hutt, otherwise known as country and western musician Hank Wangford.
Nick Mason:
«Syd had been up for Games for May, but later in the summer we had to pull out of a number of gigs, including the Blues and Jazz estival at Windsor, because of Syd. So Roger and Syd went to Formentera with the idea that it gave Syd the opportunity to recover - which clearly didn't work»
«Dark Globe», Uncut, May 2020 Aubrey Powell
«He turned from this joyous upbeat person into a very dark person. He moved into the flat at Egerton Court with Storm Thorgerson and me. It was scary times. I felt he was unpredictable. We nearly had a fist-fight one night because he was being aggressive with his girlfriend. I told him to stop -, and I remember him standing there with his velvet trousers and no top on, going "Ok the,, what are you gonna make of it ? »
« Dark globe», Uncut, May 2020
Nick Mason
«He became really quite psychotic, attacked girlfriends, all sorts of things. If someone had written it down and pm it in front of us though, we still wouldn't haw recognised it. We would haw thought.'Maybe well give him two days off and it'll all be better-' We still don't know the cause of it all. really. There's the belief that mast likely it was LSD damage, but actually it could have been perfectly straight forward. He warned lobe an artist and not a pop star. Maybe that broke him. It certainty wouldn't do any good lo be forced down a road he didn't want to go down. Some people haw said that maybe there were signs of Syd bring a little bit on the spectrum earlier on. But it don't know. If we'd continued with Joe Boyd. It might have prolonged Syd's ability to work, but I suspect It would have pew red out eventually. Music moved on and became more rock. By the time Led Zeppelin were out there, it might haw got swamped»
« Dark globe», Uncut, May 2020
PRESS MENTION | August 1967 The French press is beginning to take a keen interest in the group. The country went on to become Floyd's stronghold in Europe.
Left: Les Rockers magazine. Right: Salut les copains magazine
Nick Mason:
« France took us seriously before the rest of the world did »
« La France nous a pris au sérieux avant tout le monde », Le Figaro, 19 October 2016
David Gilmour:
« I heard The Piper at the Gates of Dawn in Paris that summer. It sounded terrible and I was sick with jealousy»
«David Gilmour: Full of Secrets», Guitar Part, December 2006.
RECORD RELEASE | 4 August 1967 Pink Floyd's debut album « The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn » is released in the UK. The album reached No. 6 in the charts.
MISCELLANOUS | Early August 1967 The Flowers, the band of David Gilmour come down the south to give some gigs in Saint Raphaël mainly
During a break at Paris, the band recorded an original song of David. Likely the first-ever song written by David.
« Willie Wilson recalls a Paris session in which a Gilmour original was recorded, but demurs from elaborating. «And Dave won’t thank me if I do otherwise», he says. «HE wouldn’t have wanted you to hear it»
«Reinventing Pink Floyd - from Syd Barrett to The Dark Side of the Moon», Bill Kopp, 2018
PRESS MENTION | First rumours about a possible split of the band
« It is not true Syd has left the group. He is tired and exhausted, and has been advised to rest for two weeks. We have decided the whole group will holiday for the next fortnight, and any bookings which have to be cancelled during this period will be rearranged for a later date »
1 »Floyd split is denied », New Musical Express, 5 August 1967
PRESS MENTION | The band is asked to participate to the opening show of the Olympic Games in Mexico te next year
STUDIO RECORDING | 7 to 8 August 1967 Pink Floyd is recording new songs for the follow-up of their first LP with Scream thy last scream and Set the Controls for the heart of the sun.
CANCELLED CONCERT | 10 August 1967 Skyline Ballroom, Hull, England The participation of the band was cancelled as all the other gigs scheduled on August
FESTIVAL | 12 August 1967 «7th NJF Festival», Royal Windsor Racecourse, Windsor, England The participation of the band was cancelled as the other gigs scheduled on August
« Mr. Jones, backed by the Richard Kent Style, appeared, (he) talk to the audience and get a little singing in, too. Strictly cornball. Yet, the crowd were too busy chanting, "We want the Pink Floyd" to be listening properly. Which gives you an idea of where the audience “was at”. The Pink Floyd had to pull out of the show because their leader, Syd Barrett, alias “Vegetable Man”, was suffering from a nervous breakdown.»
« Not so much a festival more a pop-in », Go-Set, 8 September 1967
PRESS MENTION| Mid-August 1967 The « nervous troubles » of Syd become related in the press
STUDIO RECORDING | 15-16 August 1967 Pink Floyd is recording Reaction in G.
CANCELLED CONCERT| 20 August 1967 Pavilion Ballroom, Hastings Pier, Hastings, England
MISCELLANOUS | Late August 1967 First ideas of a transportable stage that will go all the way to the big slug See the page about the cancelled projects for more details
«We've also got quite a bit of work lined-up abroad, but that doesn't mean we're going to forsake England. It's just a pity that some of the ball-rooms are so bad. Especially the stages. But we've got an idea which could put an end to all that. There could well be a Pink Floyd circus soon. We've got this massive Big Top capable of holding 6,000 people, which we intend to take around the country. You know, find a field outside a town, set-up and play. Just like a proper circus. "We've got this huge cinemascope screen for all the flashing light bit, and we'll make it into a complete show. There'll be us of course, plus a few other acts. It's something that's never been done before, but we think it'll work»
«The Pink Floyd's Circus», Beat Instrumental, September 1967.
MISCELLANOUS | Late August 1967 1st September 1967, the band is planning a TV-tour in Europe late of the year. This will be post-poned early 1968 since the band agreed to join with Hendrix to his British winter tour.
Storm at the Royal College Film of London. 9 March 1967 by Chris MORPHET
MAIN EVENT | September 1967, Hipgnosis is founded
Aubrey Powell:
«Storm and I moved to London in 1966. Storm went to the Royal College Of Art and I designed sets for the BBC, and drove Pink Floyd’s lighting rig in my minivan. Then I got into trouble with the law. Some friends and I were charged with credit card fraud, and nearly went to prison. This was September 1967 and it was a turning point. I realised I didn't want to waste my life. Storm had shown me how to take pictures and I knew I wanted to become a photographer. That was the beginning»
«Aubrey Powell - The Prog Interview», Prog Magazine, April 2023
PRESS MENTION| Early September 1967: the music press mentions the idea of a transportable stage. An idea that will continue and return for several years until the concept of "big slug" during the preparation of the « The Wall » tour. See the page « Cancelled Projects » for more details.
«We've also got quite a bit of work lined-up abroad, but that doesn't mean we're going to forsake England. It's just a pity that some of the ball-rooms are so bad. Especially the stages. But we've got an idea which could put an end to all that. There could well be a Pink Floyd circus soon. We've got this massive Big Top capable of holding 6,000 people, which we intend to take around the country. You know, find a field outside a town, set-up and play. Just like a proper circus. « We've got this huge cinemascope screen for all the flashing light bit, and we'll make it into a complete show. There'll be us of course, plus a few other acts. It's something that's never been done before, but we think it'll work « »
«The Pink Floyd's Circus», Beat Instrumental, September 1967.
MISCELLANOUS | Early September 1967 The band take a visit at the Regent’s Park Zoo of London
MAIN EVENT |Early September 1967 Denmark leg The group agrees at the last minute to do a mini-tour in Denmark. The local press covers the tour as a major event
The Floyd’s Ford Transit loading on ferry Photographies by Nick Mason
CONCERT DATE | 1 September 1967 « UFO Festival », The Roundhouse, London, England
PRESS MENTION | September 1967 Rick is interviewed by « Beat Instrumental » in his September issue. He talks about their circus project.
Rick Wright:
« We've also got quite a bit of work lined-up abroad, but that doesn't mean we're going to forsake England. It's just a pity that some of the ballrooms are so bad. Especially the stages. But we've got an idea which could put an end to all that. There could well be a Pink Floyd circus soon. We've got this massive Big Top capable of holding 6,000 people, which we intend to take around the country. You know, find a field outside a town, set-up and play. Just like a proper circus. We've got this huge cinemascope screen for all the flashing light bit, and we'll make it into a complete show. There'll be us of course, plus a few other acts. It's something that's never been done before, but we think it'll work »
« The Pink Floyd's circus », Beat Instrumental, September 1967
CONCERT DATE | 1 September 1967 « UFO Festival », The Roundhouse, London, England
CONCERT DATE | 2 September 1967 « UFO Festival », The Roundhouse, London, England
MISCELLANOUS| 4 September 1967, EMI Records Company heads a Marketing & Sales Conference at the Conference Room at Manchester Square. The band Pink Floyd is inducted as a future major act for the further years
« Peter Jenner, co-manager of the Pink Floyd with Andrew King, is currently in NY for conferences with the Richmond Organization, publishers of the Pink Floyd's songs. In addition, Jenner has been working with Hugh Dallas of Tower Records in setting up promotional strategy for the Floyd's LP, which is scheduled for imminent release in the U.S. by Tower »
« Pink Floyd to tour US », Cashbox, 23 September 1067
RECORDING SESSION | 4 to 6 September 1967 Recording session. The details is still unknown.
PHOTO SESSION | 8 September 1967, Peter Jenner takes pictures of the band on the ferry.
CONCERT DATE | 9 September 1967 Boom Dancing Center, Arhus, Denmark
Photographies by Nils Aarestrup Roddik
«The boom pop temple in Frederiksgade - was filled to the brink on Saturday night. More than 1,200 young Aarhusians attended the English psychedelic orchestra Pink Floyd's first concert on their Danish tour. This unofficial Festuge event clearly underlined what a large party of Aarhus youth are interested in. There have never been so many for a concert in Boom, and there were almost too many closed in.(...) However, the highlight of the concert was Pink Floyd in the first true psychedelic concert in Jutland. Their lighting effects were of amazing effect, color images pulsed on a white background, and in keeping with the monotone rhythms
Pink Floyd played a. well-known tracks like Arnold Layne and See Emily Play, and they certainly sounded just as good as their LP. The group leader and singles guitarist, Syd Barwett, writes all their numbers themselves, and 1 more than 40 minutes Pink Floyd was on stage, so there was value for money»
«1200 unge i Boom til psychedelic-Koncert», Demokraten, 11 September 1967
CONCERT DATE | 10 September 1967 Gyllene Cirkeln, Stockholm, Sweden
Photographies by Kenneth EKBERG
Gerald Scarfe:
«(Nick) told me that on one their early tours they were taken to dingy club in Stockholm where they lounged, drinking, on couches. In the low-lit room a semi-clad girl bumped and ground through here sleazy routine. She ended straddling Nick with her crotch about two inches from his face. «I’m sorry» said the embarrassed Nick, «but I’m afraid I’m British»».
«The Making of Pink Floyd The Wall», Gerald Scarfe
«The British group Pink Floyd in Stockholm for a concert at the Golden Circle, former jazz spot, now popular teen-age spot for pop music. Swedish EMI and the Golden Circle presented the group to the press a couple of hours before the concert took place»
«Scandinavia», Cash Box, 23 September 1967
The impromptu nature of the concert and the lack of promotion resulted in a low attendance, and only 275 people saw them play that night in Stockholm. But that didn't stop the band from taking their 7000 kroner (about 400 or 500 pounds) fee and leaving quickly.
«The British group Pink Floyd in Stockholm for a concert at the Golden Circle, former jazz spot, now popular teen-age spot for pop music. Swedish EMI and the Golden Circle presented the group to the press a couple of hours before the concert took place»
«Scandinavia», Cash Box, 23 September 1967
Photographies taken backstage by Kenneth EKBERG
PHOTO SESSION | 11 September 1967 A photo session organised by photographer Jan Person
Photographies by Jan PARSSON
CONCERT DATE | 11 September 1967 Starclub, Copenhagen, Denmark
«I dag vil mange at poppens nye grupper ikke nøje med at spille. De vil give tilskueren en total-oplevelse gennem billed- og lydeffekter. Pink Floyd, som 1 aftes udøste sine indtryk over Star Clubs publikum, er nået meget langt i dette forsøg. Musikken havde en sjov stratosfaerisk karakter, og dette blev forstærket med lydindtryk. Dejligt var det, at det alligevel swingede, men
det skyldes alle medlemmerne dygtighed og den intensitet, der beherskede deres spil
Materialet var Instrumentalt præget, og en af de få brokker, man nåede at opfatte, var »Set tha controls for the heart of The Sun. Den sætning dukker gruppens intentloner over for publikum, der tvinger tll at opfatte omverdenen fra nye cirkler»
Today, many of pop's new groups won't bother playing. They want to give the audience a total experience through visual and sound effects. Pink Floyd, who last night unleashed their impressions on the Star Club audience, have come a long way in this attempt.
The music had a fun stratospheric character and this was enhanced with sound impressions. It was nice that it still swung, but
this was due to the skill and intensity of all the members who mastered their playing
The material was instrumentally influenced, and one of the few strums one managed to perceive was 'Set tha controls for the heart of The Sun. The phrase ducks the group's intentloner towards the audience, forcing tll perceive the outside world from new circles
«Stor aften for Pink Floyd og Beafeaters», BT, 12 September 1967
PRESS MENTION | Syd Barrett is interviewed by « Ekstra Frikvarter » newspaper before the first Starclub’s gig.
Syd Barrett:
« Pink Floyd startede som et almindeligt rhythm and blues-band. Publikum spiller en stor rolle i vores musik. Jeg er bange for, at folk kalder vores musik psykedelisk. Det har intet med stoffer at gøre. »
« PF mener det Alvorligt », Ekstra Frikvarter, 12 September 1967
CONCERT DATE | 12 September 1967 Starclub, Copenhagen, Denmark
«The Pink Floyd bringer ikke noge’ budskab, lad det være sagt med det samme. Der findes ikke mere noget at sige. Ordene er brugt op. Hvad vi har tilbage, er den rastløse (og nytteløse! higen mod noget, vi ikke kender og aldrig vil finde. Brintbom ben er ikke nogen løsning, men den bringer i hvert fald fred! I mellem tiden kan vi forlyste os medforsø gene p& at skabe den totale enhed mellem de dumpe længsler i musik ken og de grufulde manifestationer på lærredet hag orkestret. Målet er at fylde rummet helt. At skabe den for tætning, der kun kan ende med det store saliggørende brag Sjældent har vel publikum modtaget en verdens kendt gruppe som Pink Floyd med større tavshed end i mandags. Reaktionen kan næppe tolkes som misbilligelse, snarere som en målløs accept af denne totale afgrund, der slugte alle hidtil faste holdepunkter. Mens »skorpionerne« på lærredet strakte deres fangarme ud for at få fat på den sidste gnist af håb, det måtte være hos en enkelt ukyndig hippie i forsamlingen, druknede Pink Floyd os i et djævelsk orgie af lys og lyd. -Et stigende crescendo, og mørket, lagde sig beskyttende over publikum. Det var godt. Så slap vi for at se på hinanden. Uden for kan vi ryste uhyggen af os. I morgen vil det hele være glemt.
The Pink Floyd. dommedagens og den passive håbløsheds apostle kan beses i aften for sidste gang. Star Club byder på et hyggeligt lille gys i de intime lokaler. Forsøm ikke denne chance til at kaste et blik på den iskoldeste masochisme, der endnu er demonstreret herhjemme! Nu venter vi kun på Mothers of Invention, så må målet vist være fuldt»
«Den Totale Musik», 13 September 1967, Aktuelt
PHOTO SESSION | 12 September 1967 An impromptu photo session is organised at Tivoli Park Responding to a request from the band, journalists from Børge, Denmark's leading adloescent newspaper, took the Floyd to the famous Tivoli amusement park. Three journalists from the magazine and Andrew King went to the park to take photos of Pink Floyd. There was an incident on one of the rides when Rick and Andrew were pushed around.
Photographies by Børge
CONCERT DATE | 13 September 1967 Starclub, Copenhagen, Denmark
CONCERT DATE | 15 September 1967 Starlight Ballroom, Belfast, Northern Ireland
The band backstage
«For the four-man group, whose record “See Emily Play” got to No. 3 in the charts recently, could not go on stage in a Belfast ballroom. Leader Syd Barrett explained: ‘“We have about £2,000 worth of lights, which we use in our show, and this —plus our instruments and amplifiers—were left behind in England.” About 1,200 people turned up to hear the group. Syd said last night: “The gear will be arriving in the morning, in time for our show in Ballymena to-morrow night.”»
«Pink Floyd fans are disappointed», Belfast Newsletter, 16 September 1967
CONCERT DATE | 16 September 1967 Flamingo Ballroom, Ballymena, Ireland
CONCERT DATE | 17 September 1967 Arcadia Ballroom, Cork, Ireland
Jack Lyons (Audience member):
«The gig was great. The two preceding nights, the band had played Belfast and Ballymena, and the Cork gig was the only one they ever did in the Republic of Ireland. It must have been some 225-mile drive in a day.
I was familiar with nearly every song on their debut album, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, which the group had released the previous month. In those days the visiting ‘pop’ band would only play for about 40-minutes, quite a contrast to the three-hour sets by the showbands of that era. In between songs, Syd Barrett or Roger Waters would announce the title of the song in a posh Cambridge accent and play on. That night has come to attain almost biblical proportions in Cork, since thousands have claimed to be there, but there weren’t more than 200 people in the Arcadia. What’s important to remember is that the Floyd were only booked to appear at the Arcadia because they were a band who had half an obscure hit with ‘Arnold Layne’ and, following that, a big hit with ‘See Emily Play’. In other words, they actually came to Cork as a pop-band with a hit record — it had nothing to do with their psychedelic ideals or their ethic of free-form jazz.
I remember at the Arcadia most of the sparse crowd just standing in small curious groups obviously fascinated by the band’s mystique and this “new type of music” so far only read about in magazines and likely heard by the few who had the album. I certainly don’t remember anyone ‘idiot dancing’ like I had seen at gigs in London. And while the psychedelic scene and its related substance use was well under way in other cities, I never heard of anyone in Cork taking LSD in that era. There wouldn’t even have been a drinking culture among the people who went to gigs, and venues like the Arcadia and the Majorca didn’t serve alcohol.
The “psychedelic” lighting promised in the newspaper advertisement was impressive, and Peter Wynne Willson, the man responsible for that, has stayed in the business, working on rigs for everyone from U2 to Radiohead»
«Pink Floyd in Cork», Irish Examiner, 1st January 2018
Roger Waters:
«(…) In the old days when we used to play this little old place in Cork and you played on a stage eight feet high so the audience couldn't get at you (laughs). We did a gig there in 1967 or 1968*, and it was awful. The audience were a bit snarly. The guy who owned the club came bursting into the dressing room shouting 'Boys that was brilliant, have a bottle of champagne ...' and we were like 'Why ? It didn't seem like it to us' and he said 'They didn't try and kill you' ... It was very un-Irish!»
«The Hero's return», Prog Magazine, December 2019
CONCERT DATE | 19 September 1967 Speakeasy Club, West End, London, England
CONCERT DATE | 21 September 1967 Assembly Hall, Worthing, England
Freddy Bannister (promoter):
«I remember arriving at their gig at the Assembly Halls in Worthing to find them already there, with their equipment taking up a least half, if not 60 per cent, of the hall floor. I remember politely telling some young ladies who were part of the crew they couldn't stay there, as that's where the audience were going to be».
«To Infinity... And Beyond!», Uncut, May 2019
CONCERT DATE | 22 September 1967 Tiles Club, Oxford Street, London, England
«There is a club called Tiles at the intersection of Oxford Street and New Bond Street in London. This club, which was just formed about a month ago, is playing only psychzdelic music, and the regular performer was Pink Floyd. When I go inside, I'm dizzy and I don't know the direction for a moment, but about 30 customers are standing in a large hall of about 50 and facing the other side. Pink Floyd was playing a dark blue stage from between his heads. The chair only has a two-three-legged bench, and the customers are standing. When I went to the front, I was astounded at the stage again. The back of the elongated and narrow stage has a screen, and the human brain is enlarged and captured. There was a pale blue light, and the red, blue, and yellow lights were shining from under the stage, and the color was sparkling and colored as if the whole stage was studded with diamonds, and for a moment I felt strange. I guess this is what hallucinogens are. Young people in strange clothes are looking at the stage as if they were intoxicated. The creepiness of being drawn in is not only because of the lighting and the screen. Pink Floyd's performance continues without ending, and the people who are playing continue to play as if they are blind and dependent on the suggestion»
«Pink Floyd in London», Music Life, December 1967
The major Japanese music magazine « Music Life » sends Hoshika Rumiko to make a report about the musical scene in London. He scheduled an exclusive interview with the band after their gig. This two-part interview will be published in the magazine in the November and December issues
The time for the interview with them was 9:30 on the stage, but the last number continued for 30 minutes, and finally returned to the dressing room a little after 10 o'clock. My long hair was soaked with enthusiasm, and sweat balls were wiping out all over my face. Just like a jazz cafe in Tokyo, in a narrow dressing room full of graffiti, the four people sat down and signaled the road manager to bring a drink with their hands as if they were too lazy to talk, but when they noticed me I waved my hand like Hi. Everyone has a flashy shirt style, just a psychedelic style. I got a message from 4 people who are drinking coke. First, it's Roger Waters «Hello, Music Life readers, I'm Roger Waters. I say hello to everyone in Japan for the first time, but I don't know much about Japan, so I don't know what to talk about (laughs). Anyway, please take care of our records» Next is Syd Barrett. «Well, well, what should I do?» Sid seemed to be stuck in words for a while with his eyes black and white, but «Hello, everyone in Japan. It's Pink Floyd's Syd. I really want to go to the East we admire in the near future. Nice to meet you» The third Pink Floyd is Nick Mason. «Hello, Leaders, this is Nick. We have to do a show in England for the next six months. And there is also a contract for this club Tiles, so it's a pity that it's going to be a long way off to Japan» And finally, Rick Wright said, «Is there psychedelic music also in Japan? If anyone listens to our records, please write to us, and we would like to have a discussion when we go to Japan. bye bye’
Interviewer: «When did you start in this club? »
Nick Mason: «Three months ago. We are exclusive here, and we play every Friday and Saturday from 8 o'clock to 3 o'clock »
Interviewer: « Do you always put a screen in the background and play that style? »
Roger Waters: That's right, on the day it opened, I took a picture of the bone dance, but it was creepy and funny »
Interviewer: «I wonder if the people who come to see you are drinking LSD ? »
Roger Waters: «There are some people who are drinking. But I hardly drink it. That's why they come to listen to our performance to taste the hallucinogenic effect even a little»
Interviewer: «What exactly is psychedelic music for you ?»
Roger Waters: «don't you sometimes want to be a different person, it doesn't matter if you're not a human, for example, a bird or something. But it's impossible to become a bird, right? That's why I'm going to create the illusion of becoming a bird and temporarily escape from reality, not medicine, but with music»
Interviewer: «Come to think of it, your performance has changed a lot … »
Syd Barrett: «We're also trying new things. Try to make a sound that you couldn't make before, or try to make the biggest sound that humans can withstand, so the rhythm section always has a certain rhythm, but the guitar often makes a different sound. If you feel like it, it may take 30 to 50 minutes per song»
« Pink Floyd in London (1) », Music Life, November 1967
Photographies by Music Life Magazine
CONCERT DATE | 23 September 1967 Saturday Scene, Corn Exchange, Chelmsford, England
Daily Mirror, 1st October 1967
RADIO SESSION | 25 September 1967 « Top Gear », BBC 201, Piccadilly Studios, London, England BBS sessions broadcasted on 1st October
CONCERT DATE | 27 September 1967 Fifth Dimension, Leicester, England
PRESS MENTION | 27 September 1967 Paul Jones is asked about his favorites musicians
Paul Jones:
«Look, I don't normally go round knocking other artists. For me the Beatles and the Pink Floyd are art. They knock me out»
«Why Paul Jones has the hump about Hump», Daily Mirror, 28 September 1967
CONCERT DATE | 28 September 1967 Skyline Ballroom, Hull, England
CONCERT DATE | 30 September 1967 Imperial Ballroom, Nelson, England
PRESS MENTION | 30 September 1967 The band is currently working for a TV tour in November in Netherlands, Sweden , Germany, Danemark and France
Bryan Marrison (publicy agent):
« This tour is an entirely new concept to us. It is planned as a sort of TV blitz intended to get through to as many people as possible in the shortest possible time»
« Floyd tour », Melody Maker, 30 September 1967
PRESS MENTION | October 1967. Syd is chosen as « The player of the month » by Beat Instrumental and gives a short interview.
CONCERT DATE | 1 October 1967 Saville Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue, London, England (two shows)
Photographies by Barry PEAKE
«Undoubted stars of the Saville’s “new wave” evening on Sunday were Robin Williamson and Mike Heron, known only slightly better as the Incredible String Band. The name is almost justified, and the beauty of the duo’s progressive folk songs, softly played and beautifully sung, captured the audience, while bill-toppers, The Pink Floyd, received only mild applause.
The Incredibles have a fascinating way of blending the simplicity of a folk song with instrumental complication that sometimes involves the use of nearly a dozen instruments. AH self-penned, yet never dealing with politics or racial discrimination, the tunes have a fairy-tale quality that highlights the crudity of mass electric volume.
Guest Tim Rose gave rousing versions of “Hey Joe” and “Morning Dew,” and Tomorrow with Keith West in his natural surroundings proved they have the talent to become one of the most exciting groups of 1968.But to me the Pink Floyd is just noise. True, noise plus wildly flashing lights and ethereal slides do have a numbing effect, and if this is the Floyd’s intention they succeed. Please, someone on the Pink wavelength, explain the appeal!»
«Incredible string band almost are!», Disc & Music Echo, 7 October 1967
«Last Sunday they played at a Saville Theatre pop concert, and were hysterically applauded by an audience that had really come to watch the flashing lights and electronics of the Pink Floyd»
«Picking up the East», The Observer, 8 October 1967
A photo session is organized after the show by Barry PEAKE
Photographies by Barry PEAKE
RELATED EVENT2 October 1967. Premier of a new exhibition at the Madame Tussaud’s museum related to the counter-culture scene. Among guest: Twiggy, Mick Jagger, John Lennon among others. The exhibition display a light and sound show with the music of The Move and Pink Floyd.
PHOTO SESSION | 2 October 1967 A photo session by Adrian Boot knew as « the junkyard session »
Photographies by Adrian BOOT
CONCERT DATE | 6 October 1967 «Miss Teenage Brighton Contest», Top Rank Suite, Brighton, England
Gregory Taylor:
«It was an extraordinary evening. The first half was with the Omega Plus, a local band, then the Syd Dean dance band played followed by the Miss Teenage Brighton Contest with girls parading in swimsuits, one of whom, Sandra Straw, was from my school.There was a revolving stage like the Palladium. After the interval the stage revolved to reveal the Pink Floyd with a rather bemused looking Syd.They actually played ' See Emily Play' amongst other numbers of the current set of the time. I stood next to Peter Wynn-Wilson as he projected the light show. He was making the glass slides of oil liquids jump around by training a mini-blow torch onto them»
«Birdy Hop Facebook Page», 16 April 2018
Contract for the concert
CONCERT DATE | 7 October 1967 Victoria Rooms, University of Bristol, Bristol, England
PRESS MENTION | 7 October 1967 The band is talking about a new tour with many visual and audio effects
Left: New Musical Express, Center: Disc & Music Echo. Right: Record Mirror
RECORDING SESSION | 9 to 12 October 1967 Recording ensued for Pink Floyd's next album, « A Saucerful Of Secrets », at De Lane Lea Studios, Holborn, London. The songs recorded are Remember a Day, Jugband Blues, Vegetable Man. Further sessions took place throughout October both here and at Abbey Road studios.
CONCERT DATE | 13 October 1967 The Pavilion, Weymouth, England
Nick Mason:
« To all my fans in Weymouth, I apologise.But I can’t for the life of me remember, any more than I can remember, you know, the Colston Hall in Bristol… It’s a bit of a porridge, all that, unless someone did something really violent »
«Things cannot be destroyed once and for all», Record Collector, 4 October 2916
CONCERT DATE | 14 October 1967 Cesar's Club, Bedford, England
PRESS MENTION | 14 October 1967 The musical press announces Pink Floyd joins the Hendrix tour
The Pink Floyd have been booked as an additional attraction on the Jimi-Hendrix-Move-Amen Corner package tour, for which two additional dates have been set by promoter Tito Burns of the Harold Davison Organisation. Vanilla Fudge have dropped out of their current tour due to the illness of the lead singer--but they expect to undertake London dates later this month. The Mamas and Papas' London concert with Scott McKenzie has been brought forward by two days.
As it is now quite definite that the Turtles will be unable to join the Hendrix-Move-Amen tour, promoter Burns has added the Pink Floyd to the line-up. The package opens at London's Royal Albert Hall on November 14 and- in addition to the dates already exclusively reported in the NME-two new venues set this week are Newcastle City Hall (December 4) and Sheffield City Hall (Sth).
Mark Stein, lead singer and organist of Vanilla Fudge, collapsed last weekend as a result of nervous strain and exhaustion. By agreement with the promoter, the group withdrew from its tour with Traffic, the Flowerpot Men and Tomorrow, and has been replaced throughout this week by the Mindbenders. It is possible the Fudge will be able to play some of the later dates on the itinerary.
Meanwhile, Vanilla Fudge plays a Sunday concert at London's Saville Theatre on October 22. They will occupy the whole first half of the show, with the Who featured throughout the second Half. The group also plays London's Speakeasy on October 19, and other London club dates are being lined-up as well as concerts in Sweden, France and Germany.
The Mamas and Papas- Scott McKenzie concert at London's Royal Albert Hall,
originally planned by Burns for November 1, has been brought forward to Monday, October 30. It is still probable that they will play a second date at this venue later the same week, but the plan to visit Manchester has now been scrapped. The American stars flew this week to Paris, where McKenzie is making promotional appearances. The Mamas and Papas then travel to North Africa for a few days, where Scott will rejoin them, before they all go to Majorca for a fortnight's vacation. « Floyd join Hendrix … », Melody Maker, 14 October 1967
PRESS MENTION | 14 October 1967 A few Dutch newspapers announces some gigs in Nederland from 8 to 12 November
RECORD RELEASE | 14 October 1967 « The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn » is released in the US. It featured a different running order and a tracklisting which included the single See Emily Play. The album peaked at No. 131 in the charts.
RECORDING SESSION | 19 October 1967 A specific session is held At De Lane Lea Studios The brass section for Jugband Blues is recorded. Two version were recorded.
RECORDING SESSION | 20 October 1967 Recording session at De Lane Lea Studios. The band is recording the soundtrack for John Latham’s lightshow and Five tracks of In the beechwood track (who remained unreleased until the release of « Early Years » boxset.
PHOTO SESSION | 20 October 1967 The band is invited to visit the workshop studios of the BBC. Chris Walter took photos
Photographies by Chris Walter
PRESS MENTION | 21 October 1967 Nick and Roger are interviewed for « Record Mirror »
CONCERT DATE | 21 October 1967 Derwent Dining Room, University of York, Heslington, York, England
Roy Hughes (DJ at the Tinned Chicken Club):
«When the Floyd appeared, they were still in their early, Syd Barrett days. Barrett, Roy remembers, as being intense and “very intelligent”, but otherwise ordinary seeming. The band, who were still way pre-Dark Side Of The Moon, had big hair and psychedelic clothing, and were already honing the kind of stage show that was later to make them so huge.
They had, Roy recalls, oil projectors which they used to project a kaleidoscope of colours on the Folk Hall ceiling. “The hall was completely bathed in colour»
«Pink Floyd in New EarswickUpdate», Scuffy Theory Website, 12 May 2020
STUDIO RECORDING | 23 to 24 October 1967 The band is in the Studio 2 at EMI Studios, London The band is recording 8 takes of Paintbox, one more track for Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun. The band participates as a backing band to a track for an artist managed by Norman Smith William Butler. This unreleased track is called Early Morning, Henry
STUDIO RECORDING | 26 to 27 October 1967 The band is in the Studio 2 at EMI Studios, London Recording sessions for Apple & Oranges
CANCELLED CONCERT | 23 October 1967 The Pavilion, Bath, England
Andrew King:
«All went off the rails in the autumn 67 on their first US tour. I flew out ahead of the band and went to see our agent in New York, guy caged Gimpy. He gave me all the contacts for the shows - two in San Fransisco with Bill Graham, one at the Cheetah Club In Santa Monica. one more somewhere and TV slots on the Perry Como and Pat Boone shows and on AmericanBandstand. Then he opened a drawer and offered me a gun which he said I'd need on tour. I politely declined and flew to 'Frisco unarmed to meet Bill Graham»
«Pink Floyd's Syd Barrett», Mojo, September 2006
CANCELLED CONCERT | 23 October 1967 Whisky A Go Go, West Hollywood, Los Angeles, USA
CANCELLED CONCERT | 24 October 1967 Whisky A Go Go, West Hollywood, Los Angeles, USA
CANCELLED CONCERT | 26 October 1967 Fillmore Auditorium, San Francisco, USA
CANCELLED CONCERT | 27 October 1967 Fillmore Auditorium, San Francisco, USA
CANCELLED CONCERT | 28 October 1967 Fillmore Auditorium, San Francisco, USA
CANCELLED CONCERT | 30 October 1967 Fillmore Auditorium, San Francisco, USA The Steve Miller band replaced them.
Proposed US tour of the States has been canceled because the group were unable to obtain visas in time
« Pop Short», Record Mirror, 28 October 1967
Andrew King:
«We missed the first Fillmore West gig„ as they had no visas. Bill (Graham) rang the US ambassador In London at about 0am, got him out of bed and screamed at him to get the visas sorted. "They came through and the band arrived. But they were totally dysfunctional from the start»
«Pink Floyd's Syd Barrett», Mojo, Septembre 2006
RECORDING SESSION | From 10 to 27 October 1967 The band spend some time in studio to recording a new single.
Nick Mason:
«By the time we recorded "Apples And Oranges’ in the autumn, we were straggling with the singles, and at that point we were probably playing live Thursday. Friday and Saturday, having Sunday off and then going back into the studio on Monday. When we played London shows we would be in the studio in the day. too»
«Dark Globe», Uncut, May 2020
Syd Barrett:
«A year later I talked them into buying me a guitar-quite cheap one and learned to play it from tutor books and with the help of friends who could play a little
At 15 I took a dramatic step forward, becoming the proud possessor of an electric guitar, with a small amplifier that I made myself. And with this kit, which I fitted into a cabinet, I joined my first group - Geoff Mott and the Mottoes - playing at parties and the like around my home town of Cambridge. For a couple of years from the age of 16, I was not with any regular group, and during this time I acquired a 12. string guitar, and then a bass guitar, which I played with another local group, the Hollering Blues,
Then I decided to go to London, took a while to take in the scene and joined forces with three boys I had met. switched to lead guitar and after using various names, we decided three years ago to call ourselves the Pink Floyd.
After a year of struggle we broke through, developed the flashing lights, acquired a manager etc and here we are. And I now own two first-class guitars!»
«Play-an-instrument-month», Melody Maker, 28 October 1967
CONCERT DATE | 28 October 1967 Dunelm House, University of Durham, Durham, England
CANCELLED CONCERT | 26 October 1967 Fillmore Auditorium, San Francisco, USA
PRESS MENTION | 28 October 1967 Syd Barrett is asked in « Melody Maker » about his guitars
CANCELLED CONCERT | 30 October 1967 Whisky-a-go-go Club, Los Angeles, USA
CANCELLED CONCERT | 31 October 1967 Whisky-a-go-go Club, Los Angeles, USA
CANCELLED CONCERT | 1st November 1967 Whisky-a-go-go Club, Los Angeles, USA
CANCELLED CONCERT | 2 November 1967 Fillmore Auditorium, San Francisco, USA
CANCELLED CONCERT | 3 November 1967 Winterland Auditorium, San Francisco, USA
Nick Mason:
« The American tour in November 1967 was problematic from the start. It makes me shudder. It was great because it was an adventure -I'd been to America once before, but if was different not having to pay for it; but Syd was definitely losing iL First of all there was a problem with the work permits. So we left two days late. On the plane out. I remember the stewardess making everyone extinguish their cigarettes before takeoff - those were the days! - and Syd stubbed it out on the carpet instead of using the ashtray, to the fury of the air hostesses »
«Dark Globe», Uncut, May 2020
CANCELLED CONCERT | 3 November 1967 Caves Club, Chislehurst Caves, Chislehurst, England This English date had been scheduled when the group was experiencing visa difficulties, in case these had not been resolved. It was eventually cancelled when the American tour resumed.
CONCERT DATE | 4 November 1967 Winterland Auditorium, San Francisco, USA Finally the first date of the Autumn US tour, the band had some pressures to have some good reviews by the press
Rick Wright:
« There was a time when I really didn't want to because we had so many problems with Syd Barrett. (The former Floyd guitarist). There was one particular gig, I think in Winterland, where I went to our manager and said, "That's it, I'm off!" and wanted to get out of the venue. But somehow they managed to get me back »
« Rick Wright - Rick Wright Feuchte Träume von zuhause », Musik Express, January 1979
Roger Waters:
«That was an amazing disaster. Syd by this time was completely off his head. We did Winterland, San Francisco. We were third on the bill to Big Brother and the Holding Company and Richie Havens. When Big Brother went on I couldn’t believe it. I was expecting something way out and it was bluesy country rock. I was amazed. I expected them to be much more different. It was kind of chunka, chunka, chunka with Janis Joplin singing the blues. I was expecting something really extraordinary and mind-blowing and tripping. Compared to some of the things that English bands were doing at the time it was boring. For example the Who in a good mood or the Cream»
«Pink Floyd - The Early Years», Barry Miles, 2006
The French photographer Alain Dister who made some photo session earlier this year remember the gig
Alain Dister (French photographer):
« C’était en automne 1967. J’habitais à San Francisco. C’était au Winterland il me semble, une grande salle de concert de la ville. C’est à ce moment-là que j’ai revu Syd Barrett. Et bizarrement, on avait l’impression de se reconnaître. J’avais l’impression qu’il me reconnaissait, en tout cas. Il était assis dans un coin, il souriait. Bon, il était un peu barré, mais peut-être que je l’étais un peu aussi (rires). Et on a eu un échange qui m’a vraiment touché, une sorte de complicité aussi. Je n’ai pas fait de photographie cet- te fois-là. Je sentais qu’il y avait une mise à distance avec le groupe. Lui était dans son coin, alors que les trois autres étaient plus attirés par ce qui se passait ailleurs, ils regardaient qui était ce public qui venait les écouter et quel groupe allait passer avant eux.
C’était toujours risqué de passer après un groupe parce qu’il pouvait voler le show, surtout que ce soir-là, c’est Janis Joplin avec Big Brother And The Hol- ding Company qui passait avant. La présence de Janis sur scène, devant un public qui lui était entièrement acquis, rendait bien évidemment les choses difficiles. Malgré ça, ils ont donné un show extraordinaire, avec un côté très hypnotique, en usant de stro-boscopes et en alternant les couleurs rouge/ blanc, rouge/blanc, rouge/blanc, comme ça de façon alternée.
« Interview Alain Dister par Dumbangel», Speak to Me #04, Printemps 2010
CANCELLED CONCERT | 5 November 1967 Cheetah Club, Chicago, USA
CONCERT DATE | 5 November 1967 Cheetah Club, Venice, Santa Monica, USA The band took a flight from Los Angeles to do the show at Cheetah just in time (6:00 pm)
«Saturday night Pink Floyd finally played and they are an interesting group, very involved with electronic sounds of all varieties. They do not swing much, their songs are not as dramatie as-The Who or The Cream and their stage presentation, which has been so effective in small clubs, is not effective here. They open in darkness with vari-colored strobe lights flashing and they continue in darkness with a circular light projection on the wall behind them. What there is of it is good but it is dwarfed by both the size and the imagination of the San Francisco light shows.»
«Pink Floyd, a British rock group …», San Francisco Chronicle, 6 November 1967
Alice Cooper
«They'd played a show with Pink Floyd at the Cheetah Club and hit it off. « We'd open for the British bands that came in» Cooper says. "And it was crazy. We saw their show and they had exactly the same lights that we did. We had a box made with colored lights that would flicker up because that's all we could afford were flood lights in a box. And we got there and they had the exact same box. We'd never seen each other before»
«Christmas Pudding», Alice Cooper, 2017
John Speer (Alice Cooper drummer):
«We were band at the Cheetah Club and when Pink Floyd come to town they came for a one night only show (…) We were in total awe of the show we saw that night. It affected us a lot ‘cause we thought we were pretty hot at the time. I find these guys come over from England and we just looked at each other and went Holy Shit! We’re not even close! These guys are so far beyond anything that we had heard, and we were just blown away. Totally blown away»
«John Speer:Cheetah Club revisited», The Late Night Fanzine, Issue 3
It was during this concert that the incident with the glitter backstage is said to have occurred.
«The group played the newly opened Cheetah Club, housed in the old Aragon Ballroom on Pacific Ocean Park in Venice. Before they left for the States Syd had had one of his £20 perms done at Vidal Sassoon to make him look like Jimi Hendrix but he thought they had done a bad job and decided that he wanted to straighten out his curls. In the dressing room at the Cheetah, just as they were preparing to go onstage, Syd took a jar of hair gel and tipped the whole lot on his head. Next he produced a bottle of Mandrax (or more likely quaaludes, as methaqualone was called in the States) and rubbed them into his hair. He was sitting in front of the dressing room make-up lights which caused the gel to began to melt and run down his face and neck until, as Roger put it, Syd looked like ìlike a gutted candleî.
The band took the stage and apparently girls in the front row screamed with horror as Syd’s lips and nostrils bubbled and ran with the gel as rivulets oozed down his cheeks, the mixed-in sleeping pills looking like tiny gobbets of flesh as if he was discomposing before their eyes in the moving lights. He detuned the strings of his guitar and stared out into space, his right hand hanging limply at his side, too out of it to sing any of the lyrics. Roger, who had to deliver the vocals for him, was so angry afterwards that he demanded that Syd be thrown out of the group on the spot. In fact Syd was probably very into the music: he detuned the strings to emulate Keith Rowe, listening to each one, blew on a whistle, and possibly thought he was participating in a free-form concert; he had always been allowed to improvise at will. I saw many AMM concerts and long periods of time often passed before anyone made any noise at all. It is possible that Syd strummed a few times during the concert, which would have seemed like a proper contribution to him in AMM mode..»
«Pink Floyd - The Early Years», Barry Miles, 2006
Alice Cooper
« Syd was singing, See Emily Play then all of a sudden, he got shocked. I could see the spark come off his micro- phone and hit him in the mouth. He just stood back, put his arms to his side, and didn’t play for the rest of the show, he just stood there like a statue»
«The real Alice», Goldmine, June 2019
After the gig, the band spend some days with the Alice Cooper band and on Hollywood. Everyone notice the erratic behavior of Syd
«Deciding they were kindred spirits, Cooper and his bandmates invited the British rockers to stay at their house for a couple days. This was during what Cooper refers to as «the Syd Barrett insanity», recalling one morning he walked in on the psychedelic pioneer enjoying breakfast more than most. «I remember this so vividly» Cooper says. «He had blue velvet pants on, because that's what the British guys wore. Ruffled shirts. He probably wore it every day. He's sitting at the table, 6 or 7 in the morning. There's a box of Corn Flakes there and he's going … I went in the other room. I said, «Dennis, he is so high» He's watching this box of Corn Flakes the way I would watch Looney Tunes on television. To him, they were having a great time on that box»
«Christmas Pudding», Alice Cooper, 2017
Roger Waters:
« in 1967, after a meeting at Capitol, Syd and I stopped at the light at Hollywood and Vine. Syd grinned at me and said, «it’s nice here in Las Vegas, isn’t it ? Then his face darkened and he spat out one word - « people »»
«Screen projections speech for «It’s not a drill» tour», 2022, Roger Waters
Roger Waters:
«Nous allions à un rendez-vous au siège de Capitol Records puis en descendant dans la rue, Syd m’a lancé dans un sourire : « C’est beau ici à Las Vegas, n’est-ce pas ? » Évidemment, il devenait fou à ce moment- là. Puis son visage s’est assombri et il a craché un seul mot. « Les gens », il a dit. Quand vous perdez quelqu’un que vous aimez, cela sert à vous rappeler que « ce n’est pas un exercice » »
«La rencontre», L’Humanité Dimanche, 19 May 2022
Roger drew inspiration from one of the incidents to write the song Nobody Home, which inspired an iconic scene of the film « Pink Floyd The Wall »
Roger Waters:
«(…) memory I have of Syd Barrett, of discovering him in a room in a hotel called the Hollywood Hawaiian, just off Franklin Avenue in Hollywood. He was sitting on a chair and smoking a cigarette, and it had burnt down all the way to his fingers, and there nothing left of it but ash on the floor and this burnt paper stuck to his fingers»
«The making of Pink Floyd The Wall», Gerald Scarfe
TV SESSION | The band made many appearances at the US TV networks. See this page for more details.
Nick Mason:
«We played the Winterland in San Francisco with Richie Havens and Big Brother And The Holding Company, which was great, but the rest of the trip was filled with doing these awful television shows. lt was promotion but it was put together by the record company, who didn't really get it at all. Syd was a loose cannon. No-one knew what he was gonna say or whether he was gonna freak out and try and throttle DickClark. It was so uncomfortable for everyone»
«Dark Globe», Uncut, May 2020
MAIN EVENT | Syd's behaviour forced the manager to cancel or postpone many concert dates or TV sessions of the American tour.
CANCELLED CONCERT | 7 November 1967 Cafe Au Go Go, Manhattan, New York City , USA
CANCELLED CONCERT | 8 November 1967 Cafe Au Go Go, Manhattan, New York City , USA
CANCELLED CONCERT | 9 November 1967 Cafe Au Go Go, Manhattan, New York City, USA
CONCERT DATE | 9 November 1967 Fillmore Auditorium, San Francisco, USA
CANCELLED CONCERT | 10 November 1967 Café Au Go Go, Manhattan, New York City, USA
MISCELLANOUS | Meantime, David Gilmour who splited form his band and with his parents (who moved in New York) wandering in London in a disarray state. He lived in the Nigel Gordon’s flat.
CONCERT DATE | 10 November 1967 Winterland, San Francisco, USA
«The British rock quartet Pink Floyd, who finally arrived in town this weekend after immigration problems had delayed them proved musically to be hardly worth all the fuss.
Their sets at Winterland Friday night were monotonous, affected, clumsy and, need I add, almost un-danceable.
Floyd has an interesting concept of performance: a stream of consciousness approach which results, essentially, in long flowing lines of guitar, bass, electric piano or voice (not many lyrics, just voice: held together by a twin bass-drummed percussionist (…) The trouble is that Pink Floyd are not musically competent to pull off what they try. Any jazz group for instance would destroy a drummer as sloppy and inconsistent as Floyd’s and the pseudo-mystical sounds and stance in the vocals tend to invalidate most of the total effect».
«There’s little dancing at Dance-Concerts», San Francisco Examiner, November 1967
David Gilmour
«I remember the rickety old iron lift and Nigel Gordon had the nicest room overlooking Dino's, the Italian restaurant. I was a bit lost and lonely in London so I spent a lot of time hanging out at that flat »
«Us and them», Mark Blake, 2023
PHOTO SESSION | 11 November 1967 The band is photographed at Casa Madrona hotel in Sausalito by Baron Wolman
Photographies by Baron Wolman
Baron Wolman
«I photographed Pink Floyd's first visit to the US. This was their first appearance in the San Francisco bay area and really nobody knew them here yet. They were staying in Sausalito and I shot them at their hotel. Syd Barrett—well known now for having done a lot of acid—was goofing around sticking sugar cubes in his mouth during the shoot… They played the Fillmore for Bill Graham. This was their first appearance in the San Francisco bay area and really nobody knew them here yet. They were staying in Sausalito and I shot them at their hotel. Syd Barrett—well known now for having done a lot of acid—was goofing around sticking sugar cubes in his mouth during the shoot… but I didn't go to the show; it's embarassing. Again in hindsight ecerything's clear: the band photos I didn't take, the women I didn't sleep with»
«Baron Wolman testimony», Icongallery website
Rick Wright:
«At 17 I went to the Regent Street School of Architecture and here I met bassist Roger Waters, and drummer Nick Mason. We set up a group at the college and were joined six months later by lead guitarist Sid Barrett playing piano myself. So the Pink Floyd was first formed, although we changed the name, and returned to it again as we went along. It was when we were playing for a private affair at the Mar. quee that we met managers Peter Jenner and Andrew King and we started at a church hall in Palace Gardens, Notting Hill Gate, which was named the Experimental Workshop. It was run by John Hopkins - and when business im. proved we moved to Tottenham Court Road, where it became the UFO»
«Electronic keyboard - Rick Wright», Melody Maker, 11 November 1967
CANCELLED CONCERT | 11 November 1967 Café Au Go Go, Manhattan, New York City, USA
PRRSS MENTION | 11 November 1967 Short interview of Rick in « Melody Maker » about the beginning of the band.
CONCERT DATE | 11 November 1967 Winterland, San Francisco, USA
«The British rock quartet Pink Floyd, who finally arrived in town this weekend after immigration problems had delayed them, proved musically to be hardly worth all the fuss. Their sets at Winterland Friday night were monotonous, affected, clumsy and, need I add, almost undanceable. Floyd has an interesting concept of performance - of - consciousness approach which results, essentially, in long flowing lines of guitar, bass, electric piano or voice (not many lyrics, just voice) held together by a twin bass-drummed percussionist»
«There's little dancing at Dance-Concerts», The San Francisco Examiner, 13 November 1967
CONCERT DATE | 12 November 1967 Cheetah, New York, USA The band take a plane at 9 p.m. at Kennedy Airport to come back to London.
Andrew King:
«We should probably never have gone to America. We did pack up and come home in the end after playing at the Cheetah Club in New York»
«A Very Irregular Head: The Life of Syd Barrett», Rob Chapman, 2011
MAIN EVENT | Syd's behaviour forced the manager to cancel many dates on the American tour and back in London The band take a plane at 9 p.m. at Kennedy Airport to come back to London.
Andrew King:
«(…) They were totally dysfunctional from the start (of the tour). Basically, Syd wasn't playing anything. He had a whistle, which he'd blow from time to time. The tour should have been fantastic. There I was sharing a bottle of Southern Comfort with Janis Joplin. But it was miserable. Nobody was talking to Syd. I had to chaperone him everywhere to prevent anything dreadful happening to him. The split with the Floyd was very complicated, scary and traumatic. I didn't think that the future lay with Syd rather than the band, partly because I never made the mistake of underestimating Roger Waters and partly because I'd seen Syd's problems oration the US tour»
«Syd Barrett (1946-2006)», Uncut, September 2006
Jenny Spires (Syd’ girlfriend):
«After the American tour, he was finished. I saw him when he got back from the States and he had to go on the Hendrix tour. He looked terrible»
«The real Syd Barrett – by the people who knew him», Prog Magazine Website, 17 June 2016
Interviewer: «How did Syd take to America ?» Nick Mason: «Rather badly. Syd was losing interest in the whole thing and we were carrying him around. It was pretty painful. The mad thing is instead of really addressing it, we said, «What we ought to do is give Syd two days off». We flew back to Europe, gave him two days off and went off to a festival in Holland. It was not the right way of doing things»
«Pink Floyd’s Nick Mason on ‘Early Years,’ Syd Barrett, Inter-Band Tension», Rolling Stone, 18 November 2016
CANCELLED CONCERT | 12 November 1967 Café Au Go Go, New York City, USA
CANCELLED CONCERT | 12 November 1967 Public Hall, Harpenden, England
CONCERT DATE | 13 November 1967 « Hippy Happy Fair », De Oude-Ahoy Hallen, Rotterdam, The Netherlands George Ritter assisted the show in the audience. He eventually become the executive of CBC who later buy the Live at Pompeii for the first exclusive premiere
«Op papier zag het er allemaal goed uit. Een hippy happy beurs voor tieners en twens. Allerlei gekke toestanden. Een muzikaal gedeelte met namen waar je koud van werd. En dat alles voor een schappelijk prijsje. In de praktijk viel het echter nogal tegen, voornamelijk
door het ontbreken van één elementsfeer. Maar ook ontbrak, het de organisatie duidelijk aan een bepaald idee achter het geheel.
Allereerst dan iets over de beurs zelf. Die was georganiseerd door het Beurscentrum Rotterdam en was een primeur voor Europa, zoals men trots vertelde. Er stonden ongeveer 40 stands met allerlei zaken die een swingende tiener interesseren: veel kleren, platenbars, gokautomaten, bromfietsen, etc. Alle artikelen konden ter plaatse gekocht worden.
Het geheel was een uiterst commercieel zaakje. En eigenlijk geen beurs, eerder een soort tienerwarenhuis. Dan het publiek. Zelden hebben we zon lauwe troep bij elkaar gezien. Zelfs bij de meest swingende soulmuziek bleven ze een beetje verveeld en onbewogen staan kijrken. Applaus kon er ook bijna niet af. Terwijl er toch zeer goede muziek werd gespeeld. Nu moeten we er wel bij zeggen dat dit ook ten dele werd veroorzaakt door de inrichting van de zaal (de Ahoyhal).
Het geheel werd namelijk overspoeld door een zee van neonlicht, zelden een middel tot verhoging van de gezelligheid. De muzikale kant. Er stonden een paar grote namen op het programma: Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd, Soft Machine, Keith West met Tomorrow, Spencer Dayis en nog wat Nederlands topwerk. De Bee Gees hadden verstek laten gaan, omdat ze Nederland eigenlijk niet zo interessant vonden. De Kinks, die toen gevraagd werden, bleken het weekeinde te hebben gereserveerd voor componeren en voetballen.
Spencer Davis sprong toen bij, maar kon zaterdagavond nauwelijks enig enthousiasme opwekken. Twee hoogtepunten in het muzikale gedeelte waren ongetwijfeld Jimi Hendrix en de Pink Floyd. De Jimi Hendrix Experience (gemiddelde leeftijd 20) liet vrijdagavond een voortreffelijke indruk achter.
Gesteund door een formidabele geluidsinstallatie (8 grote kasten) brachten ze acht nummers, waarbij Jimi natuurlijk weer zn bekende truukjes liet zien: gitaarspelen met zn tanden en spelen met zn gitaar op de rug. Hij maakte geweldige loopjes, gevolgd door lange uithalen met het bekende 'huilerige' geluid. Zonder op de voorgrond te treden steunden drummer Mitch Mitchell en bassgitarist Noel Redding hem voortreffelijk. De Pink Floyd waren met hun lichtshow naar Rotterdam gekomen.
De effecten waren heel aardig, al was de zaal niet donker genoeg gemaakf*om het volledig te laten uitkomen. Drie kwartier produceerde de Pink Floyd geweldige geluidskastelen, gebaseerd op een voortreffelijk muzikaal kunnen. Het publiek stond er als een stelletje zoutzakken bij. Advies aan de organisatoren, die van dit evenement een jaarlijks festijn willen maken: zoek een betere zaal en maak het wat gezelliger»
«Hippie maar niet zo Happy in Rotterdam», Het Parool, 18 November 1967
«Monday evening the PINK FLOYD was the main attraction. This performance could have been enjoyed by some more contemporary twentysomethings. The light show was fantastic (there were less lights on in the hall) and the group did some very special things.
Things we expected and very unexpected things. They played music with a big M, with plenty of room for improvisation for all the boys.
Again a bass player who played whole melodies, you can imagine what the guitarist made. The characteristic Pink Floyd organ rang out juicy through the room. A bit overwhelmed, the audience was sent out into the cold after the final number.
Well, that was something. Groups whose arrival we had not dared to dream of a while ago were suddenly standing before us in flesh and blood. But there is a but. This more modern music is actually more music to listen to in a good concert hall than music to stand by in a large hall. If these groups had all performed in the Concertgebouw, De Doelen or the Kurhaus, the whole thing would have been done more justice»
«Te weinig speer in Rotterdam's Hippy Happy», Hitweek, 24 November 1967
MAIN EVENT | From 14 November to 5 December, the band joins the English tour of Jimi Hendrix who packed many bands as Move with the experience as headbill
Nick Mason:
«The only one we ever did. A 17-minute set limit which was terrific because we were pretty frazzled at the time, towards the end of the Syd Barrett period. What was great was that we actually met some other musicians. We'd led a pretty solitairy life as a band until then and suddenly we were hanging out with Hendrix. It was an opportunity to wallow in a bit of all-musos-together. I think it was the last big tour of that time. After that everyone wanted to go out on their own with just a support act».
«The 30 Year Technicolour Dream», Mojo Magazine, July 1995
At each gig, the headlining Hendrix was allotted exactly 40 minutes. The Move, who preceded him onstage, had just half an hour. And the Floyd were expected to sum up what they were all about in precisely 17 minutes! As the Hendrix tour wore on, Barrett appeared increasingly morose and depressed. Jimi Hendrix, unaware as almost everyone else of the underlying seriousness of Syd’s condition, took to addressing him ironically as «Laughing Syd Barrett»»
«A Saucerful of Secrets:The Pink Floyd Odyssey», Nicolas Schaeffner, 1992
The length of the set and the general organisation of the tour prevented the band from using their light-show. According to disappointed press reports, the quality of their performance will be diminished.
Syd Barrett:
«Our lighting expert usually works from a platforme at the back of a hall, with a cable leading up to the stage. This is impossible on a tour, so he’s working on the idea of having the lighting equipement on stage. Certainly we don’t want to have to appear without lights – we’ve never worked without them before, and we wouldn’t be happy about it »
«Festive Floyd », Top Pops, 25 November 1967.
CONCERT DATE | 14 November 1967 « The Alchemical Wedding », Royal Albert Hall, London, England
«(…) Pink Floyd gave one of their colourful and deafening displays of musical pyrotechnics, and indeed all the groups were painfully loud, with the agony increased by the horror of the Albert’s acoustics (…)»
«Caught in the Act», Melody Maker, 25 November 1967.
«Way back in 1966, a bill consisting of the Jimi Hendrix Experience, the Move and the Pink Floyd would probably have had little impact. But on Tuesday last week exactly that bill packed the vast Royal Albert Hall… A funny thing pop, isn’t it?»
«Hysterical Hendrix», Disc & Music Echo, 25 November 1967.
«The Pink Floyd played a relatively subdued instrumental set with a toned down version of their now famous light act and lots of crashing songs, cymbals and eastern guitar. A pleasing set but again not very inspiring»
«Hail Jimi!», New Musical Express, 18 November 1967.
Alen Jones (Amen Corner):
«There were a lot of good bands on there, it was a great, diverse bill. The Floyd were very cool, The Nice were also very cool, then there was us who were managed by Don Arden, Sharon Osborne's dad and a notorious gangster figure in rock'n'roll managers, and The Move who were managed by Tony Secunda at the time, then you had Hendrix at the top, so it was a heck of a bill.It appealed to a lot of different people, not just Hendrix fans. He was the star, there's no question about that, but as a bill it's surprising it worked so well. Of course it was in the days when Floyd were still with Syd Barrett. It wasn't the big long, epic, 15 minute songs, it was three minute pop songs».
Nick Mason:
«I remember Alan Price being particularly mean about us at some charity event in the Albert Hall, dropping his Hammond B3 and going, ‘that’s psychedelic music for you’. It was 50 years ago now; I’ve nearly forgiven him. I’m getting over it»
«Things cannot be destroyed once and for all», Record Collector,
For the fiest concert of this short tour, David Gimour was in audience
David Gilmour:
«They were awfully bad. Incredibilly undisciplined»
«Burning bridges», Mojo, February 2021
Photography of the artist took backstage
CONCERT DATE | 15 November 1967 Winter Gardens, Bournemouth, England
RECORD RELEASE | 17 November 1967 The band's third single Apples And Oranges is released in the UK.
CONCERT DATE | 17 November 1967 City (Oval) Hall, Sheffield, England
Andy Nagle:
«Pink Floyd, Black on white silhouette figures with sheet behind them and oil/glass slide show projected onto backdrop. Impossible to make out features but slightly afro hairstyles, all beads/bandanas/bangles. Arnold Layneand See Emily Play were the hits played. Cannot be specific about other tracks but something very similar to “INTERSTELLAR OVERDRIVE” was in there. Again had seen them at the MOJO earlier in the year (this was the summer of love) so although familiar with their music, track names did not mean very much. Always had a troupe of stunning women following them around. Surprised you could recognise Sheffield from the white sheet. I thought they did that at all gigs»
CONCERT DATE | 17 November 1967 « All Nite Garden Party », Queens Hall, Leeds, England
CONCERT DATE | 18 November 1967 Empire Theatre, Liverpool, England Faced with Barrett's inability to take his place on stage, the rest of the band asked David O'list to play on stage with them.
Dave O’List:
«Syd Barrett was a quit guy. He’d get on the coach and never talk to anyone. When the tour git to Liverpool empire, I went off to find the Cavern and Pink Floyd were in my dressing room when I returned. They told me Syd had gone for a walk ans hadn’t come back, and they wanted me to fill in for him. Luckily I’d been watching the Floyd every night and knew exactly what to play on stage»
«Renewed attack!», Uncut, January 2019
Andy Nagle:
«We were at the evening show in the circle to the left, the thing I remember most was America by The Nice Emerson was standing on the organ & stabbing it with knives while rocking back & forth, Floyd played "See Emily Play, Set the Controls, Arnold Layne. Their Light show consisted of red, green blue & yellow filters projected on to a screen synchronised by the bass drum. Very High Tech»
Photography of Dave O’List with Keith Emerson
CONCERT DATE | 19 November 1967 Coventry Theatre, Coventry, England
«More than 3,000 youngsters attended two houses at the Coventry Theatre. He can play guitar with his teeth, lying on the stage, or behind his back - and do it better than most in a more conventional position. The result was a stunning, completely individual performance, which included hits like Hey Joe, The Wind Cries Mary and Purple Haze, and the wildest version yet of Wild Thing.
But the teenagers who stood on their seats for Jimi Hendrix were unmoved - and I guess somewhat bewildered - by the Pink Floyd, a group for whom the new wave is more of a spring tide. The Floyd's extended instrumental/electronic experiments were fascinating. almost hypnotic. but unappreciated by an audience probably expecting their hit tunes»
«Wild Jimi a Stunning experience for fans», Coventry Evening Telegraph, 20 November 1967
CONCERT DATE | 22 November 1967 Guildhall, Portsmouth, England
CONCERT DATE | 23 November 1967 Sophia Gardens Pavilion, Cardiff, Wales
Alan Jones
« I’d seen them once, supporting Jimi Hendrix at Cardiff's Sophia Gardens in November 1967. Syd Barrett was still with them, but not for much longer, having been thrown out of the band the following April because of his increasingly difficult behaviour and drug-related inconstancy. I remember them that night, drowned in light, Syd's guitar seeming to scream through space from another planet. They stayed on stage as long as it took them to play Astronomy Domine and Interstellar Overdrive, whose planetary bubbling and cosmic noises were the craziest things I'd ever heard, at least until Hendrix came along and punched big holes in the stratosphere, his whole set a kind of journey into a nameless hovering unknown »
«Hors-Série Special Pink Floyd», Rock & Folk, September 2018
CONCERT DATE | 24 November 1967 Colston Hall, Bristol, England
Dave (Audience member):
«Ok, first off I was aged fifteen at the gig and I attended the second show together with my two brothers (…) Pink Floyd used backing tapes, plus very frustrated as the keyboards were not working»
CONCERT DATE | 25 November 1967 Colston Hall, Bristol, England
Simond (Audience member)
«(…) Fast forward to late 67, the Hendrix/Move/Floyd tour was announced and they were coming to Blackpool, 15 miles from where I lived. Tickets were 4 shillings and 6 pence (which I think is 22.5 pence, or 1/5th of a £, in current money). My parents were OK with me going so long as it was to the early show (thankfully, as it turned out, from the Hendrix point of view). We got to the Opera House around 6pm(ish). The stage was a mess of all sorts of amplifiers, loads and loads of them in two rows. We were in the centre stalls, about 12-18 rows back from the stage. When the show started, the place was about half full and the compere invited those in the circle to come down into the stalls a) for warmth, and b) to make the place look fuller (imagine…this was Hendrix and the Floyd for pennies!!!!!). The various support bands went through their 5-10 minute slots. Just before Pink Floyd came on, a huge white sheet was draped across the rows of amplifiers. The compere (Pete Drummond?) introduced them as “fresh from wooing the hippie emporiums on America’s West Coast”). They did about 15-20 minutes and 100% definitely did Set The Controls and Interstellar Overdrive. I remember putting Stethoscope in my ‘scrapbook’ as being the other song but it was more likely to have been Pow R Toch H (I was still a bit unsure about the album’s song titles and often got those two mixed up). [All set lists that I’ve seen for this date have the early and late shows the wrong way round]. They wore exactly the same clothes as they do in the photographs of them cutting a cake and drinking champagne, except that Syd wore the hat that Nick has on in the photographs). We (or, at any rate, I) had no idea of Syd’s struggles at the time and I can say without fear of contradiction that, at that show, he seemed in good form and he and Rick led the band through a dazzling Interstellar Overdrive. The light show was of the liquid oil type played onto the band and the white sheet behind them. They also had a strobe (or two?) low down at the front which projected their silhouettes high up onto the backdrop of the stage (the stage curtains in the Hendrix footage weren’t closed at all other than for Hendrix). The sound was loud but clear and each instrument could be distinguished. The combination of light and sound was exactly what I hoped it would be from the reviews I'd read of their London shows. I was mesmerised but all too soon it was over. Afterwards, the Move did about 20 minutes at deafening volume, and then Hendrix did about 50 minutes. Just before he came on, they closed the stage curtains thus blocking out the mess of amplifiers on stage. We saw that his set was being filmed from the right-hand side circle and 2 of the songs are now up on Youtube. I read in the local paper that, about 10 minutes into the late show and playing to a half-full house, he said “this ain’t my scene, man” and walked off stage.
After the show, we had about an hour to kill before our bus home. We slipped into a pub for one pint (very nervously as we were so young) and then walked along the promenade. We saw a very dirty and dusty Ford Transit parked up outside a club. It was covered in graffiti amongst which were references to Pink Floyd so we looked in the cab and, bugger me, Rick Wright was sitting behind the wheel in his stage gear. We tapped on the window and said we’d been to the show. We all got his autograph and asked where Syd was. He pointed into the club (no way we could blag our way in there!). We chatted for a couple of minutes and went for our bus. And that was it really. I was so shocked when, a few weeks/months later, it was announced that Syd was out of the band. If anyone's interested, I can try and dredge up my memories of some/all of the following shows I went to. It would be great if others could chip in with their recollections of their shows from the early days »
«Recollections of Early Floyd Shows» (Simond), Yeeshkul Website, 7 March 2015
The magazine « Fabulous 208 » set a photo session for his birthday with the band after the gig
Photographies by Fabulous 208
CONCERT DATE | 26 November 1967 Palace Theatre, Manchester, England
CONCERT DATE | 27 November 1967 « Festival '67», Whitla Hall, Queens College, Belfast, Northern Ireland
Roger Waters
«We did gig in Queens University in Belfast back in the 60s and we were driving through the pouring rain, a total downpour, to the next venue, ('m driving in a Zephyr Ford, the band are all asleep, I'm driving as fast as I can, I see this light ahead in the road and it’s a Gardee, and he pulls me over and comes round the window and says [adopts perfect Irish accent] ‘I'm sure you were going a hell of a lick!’ and I say ’Oh, was I f'm terribly sorry, | didn’t realise’. And he says «Can ask you a question young fella? What would happen if a child or a drank person were to have walked into the road ?», And thought ‘I take your point, what a brilliant and typically Irish take on things’, I've never forgotten that»
«The hero's return», Prog Magazine, December 2019
PRESS MENTION | In the middle of the tour, the US press keeps a look on the band
PRESS MENTION | In the middle of the tour, the US press keeps a look on the band
«The Pink Floyd, who were given their break by Paul McCartney, were one of the first English groups to use light shows in their act. They are touring the U.S. right now, and made their television debut on "American Bandstand' two weeks ago. They are promoting their first stateside release, a single called "Apples and Oranges," and an album to go along with it. The vocals on the single are slurred a bit, and the music sounds mechanical, but it has a pretty sort of sound, and it might make it»
«Favorite English songs may puzzle Americans», The Tampa Tribune, 30 November 1967
«The Pink Floyd, who were given their break by Paul McCartney, were one of the first English groups to use light shows in their act. They are touring the U.S. right now, and made their television debut on "American Bandstand' two weeks ago. They are promoting their first stateside release, a single called "Apples and Oranges," and an album to go along with it. The vocals on the single are slurred a bit, and the music sounds mechanical, but it has a pretty sort of sound, and it might make it»
«Favorite English songs may puzzle Americans», The Tampa Tribune, 30 November 1967
PRESS MENTION | December 1967, Nick and Rick are interviewed on the psychedelic movement for the December issue of « Groovy »
CONCERT DATE | 1st December 1967 Central Hall, Chatham, England
«She said that the Pink Floyd was a disappointment. Perharps they were but this was through no fault of theirs. For a start they were handicaped by having no means of erecting their "cinema screen" behind them whiwh is an essential with their light show. (...) She also says that they played some unrecognizable numbers. I suggest that she should have listened the Floyd's LP before she went to the the show and then maybe she would have recognized them (...) Finally I think it is an insult to the groups to play in the hall (…)»
«Central Hall was insults to groups», Chatham Standard, 12 December 1967
After the gig, John Altman conducted an interview with Jimi Hendrix and Rick Wright (separately). The page remains unreleased (see this page).
CONCERT DATE | 2 December 1967 The Dome, Brighton, England
PRESS MENTION | Nick Mason in asked about the Californian’s underground scene for the magazine Intro
«The music scene is underestimated; the groups are much more involved with things—more than anybody realizes. They think and talk the same way as their audiences, and therefore become a part. It makes for a fantastic scene and because of this rapport, the groups play extremely well to their audiences. I prefer the social life, because there's a musicians' circle there, and
no jealousy exists between artists. They genuinely try and help each other out whenever they can. Incidentally, the British group. The Cream, have an incredible reputation out there. But the main groups in the States are The Big Brother and The Holding Company, The Jefferson Airplane and The Grateful Dead. Unfortunately we didn't get the chance to see any others»
«America», Intro, 30 December 1967
CONCERT DATE | 3 December 1967 Theatre Royal, Nottingham, England He seems Syd Barrett didn’t appear on stage.
«Pink Floyd were without Syd Barrett but succeeded in opening the lock gates and gurgling forth with large pools of dream music»
«New depths from magnetic Hendrix», Derby Evening Telegraph, 9 December 1967
«To my utter amazement, (Jimi Hendrix) was run very close in terms of artistic value by the Pink Floyd.
They utterly belied the bad impression created by their records, and came on like true, dedicated explorers. After a weak first number, without any sense ot direction, they launched into "Heart of the Sun,' and the change was almost unbelievable. They were several light years in front of the Move, whose act I find more old-fashioned every time I see it. I'm sure they could be a good group, but they prejudice their hard-rock with the most horrible visual scene to hit the stage since the Mothers of Invention»
«And Jimi just didn't flow …» The Guardian, 9 December 1967
«Despite an uncertain start, the Pink Floyd's aggressive brand of "free-form" rock held considerable fascination, particularly on a restless, mystical original number called «Heart of the Sun»
«Nearly brought the house down!», The Guardian, 4 December 1967
Sue Topham (audience member):
«I was expecting a psychedlic light show during Pink Floyd’s set – the band were famous for it - and a huge white sheet was draped at the back of the stage ready for the show. "Then someone announced that, because it was a Sunday, for some reason they could not do the light show. It was a great shame. In fact the stage was very dark for the Pink Floyd performance.
“I remember they did an incredible version of Interstellar Overdrive and and Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun. It was amazing, but all over very quickly. They played no more than 15 minutes – there were 6 other bands to fit into the gig. I had a great time that evening, but very recently I came across a mystery surrounding the concert. I discovered that Syd Barrett did not make it to some of the theatre on this tour, and a guitarist from The Nice replaced him on stage. So, amazingly, I’m not sure if I actually saw Syd that night »
«I was there: When Pink Floyd and Syd Barrett blew minds … », Nottingham Post, 3 December 2017
CONCERT DATE | 4 December 1967 City Hall, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, England
MAIN EVENT | 4 December 1967 Signature on 4 december of the bands scheduled for the festival on 22 December 1967
Tony Townsend (co-promoter with Alan Dale):
«We shall use the three large halls at Olympia and expect 20,000 to turn up. Entrance is a flat fee of £1. There will be a swimming pool, fairground, underground cinema and market stalls manned by boutique and antique owners»
«Final groups were about to be signed on Tuesday …», Disc & Music Echo, 2 December 1967.
CONCERT DATE | 5 December 1967 Green's Playhouse, Glasgow, Scotland
Robert Anderson (Audience member):
«What a boring load of rubbish the Pink Floyd turned out to be on the tour with Jimi Hendrix. All those stupid lights and painful noises made me sick. If anything can kill pop music it’s this sort of insulting non-sense. Thank God some people had the sense to jeer and handclap their puerile «act»»
«Floyd’s lights and noise are killing pop», Melody Maker, 16 December 1967
Ace Kefford (Move):
«It was one of the best (tour) for a long time. All the groups were good, especially the Pink Floyd and, of course, Jimi Hendrix. We were expecting an older type of audience, but the ‘screamers’ were out in force»
«Move Music», Beat Instrumental, January 1968
Arthur McWilliams (musician, audience member):
«The Floyd] were a strange act to be appearing on that bill: they didn't fit in. Their appearance was very different to everyone else that night, they dressed very 'flower power' and also the light show was disappointing. The press they'd been getting in Melody Maker and Disc really featured on this light show more than the music, but because there were so many people on the bill, they didn't have their own light show, so all it consisted of was the fixed spotlights in the theatre while two girls, who seemed to be part of their team, flashed coloured papers over them. That was the light show»
Stewart Cruickshank (BBC radio producer, audience member):
«Pink Floyd had been on Top of the Pops, but they didn't play either of their singles and that surprised some of the audience, who weren't sophisticated enough to take all that in.
Although there were screaming girls there for the likes of the Amen Corner, the audience that turned up to see Pink Floyd and Hendrix were not a teenybop audience. There were older people, young kids and people in their teens. It was an audience that, within a few months, would be sitting down on floors listening to bands. Syd Barrett and the whole band playing to the max, wild polyrhythmic drums, bleepy guitars and a mantric vocal: absolutely fantastic! Took you on a trip to the moon without being on booze, drugs or anything»
CONCERT DATE | 6 December 1967 « Horror Ball », Royal College of Art, Kensington, London, England David Gilmour was in the assistance. It seems it was asked to join the band after this gig.
Interviewer: «When you returned to London after your stay in France , did you go to Pink Floyd concerts?»
Gilmour: «Yes, but at the end of 1967, their concerts became frightfully bad. Syd was became a shadow. Then I saw them at the Royal College of Art in December, Nick came over and asked: « What would you say if I told you we think to take you in the group ? » I replied that I would say yes ».
«David Gilmour: Full of Secrets», Guitar Part, December 2006.
Gilmour:
«It seems ridiculous now, but I thought the band was awfully bad at the time when I joined. The gigs I’d seen with Syd were incredibly undisciplined. The leader figure was falling apart, and so was the band»
«Pink Floyd The inside Story», Rolling Stones, 19 November 1987
Roger Waters:
« He's a wonderful singer and a great guitar player What more could you want? And he's also a nice bloke. Good fun, likes a laugh and all that. It wasn't like, «Oh, he's a great guitar player and a beautiful singer, but, he's weird» ».
« Pink Floyd: Journey to the Dark Side », Rolling Stones, 13 October 2011.
CONCERT DATE | 8 December 1967 Caves Club, Chislehurst Caves, Chislehurst, England
MISCELLANOUS EVENT | Around this date, the first Azimuth Coordinator used for « Games for May » is stolen as revealed Roger to « Melody Maker » on 3 May 1969
PRESS MENTION | The reporter of Melody Maker meet Syd, Roger and Nick to see some preview of their new promo film Jugband Blues. Syd is asked about the future musical ideas for the band
Syd Barrett:
«Really, we have only just started to scrape the surface of effects and ideas of lights and music combined; we think that the music and the lights are part of the same scene, one enhances and adds to the other. But we feel that in the future, groups are going to have to offer much more than just a pop show. They’ll have to offer a well-presented theatre show»
Melody Maker, 9 December 1967
PRESS MENTION | 9 December 1967: the magazine Oz publishes an interview with the band.
CONCERT DATE | 10 December 1967 « Teenagers Sunday Club », The Birdcage, Harlow, England
Roger Waters:
We went on that Move/Hendrix tour a few days after the disc came out and we hated it so much that we never mentioned it throughout the gig, let alone play it. From now on we will only do things that we approve of,” they told me.
« Nice new Pink », Fabulous 208, 6 April 1968
MAIN EVENT | Mid-December 1967 Storm is asked to work with the band
Storm Thorgerson:
«Le Floyd devait remplacer Syd Barrett. Ils sont alors passés me voir pour me demander ce que je pensais de David Gilmour. Et ils en ont profité pour demander à mon voisin de chambre, un peintre, s’il voulait faire leur pochette. Il a refusé, et j’ai sauté sur l’occasion. J’avais besoin d’argent, j’étais naïf et j’étais au bon endroit»
«In the eye of the Storm», Les Inrocks - Hors Série, 2017
TV RECORDING | 12 December 1967 Pink Floyd were filmed at the North London home of their former landlord and occasional band member Mike Leonard. for an edition of the popular science programme « Tomorrow's World », featuring Leonard's sound and light experiments. The show was broadcast in January 1968.
CONCERT DATE | 13 December 1967 Flamingo Ballroom, Redruth, England
«If any readers are intending to see Pink Floyd, my advice is don't. They played here recently and were so unbelievably bad the support group had to be brought back early. It was the opinion of most of the 1,000 students at our dance that they were the worst group ever to appear in Cornwall»
New Musical Express
Rick Wright:
«I’ll never forget Pete Murray saying on Juke Box Jury that we were just a cult and would last for six months »
Cited in «Pink Floyd in the eyes of …»
CONCERT DATE | 14 December 1967 Pavilion Ballroom, Bournemouth, England
CONCERT DATE | 15 December 1967 Middle Earth Club, Covent Garden, London, England
Syd photographed backstage at Middle Earth
CONCERT DATE | 16 December 1967 Ritz Ballroom, Birmingham, England
CONCERT DATE | 16 December 1967 « Saturday Spectacular », The Penthouse, Birmingham, England
CONCERT DATE | 20 December 1967 « Top Gear », BBC Maida Vale Studios, London, England
CONCERT DATE| 21 December 1967 Speakeasy Club, Margaret Street, London, England
RELATED EVENT| The main rock event at the end of this year is undoubtedly the « Christmas on Earth continued » festival in London
«That is the big, swinging Christmas treat of a show in store for thousands of beat fans up and down Britain. Essentially a pop party, but one on a very spectacular scale, the show is called Christmas on Earth Continued, and is to be held at Olympia, London, starting on Friday. The allow Is. of course, more ideally located for Londoners and those living close to the metropolis still there has been a tremendous clamour for tickets by fans the length and breadth of Britain»
«Pop Around the Clock», Coventry Evening Telegraph, 18 December 1967
RELATED EVENT| The main rock event at the end of this year is undoubtedly the « Christmas on Earth continued » festival in London
CONCERT DATE | 22 December 1967 « Christmas On Earth Continued », Olympia Exhibition Halls, London, England
Just before Christmas, the group played what was to be their last original line-up of Pink Floyd concert. It was the last attempt to re-create the big event happened early on Spring of 1967. The vast exhibition hall seemed soulless, despite a small fun-fair in an adjoining hall, and few of the groups managed to play with spirit
Pete Jenner (Co-manager of Pink Floyd): «Not a great event. It didn’t develop a head of steam. It reads better than it was, a cash-in plus the horrors of the Olympia acoustics. Mind you, our life with the Floyd was getting turbulent (…) I think it was a disaster. Someone lost a lot of money. Little did they know that we may have all been extremely alternative but even the most ardent hippies went home at Christmas for the presents!»
Record Collector, December 1997
Andrew King (Co-manager of Pink Floyd): «This was after the U.K. package tour with Hendrix. Alan Dale was the chief hustler of Christmas On Earth, a Fulham boy. We were wary of doing business with Image. Gigs were still our principal source of income. In retrospect, I reckon there were people who saw their interest in pink Floyd and one way was to put financial pressure on them».
Record Collector, December 1997
Ian Macintosh:
«A set of perspex, two dimensional triangles, about 5 foot high, were positioned across the Olympia stage.Each triangle had random concentric circle motifs etched into them, andthese circles picked up the light as it passed over the perspex. Introducedby John Peel, the Floyd set up amongst these shapes, enclosed within thisweird environment of floating, geometric designs. The music kicked - in,and then it hit us.
Syd was sat on the floor, right out front. He looked beautiful in everysense, the Dylan curls (the look that year!), the satin and the scarf. ButTerry shouted in my ear,"Syd's guitar isn't plugged in!" And sure enough.
Syd's arm hung loosely over his famous Telecaster, no lead evident, andhe just gazed out across the crowd - calm, but dis-engaged with his band.
The full catastrophe! Yet the music was still that unique sound that wehad witnessed first hand the previous July. Lots of Rick Wright organ andWater's bass, and strangely enough, guitar. We later heard that David O'List(The Nice) would often fill-in Syd's parts from the wings, and maybe thiswas what we could hear. At this point, it would be important to underlinethe 'ritual' effect of The Pink Floyd on stage - much the same as a Deadconcert.
They had defined an original form, and defined their audience.There were no predecessors or competitors, so their very presence eliciteda 'high' whenever they appeared. This was a short set though, and as historyrecords, Syd's last official appearance with the band. (However, there hasbeen much talk about some five piece gigs - Col suggests he may have witnessedone - but to all intents and purposes, I believe that this was the finalgig of the classic line-up)».
«Another Hippy Remembers Part 2» , Fleeting Glimpse Website
June Bolan:
«The last gig Syd played was at the Christmas on Earth gig. We found Syd in the dressing room and he was so....gone. Roger waters and I got him to his feet and onto the stage. He had a white Stratocaster and we put it around his neck and he walked onstage. The band started to play and Syd just stood there. He had his guitar around his neck and his arms just hanging down and I was in the wings wondering what to do. Suddenly he put his hands on the guitar and we thought, 'Great, he's actually going to do it!' But he just stood there, he just stood there tripping out of his mind»
Andrew King:
«(…) I don’t think they’ve ever played worse. The rest of the band just gritted their teeth, stood there for an hour and sort of played their instruments. The organisers just got the event wrong. There was no reason why it shouldn’t have sold out. It was too much of an imitation of the 14-Hour Technicolour Dream and events like that. There had been too many of them. Every time you opened Melody Maker, there were adverts for this Happening and that Freakout. It got like that with raves and dance music in the last few years. Some of them did well and some went down the tubes »
John Newey (Punter): «There’s a legend about Syd Barrett, that he sat in the dressing room and dolloped this crumbled Mandrax (a prescription sleeping drug) and Brylcreem on his head, which melted under the lights and ran down his head. I remember seeing this liquidy stuff – I thought his black eye make up was running. And he was sweating profusely»
Record Collector, December 1997
Pete Jenner (Co-manager of Pink Floyd): «(…) Syd and Mandrax? That sounds more like a myth. I remember the story of him pouring loads of gunk into his hair in America. Mandrax wasn’t very psychedelic. It was a very unhip drug (…) »
Record Collector, December 1997
MISCELLANOUS| 24 December 1967, Syd celebrates Christmas with his family
PRESS MENTION| Nick Mason is interviewed on the December, 30th about the American psychedelic scene.
MAIN EVENT | At this time, David work as driver for a famous London shop owner, Ossie Clark. David Gilmour is asked to join the band just before Christmas.
David Gilmour drove Clark's orange VW van round London in the months before he got the gig as Syd Barrett's replacement in Pink Floyd. When there wasn't anything to deliver or pick up, he'd hang around Clark's shop,
Nick Mason:
« The last seven or eight months with Syd had been a disaster, all the gigs had gone really badly partly because the audiences weren't into the sort of things we were playing and partly because the whole thing was totally ... it was impossible to do it with any sort of form — we just used to smash away for an hour or hour and a half, but when Syd had left and we started to get together we definitely were slumping, our price was down»
«Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast», Daily Planet, 15 September 1971
Ginger Gilmour:
«David and Emo were living in a new flat in Warwick Square Mews when Roger Waters called to speak with David. They knew each other from Cambridge. Emo was sitting on the bed when David came into the room after the call and said, «The Floyd have asked me to play in the band!» «Wow! Then you don't have to drive a van anymore!» Emo exclaimed rather excitedly. They jumped around the room together like two maniacs. When they both came back to sanity, David casually said, «But Roger said I had to dress like a pop star. What should I do ?» Emo responded, «Well dress like a pop star !». «Well how do I do that ?» David wondered. Emo suggested, «We can go to Ossie Clark. He has the clothes that pop I stars wear» David rolled his eyes in thought, suddenly realizing that he had been delivering the clothes all the time. So they both went together. Ossie dressed David in a black ruffled shirt and brown skintight velvet trousers. David had maroon Gohill boots already, which really went with the outfit. He did look rather camp and played it up a bit in the shop after hours. Being not quite his style, David was slightly embarrassed for he was more at home in blue jeans, but he transcended it. Getting the job was a gift he had desired. The rest is history».
«Memoir from the Bright Side of the Moon», Ginger Gilmour.
David Gilmour:
«I knew all the guys in the band and they wanted to get rid of Syd. I was approached discreetly beforehand and it was put about in a very strange way and what did in fact happen was that I joined the band while Syd Barrett was still in it and for about a month we were a five piece band. Horrible wasn't it?»
«Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast», Daily Planet, 15 September 1971
David Gilmour:
«Ossie was my boss between September '6 7 and New Years Day '68. I worked for him as a van driver. I had left a band and I needed to earn a living. If someone had said to me, 'You can earn 50 for a day's work doing almost anything legal, possibly even not,' I would have taken it. I did at least two modelling jobs that paid very good money at a time when I was earning £15 a week from Ossie. But I never became a male model, I never joined an agency. It was the time - needs must. If someone offers you three or four weeks wages for one day's work, are you going to take it? Of course you are. Ossie and I remained friends for the rest of his life. I was very fond of him, with all his foibles and failings»
«Coming back to life», Uncut, September 2015
Roger Waters:
«I said to Peter and Andrew, «OK this can't go on, Syd obviously can't perform live. Perhaps he could become our
Brian Wilson figure, keep writing the songs and turn up at record-ing sessions». They said, «No, Syd wants two girl saxophoneplayers in the group»»
«Blow up», Mojo 60’s, July 2017
Roger Waters:
«There was a great plan... to expand the group, get in two other geezers, some two freaks that [Syd] had met somewhere or other. One of them played the banjo and the other played the saxophone. We weren't into that at all, and it was obvious that the crunch had finally come»
Zig Zag Magazine, May 1973
Roger Waters:
« I went: «Forget it!» And that's how our ways parted»
«Blow up», Mojo 60’s, July 2017
David Gilmour shot by Peter Jenner. December 1967 - January 1968
