Music Milestones Pink Floyd 50th Anniversary Edition 2017 PDF

PR E SEN T S
PINK FLOYD
ALBUM BY ALBUM: THE DEFINITIVE HISTORY
NEW INTERVIEWS STORIES FROM STUDIO & STAGE ALBUM ART EXPLAINED 50 YEARS OF MUSIC
50 th
ANNIVERSARY
EDITION
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PINK FLOYD
Also Available
The deluxe 27-disc boxset The Early Years 1965-1972 featuring
seven individual book-style packages, including never before released material.
In addition to the deluxe set, a two-CD highlights album

The Early Years – CRE/ATION’ will also be available through Pink Floyd Records.
Each individual book-style package will be released separately early

in 2017, except BONUS CONTINU/ATION which is exclusive to the boxset.
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#01 Music Milestones 03

PHOTO: GET T Y IMAGES/STORM THORGERSON
04 Legends of Rock #01

PINK FLOYD
…are among the prevailing themes explored by Pink Floyd, the

band who brought a strident originality and inventive spirit to
rock music that captured the minds of millions of fans and
catapulted the band into the commercial stratosphere.
The scale of their success is positively daunting. In the course

of their five decade career Floyd have sold 250 million records.
Their best-selling album The Dark Side Of The Moon spent an
absurd 736 weeks in the US Billboard charts, sold 45 million
copies worldwide and still sells 250,000 copies a year. It has
been estimated that one in every five households contains a
copy of the album and that there is not a minute goes by when
someone, somewhere on the planet, is not playing it.
The most significant British band to emerge from the late-60s

British psychedelic boom, Floyd's trajectory has not been
without its problems. The tragic breakdown of the mercurial
Syd Barrett by the second album was followed a decade later
with profound creative tensions and the eventual departure of
creative lynchpin Roger Waters. The fact that such losses did
not impact in the slightest on Floyd's popularity, suggests that
the band – and the ‘brand’ – known as Pink Floyd, is infinitely
greater than the sum of its individual parts.
But beyond the decades of acrimony and the astronomic sales

statistics is the music – 15 studio albums stretched across five
decades, that chart the band’s development from psychedelic
space rockers to sublimely emotive prog visionaries and
purveyors of stately melodicism. In the 50th anniversary year
of the recording of The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn – as the
band releases its lavish The Early Years 1965-72 boxset –
Music Milestones re-examines Pink Floyd’s 15 studio albums,
assessing their merits and taking an in-depth look at their
creation – from first concept through to the critical fallout.
Through the words of the band and their inner circle we take a
behind-the-scenes look at all aspects of each album – from
the songwriting and recording sessions through to the
artwork, the gear and the near-legendary tours. What follows
is an account of a unique band, who created music that is as
timeless and innovative as it is enduring and majestic.
Neil Crossley, Editor

MUSIC MILESTONES
The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn Ummagumma

8 REVIEW 30 REVIEW
Space rock, fairy tales and a one-way Floyd re-emerge with an experimental
ticket back to the fears of childhood. album divided into four sections.
10 FOLLOW THE PIPER 32 BAND OF FOUR
Riding high on the 60's Zeitgeist, Pink With Syd Barrett now firmly planted in
Floyd’s debut album captured the the band’s past, the quartet dip their toe
psychedelic spirit of the era with into the world of avant garde.
Syd Barrett leading the charge.
Atom Heart Mother
A Saucerful Of Secrets 37 REVIEW
16 REVIEW Hard-to-place, but an important role in
Floyd say goodbye to Syd’s psychedelic Floyd’s musical journey.
excesses with a more spacious sound. 38 HEART OF THE MATTER
18 A TIME OF TRANSITION Fractious horn players, a Dadaist
Syd Barrett’s profound problems and the collaborator and the Workers
band’s subsequent sense of chaos and Revolutionary Party – welcome to one
unease make for an intriguing, of Floyd’s most impenetrable albums.
if disjointed, second album.
Meddle
More 44 REVIEW
23 REVIEW Psychedelic blues rock, a hint of jazz,
With Syd gone, Pink Floyd’s third album Water’s ‘happy’ moment and a song
was a difficult and confounding affair. dedicated to a dog.
24 THE MAKING OF MORE 46 FINDING FOCUS
Floyd’s first full commission for a Shaking off the hangover of the Syd
soundtrack album and it gave them Barrett era, the band discovered their
room to explore their new sound. classic sound and set the controls for the
stadium league.
Contents
6 Music Milestones #01
PINK FLOYD
Obscured By Clouds Animals The Division Bell

51 REVIEW 74 REVIEW 100 REVIEW
A coherent, underrated album to Punk is raging and so is Roger Waters, as A lighter, more widescreen production…
accompany the film La Vallée. Floyd adapt Orwell and get venomous. Versus a lack of lyrical cohesion.
52 INTO LA VALLÉE 76 CALL OF THE WILD 102 RINGING THE CHANGES
A band in the middle of a project that A savage concept piece that tore strips With the litigious wrangles of its
would launch them into the musical off the social order of 1970s Britain – predecessor behind them, Pink Floyd
stratosphere, and beyond. and hastened the band’s demise… employ a raft of former compadres to
record their 14th studio album
The Dark Side Of The Moon The Wall
58 REVIEW 81 REVIEW The Endless River
A perfectly-formed slice of Floyd as the A darker side and the end of an era for 107 REVIEW
quartet reach their peak. the classic quartet. A tribute to the late Richard Wright and
60 LET THERE BE DARK 82 BACK TO THE WALL Floyd's “farewell album”.
Everything changed dramatically with a Donald Trump is not the first person 108 FOND FAREWELL
masterpiece as timeless as it is sublime. to think a wall is the answer. Pink The final album. Yet its roots lie in
Floyd got there first… 20-plus year-old recordings.
Wish You Were Here
66 REVIEW The Final Cut 10 Essential Tracks
The follow-up to Dark Side more than 88 REVIEW 114
satisfied their salivating, awaiting fans. Or the final straw? What emerges when What if you only could only take 10
68 POSTCARD FROM THE EDGE the wall comes tumbling down? tracks with you…
Floyd’s album about absence still 90 END OF AN ERA
sounds, to this day, very present. A Roger Waters’ paean to his father The
triumph yet it could so easily have been Final Cut remains the most controversial
a last hurrah for the band. in the band’s canon.
A Momentary Lapse Of Reason

94 REVIEW
Gilmour’s baby and the late-period
release that the rock press loves to hate.
96 AN ACT OF DEFIANCE
History has not been kind to it but the
first Floyd album without Waters is not
without its merits.

MUSIC MILESTONES
Studio Abbey Road, London

Producer Norman Smith
Released 1967
The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn

Space rock, fairy tales and a one-way ticket back to the fears and anxieties of childhood.
I
nfamously, Floyd’s debut album was recorded at Abbey blends horror movie organ with owls hooting and features a
Road’s Studio Three while The Beatles were piecing stumbling mid section where pianos, clockwork toys and
together Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band next door in Barrett's guitar trip over each other in the darkness.
THE PIPER AT THE GATES OF DAWN
Studio Two. Nearly half a century later the two records

are still regarded as British psychedelia’s twin peaks So far, so creepy. But then the record spins even further off
and yet in tone they couldn’t be further apart. With its axis. Roger Waters’ snarling Take Up Thy Stethoscope
Paul McCartney in the creative driving seat rather than the And Walk is an early indication of the pointed material he
acid-affected Lennon, Pepper is an inclusive, beatific would later provide the group with. And then there is
creation, one embraced instantly by millions of Britons. Interstellar Overdrive, which must have frightened the
bejesus out of 1967 listeners with its nightmarish effects,
Piper, meanwhile, is unsettling, scary and full of trap doors Wright’s dissonant keyboards and meandering structure.
and secret passageways. Even if the listener puts out of their It resides a galaxy away from the concise mod pop of 1965
mind the fate of its chief songwriter and listens as it would or even the band’s own blues-influenced repertoire of
have been heard in 1967, darkness is wherever you look – 18 months previous. No-one had ever made music like
from the ominous descending organ on the opener this before.
Astronomy Domine to the don’t-listen-with-the-lights off
instrumental Pow R. Toc H. If, as it’s often claimed, British After this storm comes the eerie calm of Barrett’s final four
psychedelia yearned to return to the prelapsarian idyll of offerings. The acoustic-led The Gnome represents the
childhood, Piper is crammed with the monsters under its lightest moment on the album (you can hear the relish with
bed. Carefree it is not. which Syd enunciates ‘Grim-ble Grom-ble’), Chapter 24 is an
I Ching-inspired treatise on numerology and the laws of
As is the way with so many debut albums, Floyd and nature, and the album closes with Bike, another charming
producer Norman Smith walked into Abbey Road in January piece of Barrett juvenalia that collapses into a cacophony of
1967 with the intention of capturing their live set at the time. bells, violin, xylophones and seemingly anything else the
This came with the proviso from EMI that their more band had to hand in Abbey Road.
out-of-control moments would be rounded down for mass
consumption. Indeed, Smith managed to cut Interstellar Piper did decent commercial business for a debut release,
Overdrive – which live, would often stretch to over 20 reaching No 6 in the album charts that August, though many
minutes – down to a more manageable nine and edited the early fans were disappointed that the record had failed to
album itself down to a succinct 42 minutes. Sadly, for the capture the sheer sensory overload of their live set. Pete
modern listener, standard late 60s protocol meant that the Townshend – a UFO regular at the time – dismissed it as
singles Arnold Layne and See Emily Play were omitted. “fucking awful”. In retrospect, it’s a curio and a snapshot of
an inchoate band. Entire careers would later be based on its
Its opening is as exciting (and foreboding) as any major contents, but even had Barrett stayed, it’s unlikely the band
album up to this point. Manager Peter Jenner reading out would have still been peddling such whimsy as Bike by, say,
planet names through a megaphone and morse code ushers 1970. Within weeks of Piper’s release, clouds were gathering
in Astronomy Domine. Come the chorus Rick Wright’s above Floyd as their leader’s behaviour became increasingly
Farfisa organ, Barrett’s spiralling guitar and Nick Mason’s erratic. The Summer of Love was over. Autumn’s
crashing cymbals plunge us down a wormhole that leads… encroaching shadows were already there in plain sight on
where? We arrive at Matilda Mother, a bedtime fairy tale this haunting, unsettling, deliciously disorientating album.
where Syd (as a child) interjects: ‘Why’d you have to leave me
there/hanging in my infant air waiting!’. Flaming’s intro Will Simpson

PHOTO: BARON WOLMAN/GET T Y IMAGES
PINK FLOYD
Pink Floyd at the Casa Madrona Hotel, Sausalito,

CA in November 1967. From left: Roger Waters,
Nick Mason, Richard Wright and Syd Barrett

MUSIC MILESTONES
By Will Simpson
Follow
The Piper
Riding high on the 60s Zeitgeist, Pink Floyd’s debut
PHOTO: PINK FLOYD MUSIC
album captured the psychedelic spirit of the era with

Syd Barrett leading the charge.

PINK FLOYD
“I WASN’T THAT KNOWLEDGEABLE

ABOUT THE SORT OF MUSIC THEY WERE
PLAYING, PSYCHEDELIA DIDN’T
INTEREST ME” Norman Smith
ne remarkable aspect about that had started the year playing blues (not much these days, but in the 60s
O
the late 60s psychedelic as the Pink Floyd Sound but would EMI was not used to giving advances to
explosion was how quickly it evolve into the toast of underground unknown groups). When Pink Floyd
all happened. 1966 was a key London, dragging along an entire (the ‘Sound’ had been jettisoned at
year when a monochrome subculture in their wake. Like punk 10 some point during 1966) entered the
music scene almost overnight years later, others would be left playing studio with Smith to start recording
become flushed with colour. At the catch-up to the next big thing. their debut album in February 1967, it
centre of this sudden explosion was a was as the leaders of an underground
group of architecture and art students LEADERS IN SOUND movement that needed to be
EMI, as the most prestigious British interpreted to mainstream pop
label, understandably wanted to nab consumers. There was a lot at stake.
the UK leaders of psychedelia. There Smith and Floyd made for unlikely
was a brief dalliance with Polydor but bedfellows. Twenty years older than his
both band and management chose EMI charges, Smith was an ex-RAF man
after their booking agent Bryan who had engineered The Beatles
Morrison received a letter from the records up to Rubber Soul. “I wasn’t
label’s in-house producer Norman that knowledgeable about the sort of
Smith intimating that he was looking music they were playing,” he later
for bands to sign. The deal was confessed. “Psychedelia didn’t interest
concluded for an advance of £5,000 me.” Smith was a jazz head – one of his

MUSIC MILESTONES
Innocence Lost
The tale of the sad demise of Syd Barrett is legendary in
rock’s history, as the wonderkid fell from grace into obscurity.
R
oger Keith Barrett was rock’s
quintessential lost boy, the
too-fragile-for-this-world star
that flies too close to the sun and
falls to earth. Unlike the other
casualties of the late 60s – the
Morrisons, Joneses and Joplins
– Syd didn’t burn out, he fell
gradually. After departing public
life, he spent his remaining 30
years as a living ghost.
The pre-stardom Syd was
charming and convivial, but also a
little bit elusive. His talent though
was beyond dispute. His
Cambridge friend and later Pink
Floyd artist/designer Storm
Thorgerson said: “his ability to free
associate verbally was of a

different order. He wasn’t as verbal
or as academic as others, but he
had a way with words”. Early on it
was clear he was the star of the
group. Sometime flatmate Duggie
Fields described him as
“charismatic, handsome, witty, fun
to be around. There would be an
incredible number of very
attractive women knocking on
Syd’s door with great regularity”.
What happened next is the
matter of much record. Syd’s
problems were noticeable by those
in and around the group from the
time they first tasted commercial
success in the summer of 1967.
Meltdowns on US TV and gigs
where he is virtually catatonic
ensue. By the end of the year the
group are at a loss at what to do.
Various solutions are tried. Dave
Gilmour is recruited as a second his childhood (his father died when exist. By all accounts Syd was
guitarist to ‘fill in’ for Syd. The idea he was just 15), we will never know. largely left to cope on his own.
of Syd as a Brian Wilson-type, Floyd did try to help their ailing Helped by his ex bandmates,
non-touring songwriter is mooted. leader. Roger Waters claims to two solo albums – The Madcap
Then in late January 1968 the have attempted to arrange a Laughs and Barrett – were
group simply decide not to pick up meeting between his friend and released, but not capitalised upon.
Syd on a way to a gig in esteemed psychologist RD Laing, There was a brief attempt to form
Southampton. A settlement is but Syd simply refused to get out another band, Stars, which soon
PHOTO: ANDREW WHIT TUCK /GET T Y IMAGES
negotiated and by April it’s official: of the car. In the late 60s the music ran aground. After one final
Syd Barrett has left Pink Floyd. business was not set up to deal aborted recording session in
To what extent Syd’s decline with his sort of psychic August 1974 he walked away for
was due to simple over indulgence disturbance. Rehab was in his good to become that rarest of
in LSD, how much an allergic infancy and the sort of holistic figures, a true living legend; a
reaction to sudden fame, or linked support structures that would have symbol of pop’s – and the 60s –
to psychological trauma lurking in been thrown up today just didn’t lost innocence.

PINK FLOYD
earliest encounters with the band at any writing. He was the only one who, I
Abbey Road involved an ice-breaking as a producer, had to convince if I had
jamming session where he played jazz any ideas, though the trouble with Syd
piano “bashing away while the band was that he would agree with almost
joined in”. everything I said and then go back in
Nevertheless, an understanding and do exactly the same bloody thing.”
developed between both parties. Smith Nevertheless, the recording went
saw his role as curbing the meandering remarkably smoothly, at least
excesses of the band’s live show; according to Nick Mason in his 2005
sweetening them for public autobiography, Inside Out: A Personal
consumption. It was a tricky balancing History Of Pink Floyd. The album, the
act for the 40-something music biz drummer explains, was recorded, “in
veteran, though Andrew King, the what one might call the old-fashioned
band’s then co-manager recalled that: way: rather quickly”. At this stage
“He was not all conservative. He’d Floyd were still gigging up and down
Oh, What
never said, ‘You can’t do that because the country and had just released their
that’s not the way we do things’. debut single Arnold Layne. Quite often
Norman did it with a very light hand.” the band would be in Abbey Road for a
2.30pm – 6.30pm session before going
A Trip!
SYD BARRETT TAKES CONTROL out on the road for a gig.
Syd was firmly at the helm at this The songs themselves divided neatly
point. He wrote all but one of the songs into two main piles. There were the
on Piper and it is his guitar that ‘band’ songs, developed by the group
dominates the album. “He really was in for the live show – the likes of
The cover image used on control,” Norman Smith said in an Astronomy Domine and Interstellar
interview with Studio Sound magazine Overdrive – and there were Syd’s own
Piper encapsulated the in 1998. “He was the only one doing compositions, which with their
colourful mood of the

psychedelic 1960s. “[SYD] WOULD AGREE WITH
EVERYTHING I SAID THEN GO
T
he debut album from the leading
lights of the UK psychedelic scene
needed a suitably psychedelic sleeve
BACK IN AND DO EXACTLY
and so it fell to an Anglo-Asian THE SAME BLOODY THING
AGAIN” Norman Smith
photographer, Vic Singh to provide the
memorable kaleidoscopic cover image of
The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn. It was
one of the few occasions when a band childlike images and quizzical,
photograph has graced the cover of a elliptical lyrics were unlike anything
Pink Floyd record. that had been heard in rock music thus
Singh shared studio space with David far. Most of these had been written by
Bailey before striking out on his own, Barrett during the autumn of 1966 at
thanks to a loan from Vidal Sassoon. A his room at 2 Earlham St, near
well-connected fellow, Singh was also Cambridge Circus; a richly creative and,
friendly with George Harrison and his wife, by all accounts, contented period for
the model Patti Boyd. It was they who had the young singer.
given Singh a ‘prism lens’ that splits an
image up into three or four segments, THE FRUIT OF CREATIVE FREEDOM
softening them against each other. Halfway through recording (March 21
So when Pink Floyd’s management got according to some) there was an
in touch with Singh in 1967 about the encounter with The Beatles, who were
cover of Piper, he knew he had something putting Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts
perfect for the band: “I thought, ‘BANG! Rehearsals for the show, Games For May, that Floyd Club Band together next door in Studio
that lens is perfect for them’, it signified performed at the Queen Elizabeth Hall on 12 May 1967 Two. Accounts of this vary. Nick Mason
them, the kind of psychedelic music and writes of “sitting humbly as they (The
trip they were on.” Neither the band nor Beatles) worked on a mix” of Lovely
Jenner and King had any alternative ideas Rita. Norman Smith though recalled
of what they wanted from the cover so it Paul McCartney bursting into Studio
was left to Singh himself to come up with Three, introducing himself to the
his own. group and cheerily bigging up Smith to
“What I asked them to do was to bring them, saying: “You won’t go wrong
really bright clothes to lift the colour a bit with this chappie”. What seems
PHOTO: NICK HALE/GET T Y IMAGES
and I shot two or three reels on a white undisputed is that Floyd were deeply
background. It was perfect for that impressed by the freedom and level of
session and for them at that time. They control that The Beatles were given
were so abstract and undefined, over their recordings. This artist-
transparent. They’re very like that lens: friendly attitude (still unusual in 1967)
there, but not there.” seeped into the Piper sessions. Mason

MUSIC MILESTONES
[From left] Nick Mason, Syd Barrett, Rick Wright

and Roger Waters pose in the studio control room
says that in this respect Smith was, devoted to its introductory section. The
“just brilliant, because he let us join in. band convinced co-manager Peter
Some of the studio staff, the Jenner to read planet names from Syd’s
engineering department, were copy of the Observer Book Of Planets
extremely disapproving of that”. through a megaphone whilst morse
Like George Martin and The Beatles, code recordings were layered on top of
a positive atmosphere developed where a pulse effect from Rick Wright’s
outside-the-box ideas could be batted Farfisa and Syd’s Telecaster. Elsewhere,
back between producer and band. The the Binson Echorec effects unit was
opening track, Astronomy Domine, is utilised heavily, cropping up on
one example of this – a whole virtually every track. Engineer Peter
four-hour session on 12 April was Bown recalled that Syd was “always
N
orman Smith had already been
around the block by the time his
paths crossed with Pink Floyd in the
A Man Called late 60s. After his work on three of the first
four Floyd albums, Smith recorded a
demo he intended for John Lennon.
However, when producer Mickie Most
Smith... heard it he convinced Smith to release

Don’t Let It Die himself. It was a hit,
reaching No 2 in the summer of 1971, and
adopting the name Hurricane Smith, the
A portrait of the
be-hatted Norman
'Hurricane' Smith
PHOTO: GAB ARCHIVE/GET T Y IMAGES
then pushing-50 producer embarked on

Pink Floyd producer Norman Smith an unlikely second career, rubbing
discovered a second career when he

shoulders on TV shows with fellow
performers often half his age. For a year
turned his hand to the rather serious or so Smith was a pop star, known to a
younger generation largely oblivious to his
business of being a pop star. work with Floyd and The Beatles.

PINK FLOYD
PHOTO: ANDREW WHIT TUCK /GET T Y

“HE USED TO GO AND KICK HIS ECHO
BOX EVERY NOW AND THEN, JUST
BECAUSE HE [SYD] LIKED IT” Peter Bown
fiddling with his sound. He used to go with what sounds like a flock of geese, – Record Mirror and NME both gave it
and kick his echo box every now and but which is actually a recording of the four stars out of five, the former
then, just because he liked the sound”. band members laughing, reversed and describing it as “a fine showcase for
Of the more experimental pieces, speeded up. Nobody can remember their talent and recording technique.
Interstellar Overdrive was the most whose idea this was, although Mason Plenty of mindblowing sound”. But if
challenging for the average 1967 suggests it was “probably between Syd their earliest fans felt let down that it
listener. But this improvisational and Norman’s”. didn’t replicate the intensity of their
number was the highlight of their live In the midst of the sessions was a early shows, Piper did its job of
show, so a version had to be on there new song Barrett had written, initially condensing this new phenomenon for
somewhere. Floyd had already made entitled Games For May after the event the mainstream. Its experimental and
two recordings of Interstellar before, at Queen Elizabeth Hall that Floyd pop sides are supremely balanced. Yes,
but the finished version is an overdub performed at on 12 May. The lyric Interstellar Overdrive and Pow R. Toc H
of the band towards of the end of the evolved into another Barrettian tale of were unlike anything most people had
sessions in June, playing over a childhood trauma, inspired perhaps by heard in summer 1967, but tracks like
reduction of their second take back in Emily Young, the ‘psychedelic Lucifer Sam, Bike and Chapter 24 all
February, creating a ‘delay‘ effect. Also schoolgirl’ that had frequented the had hooks as naggingly catchy as
included on the stereo mix is a panning UFO club. See Emily Play had clear anything then in the singles charts.
effect, which though still unusual in commercial potential and thus was left The album’s status has grown over
mid-1967 would quickly become off the album and set aside for single time. Piper remains Syd Barrett’s
something of a psychedelic cliché. release. Helped by three performances greatest achievement; its release
Last to be recorded was Bike, on Top Of The Pops, it peaked at No 6 in heralded the arrival of a unique new
written for Barrett’s then-girlfriend the charts in late July. Pink Floyd were talent at pop’s head table – a writer
Jenny Spiers and the nearest thing in pop stars and their leader’s problems who was able to delve back and locate
his oeuvre to a love song. Collapsing in were just starting. both wonder and anxiety from
on itself, the track ends with a childhood’s deep recesses. But the
cacophony of tape effects, speeded-up SYD’S DEFINING MOMENT album’s (and Barrett’s) moment was
piano, oscillators, clocks, gongs and Piper was released on August 5 1967 brief. Within six months the group that
harmonium. Finally, the album ends and received broadly positive reviews made it would be no more.

MUSIC MILESTONES

Producer Norman Smith
Released 1968
A Saucerful Of Secrets
Floyd say goodbye to Syd’s psychedelic excesses and welcome in a more spacious sound.
A
troubled production from the word go, A Saucerful years. Holding guitar performances by both Barrett and
Of Secrets marked a major turning point for Pink Gilmour (although Wright’s assertive keyboards often mop
Floyd in the handing over of the conceptual baton up the contributions by both men), it offered the first real
from the increasingly erratic Syd Barrett to his hint of what Roger Waters was capable of as both a composer
A SAUCERFUL OF SECRETS
more solid and staid former schoolmate David and a vocalist.

Gilmour. Originally only brought in to cover
Barrett’s unreliability in the live forum, the span of this Set The Controls segues neatly into closer Corporal Clegg, a
album’s creation saw Gilmour get promoted from onstage song that gives us the first vapours of the recurring themes
session man to an integral part of the band’s creative force. of war and loss that Waters returns to in later works. More
Oh! What A Lovely War than Platoon, its jerky oompah
The early sessions were solely on Barrett’s watch, when the parodies notions of war as a hero’s game and fits in with the
first versions of staples like Set The Controls For The Heart band’s contemporary motifs of arch Englishness.
Of The Sun were swiftly vetoed by their label. Very little of
Syd’s creation remains on this album as by then the whole Side two is a more troublesome affair. The title track is the
Floyd organisation were tiring of his complicated lifestyle. band’s first foray into multi-part composition, borne
apparently from a 12-minute gap that just needed filling
Rather, we witness the genesis of Roger Waters as a after many earlier attempts at songwriting just didn’t fit the
songwriter and the first suggestions of Gilmour’s increasing bill. Split into four segments, it’s often patchy and frequently
influence within the band. It’s perhaps telling that Rick drifts off into aimlessness. But as an exercise in long form
Wright supplied the bulk of the vocals here, as his fragile composition it offers useful yardsticks for many of their
tones matched better with Syd’s more eccentric middle-class more subsequent portmanteau adventures.
stylings, although this move would be forgotten more with
each successive release. This was an album put together by a Entering the album’s home straight, See-Saw is a much
band trying to find itself among the chaos. But it’s not more gentle construction, reminiscent of Brian Wilson’s
entirely a bad one, despite its lack of focus and occasional ambitious studio work and confounding anyone who dares to
indulgent excesses. listen to it on headphones with its unsettling experiments in
stereo. Album closer Jugband Blues, however, is perhaps the
The spacey and insistent Let There Be More Light kicks off most poignant moment in the band’s career. The only
with meandering keys and trippy gong that breaks down to a Barrett song that made the cut, it marked the end of his time
vocal psychedelia heavily reliant on Syd’s over-arching in the band. And while many suggest that the song’s
influence. (Contrary to popular myth, the opening guitar delirious lyric is a reflection of his increasingly
salvo wasn’t sampled by The Chemical Brothers for their schizophrenic state of mind, others assert that it is actually a
PHOTO: MICHAEL OCHS ARCHIVES/GET T Y IMAGES
Block Rockin’ Beats single – although it is a pretty close vicious take-down of his fellow band members who were
match). This was swiftly followed by the Wright-penned increasingly alienating him. Syd was long gone before
Remember A Day, again harking back to the stylistic feel of Saucerful’s release, so it was a brave and uncharacteristically
Piper, immediately locking into its spacey groove and generous move by the band to choose this song to close the
frequently punctuated with Wright’s whimsical vocal. album. Perhaps it was their way of ushering out the old Pink
Floyd and heralding in the new. Whatever the truth, this is
But it is Set The Controls that draws most people to this an album that shows a band in a serious state of flux, and
troubled album. The only song ever to feature all five from here on in, things were going to be very different.
members of the band, it’s a swirling trippy exploration of
sounds and ideas that was a staple of their live set for many Roy Delaney

PINK FLOYD
Pinked Floyd: August 1968 and the band
pose for a portrait. (L-R) Nick Mason, David
Gilmour, Rick Wright, Roger Waters

MUSIC MILESTONES

PINK FLOYD
By Roy Delaney
A Time Of
Syd Barrett’s profound problems and the band’s subsequent sense
of chaos and unease make for an intriguing,
if disjointed, second album.
Transition
PHOTO: PINK FLOYD MUSIC LTD

MUSIC MILESTONES
Cover
Concept
Strange artwork marks
the beginning of an era
P
ink Floyd’s second album signified
the beginning of a relationship with
PHOTO: ANDREW WIT TUCK /GET T Y IMAGES
British art design group and Floyd

pals Storm Thorgerson and Aubrey Powell

who formed Hipgnosis in 1968 to create
Syd Barrett at the the artwork for A Saucerful Of Secrets.
mixing desk in the Floyd went to Thorgerson and Powell
recording studio, to request their input, specifically to
January 1968 ensure the record company did not
design the cover artwork. In an interview
ink Floyd’s sophomore album erratic by the time the band went into with Steven Cerio in 1998, Thorgerson
P
appeared less than a year after Abbey Road Studios with The Beatles’ says that the design was “an attempt to
The Piper At The Gates Of engineer Norman Smith to record the represent things that the band was
Dawn and it’s considered to be album in the winter of 1967. Barrett interested in, collectively and individually,
their transitional record. had been regularly experimenting with presented in a manner that was
Given all that had been LSD by this point and it was having a commensurate with the music”. He also
happening to the band between and damaging effect on him and the band. goes on to explain ambiguously that the
during the creative processes, it is He was behaving oddly at live shows by Dr Strange figure, seen hazily in the
surely the mother of all ‘difficult refusing to play, playing one drawn out background, was “merging into images, a
second albums’. note per set, or simply not arriving for million miles away from certain
Founding member, guitarist and the gig. pharmaceutical experiences”.
songwriter Syd Barrett, was spiralling Waters, Wright and Mason initially It’s an interesting answer. The drawing
downwards and becoming increasingly patched up the problem by hiring a is taken from Marvel comics and shows
Dr Strange facing off against Living
Tribunal over the future of the Earth. As
“THERE WERE NO PLEASANT with most of what Pink Floyd produce, it
leads to questions over its inception. Is
MEMORIES AND I ALWAYS LEFT there a message to Barrett, or some kind
WITH A HEADACHE” Norman Smith

of recognition of a clash of personal
ideals? It seems likely, especially
considering the link between the creation
second guitarist, who came in the of Dr Strange and certain hallucinogenics.
shape of Syd’s college friend and The cover of A Saucerful Of Secrets
understudy David Gilmour, to stand in matches the structure of the album and
for Barrett when needed. Gilmour the many egos that went into its creation.
recalls the arrangement as According to some Floyd fans, it has
unfavourable, remarking to Guitar actually dated far better than the music
World in 1993 that there was no room itself. Either way, the planetary theme of
for imagination and that he was the cover, alongside the band in a bubble
“elected” to play Barrett’s songs journeying through the cosmos, couldn’t
because nobody else wanted to. be a better fit for the album.

PINK FLOYD
The first sessions for this

fragmented seven-track record were
Pink Floyd in 1969. Now a four
piece with the departure of
started towards the end of 1967 and
Syd Barrett a year previously
were, according to producer Smith,
difficult, mainly because of Barrett’s
uneasy presence and odd behaviour.
Smith maintained his belief from the
beginning of his time with Floyd that
Barrett experienced no pleasure
whatsoever from recording music and
that this stance, along with his
prolonged drug use, made him a
producer’s nightmare. “It was sheer
hell,” recalled Smith. “There were no
pleasant memories and I always left
with a headache.”
This hardly paints a picture of
recording bliss and Peter Bown, Abbey
Road engineer, elaborates: “Syd’s guitar
was always a problem because he
would not keep still and he was always
fiddling with his sound.” However,
with all of his personal and social
issues, Smith always believed that
PHOTO: ULLSTEIN BILD/GET T Y IMAGES

Barrett was the brains of Floyd and
that whatever his problems, he was
still “always very creative”. It was an
accolade he didn’t extend to Waters,
Turning Point
Mason or Wright, who he described
(perhaps rather unfairly) as simply
“adequate” or “capable”.
The studio sessions for Saucerful
that involved Barrett did, however,
throw up some promising work amid The title track on A Saucerful Of Secrets
the fuzzy chaos, not least the album’s
most well-known and best surviving signalled the future direction for Floyd
track, Set The Controls For The Heart
Of The Sun. Famous for being the only
song to feature all members of the
W
hen the time came for the marker for their future. “It was a very
band – with guitar parts from both newly-gathered band to head back important track; it gave us our direction
Barrett and Gilmour (from the second into Abbey Road Studios and forward,” he told Guitar World, before
recording sessions) – the resilient focus on A Saucerful Of Secrets again, tracing it directly back from The Dark Side
five-and-a-half-minute mood piece they quickly realised that there was Of The Moon as a logical influence for that
creates an effective tapestry of keys, something of a void in the second half style of sound. Aside from that, A
with sinister guitar lines skulking that had to be filled with songs they were, Saucerful Of Secrets signalled Gilmour’s
underneath. It is a song cherished by frankly, struggling to produce. influence in the band beginning to take
the band and one that was played live The process of creating the title track hold, with him experimenting throughout
for many years. It also hints at just how for the album marked a turning point for the recording with his guitar lying flat on
special the album could have been, the band. They adopted free-form the floor while he dragged mic stand legs
under different circumstances. techniques and architecturally stitched and pieces of nondescript metal along the
together earlier pieces of material and strings. It marked the sound of a band
NEW BEGINNINGS created strange sketches of weird shapes member finding his feet and confidence.
Unfortunately, it was not to be. On 26 on paper to build a 12-minute epic. The Again, it is all a sea change from
January 1968, while en route to a gig at piece itself and its structure was alien and Barrett-era songs and is arguably
Southampton University, the band infuriating to producer Norman Smith, the most important 12 minutes in the
decided not to pick Barrett up. For a who told them after hearing a version that band’s history.
time they floundered; even with Syd’s they had to scrap it and write some The song held true for the group and
difficult presence and the increased three-minute songs. It was, indeed, all a far they played it live for four years after the
instability surrounding him, he was cry from the earlier crafted miniatures of release of A Saucerful Of Secrets, with a
still the man with his hand on the Syd Barrett’s creation, and with Jugband live version, comprising of three parts,
creative rudder and without him the Blues not long after it on the album, the most commonly known as Something
band very nearly derailed, albeit comparison is all the more startling. Else, Syncopated Pandemonium and
temporarily. Barrett had the ideas and Although many have scoffed at the Celestial Voices appearing on side two of
the control onstage (for a time) and in arguable lack of focus and unnecessary the first record of the ill-judged
the studio. When he was dropped, length of the instrumental medley Ummagumma double album.
creative free fall seemed imminent for (perhaps with a point: is the creation of a
Pink Floyd and something had to be song constructed from scraps the
done quickly, before the whole project epitome of ‘filler’?), Gilmour cites it as a
was abandoned. crucial part of the band’s heritage and a

MUSIC MILESTONES
Barrett’s final contribution and a
A Saucy poignantly beautiful, Beatles-esque

swansong that is heavily tainted with
sadness. There’s more than a touch of
prescience with its, ‘I’m almost obliged
Little Tale
Nick Mason on why
to you for making it clear that I’m not
here’ line ringing out two minutes
before the end. As the finale to such a
difficult set of songs that the band
struggled to produce, this denouement
is a fitting, as well as an upsetting,
Saucerful is still postcard from the troubled genius and

a clear sign, whether played backwards
special for him… or forwards, that Floyd were off to
pastures new.
A Saucerful Of Secrets was first
I
’m very fond of A Saucerful Of
Secrets,” Nick Mason told Rhythm released on 29 June 1968 through EMI
Magazine in 2008, “partly because it’s Colombia records to not terribly
really a group album, with a lot of positive reviews and it hit No 9 in the
co-operation. And Set The Controls is UK album charts, three places below
still great to play live. I did it with Roger like drones. We experimented putting The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn the
at Wembley a few years ago. It’s a great mics right on the edge and playing them previous year. Rolling Stone magazine’s
drum piece, lots of room for both very lightly, and we might have dipped Jim Miller compared it to their “fairly
dynamics and space, to stretch out. them into water. impressive” debut unfavourably,
“It’s a musical journey round the “The Beatles transformed the considering it “rather mediocre”. He
world! To some extent Pow R. Toc H and recording process because EMI realised went on to describe Let There Be More
Set The Controls were both mallet there was good reason to let these Light and Set The Controls For The
pieces influenced by Chico Hamilton bands have free reign. If they were going Heart Of The Sun as “boring
from the Jazz On A Summer’s Day film to sell loads, why begrudge them studio melodically, harmonically, and
(1958). He solos with mallets and I time? We actually renegotiated our lyrically”, and seemed to find the whole
thought that was just the cleverest thing contract to get smaller royalties and thing rather Beatles-lite.
I’d ever seen. unlimited studio time! For us it really As for the album’s title track, Jim
“One fortunate thing was that we worked. I always say we probably owe Miller breezily brushed it off as
had almost unlimited studio time," Nick The Beatles our existence. They cleared “psychedelic muzak, hardly electronic,
remembered. “On A Saucerful Of the way for a totally different business: but hardly creative rock either”. More
Secrets the cymbal things are almost album-led instead of single-led.” recent reviews, however, have had the
benefit of context and hindsight.
Since its release and the subsequent
“BARRETT’S POIGNANTLY knowledge of Syd Barrett’s tragic
breakdown, it has become a piece of
BEAUTIFUL SWANSONG IS intrigue and meaning as well as a real
transitional album for the band. It is a
TAINTED WITH SADNESS.” favourite among fans of early and later
Floyd, and even the band members
themselves seem to have softened
Enter David Gilmour, freshly band that had lost its direction towards the disparity over time, with
promoted from live stand-in to somewhat and were unsure of Nick Mason considering the album his
full-time band member and the man themselves as a unit. It was a tricky favourite of their efforts and Set The
who would prove to be the catalyst, situation, especially as by that time Controls For The Heart Of The Sun
who triggers the group’s move from Saucerful was looking like a pretty his choice of Floyd songs, lauding it as
imaginative but fairly whimsical decent first half of an LP, with Let “fun to play” and as having
Barrett-era psychedelia to the eventual There Be More Light and Set The “interesting dynamics”.
signature sound of space-progressive- Controls For The Heart Of The Sun It does appear then that A Saucerful
rock. Gilmour’s real introduction to being the outstanding tracks, giving Of Secrets as an isolated listen is an
Pink Floyd on record comes at the end fairly rudimentary fare such as Waters’ important, if sometimes misguided
of A Saucerful Of Secrets’ opening Corporal Clegg a leg-up. Side two had a and often unsatisfying, part of the
track Let There Be More Light where big hole in it that would eventually be Floyd canon. Of course, the band would
the guitarist contributes a filled by the title track, a sprawling go on from this point to carve
tremendously judged solo. It lifts the 12-minute epic that divided critics and themselves a nook in the wall of the
song immeasurably and creates a fans. But before that treat, the listener greats, with classic albums such as The
wonderful contrast to the Rick still had to leapfrog Rick Wright’s Dark Side Of The Moon and Wish You
Wright-penned second track See-Saw, an unremarkable number Were Here. Both of which displayed
Remember A Day – a cast-off from The that had the inauspicious working title their true focus, consistency and
Piper At The Gates Of Dawn. of The Most Boring Song I’ve Ever musical prowess. A Saucerful Of
So, it was certainly not all bad in Heard Bar Two. Secrets is more a talking point of a
terms of creative output for the band’s record and a message from a
‘difficult’ second album, although GOODBYE SID significantly unsettled band, rather
Gilmour admitted that when he did A Saucerful Of Secret’s final track is than a sonically impressive work in
fully ingratiate himself, Floyd was a the quietly devastating Jugband Blues, its own right.

PINK FLOYD
Studio Pye Studios, London

Producer Pink Floyd
Released 1969
More
With Syd gone, Pink Floyd’s third album was a difficult and confounding affair.
T
he album commonly known simply as More is the If Side one was more about the songs, the flipside wrenches
soundtrack to a bleak and little-seen Barbet us back to the conceptual slabs of cinematic underlay that
Schroeder film about a German student taking more readily populate a traditional film score. Main Theme
heroin in Ibiza. One shouldn’t consider it to be a is exactly that: a free-flowing, yet melodic piece
full-blown Floyd release: it’s more of a selection of offering a melancholic droning motif that would
sparse experimental soundscapes interspersed with have set the perfect tone for this collection had it
some of the band’s most underrated songs. kicked off at the beginning. Indeed, from here on
MORE
in it’s nothing but instrumentals, shy of the more

As befits an album with such a split personality, it really is a chunky Ibiza Bar – the song that sees Gilmour
collection of two halves. The whimsical Victoriana and the barking out the vocal riffs on his only sole
pastoral village green couplets of the Barrett era have been appearance as lead singer until A Momentary Lapse
consigned to the past. Rather, this has been replaced by Of Reason in 1987. More Blues sees Gilmour’s roomy guitar
David Gilmour’s languid guitar and equally laidback vocal licks suggesting again the wide open spaces his playing
tones alongside sound blends that hint at the more epic would offer across albums yet to come, while Side two’s
compositions yet to come. centrepiece, the meandering Quicksilver, is perhaps most
reminiscent of what we have come to expect of a
Opener Cirrus Minor is a perfect example of this new contemporary rock soundtrack, with gentle licks weaving
outlook. Beginning with dense waves of birdsong, its gentle intricately among the many layers of sound.
organ fades in and out as Gilmour’s lazy voice weaves around
these threads in such a way that we can see the first seeds of The album’s only true low point comes with A Spanish Piece,
Wish You Were Here developing deeply in its grooves. In a hackneyed crowbarring of every 60s Spanish cliché you
contrast, the stark proto-metal of The Nile Song is arguably could imagine into just over a minute of unwelcome
the band’s heaviest concoction in the years between cringe-worthyness. Thankfully, this quickly melts into set
Interstellar Overdrive (1967) and In The Flesh (1979). It sees closer Dramatic Theme, a sharper, more unsettling
the reedy whine of Cirrus Minor transformed into a deep examination of the darker topics its attendant movie had
guttural growl. The insistent fuzztone guitars and wild to offer.
drummy wigouts churn out an angry furrow for the rest of
the album to follow. There are few Pink Floyd fans who would pitch More among
their personal top favourites, and possibly even fewer who
The music then notches back to the more mellow side with would insist that it’s a must-own album. Despite its
the gentler, folksy Crying Song, before falling away into the limitations and occasional self-indulgent excesses it is still
mercurial jazz instrumental Up The Khyber with Rick Wright an album of note. Not only for some of the stronger songs on
exorcising his inner keyboard noodler over a skittish carpet offer in its first act, but also as a document of a band of the
of exotic drum patterns. cusp of a metamorphosis from a psychedelic curio of its
times into one of the most revered acts in the history of
Back to more traditional fare, Green Is The Colour is a fragile, rock. The buds we first see here begin blooming into green
delicate number, channelling shades of Neil Young and shoots in Ummagumma later the same year, before getting
Bread. Cymbaline continues the tone, leading us through a more deeply fleshed out as the band crossed into the 70s. For
filmic waking nightmare with a deft touch, before Side one that alone this curious offering from Pink Floyd is worth a
closer Party Sequence, a 67-second slice of incidental movie few moments of your attention.
music, reminds us that, yes, we are actually listening to a
soundtrack album after all. Roy Delaney

MORE

MUSIC MILESTONES
PHOTO: GAB ARCHIVE/REDFERNS/GET T Y IMAGES

PINK FLOYD
By Roy Delaney
The Making
Of More
Although they’d dabbled in film music before, this was the Floyd’s
first full commission for a soundtrack album and it gave them
room to explore their new sound.
s one of the most talked most bankable member of the band for would normally be under for their
A
about up-and-coming bands his increasingly erratic behaviour. Syd difficult third album. At least that was
of their generation, beloved Barrett was the man who for most of the theory and it almost worked.
by both fans and critics alike, their listenership was Pink Floyd. What
Pink Floyd had by 1969 also should be their next move? How should A LITTLE BIT MORE
managed to crossover into they forge the next creative chapter of That album was More. Or to give it its
the pop charts, despite the slightly their musical journey without grander official title, Original Motion
complicated nature of their music. alienating existing fans and staying Picture Soundtrack From The Film
Things had been going ridiculously well true to their unique creative vision. The More. Released on 13 June 1969, it came
for the few short years of their answer displayed a shrewdness of a year after their troubled second
existence. But then disaster struck as mind that few expected from the band: album A Saucerful Of Secrets, and
they had to say farewell to arguably the record a soundtrack album. getting on for 18 months after they
Now while this may have been decided not to pick Syd up for that
disappointing for some of their more fateful gig in Southampton. With their
ardent fans who wanted to hear a few new-found freedom from Syd Barrett’s
more songs in the vein of Arnold Layne unpredictability, the band clearly now
and See Emily Play, it was smart. This had the space to work on developing
way the new line-up would get the their sound, and this shows throughout
space to be creative with their sound, this occasionally disjointed but largely
without the pressure that a 60s band underrated album.
“WITH NEW-FOUND FREEDOM FROM

SYD BARRETT’S UNPREDICTABILITY,
THE BAND HAD SPACE TO WORK ON
DEVELOPING THEIR SOUND”
March 1 1971: The band strike a
group pose during an Australian tour
#01 Music Milestons 25

MUSIC MILESTONES
MORE
PHOTO: MICHAEL PUTLAND/GET T Y IMAGES

Pink Floyd headlining Hyde Park's now
infamous free festival on July 18, 1970
“SCHROEDER FINISHED THE MOVIE

AND THE BAND SIMPLY GOT THEIR
HEADS DOWN AND RECORDED THE
WHOLE THING IN EIGHT DAYS”
Not only was this Floyd’s first full most favoured albums (Ummagumma was a bleak drama about heroin
recording without Syd, but also without being the only one to rival it at the addiction on Ibiza, and it was in need of
Norman Smith. He had produced their wrong end of the table). But one should a soundtrack. The exact timeline of
first two full-length albums and most remember that, as a soundtrack, it was what happened has often been
of their early singles. He was also never intended to be a regular album debated, but what we do know is that
considered to be responsible for honing full of pop songs and live favourites Schroeder showed the finished movie
their psychedelic ramblings into more and, as such, it’s possibly got a raw deal to the band and they simply just got
manageable pop sounds. The band took as it harbours some of the band’s most their heads down and recorded the
over the responsibility for the underrated songs. It also showcases the whole thing in eight days – for which
recording at London’s Pye Studios beginnings of the sound that would they were paid the princely sum of
themselves, with help from engineer make them one of the top-selling acts £600 each.
Brian Humphries. It gave Pink Floyd in all history. But rather than the hurried,
room to express their creative nature. ill-planned affair that this could have
It also laid them open to accusations of HIDDEN GEMS produced, More holds many hugely-
self-indulgence. So how did it even get made? A young underrated compositions that offered
Indeed, More often comes towards filmmaker called Barbet Schroeder had the first early clues of the way their
the bottom of popularity polls on their just finished his debut feature film. It career would unfold with this new, and

PINK FLOYD
The Movie, More

An obscure piece from the
French new wave movement.
W
hen anyone talks about Pink
Floyd’s album More, they
generally refer to it as, ‘that
soundtrack album’. But what is the
film actually about? And has
anybody aside from the more
ardent Floyd fan actually seen it?
Well, in reality, very few people
know much about this movie
beyond the orange and blue image
of a windmill on the album cover,
however, despite its obscurity, it is
a pretty watchable document that
captures the spirit of its time.
Coming from the tag-end of the
French new wave movement, the
film was the debut offering of
Iranian-born director Barbet
Schroeder, a man who would later
go on to enjoy significant success
in Hollywood. A sparse and
existential film with a practically
unknown cast, it follows the tale of
Stefan, a young and idealistic
German lad who’s just finished a
maths degree. He wants to get out
into the world in the free-and-easy
late 60s and learn a bit about life.
After bumming a lift to Paris with a
trucker, he ends up losing his
money in a card game at a dodgy
bar and decides to commit a
burglary with a new-found friend in
order to collect more funds for his
journey. Still in Paris, he meets a
beautiful but mysterious American
girl called Estelle and falls instantly
in love with her. Despite many
warnings from the locals who are
familiar with her, he follows the
beautiful Estelle to the Spanish
party island of Ibiza, and his life
takes a much darker turn.
Here, our protagonist’s
obsession with the American girl
sees him becoming involved with
hippy cults, Nazi drug dealers and
weird, wild sex, before eventually
being drawn into a spiral of drug
taking that leads him onto a

dangerous path of self-destruction.
So, in all a cheery little tale,
then, but one that a band like Pink
Floyd were perfectly predisposed
to write a soundtrack for.

MUSIC MILESTONES
(at this point) less troubled line-up. longest surviving song from this
Indeed, there are many little heard and collection in their live set, it was
even near-to-lost gems that came out perhaps more famously covered by
of this project, songs that you should Hawkwind on their debut album a year
take the time in tracking down if later. Crying Song, on the other hand,
you’ve never previously had the is a more amiable plinky plonk, with
pleasure of hearing them. Songs like soft guitar plucking and relaxed vocals,
Cirrus Minor, which despite opening while the gentle Green Is The Colour
this selection comes from deep within reads like a blueprint for three quarters
the film that inspired it. A tripped-out of the career of Welsh mountain
swirl of organs and birdsong, it acts as randomists, Super Furry Animals.
the sunshine comedown to the
insistent rush of Set The Controls To SETTING THE FOUNDATIONS
The Heart Of The Sun from their As befits a soundtrack album, the bulk
previous album. You can see already of More’s grooves are taken up with
their DNA shifting from the Barrett instrumentals and incidentals – and
years, with David Gilmour’s mumbling these vary more wildly in quality than
burr in stark contrast with Syd’s more the songs. Main Theme does exactly
The changing of precise psychedelic gent persona. This

was, of course, the new boy’s first
what you’d expect, underlaying the
film’s opening scenes of sunshine and
the guard album as the sole vocalist, a feat he’d

not achieve again until Roger Waters
finally left the band in the 80s, and you
clouds quite exquisitely, while the
album’s centrepiece Quicksilver clocks
in at over seven minutes of
How Pink Floyd moved from Barrett can sense him trying out different
to Gilmour in just under two years styles and voices throughout.
7 Ga t e s
This is most notable with the brace
of beefier tunes here: the stomping
“[MORE IS] A
6
U
U
19
S T At T h e s e d
G er l e a
shuffle of The Nile Song and the more
beatsy wigout of Ibiza Bar. Both songs
COLLECTION OF SONGS
5 A e Pip n re display a much more stark and rocky THAT DISPLAY THE
T h f Daw edge to the band, but here Gilmour
O shows more aptitude at spitting out an WORKINGS OF A
angry couplet, and it makes you
wonder what very different kind of TRAUMATISED BAND”
MORE
band Pink Floyd could have become

had they chosen to follow this experimental soundscapes and long,
considerably more aggressive rumbling layers of gentle noise. But for
proto-metal furrow rather every Quicksilver there’s unfortunately
7 AUGUST 1967 than the more spacious and an ill-pitched A Spanish Piece, an
Work on A Saucerful laid back sound that they incongruously jazzy Up The Khyber or a
Of Secrets begins became famous for. bongo-fuelled Party Sequence, all
PHOTO: ANDREW WHIT TUCK /REDFERNS
But this album carries a which may fit well within the confines
little of something for all of a movie, but sit very strangely when
flavours of Floyd fans. Cymbaline is confined to two short sides of vinyl.
perhaps the most traditional song of This is all the more bewildering
the album’s collection, exploring the when you actually see Barbet
story of the film’s hero as he Schroeder’s intriguing debut film and
embarked upon his first pot discover that two rather cracking
19 OCTOBER 1967 smoking experience. The numbers have, in fact, been left off
S yd he
Work on Syd’s last song, this disc: the light and poppy Seabirds
f o r in t
Jugband Blues, begins and the organ-heavy chug down of

v e r t o jo
s g our 7
d a ilm 1 9 6
Hollywood. Ultimately, though, ours is

r c o ked
u i t a as
b a n id G A S
not to question why Pink Floyd chose

Dav R I S T M
the pieces that they did for this

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PINK FLOYD
PHOTO: RALPH GAT TI/GET T Y IMAGES

The Director
Meet Iranian-born director Barbet Schroeder
– the creative force behind this curious film.
A
lthough his name might not be Floyd continued into his second, La Vallée, Measures and the creepy home invasion
immediately familiar, More’s director, whose soundtrack is better known as the album classic Single White Female. He was
Barbet Schroeder is the man behind a Obscured By Clouds. also the guest director for the episode of
plethora of Hollywood blockbusters that you But it was his move to Hollywood that made Mad Men that dealt with the Kennedy
will be much more familiar with, including his name internationally. After making a assassination.
Barfly. Born in Tehran to Swiss and German documentary about the American writer And if you still don’t recognise him, one of
parents, he studied at the Sorbonne in Paris, Charles Bukowski, he turned the subject’s life his many cameos as an actor saw him play the
and at the age of 23 he formed a movie into the award-winning drama Barfly. From here President of France in Mars Attacks!.
production company. More was his first film as he was responsible for a string of box office
director, in 1969, and his connection with Pink hits, including Reversal Of Fortune, Desperate
selection, and just enjoy this difficult More may not get the plaudits and Wish You Were Here – or at least not in
third album for what it is: a highly the gushing reviews of the albums that the form that we know them. And for
diverse collection of songs and proceeded and followed it, but it could that More is a much more important
noodlings that display a traumatised be argued that without this album, and fascinating piece of work than you
band showing us their workings as which gave them space to experiment may first give it credit for and it
they decide what they want to be from with a new way of working, there commands a level of respect beyond its
here on in. would be no Dark Side Of The Moon or immediate musical impact. 20 JULY 1969
Pink Floyd
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MUSIC MILESTONES
Studio Birmingham Mothers Club, Manchester College of Commerce, Abbey Road Studios
Producer Pink Floyd, Norman Smith
Released 1969
Ummagumma
Pink Floyd re-emerge with an experimental album divided into four sections.
F
rom our 21st century perspective, we all know how it something of a whimsical keyboard melody. Part II is the
ends: Roger Waters gets too powerful. He wants to only one of the quartet that starts out as anything other
conceive the work, write the words, compose the than challenging, but then discordance returns with Part III.
music and sing all the songs. Eventually, he gets his Does it stand the test of time? Sadly not.
way. The record comes out, people buy it, it’s a hit
UMMAGUMMA
but the band implodes. Except that hasn’t happened Next cab off the rank is Waters. Ever an acolyte of the
yet. This isn’t 1981, this is 1969 and this is not The Wall - this say-what-you-see style of songwriting, the first of his two
is Floyd’s fourth album, Ummagumma. pieces is named after local Cambridge haunt Grantchester
Meadows. Despite the looped call of skylarks and the
Pink Floyd’s first double album, proved extremely popular at occasional honk of goose, this acoustic Waters-
the time, partly because it offered a live and a studio record accompanying-Waters song is well, frankly, good. Yes, it’s a
in one helping. Kicking off with Disc 1 (the concert album) pastoral postcard of sorts, but it has depth. And guitars,
you get what you expect: four tracks from four hippyish prog unlike synth effects, never get old.
rockers who never met an eight-minute song they didn’t
like. Even Syd Barrett’s Astronomy Domine, a mere four If you’ve ever wondered what Roger Waters sounds like
minutes under their erstwhile leader, gets stretched to shorn of ideas then I present his next track, Several Species
double its length at Birmingham’s Mothers Club – and boy Of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together In A Cave And
does it work. Syd Barrett may have had the ideas, but in the Grooving With A Pict. Percy Edwards-style bird and animal
hands of Gilmour et al, it comes alive, a Pink Floyd song for impersonations would not these days, one suspects, a
the next incarnation of the band. modern band’s serious attempts at longevity make
(Radiohead notwithstanding). Listen out around the
Careful With That Axe, Eugene is a four-way composition four-minute mark and you’ll hear Waters say, at half speed,
that smacks of a band pulling in the same direction, as does ‘That was pretty avant-garde, wasn’t it?’. Which pretty much
the near 13-minute A Saucerful Of Secrets. Tellingly, Waters’ says it all.
Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun, from
Manchester’s College of Commerce, is just as well rendered. David Gilmour’s moment in the spotlight arrives on The
Narrow Way – a dovetailing of three songs stitched together.
The second disc is where things start to get experimental. Part I resembles an acoustic song previously called Baby Blue
The concept behind Ummagumma is that each member Shuffle In D Minor, which pretty much sums up its sound.
creates a quarter of an album, an idea that came from Less instrumental and more unfinished to these ears, it’s
Richard Wright. Maybe with old leader Syd Barrett gone, crying out for a lyric. The mid section goes electric, vaguely
Wright wanted to audition for the vacancy. Fittingly, he sinister in grizzled tone and motif, while it’s only the finale
starts the process with Sysyphus Parts 1-4. that introduces a vocal – well several actually with David
Gilmour harmonising with himself. Why not? He does
In Sysyphus Part 1 just about every encounter Dr Who’s everything else.
Patrick Troughton or Jon Pertwee ever had with an alien is
soundtracked by the brass stabs and timpani booms that Which leaves Nick Mason – and his wife – to wrap up
PHOTO: PINK FLOYD MUSIC LTD
Wright serves up with the first of this four-part offering. proceedings with The Grand Vizier’s Garden Party. His
Wright has emptied the BBC Radiophonic Workshop using drums, her flute, what could go right? Split into three parts
buzzing symbols that give way briefly to the sound of a it’s less prog rock than am dram.
drunk organist slumped over his keys as monkeys run riot in
the orchestra pit. Thankfully, it does settle down to Jeff Hudson

PINK FLOYD
Album promotional shoot, featuring the

band relaxing in Kew Gardens, London

MUSIC MILESTONES
UMMAGUMMA

PINK FLOYD
By Will Simpson
Band Of
Four
With Syd Barrett now firmly planted in the band’s past, the
quartet dip their toe into the world of avant garde with each band
member composing their own section of the album.
n retrospect, the patience of major realise that their strength lies in the
I
record labels in the late 1960s longer multi-part music that had
seems astounding. At the always been the highlight of their live
beginning of 1969 Pink Floyd had show. After the failure of Point Me At
just come off the back of a year in The Sky in late 1968 there would be no
which they had lost their more attempts to write succinct
frontman and chief songwriter. Their three-minute singles to compete in the
last album hadn’t done as well as their pop charts. Instead, Floyd begin to
debut and their last three singles had stretch out and, on this album at least,
flopped. Somehow, though, they were indulge themselves, both individually
not only commissioned to write a film and as a group.
soundtrack, but EMI allowed the band What Ummagumma isn’t is a band
to release a double album. album. Rather, its studio half is a
That soundtrack was More, a collection of solo tracks collected under
stop-gap release that at least scratched the Floyd banner. A thoroughly
a creative itch that Roger Waters had to 21st-century concept: the hip-hop
move into movie soundtracks. The outfit Outkast notoriously went one
double album, Ummagumma, proved step further and released two solo
to be an important staging post in the albums in one package under their
band’s career. It’s where the group band name.
PHOTO: ULLSTEIN BILD/GET T Y IMAGES
“UMMAGUMMA ISN’T A BAND ALBUM.

RATHER, IT’S A COLLECTION OF SOLO
TRACKS UNDER THE FLOYD BANNER”
MUSIC MILESTONES
Grand Vizier’s Garden Party. Another

Dave Gilmour and Nick Mason multi-part composition, his section is,
at the Falkoner Teatret
not surprisingly, percussion and
in Copenhagen, November 1970
effects-heavy. His wife, Lindy,
contributed flute and Norman Smith
helped with the woodwind
arrangements. Mason remembers that
even at this stage Floyd weren’t trusted
entirely by EMI – the studio manager
reprimanded the drummer for editing
his own tapes.
Waters ended up completing two
tracks. Grantchester Meadows is for
many the highlight of the album, a
pastoral evocation of the titular area in
Cambridge complete with birdsong,
buzzing flies and splashing geese. But
the baffling Several Species Of Small
Furry Animal Gathered Together In A
Cave And Grooving With A Pict is a
one-note joke that quickly wears thin,
even if it did show off purchasers’
stereo systems quite superbly. At the
time Waters described it as “a bit of
concrete poetry. The sounds on that
“[UMMAGUMMA] WAS THE that I made – the voice and hand

slapping – were all human-generated.
PRODUCT OF CHAOS... A NOTION No musical instruments”. ‘Pretty avant
garde’ it may have been in 1969, but its
OF FORGING NEW FRONTIERS” Pythonesque humour, frankly, hasn’t
dated well.
Peter Mew David Gilmour was the one who had
UMMAGUMMA
the most difficulty with his section. A

full member for less than a year, at this
stage he had little or no compositional
NEW FRONTIER experience. By the early 80s he had all
No-one seems to be able to recall why but disowned his track, The Narrow
Ummagumma ended up being made in Way, saying in an 1983 interview: “We’d
this manner. EMI engineer Peter Mew decided to make the damn album and
remembers the four-way split – with each of us had to do a piece of music on
each member contributing half a side our own... It was just desperation really,
each as, “the product of chaos, of not trying to think of something to do. I’d
quite knowing what to do. (There was) never written anything before, I just
a sense on one hand of, ‘Oh God’ and went into a studio and started waffling
on the other of excitement, a notion of about, tacking bits and pieces
forging new frontiers”. together.” When Gilmour phoned up
Mew recalls the group turning up in Waters to ask for help writing lyrics,
the studio at the beginning of the bassist turned him down, an early
recording and Norman Smith asking if sign of the conflict that would
they had any new songs. When the ultimately prove ruinous for the
group replied in the negative, the solo pair’s relationship.
gambit was agreed upon. Considering Nevertheless, the album was
that they no longer possessed a chief delivered by the summer and
songwriter, it seemed a reasonable scheduled for an autumn release. It was
enough modus operandi. only around this time that the idea
PHOTO: JORGEN ANGEL/GET T YIMAGES
Rick Wright was the most came about to convert it into a double.
enthusiastic about the idea, at least Floyd’s management were nervous that
according to Mason in his 2005 memoir fans might feel ripped off by four solo
and he managed to deliver his pieces rather a band album proper,
contribution Sysyphus before the end which prompted discussion within the
of January 1969. The keyboardist later group of the possibility of putting
dismissed the four-part piano concerto together a single track that they could
as “pretentious”. Certainly, its all work on together. In the end the
Roger Waters rocks the combination of modern classical-style easier option of tacking a live album
stage in Copenhagen, 1970
discord and gentle meandering made onto the new studio album was taken.
more sense at a time when rock’s scope If nothing else, it was a good way of
for expansion seemed limitless. putting out live favourite Careful With
Similar self indulgence could be That Axe Eugene, a group composition
detected in Mason’s own track, The that they hadn’t got around to

PINK FLOYD
Portrait Of A Band
Pink Floyd step out of the box with new, portrait-style approach to the album cover.
U
mmagumma was not the first Thorgerson considered if as “not third, fourth or fifth listen. January Great Shelford, a suburb of
Pink Floyd album Hipgnosis really a portrait at all. It’s about then compared this with “infinite Cambridge. The band already
had worked on, but it was the infinite regression”. For the regression line drawings that knew it well, having played in the
first time they produced the sort of designer, the cover “served to psychologists use”, which set garden shown on the cover at a
striking image with which they illustrate the idea that Floyd music Storm thinking. 21st birthday party thrown for
– and the band – would soon was multi-layered and more The idea was formulated to Libby back in 1965. Back when
become synonymous with. intricate than most”. Adding: “I shoot the band several times in they were still known as The Tea
Coincidentally, it also marks the didn’t like this record much”. similar positions but with the Set and were supported by both
last time a band group shot could Storm and his then-girlfriend members switched, which when David Gilmour’s band Joker’s Wild
be seen on the cover of a Floyd Libby January were talking about one was hung on the wall would and an obscure young US folk
record. Although it’s hardly a the band’s music and the layers provide a droste effect. The band singer called Paul Simon. A lot
conventional portrait. Indeed they found in their albums; how decided to shoot the cover at had happened to the band in the
before his passing in 2013, Storm they only made sense on their January’s father’s country house at intervening four years.

MUSIC MILESTONES
Mark Frechette and Daria Halprin pose during
filming for Zabriskie Point, circa 1970
Careful With
That Axe,
Eugene
The hypnotic track that set
the stall for a future sound.
O
ne of the highlights of the Floyd set The live version on Ummagumma is
in ’68-’69 was this largely probably the best known and is suitably
instrumental track, which in its blood-curdling with Roger Waters
hypnotic way set the stall for the music screaming and Dave Gilmour unleashing
that would become a hallmark of the the sort of squealing solo his name would
band’s work in the 1970s. They had first one day be synonymous with. It was
started working on it in early 1968 after re-recorded again in 1970 for the
Barrett’s departure as Keep Smiling soundtrack to Zabriskie Point, for which it
People. By the time they recorded it for a was retitled Come In Number 51 Your
John Peel session it was Murderistic Time Is Up, a reference to a sketch on
UMMAGUMMA
Woman. Eventually, it turned up on the Spike Milligan’s Q5 TV programme. In all

B-side of their 1968 single Point Me At its incarnations, it’s a deliciously creepy
The Sky. When that flopped the studio listen, and its inclusion undoubtedly
version attained the status of a rarity. strengthened Ummagumma.
“IT WAS FUN TO MAKE... [BUT] to pay off. Despite EMI’s (and the
PHOTO: HULTON ARCHIVE/GET T Y IMAGES

band’s) reservations about the whole
THE PARTS WERE NOT AS GREAT project, Ummagumma sold well on
release, reaching No 5 in the UK album
AS THE SUM” Nick Mason charts in November 1969 - four places
higher than A Saucerful Of Secrets. An
audience was growing for the sort of
recording yet. An eight-minute version high reputation, not least among the longer form experimental rock
of Astronomy Domine was also band themselves. “I don’t think we Ummagumma was emblematic of.
included – a nod to their first album were very taken with it,” wrote Nick Reviews were by and large warm.
and a way to keep royalties ticking over Mason. “It was fun to make and a Record Mirror described it as, “a truly
for their beleaguered former leader, useful exercise, the individuals’ great progressive rock album” and as
Syd Barrett. sections proving to my mind that the the next decade unfolded, Floyd would
Two shows at Birmingham Mother’s parts were not as great as the sum.” go on to become inextricably linked in
Club and Manchester College of Roger Waters wasn’t overjoyed by it the public mind with that phrase.
Commerce, were recorded with a view either and suggested that the group’s Coincidentally, Ummagumma is also
for release. Neither proved wholly decision not to play each other’s the first Floyd album to be released on
satisfactory and so the live half of contributions until they had all been Harvest, the EMI subsidiary that was
Ummagumma is a composite of both finished had backfired: “It would have founded to provide a home for more
performances. Even then the vocals for been better if we’d gone away and then experimental album-orientated music
A Saucerful Of Secrets were not done the things, come back together covered by that umbrella term
deemed of sufficient quality and had to and discussed it. I don’t think it’s good ‘progressive’. (Interestingly, one of the
be redone in the studio. to work in total isolation.” But Floyd figures that helped launch it was Pink
were not yet in the privileged position Floyd’s ex-manager Peter Jenner).
A DISPARATE ALBUM where they could simply junk an entire Ummagumma is Floyd’s best-
In retrospect it all sounds like a bit of a album and start again. They had to forgotten album. They got away with it,
fudge, the very opposite of the release it, however unhappy they were. but it had revealed that working in
carefully-crafted, painstakingly As it happened, trends were moving isolation hadn’t really worked for the
thought-out concept albums they in their direction. The years of band. Their next few albums would be
would become known for. Indeed patiently building up a following all true team efforts, and would be all
Ummagumma has never had a very through their live work was beginning the better for it.

PINK FLOYD

Producer Pink Floyd, Norman Smith
Released 1970
Atom Heart Mother

This hard-to-place album played an important role in Floyd’s musical journey.
A
tom Heart Mother is sometimes written off as the Ummagumma. Folky acoustic guitar, sotto vocals and
Pink Floyd bandwagon swerving into a dead end restrained backing, including some sweet electric almost-
street. The record can annoy those enamoured solos from Gilmour. Lyrically, it’s another matter –
with straight-line musical journeys (Rubber Soul Grantchester Meadows’ rustic idyll images have
ATOM HEART MOTHER
begets Revolver begets Sgt Pepper), thinking given way to soul-searching and intimations of
bands should follow a bendless road, with albums feared insanity.
sitting right alongside it like motorway service stations.
Rick Wright’s Summer ’68 continues the mood, at
Based on David Gilmour’s take on some chord sequences least momentarily; gentle piano and voice giving
from the Magnificent Seven’s soundtrack, what would way to a distorted vocal rant of, ‘How do you feel?’
become AHM’s title track had often been performed in replete with beat-y pop and Beach Boys harmonies,
concert. But while it was fine for sating a stoned audience, it after which a horn section blasts in like the showdown
hadn’t the melodic meat required for a major recording, and theme from a spaghetti western. Lyrically, the song’s crass,
the band couldn’t work out how to progress it. but musically it’s rather exciting.
Stressed out by touring and album deadline demands, Floyd David Gilmour’s Fat Old Sun resets the mood, distant church
handed over the title track to composer-arranger Ron Geesin bells heralding pastoral lyrics. More understated vocals,
to beef up, with vague instructions about orchestras. The acoustic guitar and discreet backing before opening the
upshot was the recording of an almost 24-minute track throttle a half-twist to support a heartier electric solo.
incorporating 10 horns, 20 voices and a solo cello, as well as
the Floyd themselves. The work ranges from the sublime to The experimental Alan’s Psychedelic Breakfast is credited to
the cacophonous. One suspects that the album’s theoretical the whole group, but it was mostly Nick Mason. It stitches
producer, Norman ‘Hurricane’ Smith, would have clamped together and overlays three instrumental sections with the
down on this self-indulgence. But the band, in their first real sound of someone making a fried breakfast, and snatches of
burst of control-freakery, kept him completely sidelined. speech from roadie Alan Styles. The group were clearly
pleased with it though some critics might argue that it’s less
For hefty chunks of ATM, the rock stars are playing as a a roadie’s breakfast than a dog’s dinner.
backing band for the session musicians, which turns the
era’s ‘pomp rock’ signature pose on its head. But AHM would not put Floyd off 20-minute-plus epics: within
surprisingly Geesin’s orchestral and choral segments hang six months they had written Echoes. The incorporation of
together well. Identifiable themes come and go, and are ‘found’ and collected elements (especially the sound effects
sometimes rinsed and repeated. And when they’re to the and conversations) would re-emerge on Dark Side and Wish.
fore, the band as the band (rather than ‘avant garde’ And the three actual songs on AHM would hold their own on
producers) are in good form too. Gilmour caresses his (now most Floyd albums. Waters continued performing If for
legendary) black Strat for the first time on record, while decades, as did Gilmour with his favourite, Fat Old Sun.
Wright unveils his new Hammond and gets friendly with a
Mellotron. Arguably in sore need of a three-minute trim, it’s Although given zero stars (zero!) by Rolling Stone, Floyd’s
admittedly flawed, but not fatally so. Many Floyd fans first UK No 1 was certainly not a dead end, even though it
(including this writer) pursue a cautious love affair with it. may not satisfy those compulsively tidy ‘motorway service
station’ catalogue fetishists.
Opening Side two of the original LP, Roger Waters’ If is very
reminiscent, in mood, of his main contribution to Martyn Lester

MUSIC MILESTONES
By Martyn Lester
Heart
Of The Matter
ATOM HEART MOTHER
Fractious horn players, a Dadaist collaborator and the Workers

Revolutionary Party – just a few of the elements involved in the
convoluted creation of one of Floyd’s most impenetrable albums.
ink Floyd were an odd band in albums to have the same name as one pieces for the Antonioni movie
P
many ways. Among their of its components, it’s the only one Zabriskie Point, help Syd Barrett with a
idiosyncrasies was their fairly where they are regularly discussed at solo album… The solution, they
frequent habit of touring cross-purposes. So to avoid such decided, was to call in Ron Geesin.
material and putting it on confusion, we’ll be referring to one Geesin was an eccentric. Raised in
record later. Some groups of as ‘the album’ and the other as The Scotland by three-quarters English
the era would, of course, pack their Epic – for reasons which will all parents, Geesin never seems to have
first album with songs they’d been become clearer. felt that he fitted in. He learned
performing in pubs, clubs and rainy Floyd began performing The Epic at harmonica, then banjo and then, like
fields while waiting to be ‘discovered’. least as early as January 1970 – usually the boy who ran away to the circus, he
But after that, most would ‘lay down’ introducing it as The Amazing Pudding. fled south as the hired-on-the-spot
an album and then tour to promote it. In March of that year, the group took new pianist in a travelling jazz band
Floyd liked to try out new material the piece into studio sessions and laid that just happened to be passing
on tour, fiddle with it in studio down a rhythm track with the odd through town.
sessions, take it back on the road, hone organ overdub and a couple of guitar
it onstage and finally turn it into an solos. Pretty soon, though, they After four years with the Original
album track. This gestation process reached an impasse. While EMI were Downtown Syncopators, Geesin had by
was visible at its most elephantine in breathing down their necks to cut an 1968 transformed into an at least partly
1974 when the group regularly played album, they were also booked to tour Dadaist one-man show, appearing on a
two songs that would not appear on the US in April, record soundtrack number of bills with the Pink Floyd but
disc until Animals, three years later.
Ditto, Side one of Atom Heart Mother
also began life in this fashion. “FLOYD BEGAN PERFORMING THE EPIC
‘THE EPIC’ AS EARLY AS JANUARY 1970, INTRODUCING
Before we move forwards, a caveat.
Although AHM is one of five Floyd IT AS THE AMAZING PUDDING”
PINK FLOYD
Pink Floyd in 1970 welcoming in a new decade with a

new album, Atom Heart Mother

MUSIC MILESTONES
Here Is The Moos

A few interesting tidbits about
Atom Heart Mother, from concept
to cover and beyond...
ATOM HEART MOTHER
WHAT'S IN A NAME? of Hipgnosis thought it would be ‘movements’ were a fabrication notable orchestras before turning
Pink Floyd recorded an ‘in- amusing to do a “non-cover”. Of arrived at to mitigate a contractual full-time composer in the early
concert’ version of their new epic three “dry, meaningless” concepts loophole. If the piece had simply 1980s. He lives in Bath.
for the BBC in advance of the that he pitched to the band they been named Atom Heart Mother, it
album’s completion. When John liked the idea of a picture of a cow would have earned royalties in the ELECTRICONICS WIZARD
Peel asked for a title, Waters the best. They thought it was US as a single song. Peter Bown was the sound
looked through Peel’s copy of the funny. He drove out of London to engineer on the album. Although
London Evening Standard in the the first field that he could find SESSION CREDITS almost unknown outside the
hope that a ‘found’ title would with cows in it, shot two rolls of Although ‘John Alldis Choir’ was industry he was something of a
emerge. The headline ‘Atom Heart 120 film, and that was it. name-checked as a ‘Special legend within it. Bown’s first
Mother Named’ topped a story thanks to’ contributor, the only contact with Pink Floyd was on 27
about a woman from Barnet SIX-PIECE SUITE mention of major contributor Ron March 1967 when he was called
who had become the first person Similarly intriguing for fans were Geesin on the album packaging or back in to Abbey Road for a
in Britain to receive a the individually-titled movements label is in the ‘(Mason, Gilmour, midnight session with an
plutonium-238 pacemaker. of the main ‘suite’. But once again, Waters, Wright & Geesin)’ ‘underground group’ that producer
there was no hidden meaning. songwriter credit. As was normal, Norman Smith was struggling to
COVER CONCEPT Although structured for recording the orchestral session musicians record. As Bown arrived, the Floyd
Like the album’s title, its cover was purposes into 16 sections, the were uncredited, though some were running through Interstellar
regarded at the time as enigmatic. piece was never conceived as a would say this is a touch unfair on Overdrive. “By Christ, it was loud!”
In reality, there was nothing terribly suite, just an album side. cellist Haflioi Hallgrímsson. The he said. They burned out four
deep about it. Storm Thorgerson According to Ron Geesin, the Icelander worked with several microphones during the session.

PINK FLOYD
Wright, Gilmour and Mason
being interviewed backstage
whilst on tour in Germany
PHOTO: HANS-JURGEN DIBBERT/GET T Y IMAGES
“NICK MASON TURNED UP OUT OF THE

BLUE AT GEESIN’S FLAT... SO THAT HE
COULD MEET A ‘REAL NUTTER’”
never meeting them. In 1968, he was the two were collaborating on the instruments, a solo cello and a choir
gigging, composing, recording (John soundtrack to a documentary about the of 20. EMI handed over the tapes of
Peel plugged his homemade album), human body that was, in effect, being the basic work that the band had done
working on a TV advertisement and made (rather oddly!) by the Workers on 2, 3, 4 and 24 March, and Geesin
documentary music, and even making Revolutionary Party. was away.
location recordings for the BBC. In This, in a nutshell, is how three- At this stage, the work had no
short, he was doing a lot of things. quarters of Floyd (Gilmour hadn’t met name. Abbey Road was logging its
Many of them unusual. Geesin) came to entrust the progress of progress as “untitled epic” and all that
It was also the year that Nick Mason half of their next album to a multi- was written on the tape canisters that
turned up out of the blue at Geesin’s talented absurdist. They explained to Geesin received was ‘Epic’ , so that’s
flat, having been given the address by a Geesin what they wanted. If we what he wrote at the top of his score:
mutual friend. Geesin remains unsure summarise this brief as: ‘About 25 ‘Pink Floyd Epic’. His first job was to
whether this was because it was minutes… something big… with a analyse what was already there, and
supposed they might have something choir… and some orchestra’ we are decide which sections should be moved
in common, or so that Mason could probably not missing much in the way or repeated further on in the piece.
“meet a real nutter!” Either way, of vital details. He ended up with seven core
something must have sparked. The Floyd manager Steve O’Rourke sections which, when reprises and
Geesins became part of the Masons’ subsequently tightened the parameters re-entries were mapped in, became 16
social circle, soon meeting the Wrights a touch. “Yes, big, but not too big – in total – some orchestral, some
and the Waters. Ron and Roger seem to we’re on a limited budget here!” It was choral, some Pink Floyd and some
have rubbed along particularly well, therefore agreed that Geesin would combinations of two or all three. Next,
regularly playing golf together. Soon, restrict his scores to 10 brass he had to compose the orchestral and

MUSIC MILESTONES
Road Test
In keeping with a number of Pink Floyd albums, the material
was first debuted live before a note was even recorded.
T
he first historical record of a (Left): Rick Wright at
performance of what would the Falkoner Teatret,
eventually become know as Atom Copenhagen in 1970;
Heart Mother was on Saturday 17 January (Right) David Gilmour
1970 at Hull University, with further airings at the Hyde Park Free
on the following two nights in Croydon Concert in July 1970
and Brighton.
Before the end of the month, the piece
would enjoy its French debut – the
beginning of a decades-long national
affair with La Vache Atomique. The first
audience of French fans to hear the
nascent work was at the celebrated
Théâtre des Champs-Élysées on 23
January 1970.
The Royal Albert Hall hosted the next
British performance on 7 February.
ATOM HEART MOTHER
Manchester Opera House followed the

next night with at least four more live
shows before the band hopped into
Abbey Road Studios and started playing
with it in the studio over three days at the
start of March.
Further performances in England,
West Germany, Scandinavia and the US
followed. By the time Floyd started
earnest studio work on the new album on
10 June, they had already performed the
choral parts, and get copies of the
“EMI INSISTED ON USING PLAYERS score produced (a scenario even more

fraught with problems than one would
FROM AN IN-HOUSE ROSTER. first imagine).
Once it was taken into the studio,
FRICTION ENSUED... IT ALMOST life was even less simple. Rather than
the horn players Geesin had hoped to
CAME DOWN TO A FIST FIGHT” work with, EMI insisted on using
players from a sort of in-house roster.
Friction ensued, which was exacerbated
by 1970 style trade union practices. It
almost came down to a fist fight, with
Geesin having to absent himself from
the studio while the choir conductor
took charge.

PINK FLOYD
group-only version of the new work about embarked on their next stint of North
30 times. American touring in October, the band
If anything, the new orchestral and had decided enough was enough,
choral elements added by Ron Geesin and settled back into performing as a
only increased the band’s appetite for four piece.
performing it live. They took a brass This wasn’t the end of the line for the
section and choir to the Bath Festival of orchestrated AHM, though. If the band
Blues & Progressive Music on 27 June, were fed up with it, the world hadn’t quite
and again for a concert at the BBC’s Paris had its fill. Through the 70s, 80s and 90s,
Cinema in London on 16 July. It was here Ron Geesin would sporadically receive
that the piece finally received its name. requests for the score from conductors
The newly-dubbed Atom Heart Mother planning their own performances, and if
– brass, choir and all – was rolled out anything, the turn of the century gave the
again for a free concert in Hyde Park two work a new lease of life. Increasing
days later, and once more on 12 demand led to Geesin having the score
September in front of a festival crowd of digitised, as he couldn’t keep up with
500,000 in Paris. Half a million! That’s making copies.
Woodstock plus 25 per cent. During a tour Performances in Lyon in 2002 featured
of the US beginning in the same month, a choir of 200. Geesin also worked on a
Floyd also put on full-blown performances revised and extended version for a 2008
in New York and San Francisco. Chelsea Festival evening of his work.
By this time, the band had embarked Surprisingly, David Gilmour (who had
on a year-long spell in which recordings gone through a phase of seeming to hate
for the next album, Meddle, were the piece) decided to play the guitar parts
interspersed with dozens of gigs. Selected for one of the two performances.
performances, which featured choir and Astonishingly, the board for the 2012
orchestra included Birmingham, Bristol, Baccaleauréat decided to make Atom
Manchester, Sheffield, London, Münster, Heart Mother one of its three set works
“BY THE TIME FLOYD STARTED

ON THE NEW ALBUM ON, THEY
HAD ALREADY PERFORMED THE
GROUP-ONLY VERSION 30 TIMES”
(INSETS FROM LEFT) JORGEN ANGEL; MICHAEL PUTLAND/GET T Y IMAGES

Hamburg, Offenbach, Lyon and Villach. for study in the music module, alongside
Perhaps wisely, they decided to forego Bach’s Mass in B Minor and Dalbavie’s
the bells and whistles for the Japanese Colors. AHM had finally become
and Australian legs of the academic!
tour, bringing them back for a festival In honour of this accolade, Radio
PHOTO: (MAIN) LARRY HULST/GET T Y IMAGES

in Montreux. France organised and broadcast a special
There are intrinsic difficulties in staging concert performance at the Théâtre du
full performances of Atom Heart Mother Chatelet. A film was also made for
on tour. Even within one country, two students to access online. Since 2014, the
performances might end up featuring full concert video has also been available
entirely different horn and choir sections in HD on YouTube, where it has been
Sound and vision: of varying quality, and always unfamiliar viewed more than a quarter of a million
Pink Floyd onstage in 1970 with the work. By the time Floyd times. It’s well worth watching, too.
There was also a rather drawn-out bar markings offset by one beat from For Atom Heart Mother obsessives,
problem causing some rather each other. Ron Geesin’s comprehensive account of
significant issues. The brass players The Epic, from its birth to its
(this time through no fault of their BIRTH OF THE MOTHER celebration in French academic circles
own) simply couldn’t come to grips By the time the band had added their more than four decades later, is
with one section of the score. After overdubs and ‘composed’ the vacant endlessly fascinating.
much head scratching, it was experimental section and The Epic was Though necessarily a one-sided
eventually worked out that, in the in the can, Geesin was just glad it was story, it rings pretty true. Nick Mason
original studio takes, Nick Mason had all over. He never felt that the penned a genial foreword in which,
started the section by skipping the first recording was anything near as good as while not actually pleading guilty, he
beat of the opening bar and coming in he would have liked it to have been. does imply that, well, maybe the band
on the second. This meant that Pink Floyd seemed, however, to be had been a bit difficult to work with.
Geesin’s transcription was astray, and delighted. Over the years, the two For Ron Geesin’s account of the
(in essence) the band and the horns would each end up switching to collaboration, his book The Flaming
were playing from scores that had their opposite opinions of the suite. Cow makes an intriguing read.

MUSIC MILESTONES
Studio AIR Studios, Abbey Road, Morgan Studios

Producer Pink Floyd
Released 1971
Meddle
Psychedelic blues rock, a hint of jazz, Water’s ‘happy’ moment and a song dedicated to a dog.
F
or a band blessed with such riches in the vocals safe ground, Fearless lurches into a sample of You’ll Never
department, it’s interesting that Floyd were never Walk Alone – the anthem sung by the thousands who pack
afraid to go the instrumental route. And so it is with out Liverpool FC’s Kop every home game: fearless indeed.
Meddle’s opener, One Of These Days. Credited to all
four members, David Gilmour, has said that he If there’s one thing the world rarely sees, it’s a happy Roger
considers it to be one of the band’s greatest Waters. Based on San Tropez, it’s not a thing we ever need to
MEDDLE
collaborative achievements – possibly because it’s not see – or hear – again. A man known for his close association
dominated by Roger Waters’ lyrics. Whether this is a with emotional turmoil, when Waters is conflicted he
statement driven by bitter memories or not, there’s produces his best work. Where’s the danger in this breezy
undoubtedly a fluidity and confidence to the track. And it’s slice of summer jazz? Where’s the injustice? The
packed with ideas. misanthropy? Imagine receiving a postcard from your
grumpy uncle at his favourite holiday resort and looking for
Certainly the song draws on every available resource, and the hidden sarcasm in the message – and finding none. That
then the band adds in some more. Special effects weather is San Tropez.
turbulence blends into Roger Waters’ bass, which begets an
eager synthesizer rhythm. Sci-fi fans will be encouraged to All good bands have rivalries at their heart. Don Henley and
note that this features more than just a soupçon of the Time Glenn Frey, Mick Jones versus Joe Strummer, Dave versus
Lord with the song’s sample of the Doctor Who theme. Ray. With Gilmour and Waters the acrimony could work in
their favour. On a good day Gilmour sees Waters achieve
Officially, One Of These Days is an ‘instrumental’ yet listen something and wants to top it. On a bad day apparently he
closely around the 3:40 mark and you’ll hear the distorted simply emulates it. Side one of Meddle ends with, literally, a
tones of Nick Mason exhorting, ‘One of these days I’m going dog of a track. Seamus, named after a collie belonging to The
to cut you into little pieces’. Nice it certainly isn’t, but it Small Faces’ Steve Marriott, is Gilmour’s take on a bluegrass
remains the only vocal credit this particular drummer has original. Accompanying yaps from the dog in question
ever received. permeate the track but Gilmour’s thoughtful slide guitar is
all that fixes it in the memory.
Meddle boasts a neat little segue from One Of These Days to
A Pillow Of Winds a hint towards the fact that Floyd are Side two of this troublesome album is dedicated entirely to
gaining confidence in how to construct their albums, rather the 23:29 long track, Echoes. After the mish-mash of Side
than just putting a collection of songs out there. one, this has purpose; a journey it wishes to undertake.
Nevertheless, A Pillow Of Winds is baffling, both musically Despite being partly improvised, nothing about Echoes feels
and for those interested in nomenclature. Mason says the accidental or thrown in for luck, or bombast. From the
title came from on a tour-long infatuation with Chinese opening affected piano ‘pings’ to their mirrored refrains
PHOTO: BERNARD ALLEMANE / INA VIA GET T Y IMAGES
board game mahjong. More of a head-scratcher, however, is nearly 24 minutes later, there is a structure in place, three
the discovery of an acoustic love song making an appearance measured sections, each adding to the whole. Even the
in a Floyd album. What’s the hidden agenda? Forty-five accidents – like Gilmour plugging in his wah-wah back to
years later we still don’t know. Did this pretty song really front for the middle solo – produce results that sing.
come from the tortured minds of Waters and Gilmour? Gilmour’s vocals too take on a new richness as the melody
builds, before descending – setting the scene for greater,
With Fearless, we’re back on familiar territory as the band darker things to come.
build their own wall of sound with guitars and vocals
providing the scaffolding. But just when you think you’re on Jeff Hudson

PINK FLOYD
David Gilmour during a

concert given by Pink Floyd
on June 16th, 1971 at the
Royaumont Abbey, France

MUSIC MILESTONES
Pink Floyd pre-show at

MEDDLE
Hakone Aphrodite,
Kanagawa, August 6th, 1971
By Henry Yates
Finding
Focus
Shaking off the hangover of the Syd Barrett era, 1971’s Meddle
marked a sea change for Pink Floyd as the band discovered their
classic sound and set the controls for the stadium league. “It’s the
point,
” says David Gilmour, “at which we found our focus.”

PINK FLOYD
“MEDDLE WOULD FINALLY SHAKE

OFF SYD BARRETT’S INFLUENCE,
PROPELLING THE BAND TOWARDS
THEIR BENCHMARK 70S ALBUMS”
turning in 1969’s Ummagumma and AIR and Morgan Studios – where the
1970’s Atom Heart Mother, but Floyd took full advantage of the
subsequently claiming the latter should prevailing attitude that artists
be “thrown into the dustbin”. deserved boundless creative freedom.
With trademark candour, Waters “We had just signed a new contract
told the press he was “bored with most that gave us a slightly reduced royalty
of the stuff we play” while Dave in return for unlimited studio time,”
Gilmour would admit to “scraping the said Mason in Guitar World. “I think
barrel”. Such was the inauspicious only The Beatles had a similar deal.”
y 1970, Pink Floyd looked like backdrop to Meddle, the sixth album With EMI suits taking a hands-off
B
a band on the ropes. Two that would finally shake off Barrett’s approach – aside from artist relations
years had passed since Syd lingering influence, propelling the manager Colin Miles, who would
Barrett retreated into band towards their benchmark 70s periodically visit the studio bearing
acid-fried oblivion, but albums and dizzy commercial heights. wine and cannabis – the Floyd were
resetting the controls without “We were looking for something,” free to tickle their own fancies into the
their fallen talisman was proving a test Gilmour told biographer Mark Blake. small hours of the morning. One
for the remaining members. On tour “During that whole period, through aborted wheeze saw each individual
across the US, much to Roger Waters’ Ummagumma and Atom Heart Mother, band member track his parts for a song
disgust, the Floyd were hectored by the we were finding ourselves. Echoes was with no knowledge of what the others
crowd for more cosmic space-jams. In the point we found our focus.” had already recorded (“Absolutely
the studio, they were rudderless, Few Floyd tracks are as significant awful,” declared Gilmour of the results).
as Echoes. Sprawled across the entire
NOTHING ONE, AND TWO
PHOTO: SHINKO MUSIC/GET T Y IMAGES
second side of Meddle, this 23-minute,

shape-shifting prog odyssey was the By the time the line-up moved to Air
song that both defined the record and – having deemed Abbey Road’s
saved the band. The similarly twisty eight-track technology too dated –
story of its creation begins in Studio they had a forest of half-ideas, each
Two of Abbey Road in January 1971 given a somewhat dismissive working
– and proceeds across London to the title (Nothing One, Nothing Two, The

MUSIC MILESTONES
Son Of Nothing etc) and collated in the

so-called ‘rubbish library’.
Some of these rough diamonds were
worth polishing. The line-up’s touring
schedule of 1971 meant they routinely
left the studio to gig, naturally
dropping that week’s studio material
into the set and working out the kinks
in front of a crowd. That April, a show
in Norwich saw order emerge from the
chaos of a number then known as
Return Of The Son Of Nothing (soon to
be Echoes). “When they came back,
they’d got it into shape because they’d
been playing it live,” engineer John
Leckie told Mark Blake. “It was
conceived as one big thing, bits in
various sections, so it was recorded
that way.”
Credited four ways to Waters,
Gilmour, Nick Mason and Rick Wright,
Echoes was a collaborative effort that
would be unthinkable in Floyd’s later
years. “They weren’t really different
from any other band,” recalls Leckie. “It
was energetic, everyone had a say. Nick
came up with a lot of the crazier ideas.
Rick contributed a lot. Roger and Dave
were running the show, but everybody
was contributing.”
MEDDLE
Indeed, it was Wright who came up

with the ghostly submarine ‘ping’ that
opens the track, achieving the effect
by putting a grand piano note through
a Leslie rotating speaker. Waters’
wistful lyrical references to “strangers
passing in the street” , meanwhile, were
inspired by the loneliness he felt upon
moving from Cambridge to London.
Surf’s Up
“It’s that connection that is central to
all my work,” the bassist told CD Now,
“not just with other men, women and
children, but with whatever you want
to call God.”
Perhaps the standout contribution
came from Gilmour’s guitar work,
Revisiting the 1973 cult movie
which slow-burns from the soundtracked by Echoes…
introductory weeping melodies,
through the eerie avian shrieks of the
E
veryone surely knows the old in 1971, but director David Elfick still had
middle section (achieved by wiring a chestnut about The Dark Side Of The to travel to the band’s management
Dunlop Cry Baby wah pedal back-to- Moon matching up to The Wizard Of offices in London to secure the use of
front), to the mournful outro. “Echoes Oz. Almost as popular amongst stoners Echoes (he was granted permission on
has a guitar build-up that I love,” the is the theory that Echoes synchronises the basis that Pink Floyd could screen his
guitarist told interviewer Darrin Fox. with the finale of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A surf footage to accompany the song when
“It’s a creation of dozens of different Space Odyssey. Not true, say the band played in concert).
parts. That sort of textural thing often – or at least, it’s not intentional. Meddle’s One of the defining movies in the surf
thrills me more than a particular solo I centrepiece, Echoes, does appear, genre, Crystal Voyager is a biography of
may have played.” however, on the soundtrack of a sorts, tracking Greenough’s journey
Only Mason felt the band had lesser-known movie. across California in search of the perfect
perhaps overcooked this magnum Released in 1973, Crystal Voyager was waters. In the iconic final scene, the
opus, noting AIR’s 16-track technology written and narrated by George viewer follows the surfer inside the tube of
“there were almost too many options” Greenough, the cult-hero US surfer and a wave, courtesy of a waterproof camera
and that “listening to [Echoes] now, it filmmaker notable for developing the strapped to his board, accompanied by
sounds a bit overlong – something modern surfboard fin and pioneering the the otherworldly strains of the Floyd’s
could be chopped out of it, which would spoon-style wakeboard. Greenough had 23-minute symphony. Sound and vision
make a better piece”. met Pink Floyd when they toured Australia have rarely been in such harmony.

PINK FLOYD
Richard Wright plays

at the Royaumont
Abbey concert, 1971
All Ears
Meddle wins the prize
as Pink Floyd’s worst
ever album sleeve?
I
f Atom Heart Mother’s cow had been
an unlikely cover star, then Meddle’s
sleeve art left prog fans of 1971 in a
state of bafflement, offering a mysterious
semi-submerged object, bathed in blue
light, surrounded by spreading ripples.
After much speculation, this was revealed
to be a close-up shot of a human ear in
shallow water, with the ripples
representing soundwaves.
Meddle might not be Pink Floyd’s most
iconic sleeve, but for band insiders, it was
perhaps the most contentious. Storm

Thorgerson – the late linchpin of the
Echoes was the track that marked dog sitting for Steve Marriott). “It was
Hipgnosis design studio – had reportedly
Floyd’s seismic shift from esoteric very funny when Dave played the
pitched a concept featuring a baboon’s
psychedelia to stadium-ready harmonica and that dog started
anus, but with the band away on tour in
progressive rock, and debuted the howling,” Leckie told Mark Blake, “but I
Japan, the ear concept was decided over
ethereal flavour that would flow into must admit, I was surprised to hear it
a conference call and photographed by
future classics like Breathe, Us And on the finished album.”
Bob Dowling.
Them and Shine On You Crazy Thankfully, the other three songs
The irascible graphic designer hated
Diamond. As contemporary prog giant were made of stronger stuff. Co-
the result, citing it as his least-favourite
Steven Wilson notes, it remains “the written by Gilmour and Waters, A
Floyd sleeve. “The band always say that
quintessential, ultimate epic”. Pillow Of Winds was a sweet, simple
Atom Heart Mother was a better cover
than it was an album,” he told Mark Blake,
“but I think Meddle is a much better “LISTENING TO [ECHOES] NOW...
album than its cover.”
Hipgnosis co-founder Aubrey Powell
SOMETHING COULD BE CHOPPED
was even more self-critical: “Meddle was
a mess. I hated that cover. I don’t think
OUT OF IT, WHICH WOULD MAKE
we did them justice with that at all –
it’s half-hearted.”
A BETTER PIECE” Nick Mason
Measured against that masterpiece, acoustic piece decorated with swoons

perhaps it was inevitable that the five of slide guitar, its title referencing the
tracks that comprises Side one of Chinese game of Mahjong (played
Meddle sounded a little slight. Waters’ ardently by the band on tour). The pair
San Tropez was a jazzy, plink-plonk also collaborated on Fearless, with its
piano doodle, while Seamus was a open G tuning, faint country vibe and a
drowsy two-minute blues workout climax featuring the Liverpool FC
notable only for the background barks crowd singing club anthem You’ll
of the titular collie (whom Gilmour was Never Walk Alone (an inclusion made

MUSIC MILESTONES
An Empty Stage
An avant garde concept leaves Live At
Pompeii limping home with a whimper.
W
ith Meddle complete, Pink Floyd’s Hard Day’s Night,” said Mason, “the idea
next move was to showcase the was appealing”). Maben duly negotiated
album with perhaps the most with Naples authorities to secure a six-day
leftfield concert film in rock history. shoot in October. On arrival, the lack of
Live At Pompeii was the brainchild of electricity left the band kicking their heels.
the British-born, Paris-based director “Adrian had lots of problems with red
Adrian Maben. In the summer of 1971, the tape,” Gilmour told Rolling Stone. “I think
filmmaker found himself in Pompeii, and we lost two or three days.”
was struck by the atmosphere of the Matters improved when the playing
2,000-year-old amphitheatre. “It was began with the group airing Meddle
strange,” he noted, “a huge, empty material including Echoes (split into two
amphitheatre with some echoing insect sections that bookend the film) and One
sounds and disappearing light.” Of These Days. The band were forced to
Inspired, Maben approached the band fly home with the shoot incomplete, and
with a pitch: a concert film with no although more footage was filmed in Paris
audience. “The main idea was to do a sort in 1972, the loss of several cans of film left
of anti-Woodstock film where there would Maben to deal with gaping holes and
be nobody present... it would mean as continuity errors (notably Wright’s beard,
much, if not more, than a million crowd,” which comes and goes).
he told a Russian Pink Floyd fansite. The Accordingly, when Live At Pompeii
band were intrigued (“At a time when premiered at the 1972 Edinburgh Film
MEDDLE
other rock films were either straight Festival, it was just 60 minutes long, and
concert footage or attempts to copy A garnered lukewarm reviews.
Pink Floyd performing blew similarly hot and cold. In Britain,

Echoes in the
it reached a very respectable UK
appropriately
Number 3 chart placing, but across the
astmospheric surrounds
of the Royaumont Abbey Atlantic in the States, the band blamed
the “old-fashioned” Capitol label for
failing to work the record to its full
potential, and saw it stall at a

shockingly low US Number 70.
The music press were likewise
divided, with NME declaring the album
“exceptionally good” and Rolling Stone
noting that “[Meddle] states forcefully
and accurately that the group is well
into the growth track again” – while a
more lack lustre review from the
Melody Maker dismissed it as
more incongruous by the fact the “Possibly the most interesting thing “muddled” and featuring berated
bassist was an Arsenal fan). about One Of These Days” wrote the “vocals that verge on the drippy and
Opening the album, meanwhile, drummer in retrospect, “is that it instrumental workouts that are
One Of These Days was the closest actually stars myself as vocalist, for decidedly old-hat”.
touchstone to the Floyd of old, the first time on any of our records Nobody would claim that Meddle
featuring a tooth-rattling Dr Who- that actually got to the public. It’s a was the finished article. Rather, this
style bassline played by both Waters rather startling performance involving album was an emphatic line in the
and Gilmour, a swirled organ the use of a high voice and slowed- sand after Syd Barrett’s tenure, a
soundscape and a sinister robotic voice down tape.” signpost towards the band’s dazzling
that threatened to “cut you into little future, and the bridge that led to 1973’s
pieces”. Amusingly, this was supplied WINDS OF CHANGE The Dark Side Of The Moon. Pink Floyd
by the mild-mannered Mason – If Meddle’s content was something of a might have started the decade on the
nevertheless it still has a somewhat curate’s egg, then critical reaction to ropes – but they were about to come
sinister ring to it. the album on its October 1971 release back swinging.

PINK FLOYD
Studio Strawberry Studios, Château d’Hérouville

Producer Pink Floyd
Released 1972
Obscured By Clouds
A coherent, underrated album to accompany the film La Vallée.
M
eddle and Obscured By Clouds hold an Then everything slows. Wot’s... Uh The Deal? shows Waters
interesting place in the Pink Floyd canon. beginning to look outside himself for meaning. Yes, you
Emerging just about unscathed from their might have fun now but what are the consequences? It’s not
experimental phase (Atom Heart Mother and a word often used by rock stars. Sung by Gilmour,
OBSCURED BY CLOUDS
Ummagumma), there are signs in both of the self-harmonising, it provides an acoustic and
impending greatness just around the corner. meaningful slide into the side’s closer, Mudmen.
One of the criticisms of Obscured By Clouds is that, unlike its Childhood’s End is a rarity. A Pink Floyd song, with
predecessor, it has no ‘stand-out’ tracks. Albums don’t words, entirely composed by Gilmour. Recognising
always need stand-out tracks. An album needs to work as a one’s strengths is a talent. So often content to let
whole, as a complete piece in itself. And in 1972, Pink Floyd his bandmate (or later, wife) get the quill out,
were just beginning to realise that. Gilmour wrote this near classic Floyd after reading Arthur C
Clarke’s novel of the same name.
The title song gets us underway. A sonic melange from the
heads and hands of Roger Waters and David Gilmour. The Despite a jaunty feel, Free Four is perhaps Waters’ most
mood is dark, the rude fuzz of the band’s beloved EMS VCS3 serious lyric to date, and arguably the earliest nod to where
synth holding each note for five or six seconds before Pink Floyd would find themselves for the next decade.
moving on. Gilmour’s slide guitar sounds angry as it pierces Despair with the music business? Sadness at his father’s
the electronic haze. death in the Second World War? Both topics – so familiar to
Floyd fans in 2016 – are put up for discussion here. You
Track 2, When You’re In, grows out of Obscured By Clouds. might not notice given Waters’ happy-ish vocal and
As brutally as the synth dominated before, so this time Gilmour’s piercing solo, but the breadcrumbs are here.
Gilmour’s persistent guitar does. Peppered with flute-like
Hammond notes from Richard Wright, this second Given it’s written by Waters and Wright, penultimate track
instrumental is heavy, cymbals high in the mix, and Stay is very similar to the sound Gilmour would employ in
mesmeric and threatening. parts of his first solo album a decade later. Another
introspective lyric, this time about the moral complexities of
Oddly, considering the now prehistoric keyboard tech on casual sex, gives an indication of Waters’ confidence
show, it’s largely Mason’s contributions that stand the test of exploring the things that matter to him, even if it seems less
time least well. It’s not how he plays but the way percussion important to us.
and cymbals were recorded a lifetime ago seems so gauche
now. Maybe it’s just because we’re used to saturated effects There’s a reason Obscured By Clouds sounds more like a
these days. Burning Bridges is a case in point. Mason’s not complete ‘album’ than Meddle and that’s because it was
entirely helped by the vocal arrangement on this bluesy initially conceived as the soundtrack to Barbet Schroeder’s
number. Gilmour and Wright each take turns with Roger film La Vallée. Which, of course, explains the presence of
Waters’ lyrics in a way that bands just don’t these days. New Guinea’s Mapuga tribe who close proceedings. Recorded
for the movie, the tribe’s a cappella chants fade into
Track 4, The Gold It’s In The… consigns Wright and his Absolutely Curtains, a Rick Wright heavy number that
electronica to the rehearsal room and ploughs ahead, heavy unfortunately draws as much on his own Sysyphus Part I
and mean. The feel of the song, the upbeat tempo, the high from Ummagumma as ancient cultures.
and, yes, bouncy melody all sing of Lynyrd Skynyrd at their
peak, yet all done with a British glint in the eye. Jeff Hudson

MUSIC MILESTONES
OBSCURED BY CLOUDS
By Roy Delaney
Into La Vallée
Three years after Pink Floyd’s soundtrack for More, director
Barbet Schroeder approached the band for another. This time he
found a band in the middle of a project that would launch them
into the musical stratosphere, and beyond.

PINK FLOYD
Pink Floyd on the brink of mega

stardom. (From left) Roger
Waters, Richard Wright, Nick
Mason, Dave Gilmour
hen French-based film
W
director Barbet
Schroeder wanted
somebody to compose a
soundtrack for his
second feature-length
movie, his first impulse was to track
down the people responsible for the
music from his first. But three years
after his debut, More, his original
scorers had grown from the slightly
shell-shocked post-Syd
experimentalists into a confident
group of men at the height of their
creative powers. It showed in the way
that the music was produced and the
PHOTO: REDFERNS/GET T Y IMAGES
way things turned out in its immediate

aftermath. This was 1972 and Pink
Floyd were smack in the middle of

MUSIC MILESTONES
making what would become

their masterwork: The Dark Side
Of The Moon.
HITTING THE MOTHER LODE

Schroeder’s film told the story of a
middle-class western European
innocent on a voyage to an exotic land
for self-discovery, but by this point the
Floyd had already travelled this path,
and knew exactly who they were.
They’d found their feet with More
(1969) and experimented live with the
more out-there sounds of
Ummagumma (1969). They’d begun to
hone their sound by Atom Heart
Mother (1970) and then distilled it
PHOTO: JEAN-CLAUDE DEUTSCH/PARIS MATCH VIA GET T Y IMAGES

further with Meddle (1971). With
Dark Side conceptually in the bag, the
band were at a creative peak and
Schroeder had, quite by chance, hit the
mother lode, but he possibly wasn’t
prepared for quite how difficult things
Nick Mason in 1972 at would become.
La Salle Vallier, Marseille, France
It is clear after even a cursory listen
OBSCURED BY CLOUDS
that Obscured By Clouds is a much

more mature piece of work than More.
It holds its own as an album much
Tribal Screen
Obscured By Clouds aka La Vallée: the soundtrack for an obscure 60s film.
L
a Vallée, for which Obscured By Clouds was feathers of an incredibly rare bird that lives deep Things in paradise are never as idyllic as they
the soundtrack, explored many of the same in the heart of a particular forest. seem and the more they work their way into the
themes of director Barbet Schroeder’s earlier These hippies are on an altogether different tribe’s lives, the more unsettling things become.
work, but expanded into a more existential plane. quest and they plunge themselves into the very Amid the scenes of tribal dancing and mud-
In La Vallée, we follow an innocent but slightly heart of the last unexplored place on the planet to masked men, are harrowing depictions of a brutal
uptight Western European on a journey of discover paradise by assimilating the ways of the lifestyle: be sure to turn away if it looks like the
self-discovery. Viviane is the wife of the French local tribes. locals fancy a bit of pork for dinner. While it’s an
consul in Melbourne who has a penchant for And so it is that Viviane’s mundane existence often sparse and dated piece of work with only
exotic feathers. in Australia quickly turns into a whirl of sex and scant suggestions of Floyd’s work on the
After a chance meeting with some hippy strangeness when the group meet up with the soundtrack, it’s a period piece and worth a look if
travellers, she decides to follow them to a remote Mapuga tribe, one of the most isolated peoples you’ve got a strong stomach for gory scenes and
part of Papua New Guinea to track down the on the planet. stilted dialogue.

PINK FLOYD
Roger Waters on vocal

duties onstage in 1972
more than their previous soundtrack.

Notably, the band had a massive fall
out with the film’s producers, which
led to them erasing all references to
the film’s original title La Vallée and
changing it to Obscured By Clouds, a
nod to the hidden, mystical valley at
the heart of Schroeder’s film.
Nick Mason has said that the
sessions in France were often much
more hurried than they would be for a
more formal Floyd album, but don’t let
that make you think that this is going
to be a patchy affair cut from the same
cloth as More. Here, each piece stands
on its own, but also folds neatly into
the next to create a greater whole,
which comes in stark contrast to
More’s less frequent gems in a sea of
fragments and noodling.
The band took a pragmatic approach
to composing the score. Watching a
rough director’s cut of the film, they
noted down the timings of key events
and used them as cues for adding
musical highs and lows as the film
progressed. They also remembered
Schroeder’s naturalistic approach to
music in his films and how he
preferred it to appear only in real world

situations, such as clubs, shops or car
radios. Observers suspected that a few
of Floyd’s pieces for More were placed
out of composition order: the track
Ibiza Bar, for example, is positioned
during a party in Paris long before the
protagonist ever gets to the Spanish
island. Much of the work on Obscured
is more loose and fluid, and possibly
ambiguously pitched in order that it
“A POTENTIALLY PROBLEMATIC ALBUM
could be placed at any point across the
movie. Another complication is that
TURNED OUT TO BE ONE OF PINK FLOYD’S
the film is based in a remote valley in MOST ENGAGING AND UNDERRATED
Papua New Guinea, so that the chances
of stumbling across any radios or hippy WORKS... THIS ALBUM IS DISARMING”
parties so deep into the jungle would
be scarce.
Ultimately, what could have been a
problematic album for a band in the about the More soundtrack release,
midst of a massive escalation of fame these are generally more solid pieces,
turned out to be one of their most designed for Schroeder to pick and
engaging and underrated works. From choose from as they faded in and out of
the deep, dark throb of the titular specific passages from the film.
opener, this album is disarming. After With barely a weak track on the
its slow, rasping build, its nodding whole album, it’s the songs that really
metronomic pace is reminiscent of stand out on Obscured. Burning
Krautrock masters Can or the motorik Bridges offers the laid-back style
sounds of Neu! before Gilmour’s evident on much of Dark Side but with
familiar scratchy blues guitar licks Gilmour and Wright’s dual vocal
come rolling in to wrench you back into to-and-froing offering a strange,
the world of Floyd, quickly kicking into unsettling quality (if you like the
the more urgent When You’re In. In melody of this song it turns up again in
contrast to the short excerpts scattered three songs’ time with a different time

MUSIC MILESTONES
PHOTO: JOHN LYNN KIRK /REDFERNS/GET T Y IMAGES

Strawberry Studios
Home to Pink Floyd during the recording of Obscured.
F
or their first sole foray to a foreign many monster albums such as David
recording studio, Pink Floyd Bowie’s Pin Ups and Low, Gong’s
decamped to the famous Camembert Electrique, Iggy Pop’s The
Strawberry Studios at the Château Idiot, Rainbow’s Long Live Rock ’n’ Roll
d’Hérouville in France. and even, somewhat surprisingly, Sham
Located in the tiny village of Hérouville 69’s The Adventures Of The Hersham
out beyond the edge of the furthest Boys. Other stellar acts that passed
North Western suburbs of Paris, this through its doors included T Rex, Jethro
30-roomed mansion, built in 1740, was Tull, The Bee Gees, MC5, Joan
once painted by Van Gough and was for Armatrading, Uriah Heep, Fleetwood
a while the home of the composer Mac, Sweet and many more famous
Frédéric Chopin. After a fire in 1969 the artists and musicians.
then-owner – Oscar-nominated After Michel Magne’s death in 1984,
composer Michel Magne – converted it the studio, as well as the mansion that
into a recording studio that would soon housed it, fell into terrible disrepair, and it
become a must-visit haunt for a whole is only in the last few years that work has
generation of the world’s most important begun on renovating this fabulous, The Floyd performing in
rock and pop stars. historic building. A team of dedicated
Kent State University,
Ohio in March 1973
Dubbed the Honky Château by Elton restorers are beavering away on the
John (who often recorded there and Château as we speak, hoping to bring it
named his 1972 album after it), back to its former glory and reopen the
Strawberry Studios was the source of studios before the end of 2016.
OBSCURED BY CLOUDS
signature in the instrumental with the rock ’n’ roll life, and reprises
Mudmen). Later, The Gold It’s In The… the motif of his lost father. It has often
gives us a more standard bar room rock been posited that this is the sour egg

workout, eschewing Wright’s that eventually hatched into The Wall
keyboards for a rollicking guitar and at the decade’s end; indeed, you can see
bass stomper, while the prowling the early themes of Waters’ grand and
Childhood’s End, written after he’d personal work begin to incubate within
read an Arthur C Clarke novel of the the cracked shell of this song.
same name, was the last entirely
Gilmour-penned song until A WHAT’S IN A NAME?
Momentary Lapse Of Reason some 15 As with most Pink Floyd records, the
years later. track titles in Obscured By Clouds have
But it is the album’s principal caused much discussion and debate Dave Gilmour honing the tracks on Obscured
single, Free Four that gains the most among fans of the band. While it’s as he performs onstage in London in 1972
plaudits from this collection. Despite clear that some like Burning Bridges,
its plinky-plonky fun-time swing, its Mudmen and Stay have clear links to
sarcastic lyric offers us the first occurrences within the movie, others
glimpses of Waters’ dissatisfaction are perhaps a little more obscure. Many
Fifteen months
in the life of a
rock ’n’ roll star...
Look at Pink Floyd’s hectic
70s schedule and you’ll
17 FEBRUARY 1972
wonder how they ever found
Preview songs 23-29 FEBRUARY 1972
the time to record an obscure 20 JANUARY 1972 from The Dark First recording
soundtrack album. No DECEMBER 1971 Debut first material Side Of The Moon session of Obscured
wonder Waters was getting Begin writing from The Dark Side to the press at By Clouds at
tired of the rock ’n’ roll life… The Dark Side Of The Moon at The Rainbow Strawberry Studios
Of The Moon Brighton Dome Theatre, London France

PINK FLOYD
(L-R) David Gilmour, Nick Mason, Roger
Waters and Richard Wright, circa 1972
“WOT’S… UH THE DEAL L IS A interim album between the much-

liked Meddle and the band’s
JOKE, REFERRING TO PHRASES stratospheric opus, The Dark Side Of
The Moon, some nine months later.
UTTERED D BY THEIR CRE
EW Despite their set-to with the film’s
makers, there were still some early
MEMBER CHRIS ADAMSON”
D editions released entitled either La
Vallée, or anglicised to The Valley.
Track these down and you’ll make an
avid collector a very happy human.
have proposed deep and cosmic Adamson. Whatever the real reason, Indeed, so much had Pink Floyd’s stock
explanations, but popular myth they add just a little bit more mystery risen that the film’s production
suggests that it’s all a little more to ever-growing tales that make up the company eventually retitled the movie
PHOTO: BINDER/ULLSTEIN BILD; KOH HASEBE/SHINKO MUSIC; JOHN LYNN KIRK /REDFERNS; MICHAEL PUTLAND/ALL GET T Y IMAGES
prosaic and that both When You’re In Pink Floyd legend. La Vallée (Obscured By Clouds) to cash
and Wot’s… Uh The Deal are Despite being a hastily put-together in on Floyd’s post Dark Side Of The
inscrutable in-band jokes, referring to collection of songs that was interrupted Moon success. A strange and corporate
regular phrases uttered by their by a Japanese tour, Obscured By Clouds footnote to one of the band’s often
larger-than-life crew member Chris ended up being a reasonably successful overlooked collections.
JANUARY 1973
MAY-JUNE 1972 The second
First recording recording
23 MARCH-6 APRIL 1972 sessions of The 2 JUNE 1972 sessions of The
Second recording Dark Side Of The The album Dark Side Of 1 MARCH 1973
session of Obscured By Moon at Abbey Obscured The Moon at The Dark Side
6-13 MARCH 1972 Clouds at Strawberry 14 APRIL-4 MAY 1972 Road Studios, By Clouds Abbey Road Of The Moon
Japanese tour Studios France American tour London released Studios, London released

MUSIC MILESTONES
Studio Abbey Road Studios, London

Producer Alan Parsons
Released 1973
The Dark Side Of The Moon

A perfectly-formed slice of Floyd as the quartet reach their peak.
T
he eighth album by Pink Floyd is the second about death, madness and history of violence. The first
best-selling album of all time. Even the iconic words heard on Dark Side are: “I’ve been mad for fucking
prism cover is cited as one of the best of all time. years”, uttered by Floyd roadie, Chris Adamson, setting the
THE DARK SIDE OF THE MOON
Every way you look at it, this is an important tone for what lies ahead.
album. But the most important fact of all is that
nobody saw it coming. Gimmickry is nothing without artistry. Fortunately, the
songs on Dark Side are more than able to take the weight.
Buoyed by Meddle, the band entered discussions about their The surprisingly melodious medley of ringing alarm clocks
next project with enthusiasm. It was Waters who came up (courtesy of producer Alan Parsons) that segues into Mason’s
with the notion of writing a ‘concept’ album settling on the careful drum intro on Time still stands the test of – well –
idea of things that make people ‘mad’. Time, money, modern time. Waters’ lyrics speak of not seizing the day until it’s too
life in general. In 1972 Pink Floyd were a proper team. They late. The last song that would ever feature writing credits
were writing again, often in the same room, and when the from all four, it genuinely feels like a collaboration. Gilmour
shoots of a new album started to show, they developed them delivers the verse vocal with Wright handling the bridge,
as a unit in a rehearsal room before taking the whole backed by Gilmour and female session singers. At 3:30 Dave
collection, then entitled The Dark Side Of The Moon – A steps away from the mic for a part-blistering, part-
Piece For Assorted Lunatics on tour – months before languorous 90-second solo, second probably only to his
committing any of it to tape. The band went on to record and offering on Comfortably Numb in feel, range and power. The
release Obscured By Clouds, intended as the soundtrack to a sound is nigh on epic. When the song drifts seamlessly into
film called La Vallée before Dark Side was even finished. a reprise of Breathe, it’s almost a relief.
Dark Side’s idea was that each track would meld into the Money is a Waters-only composition and his bass is duly
next to create two long sections. With its pulsing synthesizer prominent for the opening rhythm but when the song gets
riff (created by Gilmour) and taped airport tannoy going, it’s Gilmour's playing that drives it along. As well as
announcement, On The Run sits boldly between the strained lead vocals, he throws in a solo that reaches notes
late-night blues club feel of Breathe and the standout rocker so high it required a four-octave range Lewis guitar to
of the album, Time. Any Colour You Like holds the same achieve it. But Gilmour isn’t the only soloist on show.
position on side two, this time easing listeners from the end Saxophone player Dick Parry lets rip mid song before the
of the ‘Gilmour’ section of vocals into two songs written and swinging blues section takes over, continuing into Us And
sung by Waters: Brain Damage and Eclipse. It’s a remarkably Them, this time with a more laidback vibe, mirroring
well-constructed, well-conceived album. Gilmour’s vocal throughout.
PHOTO: MICHAEL OCHS ARVIVES/GET T Y IMAGES
Nowhere is the blueprint of Dark Side more evident than in With the swirls of Wright’s Hammond prominent
its pioneering use of effects and samples. Speak To Me, the throughout the album, this really is a piece of work that
album’s opener, is itself effectively a mini highlights highlights every aspect of a band at the height of their
package of the rest of the album condensed into one minute powers. And, yes, that includes Waters’ then nascent
and seven seconds. Beginning with a heartbeat (featured obsessions with mortality and mental health. From concept
again to close the album on Eclipse), we get a ticking clock to execution it’s Floyd working as the perfect machine while
(from Time) before manic laughter (Brain Damage), an other albums feel disjointed and argue-some. As an album
old-fashioned cash register (Money) and a helicopter (On The The Dark Side Of The Moon has it all.
Run). And then there are the voices. Waters taped various
people, friends and Abbey Road staff, answering questions Jeff Hudson

PINK FLOYD
From the archives: A Pink
Floyd publicity photo
circa 1973

MUSIC MILESTONES
By Jeff Hudson
Let There
Be Dark
Before 1973, Pink Floyd’s highest album position in the US charts was
55 for Atomm Heart Motherr and they never sold more than 250,000
copies of that album. That all changed dramatically with The Dark
Side Of The Moon, a masterpiece as timeless as it is sublime.
adness, loneliness and the the intro of Speak To Me through to the architecture students, there was a
M
passage of time are just a fade-out of Eclipse. This is a record with looseness to the way the Floyd did
few of the themes dealt a life of its own. This, after all, is the business in those early days that belies
with on The Dark Side Of album that has sold 45 million copies, the sluggish, corporate-like moves the
The Moon, a compelling spent an absurd 741 weeks in the US band made in subsequent years. In
masterpiece that remains Billboard charts without a break and truth, there was no masterplan. As
as potent and enduring today as the was owned by every one-in-five perfect as many people think it is, Dark
day it was first released. The profound households in the UK. This is the first Side did not mark the apogee of some
mental problems experienced by the album to be played in space. This is the meticulously plotted career path.
band’s former creative force Syd Barrett biggest-selling album by a British Pre-1973, they had never sold more
fuelled Roger Waters’ idea for an album band. Ever. For musicians, their fans, than 250,000 copies of any album or
that dealt with the things that “make and the industry itself, things would reached higher in the US charts than
people mad” , while focusing on the never be the same after 24 March 1973. Atom Heart Mother’s lowly 55, but that
pressures resulting from the band’s never seemed to be a problem, at least
arduous lifestyle. Tellingly, Pink Floyd’s CREATION OF A CLASSIC not to the band. Dark Side was not a
greatest album, was the last record on Despite half the band (Waters, Mason cynical stab at commercial salvation.
which the band collaborated on equal and, for a few terms, Wright) being The reality is that the album’s creation
terms with each other. “It felt like the
whole band were working together,”
recalled Rick Wright, “It was a creative
time. We were all very… open.”
Readers too young to remember the
“IT FELT LIKE THE WHOLE BAND WERE
original release of The Dark Side Of The WORKING TOGETHER. IT WAS A CREATIVE
Moon in March 1973 will still be aware
of it. Chances are, they’ll probably even TIME. WE WERE ALL VERY… OPEN”
Rick Wright
own it. It’s that kind of album. Listen
to the pulsing heartbeat running from

PINK FLOYD
Roger Waters
performs The Dark
Side Of The Moon on
stage during a
concert in France
PHOTO: NIK WHEELER/SYGMA VIA GET T Y IMAGES

MUSIC MILESTONES
Track By Track
The inside track to the musical intricacies of a masterpiece….
SPEAK TO ME BREATHE (IN THE AIR) ON THE RUN TIME
The creeping introduction of The languorous chord Emerging from one of the Recorded during the first
the pounding heartbeat was progression of Breathe finally album’s many smooth studio stint, on 8 June 1972.
lifted from the band’s bursts out of a crescendo of crossfades (achieved Parsons added the alarm
contribution to the Zabriskie screams and backwards manually with two tape clock sequence, which he
Point soundtrack in 1970. sounds. David Gilmour’s machines). On The Run is had just recorded for a
Fading in from a deep, arpeggiated Em-A vamp is built largely with sounds quadrophonic sound demo.
resonant heartbeat it seems an archetypal Pink Floyd from the EMS VCS3 synth. The heartbeat is Mason’s
to suggest a baby’s first moment. Two of Gilmour’s The ‘train’ sound is feedback bass drum.
bleary impressions of the long-term fascinations are from David Gilmour, then a Gilmour’s guitar tone is
brash, cynical world. here: the Leslie rotating number of sound effects biting and spiky, creating a
Credited to Mason, although speaker on the rhythm guitar were added from both the marked contrast between
SIDE A
written by Waters, the title and the gently swooping Abbey Road sound archive the A section and the
came from the album’s pedal steel (although Roger and the stack of vox pops smoother B section. The
engineer Alan Parson’s Waters has claimed that this that Roger Waters recorded. track ends with a smooth
oft-repeated control is an open-tuned The Travel Section is a reprise into Breathe so
booth instruction. Stratocaster played with a VCS3-based assembly with smooth, in fact, that you can
Featuring a vari-speeded slide). This is a song about footsteps added by Parsons, easily fail to notice the
clock lifted from Time, a trying to be true to yourself, and words from Roger The sudden switch to Emin
scream from The Great Gig constructed during the Hat. Gilmour, backed up by where the B section in Time
In The Sky and spoken parts. Broadhurst Gardens Parsons, says he first usually ends on E major. This
“I’ve been mad for fucking sessions by Waters, Gilmour managed to get notes from track was originally the final
years” from road manager and Wright. Gilmour’s vocals the synth, which Waters then verse of the main Breathe
Chris Adamson, and “I’ve are double-tracked for fuller replaced. Waters says that it but was placed after Time
always been mad” from effect and he provides his was he who first elicited during gigs immediately prior
doorman Jerry Driscoll. harmonies. meaningful sound from it. to the recording sessions.
1 2 3 4
TRACK
6 7 8 9
MONEY US AND THEM ANY COLOUR YOU LIKE BRAIN DAMAGE

Waters came up with the Richard Wright had recorded This is the only track by Pink The Lunatic Song, to give it
unusual 7/8 bassline at an earlier, instrumental Floyd written by Gilmour, its early title, was written by
Broadhurst Gardens and version in 1970, which was Mason and Wright without Waters about Syd Barrett
later added the cash register submitted (but ultimately Waters. Yet again, the VCS3 and Cambridge. The opening
effects after recording coins rejected) for the cult film is dominant, supported this lines were taken from a song
and money thrown into his Zabriskie Point. time by Gilmour’s Univibe- Waters wrote for Meddle
wife’s industrial food mixer. Recorded on 1st June enhanced guitar parts, one called – appropriately
Released as a US single, 1972, the band’s first day in with more overdrive than the enough – The Dark Side Of
it reached No 13 and, at gigs, the studio, Jerry Driscoll, Mr other and panned to The Moon. It was never
people started screaming for and Mrs Pete Watts and opposite sides of the stereo recorded. The ‘grass’ is the
‘the hit’. The basic track was Roger The Hat add spoken spectrum. The final title square in between the River
SIDE B
recorded on 7 June 1972 parts, the latter saying: refers to Henry Ford’s Model Cam and King’s College
recording tremelo guitar, “short, sharp, shock”. Wings T claim: “You can have it any Chapel. Once again, Gilmour
bass, drums and a Wurlitzer guitarist Henry McCullogh colour you like, so long as plays Leslie’d guitar over a
through a wah-wah. All at memorably admits, “I don’t it’s black”. backing of a VCS3, the
various speeds. know, I was drunk at the Gilmour claims to have recurring heartbeat and full
David Gilmour’s old friend time,” in response to the lifted his guitar sound from band. Jerry Driscoll talks
Dick Parry plays sax which question, ”were you in the Eric Clapton’s Leslie speaker about being mad, Pete Watts
Gilmour follows with three right to thump that person sound from Badge. Initially laughs, Waters sings.
distinctly different guitar on New Year’s Eve?” The big sounding like an extended
solos over a more standard star of the track is Dick ending to Us And Them, this
4/4 backing. Thus creating Parry, whose sax solo is a track marks a return to that
perhaps the prime example lesson in subtle melodicism. two-chord Dorian vamp from
of his ability to play Breathe, but this time
screaming blues guitar. transposed to D minor.

PINK FLOYD
“THEY CAME IN AND SAID, ‘WE

DON’T LIKE THIS ONE, WE DON’T
LIKE THIS – WE’LL HAVE THAT
ONE’. THEY WERE ALL TOTALLY
UNANIMOUS” Storm Thorgerson
THE GREAT GIG IN THE SKY it and I thought to myself,
Jerry Driscoll and Puddy ‘What the hell do I do?’. I had
Watts give their thoughts on no idea. Somewhere in the
dying. The music was mostly back of my mind it crossed David Gilmour pictured at
laid down on 25 June 1972. quickly that perhaps I should a free concert in Hyde
Then on 21 January 1973, pretend that I was an Park, London, 31st
25-year-old session vocalist instrument. I don't really
August 1974
Clare Torry supplied three think they had any more
hours of improvised vocals, idea than I had, It was just
replacing Bible readings and an experiment.”
a Malcolm Muggeridge The results were a hugely
speech, which had featured emotive wail that elevated
in the live version. Torry was the track to new heights.
working as a staff songwriter Torry recorded three
for EMI. Not a particular fan versions and the final version
of Pink Floyd she had other was assembled from those
PHOTO: GET T Y IMAGES

commitments for the takes. The band members
evening, including, she later were so reserved in their
admitted, tickets to see response that she left under
Chuck Berry. So a session the impression that her
was scheduled for the vocals would never make the
following Sunday. cut. She only became aware
“I think they thought, they were used when she
‘Well maybe we should have saw the album at a local
a vocal on it and we'll see record store and spotted her
how it goes’. So I listened to name in the credits.
5
10
ECLIPSE the uplifting lyrics of this had less to do with releasing a record Tunes aside, Waters’ greatest input
Another Waters vocal (with album closer. than with putting on a better live show. came in the concept of the album –
Gilmour harmonising), he Notice how Gilmour’s With criticisms from outside and literally. Rather than a collection of
wrote this song specifically double-tracked Leslie guitar within that their legendary good but disjointed songs, this would
to ‘end’ the album. doesn’t stick to the same performances were getting stale, the become a continuous suite of music,
Comprising of his standard chord shapes throughout, band were conscious of making their similar to their earlier whole-sided
‘list’ lyric formats, it is moving instead to higher 1972 British tour something to experiments, but this time with a
intended to leave listeners in inversions, so the guitar remember. And what could be more lyrical as well as musical consistency.
an upbeat mood. Jerry doesn’t get lost among those memorable than new material? The theme would be the pressures of
Driscoll states: “There is no huge, swirling organ chords. At the end of November 1971, modern life: violence, religion, love,
dark side of the moon. As a As the last chord fades to having finished a US tour, Pink Floyd death, old age, greed, travel and, above
matter of fact, it’s all dark.” reveal the heartbeat, which descended on Broadhurst Gardens all, insanity. The songs would run into
(His further observation that started the album, sit back studios in West Hampstead, London, to each other, there would be linking
“The thing that makes it and reflect – you’ve just work through new songs for their first effects and for continuity’s sake,
look alight is the sun” was listened to one of the finest meaningful UK dates in four years Waters would for the first time write all
not used.) The heartbeat albums in rock history. Now starting on 20 January. Wright dusted the lyrics. Their first concept album.
closes the album, just as press ‘play’ again… down a piece he had written (and had Having the album virtually written
it introduced it. rejected) for Michelangelo Antonioni’s by the start of 1972 and getting it
The previous track, Zabriskie Point soundtrack, and recorded were two very different
including Gilmour’s steady, another chord sequence that had been things. For a start, there was the
even arpeggio playing, around for a while. The world would British tour, which took them to the
segues into Eclipse, but with later know each as Us And Them and end of February. Then came the gigs in
the repeating chord The Great Gig In The Sky. Waters, Japan, Australia, the US, Holland and
progression (D, D/C, B b , A) meanwhile, knocked into shape an Germany, all of which took them up to
adding a mantra-like quality instrumental he had supplied to a the end of May. There was the small
that perfectly complements documentary called The Body. With matter of work on their film Live At
words, it became Breathe. Pompeii – which features eye-opening

MUSIC MILESTONES
Pink Floyd on Stage in France

in 1973 with Chinese autocrat
Mao Tse-tung keeping watch
“I’VE NEVER HAD FAST FINGERS AND THE Careful With That Axe, Eugene,
Obscured By Clouds, When You’re In
CO-ORDINATION BETWEEN LEFT AND and Echoes.

A further 11 studio days in January
RIGHT HAND IS NOT GREAT. I HAVE TO and February 1973, which were fitted
around touring, and that was it. Fifteen
RELY ON EFFECTS, FUZZBOXES… months after they had first sat in
Broadhurst Gardens and eight months
ANYTHING LIKE THAT” David Gilmour after their first studio date in June 1972,
The Dark Side Of The Moon was done.
Thirty eight days to make one of the
footage of the band developing Dark most significant albums in history.
Side. Even more pressing, a
commitment to record another INSPIRATION AND EFFECTS
soundtrack album, Obscured By Clouds Studio innovation had long been a
in March, and not a note for The Dark staple of the Floyd recording process by
Side Of The Moon would be recorded 1973. From each band member
until the band’s first day at Abbey Road contributing new material to Echoes in
studios on 1 June 1972. secret while the others stayed out of
After 23 days of work on the album the room, to the musique concrète
it was time to take a break. July and crockery cacophony of Alan’s

August came and went without a note Psychedelic Breakfast, their early
being played. September was devoted albums were abundant with fresh ideas
to another US tour. Twelve studio days that grasped whatever new technical
were squeezed in for October (they mantle the 1970’s studio thrust at
turned up for nine), then another them. The new album would be the
European tour was followed by the same, powered very much by the
band’s most bizarre diversion yet. technical know-how of producer/
Having agreed to write music for engineer Alan Parsons. “The Floyd
choreographer Roland Petit’s ballet, the were famous for using every machine
David Gilmour on stage in France avéc his Floyd were soon struck by the lack of in the studio,” he writes.
famous ‘black (Fender) strat(ocaster)’
impetus by the project’s leading lights, The new VCS3 synth (used
Petit, Roman Polanski and Rudolf previously on The Who’s Baba O’Reily)
Nureyev. In the end they played a became a highlight of the album after
series of shows backing dancers to Gilmour met the machine’s inventor at
arrangements of One Of These Days, his home, became a fan of his creation

PINK FLOYD
All That You See

Few covers have attained the iconic
status as Storm Thorgerson’s gatefold
for The Dark Sidde Of The Moon.
A
s a starting point Storm Thorgerson of design team
Hipgnosis called Rick Wright. “When I asked him what he
thought we ought to be doing he said, ‘Well not one of your
pictures.’ He wanted something cool and graphic and
iconographic, rather than the pictures we’d used before – which
were full-blooded, figurative, full of tonality, even those that were
a bit obscure, like Meddle or the cow. Rick was suggesting we
had something cleaner.”
Fortunately, Storm had one or two ideas. “A bit like a musician
might have pieces of works, chord sequences or ideas that they
don’t know what to do with, I have various fragments of work
lying around,” he said. “The prism was a re occurrence of an idea
I had explored previously, although in a different way, for a record
label called Clearlight, which was being formed by a company
called Charisma. In the end they chose a different image so I was
free to use it again.”
Not without change, however. “I had seen the prism in a
physics text book, I think, and I thought it could be used,” he
said. “I saw that the diagram is always on white, so for Pink Floyd
I put it against black. In a way it was more about art directing
because all I’ve really done is taken what is basically a text book
and insisted on experimenting with it diagram, something that belongs to everybody and applied it to
in the studio. Modestly, he puts his this project. Apart from changing the background to black, which
curiosity down to his own lack of I think was the crucial bit, I bent the light angles a little so they
ability. “I’ve never had fast fingers,” he looked better. Also, because the four-colour process under which
recalled,” and the co-ordination sleeves were printed at that time might not have been able to
between left and right hand is not distinguish between indigo and violet, we dropped indigo. It
great, so I have to rely on other things didn’t seem to make any difference and no one noticed. No one
– effects, fuzz boxes… Anything like came up to us and said, ‘Oh, you haven’t got seven colours…’.
that I can lay my hands on.” “We took about seven ideas, including the prism to Abbey
Equally unconventionally, it was not Road and showed them to the band in some shabby, downstairs
uncommon for tape to be strung back room. We carefully put up all our presentation boards, then
around the studio, then hand-fed into they came in and said, ‘We don’t like this one, we don’t like this
the Studer recorder to gain various – we’ll have that one’. They were all totally unanimous and they
delay or echo effects. A mic’d-up walked out. It took about three minutes. I was actually trying to
metronome served as a click-track and make them come back and look at the others, because we’d
vibrato effects were occasionally worked quite hard on them. But they just said, ‘We’re going
gained by manipulating the speed and upstairs to do our real job’. They argued about most things, so it
depth of an oscillator by hand was good that they all agreed on this.”
throughout a recording. At Waters’ suggestion, the artwork was adapted to tie in with
Perhaps the most obvious shot of the heartbeat on the record, which could then be utilised in the
inspiration, however, came again from stage shows. Two posters, stickers and the light spectrum
Waters. Devising a series of 20 running throughout the opened gatefold sleeve meant that this
questions – including: ‘What does the was, in all aspect, a package: sound and visuals in harmony.
dark side of moon mean to you?’; When Dark Side music was remastered for CD 20 years later, so
‘When was the last time you were was the artwork. Where once there was a line drawing (by
violent?’; and ‘Are you frightened of George Hardie), now there was an actual photograph of white
dying?’ – he recorded the answers of light refracting through a glass prism. “It worked a treat,” said
anyone who happened to be around at Storm. “All I had to do was bend the angles of the incoming and
Abbey Road – from the studio outgoing spectrum a little to match the first album.”
doorman, to the band’s road manager, Despite the omnipresence of The Dark Side Of The Moon and
to Paul McCartney. The results the multiple ways the sleeve has been broadcast over the
(although not McCartney’s) were then decades, Thorgerson said he did not tire of the album. “It’s a
woven very successfully into the final really good album,” he said. “One of the best three ever. It’s so
album. “I still glow with pleasure at nice to have tunes and rock and effects and freaky voices and
how well that worked,” Waters was really strong lyrical content – how often do you get that? In my
moved to recall. view, it’s as eminently playable now as it was then.”

MUSIC MILESTONES
Studio Abbey Road Studios, London

Producer Pink Floyd
Released 1975
Wish You Were Here

The sophisticated follow-up to Dark Side more than satisfied their salivating, awaiting fans .
W
hile Wish You Were is sometimes unfairly door opens. A factory machine humming like a mechanical
overlooked in relation to its predecessor, it is heartbeat. There’s applause and the heartbeat gets louder.
arguably a more assured and sophisticated
work. Certainly, its lyrical concept is more At this point, the album ceases to be about Barrett, but on
WISH YOU WERE HERE
clearly defined, focusing on Waters’ emotive the problems facing the band as whole – isolation, acrimony
tribute to his friend Sid Barrett, who famously between the members and their frustration at feeling part of
snuck unnoticed into the control room at Abbey Road a music industry production line, a theme explored in
Studios, while the band were recording Shine On You Crazy Welcome To The Machine. This is not just a rich man’s
Diamond – Waters’ poignant ode to him. diatribe at his bosses, it’s a statement from every artist who
has ever been told to change to make a profit. Sung by
Almost half the album’s playing time is taken up by Parts I Gilmour, the song melds space-age synth effects with
and II of Shine On and it’s the majestic instrumental acoustic guitar. The slow, casual pace suggests warmth and
introduction to Part I that starts the album and offers one of friendliness but the rhythm is relentless, evoking a
its most climactic and iconic moments. After almost four machine-like malevolence.
minutes of sparse, ethereal instrumentation, David
Gilmour’s guitar breaks in with a dynamic and emotive Welcome To The Machine slides into Have A Cigar, a scathing
four-note arpeggio of B b , F, G and E and really gets Shine On indictment of the control that record companies can exert on
You Crazy Diamond started. It’s haunting and unsettling, their artists. Every line, every bored observation ever uttered
and resonates as much today as it did in 1975. to the band from unnamed and clueless record company
executives is trotted out.
Shine On You Crazy Diamond works even before you learn
it’s a homage to Syd Barrett. The three-and-a-half minutes The theme of isolation is continued on song number four,
of synthesiser, Hammond organ and finger-rubbed wine the album’s title track. Another largely acoustic venture, and
glasses offer scene setting without compare. When David eminently memorable in every way, Gilmour sings it like a
Gilmour’s Black Strat finally arrives to hit that potent refrain man who has known suffering. He plays, as ever, like one
– coined ‘Syd’s theme’ by the band – you know you’re in the touched by angels. It couldn’t be more distinct from the
hands of a master. It’s welcoming, clear and true. And it layered constructs of Dark Side. After Waters’ inspiring vox
sends a shiver up the spine. pop interview recordings of roadies, doormen and studio
staff on their previous album, Floyd here take their samples
Post Dark Side you’d have put money on Gilmour doing far in a more highbrow direction. Wish You Were Here begins
more than just playing guitar. But Roger Water’s paean to with snatches of a Radio 4 play and a stab of Tchaikovsky as
Syd is so heartfelt, it makes complete sense that it’s he who the dial is spun on Gilmour’s car radio.
takes the vocal on this track. Does he cut it as well as
Gilmour would have? Technically, no. But his delivery is raw Back to Syd. The album closes, as it opens, with Shine On.
and imbued with meaning – and there’s plenty of Gilmour New time signatures, new words but the same meaning,
harmonising in the built-up backing sections. same emotive impact. Like Dark Side, the parts – all nine of
Shine On – don’t necessarily work on their own. But
Elsewhere, Richard Wright’s Mini-Moog and Dick Parry’s together? A song that manages one moment to bestride the
variety of saxophones get lengthy run-outs, via tempos both globe like a colossus then convey such a personal message is
swinging and funky, but always building. And then it stops. a rare thing indeed. Infinitely intimate yet it speaks to us all.
The Hammond dies, Parry fades away, he and Wright
fighting to be the last man standing, and there’s a click. A Neil Crossley & Jeff Hudson

PINK FLOYD
David Gilmour at the
Olympic Stadium in
Amsterdam, May 22 1972
PHOTO: GIJSBERT HANEKROOT/REDFERNS/GET T Y IMAGES

MUSIC MILESTONES
By Jeff Hudson
WISH YOU WERE HERE
Postcard
From The Edge Floyd’s album about absence still sounds, to this day, very present.
Wish You Were Here was a triumph yet it could so easily have
been a last hurrah for the band.
PHOTO BY MICHAEL OCHS ARCHIVES/GET T Y IMAGES

PINK FLOYD
n 1973 The Dark Side Of The Moon entirety, on tour. And two years after
I
had unexpectedly become not just its release the world was still waiting
big, but massive. While each for its follow-up.
member of Pink Floyd knew in
their bones it was the best thing AFTER GREATNESS COMES...
they’d ever done, as Nick Mason How do you follow creative perfection?
recalls: “There’s no way anyone felt it It’s a challenge that even the world’s
was five times as good as Meddle or finest artists need to consider at some
eight times as good as Atom Heart point during their careers: Bowie
Mother – but those were the figures it treading the Live Aid boards at
was selling at.” Wembley Stadium after Queen had
Two years after its release, the seared 17 of their finest minutes in the
album remained in both the UK and US band’s history. Dickie Henderson
charts. Two years after its release, the following The Beatles on stage at The
Floyd were still performing it, in its Royal Command Performance in 1963.
“[NO-ONE] FELT [WISH] WAS FIVE

TIMES AS GOOD AS MEDDLE OR EIGHT
TIMES AS GOOD AS ATOM HEART
MOTHER BUT THEY WERE THE FIGURES
IT WAS SELLING AT” Nick Mason

MUSIC MILESTONES
Roger Waters at the Knebworth Festival,
Knebworth House, Hertfordshire, July 5 1975
remained resolutely tried and tested. A

selection from Obscured By Clouds and
Meddle plus a couple of earlier songs
fitted around Dark Side performed in
its entirety. No experiments, no
surprises – just plenty of what an
increasingly clamouring public wanted.
When 1974’s French mini-tour
began in Paris on 18 June, however,
there were shoots of inspiration. Gone
were all but Echoes, One Of These Days
and Dark Side. Installed instead were
two new songs: Raving And Drooling
and Shine On You Crazy Diamond, a
song in nine parts. Come November
and the start of six weeks of British
venues, a third number, You Gotta Be
Crazy, was added to the first half of the

show. By the time the band began a
North American tour in Vancouver in
April 1975, there was a fourth: Have A
Cigar. Finally, 25 long months after
Dark Side’s release, it looked like Pink
Floyd were getting somewhere.
A FRIEND REMEMBERED
WISH YOU WERE HERE
Bands deal with success in different In other words, there’s no perfect In the event, of the four new songs
ways. Queen (again) arguably hit their template. But, whichever route Pink only Shine On and Have A Cigar made
apotheosis with 1975’s A Night At The Floyd decided to go down, there was the cut for what would become Pink
Opera. They followed it a year later one thing everyone could agree on: Floyd’s ninth studio album. (The other
with A Day At The Races – a more or they would need songs. Great ones, to two songs, re-written as Sheep and
less carbon copy, right down to the stand any chance of not being Dogs respectively, would appear
cover design (albeit on black rather swamped by expectation. reworked and re-paced on 1977’s
than white). Radiohead went the other Unfortunately, a year after Dark Side’s Animals instead). But by then a theme
way and challenged the millions of release, there remained a dearth of – of alienation, absence and
new fans wooed by the commercialism ideas in the camp. Always willing to abandonment – had emerged. Having
of OK Computer with Kid A, the first in trial new material onstage, throughout skirted around the topic of mental
a line of less dip-in-able offerings. 1973 Pink Floyd’s live set-lists illness on Dark Side, Roger Waters
Hello Old Friend

PHOTO: NICK HALE/HULTON ARCHIVE/GET T Y IMAGES
The lyrics of Wish You Were Here speak directly to an absent

friend, who actually turned up during the recording....
A
t first no-one recognised him. Roger Waters Syd was in no condition to pick up a guitar and
thought he was a friend of Dave Gilmour’s. add a few licks to Shine On or any of the other tracks.
Gilmour thought the overweight fellow clutching He sat at a desk, silently nodding along to the music,
the carrier bag must know Richard Wright or Nick occasionally leaping up to brush his teeth or other
Happier days: Rick Wright and Syd Barrett confer Mason. In the end, they were all correct. The man compulsive behaviours, oblivious to the fact that the
during rehearsals at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in 1967
with the shaved head, no eyebrows and dark, sunken lyrics Waters was singing were for – and about – him.
eyes was Syd Barrett. Syd had been nudged out of Floyd for a reason,
As cover designer Storm Thorgerson who was which was clear. But the timing, as Wright recalled,
there recalls, “Roger cried. David cried. I cried. will haunt the band forever. “It’s a bit disturbing. For
Everyone in the room did the same. It was the only him to pick the very day we want to start putting
human response.” vocals on a song about him is very strange.”

PINK FLOYD
Dave Gilmour at
the Los Angeles Sports
Arena in April 1975
Guitar
Great
Gilmour’s playing on
Shine On is sublime says
Neville Marten, editor
of Guitar Techniques.
A
t the start of Shine On, the ambience
holds you but very little actually
happens until that four-note guitar
arpeggio, which really kick-starts the

whole track. That it’s also the precursor to
some of the most majestic soloing ever on
record is the icing on an amazing cake.
What are Gilmour’s strengths on guitar?

David cites his sense of melody. I’d add
the ability to select the perfect tone for
each moment, and his innate ability to
compose great parts. There’s a
decided that the time was right to pay Sped up, slowed down and harmonised lot of musical vision in him.
proper homage to former bandmate into chords, these notes form the core
and team leader, Syd Barrett, whose of Part I. Can you hear influences?
exit from the band eight years earlier Played live in 1974, all parts ran into The Shadows’ Hank Marvin.
had come as a result of his each other. When the band entered You can hear it in his
psychological breakdown. Abbey Road Studios in January 1975 it melodicism, his love of echo
The lyrics of Shine On You Crazy was the intention to record it the same and fearlessness when playing
Diamond speak directly about him: way. Certainly that’s what Gilmour exposed, clean lines. Blues courses
‘Stranger’, ‘legend’, ‘martyr’ , ‘raver’
, ‘seer expected. It was to be, he assumed, through his style: Clapton and Hendrix.
of visions’, ‘painter’, ‘prisoner’ and, another Echoes or Atom Heart Mother,
tellingly, ‘piper’ were all hats he wore. a statement of a song spanning the Is he a spontaneous and instinctive
That Syd ‘reached for the secret too entire side of an LP. However, Waters player as well as being considered?
Most definitely! David’s mix of melody and
“THE LYRICS OF SHINE ON SPOKE blues means he’s most happy to use the
underlying chords over which to create
OF SYD: ‘STRANGER’ , ‘LEGEND’
, something spontaneous, but that sounds
composed. A fantastic skill!
‘MARTYR’ , ‘RAVER’
, ‘SEER OF
VISIONS’
, ‘PRISONER’...”
‘Taste’ and ‘melodicism’ are often used
to describe David... Can he do visceral?
Oh yes. Very often he’ll be playing sweet
and tastefully on his Strat’s neck pickup,
then flip to the bridge and take your head
soon’ like a musical Icarus, is the disagreed. He argued that the off with a searing tone, spiteful licks, huge
saddest line of all. 25-minute song would be better bends and powerful vibrato.
While Waters’ strength was received if split in two – in effect
undoubtedly his words and ideas, the bookending the album. ‘Argue’ being How would you define his sound?
music for Shine On was very much a the operative word. It wasn’t the first David has always employed classic
joint effort between him, David disagreement between the two and nor guitars and amps, but then deftly
Gilmour and Richard Wright (who, in would it be the last. But, tellingly, it manipulated those classic sounds with
fact, takes a solo credit for Part IX of was Waters whose opinion was backed echo, distortion, various wobbly effects –
the song), while the first section was a by Wright and Nick Mason. flange, tremolo, rotary speaker...
reworking of an unpublished History will show that as a key
experiment called Household Objects. moment in Roger Waters’ ascendency If he was allowed just one guitar and
For this piece of ‘art’
, the band had to becoming de facto band leader. The amp, which do you think it would be?
filled wine glasses to various degrees fact that the second and third songs on I’d say his famous ‘bitser’ Black Strat and
and recorded the notes created by what would become Wish You Were an old tweed Fender Twin for the road,
rubbing a wet finger around each rim. Here were Waters’ solo writing efforts and a Deluxe or Champ for the studio.

MUSIC MILESTONES
Rick Wright at the Sports Waters performing Wish You

Arena in April 1975, Los Were Here at the Nassau Coliseum
Angeles, California in Long Island, New York, 1975
PHOTO: (FROM TOP, CLOCKWISE): MICHAEL OCHS ARCHIVES; RICHARD E. AARON/REDFERNS; MICHAEL OCHS ARCHIVES – ALL GET T Y IMAGES
WISH YOU WERE HERE
(L-R) David Gilmour, Nick Mason, Roger Waters and Rick Wright
at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena in April 1975
“WISH YOU WERE HERE
added further grist to this particular Abbey Road was a good enough reason
WAS AN INSTANT
mill. Both Welcome To The Machine
and Have A Cigar share the second
to get them involved. Ultimately,
Grappelli’s efforts were used but so low
SUCCESS... CEMENTING
theme of the record: namely
disenchantment with the record
in the mix as to not warrant a credit.
(Recent CD reissues include his version
PINK FLOYD’S PLACE AT
business. In the former, Waters vents as a bonus track along with live THE TOP OF THE MUSIC
his anger at being made to feel just versions of Raving And Drooling and
another cog in the corporate wheel. In You Gotta Be Crazy). Classical music INDUSTRY TREE”
the latter, he derides the myriad does feature on the song, however.
unnamed strangers and hangers-on Wish You Were Here begins with the
who fill each backstage area with their recorded sweep of Gilmour’s car radio,
inane commentaries and opinions. as the dial turns through various
Gilmour sings Welcome To The stations. A snatch of a Radio 4 play, every inch the equal of Waters’ lyrical
Machine with a soulful detachment. Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No 4, it ends paean to Syd.
When it came to recording Cigar, with Gilmour’s 12-string guitar
however, he declined Waters’ plea to effected to sound like part of the AM A BAND PULLING TOGETHER
step in when a hoarse Roger couldn’t broadcast, before snapping into clarity. Wish You Were Here was an instant
make it work. Recording elsewhere in Gimmicks aside, the song showed success. So much so that UK labelEMI
Abbey Road was Roy Harper. Called the harmonious partnership of Harvest failed to press enough copies
upon, he took up lead vocals instead, a Gilmour and Waters once again to meet initial demand. It hit No 1 all
decision that still burns Waters today. restored and the more melodic results over the world and cemented Pink
are noticeable. Waters is a great writer Floyd’s place at the top of the music
SAX AND VIOLINS but Have A Cigar and Welcome To The industry tree. And it had done so whilst
With old Cambridge cohort Dick Parry Machine follow the same structural being different to its predecessor and
invited back from his Dark Side groove as Brain Damage and Eclipse similar at the same time: ‘Different’
sessions to play saxophone on Shine from Dark Side. They introduce a because it sounded so fresh. Yet
On, for the title track of the album musical idea and pursue it through ‘similar’ because it’s an album
certain other guests were invited to verse and, at best, extended bridge. following a concept rather than a
audition. As with Harper, the fact that Gilmour, however, knows how to write collection of songs. And the band is
violin virtuosos Stephane Grappelli and choruses. Accompanied by his own pulling in the same direction
Yehudi Menuhin were recording in acoustic guitar, his emotive vocal is throughout. It would be the last time.

PINK FLOYD
By Jem Roberts
A Special
Relationship
PHOTO: COLIN DAVEY/EVENING STANDARD/GET T Y IMAGES
Author, satirist and Floyd fan Douglas Adams

became a good friend of the band’s, which led to
him naming one of their albums and even being
invited onstage to play rhythm guitar.
P
ink Floyd have amassed an army of Marvin the Paranoid Android reveals an did not lead to disappointment for
famous fans over the decades, from uncanny skill for mimicry, humming Shine Adams, who was higher than any
musical icons like Paul McCartney, On You Crazy Diamond to add substance could achieve when he
Kate Bush and Brian May to Robin atmosphere when the spaceship, the stepped up on stage to play rhythm on
Williams, Jeff Bridges, and scores more Heart of Gold, first arrives on the planet Eclipse and Braindead. Footage from the
devoted admirers. But their biggest of Magrathea (although the section had event was long believed lost, but
famous fan has sadly not been with us to to be cut for official release for rights Douglas’ brother James Thrift uncovered
witness the band’s 20th century output. issues, along with Marvin’s version of it in 2015 and uploaded it to YouTube, for
Douglas Adams, sci-fi comedy legend The Beatles’ Rock & Roll Music). all to enjoy.
and creator of Dirk Gently and The Adams openly admitted the influence Oddly, however, this wasn’t even the
Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, was so of Floyd’s recordings on The Hitchhiker’s first time that Adams had shared a stage
much more than just another ‘fan’. Guide To The Galaxy sound: “I felt you with Pink Floyd, but the first time
Like many comedians, Adams was could do a great deal more with sound perhaps wasn’t worth remembering – in
always a frustrated musician at heart, than I had heard being done of late. The the mid-1970s, Douglas was the protégé
learning guitar with the same painstaking people who were exploring and of Monty Python Graham Chapman, and
precision that he put into his prose. At exploiting where you could go with when Floyd played Knebworth in July
Brentwood School in Essex, The Beatles sound were people in the rock world 1975, Chapman was hired to act as a
were the first band to light his muso – The Beatles, Pink Floyd, and so on... I sort of anti-compere in his silly Colonel
flame. A school performance by Paul had the idea of scenes of sound. That guise. Adams went along with him,
Simon on his early UK tour also gave the there would never be a moment at which dressed as one of the show’s Gumby
6' 5" writer a lifelong adoration of the the alien world would let up, that you characters, and the idea was that they
significantly shorter balladeer (they would be in it for half an hour. I’m not would entertain the crowd between rock
nearly arranged to meet up in later life, saying we necessarily achieved that, but bands… but their brand of facetious
until Simon was told about Adams’ I think that what we achieved came silliness was so badly received, they
height and swiftly cancelled). about as a result of striving after that.” were all-but bottled off by the time Pink
But Pink Floyd always had a prized The connections continued when Floyd Floyd took to the stage.
place in Adams’ heart, and no other album designers Hipgnosis came up with Sadly, we lost Douglas Adams very
band quite seemed to fuel his the cover for the first Hitchhiker novel, suddenly at the outrageously early age of
imagination in the same cosmic way. He and album. 49 over 15 years ago, but he did have
was also inspired by the likes of Procol As Hitchhiker turned the starving one final momentous link with his
Harum (The Restaurant At The End Of comedy writer into a millionaire novelist, favourite band worth celebrating. Around
The Universe was directly based on their the JK Rowling of the 1980s, Adams the time of his 42nd birthday, the band
track Grand Hotel), but it’s a moot found himself rubbing shoulders with had a new album ready for release, but
question whether we would have many of his heroes, and chief among nobody involved could decide on what to
Hitchhiker at all had it not been for the them was David Gilmour. The parties that call it. Douglas was ecstatic to be one of
inspiration of Waters’ Set The Controls Douglas and his wife threw in their the first to get an exclusive listen of the
For The Heart Of The Sun. Islington home were famous for their CD, and told his friend Gilmour that he
musical entertainment, and Gilmour was knew just what the album had to be
UNDER THE INFLUENCE a regular unpaid guitarist at these called, and he would tell him in return for
Adams was of the schoolboy generation gatherings, and he became one of a hefty donation of around £5,000 to a
who fought to allow their hair to sprout Adams’ most prized peers. Silverback Gorilla charity. Gilmour and co
over their shirt collars, and listened may have presumed the donation would
intently to The Dark Side Of The Moon in TAKING TO THE STAGE yield some incredible unexpected title
their dorm rooms, imagining what life on Gilmour was the man to thank for the from the inventive writer, but when he
other planets may be like. best present that Adams ever had, suggested making The Division Bell the
When, after a long, hungry period of for his 42nd birthday – an exclusive title track, they knew that he was right –
failure, Douglas finally managed to get voucher permitting the owner to join Pink why else would he still be remembered,
his own sci-fi comedy onto BBC Radio, it Floyd on stage for the duration of at least so long after his death, as one of the
was no surprise that he made sure to two songs at the Earl’s Court gig in greatest word perfectionists in the
squeeze a Floyd reference in there, October 1994. The months of anticipation history of English literature?

MUSIC MILESTONES
Studio Britannia Row, London

Producer Pink Floyd
Released 1977
Animals
Punk is raging and so is Roger Waters as Floyd adapt Orwell and get venomous.
I
f Wish You Were Here represented the end of Side two (as it was back then) opens with honking effects as
something – the band that was shaped by, then coped Pigs (Three Different Ones) settles into what could be almost
without and mourned Syd Barrett – then Animals is the described as a funk groove, Mason’s cowbell prominent in
start of Floyd’s next phase, one dominated by the vision the mix. Waters pours his vitriol on the self-righteous
of Roger Waters. It’s the point when the band’s native authority figures at the top table with then-scourge of TV
melancholy is turned outwards into an anger that schedulers and the so-called permissive society, Mary
ANIMALS
would initially sustain them, before ultimately breaking Whitehouse denounced as a “bus stop rat bag/ fucked-up old
them apart. Suitably, the clouds above Battersea Power hag”. No beating about the bush there. The identity of the
Station on the iconic sleeve are soot black. other two pigs has never been revealed.
It’s also the first Floyd album to acknowledge the challenge Finally birdsong and bleating usher us into Sheep, which
of punk. Even as they recorded it during the summer and interpolates Psalm 23, as intoned by Mason and modified to
autumn of 1976, in their newly-built studio at Britannia Row, include a reference to lamb cutlets. However the sheep
Islington, Waters and the band were only too aware of their “through quiet reflection, and great dedication/ master the
growing status as ‘dinosaurs’ about to be wiped out by art of karate” and rise up - Gilmour’s heavy riffing is
punk’s asteroid. According to Mason the group particularly effective in symbolising the final battle before
“subconsciously” adapted and toughened up their sound. the bleating returns and fades into the second part of Pigs
Certainly Waters, whether through chance or design, On The Wing, written apparently for Waters’ new girlfriend,
succeeded in channelling some of the disgust associated which closes the album on an upbeat note.
with that movement, on one of rock’s most acidic appraisals
of British society. It’s a challenging and brave album, which drew grudging
respect from reviewers at the time (NME praised it at the
Early on it was clear that it was going to be another time as being “extreme, relentless, harrowing and
conceptual set. Waters identified a theme loosely based downright iconoclastic”.) If there is a fault it’s there is no
around George Orwell’s Animal Farm. He sketched out an easy route in; no Money or Another Brick In The Wall to lure
idea of a future society where humanity had been reduced to the passing, more casual punter. And the concept just isn’t
three subspecies – scheming despotic pigs, ferocious fleshed out enough compared to the tireless work Waters
fighting dogs and the mindless sheep, ie us, the huddled would later put into The Wall. For all these reasons Animals
masses. Where Waters deviates from Orwell is in Animals remains the connoisseur’s Floyd album and unlike its two
the sheep overthrow their porcine oppressors, though it’s immediate predecessors it’s not one that you often see on
hard to ascertain this from the music alone. those ‘all time’ lists.
While the lyrics preached insurrection, musically Floyd At least, even with its clumsy metaphors, it attempted to
made no concessions to current trends: Animals contained depict life as it was lived in Britain in 1977 and while
three extended tracks, bookended by Waters’ plaintive musically it exists in a different universe to, say, The Clash’s
acoustic Pigs On The Wing. Dogs, a multi-sectioned leftover debut album, its concerns - the way capitalism subjugates
from the Wish You Were Here sessions stretched to over 17 the ordinary people – and invective are broadly similar.
minutes. It had been played live as far back as 1974 as You Dinosaurs they might have been, but Animals saw Pink
Gotta Be Crazy. While Waters added new lyrics comparing Floyd getting their hands muddy, grappling in the mire, with
businessmen to dogs, Gilmour’s sang lead and contributed the rest of us sheep.
three piercing solos, two of which sandwich a synthesised
section where dogs can be heard barking through vocoders. Will Simpson

PINK FLOYD
David Gilmour on the

Animals tour in New
York City July 1977
PHOTO: DAVID TAN/SHINKO MUSIC/GET T Y IMAGES

MUSIC MILESTONES
By Henry Yates
Call Of
The Wild
Pink Floyd’s Animals was a savage concept piece that tore strips
ANIMALS
off the social order of 1970s Britain – and hastened the band’s
demise. “Let it be said” notes Roger Waters, “that it’s a very
violent album…”
t was 1976 and Pink Floyd were a Animals was not directly inspired These were indeed songs of a
I
band on the brink of cultural by punk, the band insist. Waters has certain vintage. Of the five tracks that
obsolescence. In the wake of Wish reflected since that he “didn’t notice” make up Animals, both Sheep and
You Were Here, the tills had kept the nascent punk scene as it raged Dogs had appeared in concert two
ringing, but when John Lydon around him, while David Gilmour, years prior (then known as Raving And
– soon to be rechristened Johnny “didn’t feel like it was particularly Drooling and You Gotta To Be Crazy).
Rotten – skulked across London that relevant to us”. But given the cultural “We used those two tracks, which went
year in his mythologised ‘I hate Pink sea change of the era, it’s surely no back to 1974,” explains Gilmour, “and
Floyd’ T-shirt, it caught the sentiment coincidence that a similar white-hot changed the names, doctored them
of British youth for whom the quartet anthropological rage boils through this around and stuck them on the album.”
were millionaire windbags, cosseted 10th album, albeit shrouded in Waters’
from life at the sharp end and conceit of an Orwellian future-world THE GREAT MELTDOWN
representing all that punk had come to where social classes are represented by In April 1976, when the band convened
tear down. pigs, dogs and sheep. “I’ve had the idea at their new North London recording
Ironic, then, that even as the new of Animals in the back of my mind for facility on Britannia Row, Waters
guard bayed for their blood, Pink Floyd many years,” the bassist told one completed the tracklisting with Pigs
were busy recording an album of such interviewer. “It’s an old chestnut, (Three Different Ones) and the
anti-establishment malice that it really, isn’t it?” two-part Pigs On The Wing. A
would make the Sex Pistols’ God Save
The Queen sound like a squeak of
dissent by comparison. “Let it be said,”
“A POLICE HELICOPTER DID GIVE CHASE
noted Roger Waters in one radio
interview at the time, “that although
FOR A WHILE BUT THE PIG WAS CLIMBING
the violence is tempered with sadness LIKE AN F-14. SOME TIME LATER IT
– and even a smidgeon of compassion
here and there – Animals is a very LANDED IN A FIELD IN KENT” Nick Mason
violent album.”

PINK FLOYD
“ALTHOUGH THE VIOLENCE IS TEMPERED

WITH SADNESS AND EVEN A SMIDGEON OF
COMPASSION HERE AND THERE, ANIMALS
IS VERY VIOLENT ALBUM” Roger Waters
PHOTO: DAVID TAN/SHINKO MUSIC/GET T Y IMAGES

MUSIC MILESTONES
Pigs Might Fly

The story behind the iconic Animals sleeve art.
I
f the Animals sessions were a “Roger and I both looked up at the shooting proved an abject failure, unlikely. A police helicopter did
“slog”, the sleeve art didn’t power station and said, ‘Let’s fly the pig failing to fully inflate with give chase for a while, but the pig
come easily either. In December the pig between the chimneys’. helium and remaining thoroughly was climbing like an F-14 at the
1976, with the music completed, Just like that.” earth-bound. “We didn’t get the time. Some time later, the safety
the Floyd invited their go-to design If only it were that simple. shot,” remembers Mason, “so the valves opened and it began a
group Hipgnosis to present cover Having commissioned the 40-foot next morning everybody reported gentle descent and landed in a
concepts, and were appalled at high porker – now christened Algie for work to try again – with the field in Kent.”
the original pitch of a small boy – from German airship exception of the marksman.” That evening, Powell found
interrupting his parents mid-coitus. manufacturer Ballonfabrik, the This time, Algie inflated, only to himself in the surreal position of
In search of an alternative, Floyd’s creative team arrived at promptly break its moorings and being berated by a local farmer.
Waters cycled around south Battersea en masse. “There was a take flight across London. “All Roadies were dispatched to
London with a camera, stopping crew of riggers, inflaters and flights from Heathrow were retrieve the pig, and a third day of
outside the imposing form of everything else,” Nick Mason told cancelled,” recalls Powell, “and I photography (with two marksmen)
Battersea Power Station, its four In The Studio. “And also a was arrested. We put out an passed without incident. “The day
steaming chimneys evoking a highly-paid marksman whose job announcement on the radio telling when we finally shot it,” says
fitting sense of dystopia. Yet the was to deflate the pig with a people to look out for 40 foot-long, Powell, “the sky wasn’t as
bassist had a twist in mind. “The well-placed shot in the event of pink, inflatable pig.” impressive as it had been, so I
band had just had an inflatable pig it escaping.” “There were even stories that added the pig to the photo from
built for a tour,” recalls Aubrey Despite the eye-catching skies airliners did spot the pig,” picks up the first day. It’s actually a
Powell of Hipgnosis in Time Out. over Battersea, that first day of Mason, “although I think that’s completely faked photograph.”
ANIMALS

PINK FLOYD
Mark Fisher and Jonathan Park's menacing porcine
inflatable set sail nightly as part of the Animals tour
abject alienation and savagery, it

portrayed a Machiavellian
businessman whose club tie and
handshake mean he’s “trusted by the
people that you lie to, so that when
they turn their backs on you, you’ll get
the chance to put the knife in”.
Nonetheless, in a chilling couplet
delivered by Gilmour, the washed-up
protagonist ends the song with his just
deserts, as “just another sad old man,
all alone and dying of cancer”.
Decorated by porcine grunts and
blues-rock guitar evocative of 1975’s
Have A Cigar, Pigs (Three Different
Ones) was shorter – at 11 minutes – but
even more vicious, taking pot-shots at
the pampered blue-bloods with their
snouts in the trough: “Pigs is a fairly
compassionate scream of abuse,”
explained Waters, “if you can scream
abuse in a compassionate way.”
While most of his targets are
painted in vague terms, the final
PHOTO: ROB VERHORST/REDFERNS/GET T Y IMAGES
section saw Waters single out the

morality campaigner Mary
Whitehouse, infamous for her Clean Up
TV campaign of the 1960s.
The bassist had deliberated
over the verse and repeatedly
thrown it out, but says he
never managed to write
anything better. “I was
incensed by [her],” he told
“PIGS IS A FAIRLY COMPASSIONATE MOJO, “as I am by all

book-burners and Bible-pushers; people
SCREAM OF ABUSE. IF YOU CAN SCREAM who foster sexual guilt and shame, who
try and deny people any opportunity to
ABUSE IN A COMPASSIONATE WAY” fulfil their sexual destiny.”
After Pigs had burnt out with
Roger Waters Gilmour’s blistering outro solo, a
lowing of livestock bled into the
bass-driven space-rock of Sheep,
which offered a redemptive vision of
troubling pattern was emerging. While Revisit the album and the venom the oppressed masses rising up against
Gilmour was co-credited and isn’t immediately apparent. On the the dog class (‘Bleating and babbling,
contributes joint vocals for Dogs – and contrary, never has a record started so we fell on his neck with a scream/Wave
maintains that he “didn’t feel remotely deceptively as Animals, which opens upon wave of demented avengers/
squeezed out on that album” – Nick with a cloud of strummed acoustic March cheerfully out of obscurity into
Mason argues that Waters held the guitar, accompanied by the most the dream’).
sessions in a creative stranglehold, heartfelt vocal of Waters’ career, “The lyrics are not a direct
“really keeping Dave down and devoted to his new girlfriend Carolyne expression of my feelings as on Wish
frustrating him deliberately”. Anne Christie. “There was a certain You Were Here”, stressed Waters, who
Richard Wright, for his part, saw amount of doubt as to whether that also played rhythm guitar on the song
Animals as the start of the great Floyd song was going to find its way onto the (while Gilmour handled bass). “More of
meltdown. “It was difficult,” the keys album,” noted Waters of Pigs On The them are put into a third person, about
man told Floyd biographer Mark Blake. Wing (Part One). “But otherwise the more distant events. Especially
“That was when Roger really began to album would just have been a sort of something like Sheep, which is
start believing that he was the sole scream of rage.” nothing to do with me at all, really. It’s
writer of the band. With regards to that a kind of weird tract, a kind of weird,
album, it was partly my fault, because I RELEASE THE DOGS slightly jumbled tract. It’s kind of
didn’t have much to offer. Dave, who True enough, anyone lulled by that admonishing and a warning, but it’s
did have something to offer, only lovestruck opening gambit was quickly not really, because it’s so confused.”
managed to get a couple of things on jolted headlong into dystopia by Dogs. And finally, by way of much-needed
there. Compared to, say, Wish You A 17-minute polemic whose genre- light relief after the bombast and
Were Here, Animals was a slog.” slipping music gave a bed for lyrics of savagery, there was Pigs On The Wing

MUSIC MILESTONES
Nick Mason on the Animals tour –

soon to be rechristened In The Flesh
– New Bingley Hall, Stafford, 1977.
Hell On
Wheels
Revisiting the living
nightmare of the
Animals tour.
D
ebuting in Dortmund, West Germany
on the 23rd of January 1977, Floyd’s
biggest tour yet unveiled staging and
lighting unprecedented for a rock show,
alongside a fleet of inflatables…
A reproduction of the pig from the
PHOTO: DAVID REDFERN/REDFERNS
Animals sleeve was detonated nightly as it

sailed over the fans. To accompany Dogs,
there was also the so-called ‘nuclear
family’: grotesque blow-ups created by
Mark Fisher and Jonathan Park. “I think
the boys thought I’d gone the way of Syd
[Barrett] when I said that we needed a
“IT’S EXCITING AND NOISY AND giant inflatable family and a load of
animals,” reflected Waters in 1987.
IT’S GOT REALLY GOOD BITS OF
ANIMALS
Howwever, faced with the band

playing to a click track in headphones,
EFFECTS ON IT BUT IT’S NOT ONE surrounded by airborne latex, NME’s Mick
OF OUR HIGH POINTS” Rick Wright

Farren wrote of a “depressingly hopeless
journey through a menacingly sterile
cosmos”. In Frankfurt, a dry-ice hitch
prompted fans to bottle the stage.
Things got worse when the tour (now
(Part Two). But even the opening love As for the band members dubbed In The Flesh) moved to North
song’s reprise reportedly caused themselves, they never did much to America. “The shows varied in quality,”
further friction in the line-up, as it fight Animals corner. “I didn’t really noted Nick Mason. “We were not
would garner Waters a second slice of like a lot of the music on the album,” spending enough time on key aspects like
the album’s royalties. Nor, by all sniffed Wright in a BBC Omnibus segueing from one number to the next.
accounts, did it help band relations that special, while Gilmour was decidedly My memory is that some of the staging
session man Terrence ‘Snowy’ White ambivalent while passing comment in was as erratic as the music.”
was invited into the studio to 1992: “It’s exciting and noisy and fun, Now more interested in golf than
contribute a guitar solo linking the and it’s got really good bits of effects socialising, Waters was travelling
finale back to Part One (only heard on and stuff on it, but it’s not one of our separately from his bandmates, and
the album’s eight-track format). creative high points, really.” growing increasingly agitated at playing to
So it was finished. Despite the Doomy and nihilistic, Animals is drunken hordes calling out for Money.
decidedly radio-unfriendly material not an easy album to fall in love with, When a firework went off in New York
– and the supposed dominance of punk and perhaps there are other releases during Pigs On The Wing, Waters
rendering everything else as irrelevant from Pink Floyd around the period that chastised the perpetrator as “a stupid
– Animals proved another commercial you’d take off the shelf more readily. motherfucker”. When the tour concluded
success, reaching UK No 2 and US No 3 And yet, at a stroke, it proved that the at Montreal’s Olympic Stadium, he
upon its release on January 23 1977 band were still angry, eloquent, snapped. “There was some kid trying to
(albeit never matching the sales figures relevant and attuned to the thoughts of climb the chain-link fence. I finally got so
of the Floyd’s other big-hitter releases the man in the dole queue. No wonder angry with this kid – who was screaming
from that decade). Curious, then, that it won them the grudging respect of all the way through one of the quieter
its status has palpably receded over the the punk scene. “I’m always amazed,” songs – that I spat at him. And when I
years, to the point that in modern mused Gilmour in NME, “when I meet came offstage afterwards, I thought,
times, it’s often dismissed as the gear young English musicians who were big ‘What have I been reduced to here, and
shift between the better-loved Wish in the punk era, and they say they what has happened to the relationship
You Were Here and the masterpiece loved everything we did – and that between the band and the audience?’” So
that took Waters’ acerbic worldview to includes one of the Sex Pistols. No, I’m began Waters’ concept for The Wall. But
its logical conclusion, 1979’s The Wall. not going to tell you which one…” that’s a whole different animal…

PINK FLOYD
Studio Super Bear Studios & Studio Miraval, France / Britannia Row Studios, London / CBS Studios,
New York / Cherokee Studios, Producers Workshop & The Village Recorder, Los Angeles
Producer Bob Ezrin, David Gilmour, James Guthrie, Roger Waters
Released 1979
The Wall
A darker side and the end of an era for the classic quartet.
B
y the late 1970s the triple assault of Pink Floyd are, of course, universal themes of the human experience
albums The Dark Side Of The Moon, Wish You Were and they resonate as much now as they did on its release in
Here and Animals had sent the band into the 1979. However, the album remains a period piece in its
stratosphere, making them a bona fide stadium portrayal of Britain as a nation struggling to find
outfit living out the full excesses of rock stardom. its post-war identity and the resulting class, race
Pink Floyd were being swept along by the and generational conflict that fuelled such
THE WALL
juggernaut of the music industry that was demanding they personal angst. It’s a traumatised view of Britain
play a relentless touring schedule in stadium-sized venues. during the 1970s – which, in retrospect holds
Famously, the seed of the idea behind The Wall came in 1977 weight in the light of the music business
when Roger Waters spat at a fan in the crowd. He later corruption and widespread showbiz paedophilia
confessed his sense of alienation from the Floyd fanbase that prevailed during that era.
during that time and a desire to build a wall behind the band
and the audience during live shows. Musically, The Wall is not generally considered to be the
band’s zenith: that position, arguably, falls to The Dark Side
Of course, such a cursory event in a rock star’s life does not a Of The Moon and Wish You Were Here. On The Wall, Waters’
26-track concept album make. And, in truth, the ego overrides the musical whole that was Pink Floyd on its
unfortunate incident with what Rogers claims was an two predecessors. And to some extent, the narrative driving
inattentive fan merely provided the light to the touchpaper the album dominates the music. This is a rock opera and it’s
of Water’s burgeoning angst. Written in 1978 entirely by bursting with big, bombastic, theatrical rock songs with
Waters, The Wall is to a great extent his autobiography insistent rhythms and soaring guitar solos. Special effects
(dovetailed with a portrayal of their troubled former member weave in and out while Gilmour and Waters share vocal
Syd Barrett) and is based around the fictional character Pink. duties. There are beautiful moments too amidst the brooding
Starting with the death of his father at the hands of Hitler, atmosphere and the desolation of the lyrics: Goodbye Blue
Pink leads a dark and oppressive existence occupied by an Sky and Comfortably Numb revealing a more sophisticated
over-bearing mother (Mother) and vindictive teachers interplay between Gilmour and Waters in particular.
(Another Brick In The Wall Pt II). His ascent as a rock star
compounds his already fragile psyche and the wall continues The Wall is undoubtedly a masterpiece – albeit a sprawling
to be built as he suffers from loneliness, drug addition, one – and one of the best-selling albums of all time. Yet, it
divorce and a descent into fascism, before finally breaking remains a demanding listen with 26 thematically and
the wall down. lyrically uncomfortable tracks that conclude with only
partial resolution as Pink breaks the wall down but doesn’t
During the recording of this, their 11th studio album. Waters seem to find peace.
was firmly at the helm and the recording process was
famously fraught with financial difficulties, multiple The Wall is also the ultimate concept album that demands a
producers and inter-band bickering that would culminate chronological listen. How this translates to a generation of
with Waters sacking Wright and then re-employing him as a streamers is a moot point. How, for example, would In The
touring musician. The incarnation of Floyd as Waters, Flesh fit into a Spotify playlist? Nevertheless, The Wall
Wright, Mason and Gilmour would never record together stands strong as an example of the concept album and an
again after the release of The Wall. important marker in the history of one of the greatest rock
bands in the history of music.
The themes behind the album are brooding: war, violence,
isolation, corruption and addiction, amongst them. These Katie Nicholls

MUSIC MILESTONES
THE WALL
By Jeff Hudson
Back To
The Wall
Donald Trump is not the first person to think a wall is the answer.
Pink Floyd got there first – and they paid for it themselves.

PINK FLOYD
The original The Wall live
show. Pink Floyd perform on
stage at Earl’s Court in
London, 6th August 1980
“GILMOUR HAD HIS OWN CONCERNS. THE

SOUND AND THE BAND’S PERFORMANCE
WERE SUB PAR. IN PROTEST HE REFUSED
TO STEP OUT FOR THE SCRIPTED ENCORE”
he momentum created by The few of them had never been so and had recently begun to yell at fans,
T
Dark Side Of The Moon and unhappy. Nor so inspired. Everything screaming “shut up” and other choice
carried through Wish You that happened to the band from that instructions. But the spitting was a
Were Here and Animals meant point on – good, very good, and bad new low, or high, depending on your
that by 1977, arenas were no – can be traced back to that tour. point of view.
longer large enough to cope David Gilmour had his own concerns
with ticket demand for Floyd gigs. Four BLAME CANADA that night. The sound and the band’s
shows at New York’s Madison Square The Wall was born in Montreal, performance, he felt, were sub par. In
Garden apart, the majority of the although nobody realised at the time. It protest he refused to step out for the
venues for their In The Flesh tour were was at the city’s Olympic Stadium on 6 scripted encore, leaving Snowy White
open-air stadiums. It should have been July 1977, the last night of the tour, that to fill his shoes as best he could. The
the band’s finest moment. In truth, a Roger Waters, already aggravated by band, in the end, improvised a blues
the distance – both physically and jam rather than Money and Us And
culturally – separating the vast Them. For the 60,000+ fans it would be
football-style crowds and the band, a memorable, unique encounter. But for
allegedly lost his temper and spat at Waters it was so much more.
certain boisterous individuals. It didn’t It never rains but it pours, of course,
come from nowhere. For weeks he’d and later that night Waters injured his
endured chanting and yelling, foot during a good-natured backstage
noticeably during the quieter songs, tussle with manager Steve O’Rourke.

LEGENDS of ROCK
bullying, of stardom and destructive

Roger Waters performs relationships are all designated as
The Wall on February 27 1980 at ‘bricks’ in Waters’ metaphorical wall.
Nassau Coliseum in Long Island, NY
But there is one aspect that is purely
Waters’ own. And that is his father’s
experiences in War. Eric Waters died
during the Second World War. His
young son never knew him, a fact that
torments Waters to this day (see the
documentary parts of his film Roger
Waters’ The Wall Live for visits to his
father’s battle sites and grave). Pink, to
be rounded and grounded in reality,
was to have experienced death,
missiles and mortar bombs.
Quite a challenge for a band aiming
for chart and sales success.
HANDS OFF OF MY STACK

The ‘bricks’ in the wall are all obstacles
that befell Waters at some point.
During recording of the album, several
others became apparent. The keystone
was money. Virtually all other
problems can be traced back to the
On the journey back from hospital he

began to muse on what had made the
tour such a disaster for him. Number
“VIRTUALLY ALL OTHER PROBLEMS CAN
one, the audiences were too big, almost
too uneducated. Number two, he was a
BE TRACED BACK TO MONEY. OR THE
musician, not a performer. The
disparity between him and the public
BAND’S SUDDEN LACK OF IT. THE FLOYD
FOUND THEMSELVES WITH LITTLE IN THE
THE WALL
was too great to surmount. He would,

he decided, have been happier if Pink
Floyd played behind a giant wall… BANK AND AN 83% TAX RATE ON THAT”
BRICKS AND MORTARS other members being artistically band’s sudden lack of it. Relying on a
Floyd revisionists say that Waters ‘spent’ , it came down to a choice company that made ultimately bad
began to dominate the group as part of between Waters’ brace of projects or… investments, the Floyd found
a cunningly-devised plan, The Wall nothing. There was a vote and they all themselves with little in the bank and
being his masterstroke. The truth is went for Bricks In The Wall. The other an 83 per cent tax rate on that. In short,
somewhat more haphazard. Yes, he idea was back-burnered, later to appear they needed to make and sell an album
had taken the lion’s share of credits on as Waters’ first solo album The Pros to stay afloat. Typical then, that it was
Animals – Gilmour co-wrote You Gotta And Cons Of Hitch-hiking. to be their most complicated – and
Be Crazy/Dogs and it is the only song That’s not to say it was a 100 per longest – production to date.
he takes a (shared) lead vocal on – but cent positive vote. There wasn’t so To beat the tax rap, the band were
according to the guitarist, the much to separate the two. Given such advised in April 1979 to take temporary
production was a proper collaboration. little input at the writing stage from residence abroad. The problem was
A year later, in 1978, with Gilmour, Nick the rest of the group it is no surprise that they didn’t all exile to the same
Mason and Richard Wright absenting the project read and sounded place. Gilmour and Wright headed for
themselves from band duties to work autobiographical; too autobiographical, the Greek islands, Waters to
on solo projects, Waters began to do the rest of the band feared. Centred Switzerland and Mason to France. For
what he does best – write. And write. around Waters’ personal angst about the purposes of recording they came
And write. Yes, one batch of his private audiences, touring, alienation, sex and together after initial sessions at
demos was entitled Bricks In The Wall relationships, there was no other Britannia Row, to work at France’s
and focused on the alienation he’d conclusion. New co-producer Bob SuperBear Studios. Which is where the
experienced touring the world to Ezrin, however, persuaded Waters that cracks first began to show.
faceless audiences. But there was a rewrite to include a new central With Wright absent from writing
another project he felt equally character, ‘Pink’ , would soften the blow. credits on Animals he was conscious of
passionate about, a more intimate It was just what was needed. having little space to contribute on its
concept of sex, family and modern Pink, it transpired, shared the successor with his musicianship
living. When the band convened in July similar resentments about school as squeezed out. In particular, he resented
at Britannia Row Studios to discuss Waters. He had ‘mummy issues’ that the influence – and royalty points – of
album number 11, he presented both. may or may not have been the author’s the album’s co-producer Ezrin.
In the past, Pink Floyd had own. But there were also elements of Eventually he persuaded Waters to let
workshopped and collaborated and Syd Barrett in the character as well. him produce, a decision which in turn
often jammed ideas into songs and The notions of alienation, of feeling led to conflict with Ezrin and Wright,
then albums. On this occasion with the apart from others, of violence, of as a result, working at nights alone.

PINK FLOYD
You can’t
have any
pudding…
Truly the stuff of
nightmares, The Wall’s
imagery lingers on...
R
umour has it that Roger Waters was
displeased when Storm Thorgerson

included artwork from the Animals
album in his book Walk Away Rene and
took his revenge during The Wall by
insisting the band look elsewhere for
visuals for the project.
Luckily, there was a replacement
waiting in the wings. Gerald Scarfe,
cartoonist for broadsheet newspapers
and tabloids alike, had been
commissioned to supply images used
during the In The Flesh tour. Waters in
particular liked the cut of his nib and
pushed for him to oversee the packaging
for The Wall. It is Scarfe’s unmistakable
handwriting that scrawls the album title on
the background of white bricks. And it is
his images inside the cover denoting
demonic headmasters and other
characters from the album – many of
whom would later be turned into giant
dirigibles on the subsequent tours. The
80ft teacher, lording it over a frightened
crowd, screaming, “How can you have
any pudding when you don’t eat your
meat?” is never to be forgotten.
It was Bob Ezrin’s instinct to pursue
Another Brick In The Wall Pt II as a
potential hit single – a Trojan Horse
designed to slip an angry, head-fuck
concept album into the shopping of
unsuspecting audience. He persuaded
Waters to extend it to more than one
verse and one chorus, sourced the kids
choir from Islington Green School and
manoeuvred Gilmour into accepting a
‘disco’ beat. But it was Scarfe’s vision in
PHOTO: IMAGE USE BY KIND PERMISSION OF GERALD SCARFE
the controversial accompanying video

that stays with us the longest. It is he,
after all, we have to thank for the
grotesque sight of children being poured
into a mincer and ground out as worms
– all the backdrop of pre-teens singing
about ‘ed-u-cay-shun’. Thirty-five years
later it remains as shocking as ever. Just
what Waters wanted. Gerald Scarfe and Roger Waters
discuss Gerald’s unique contribution

MUSIC MILESTONES
Ed-u-cay-shun
A brief history of The Wall ’s multiple live shows and tours…
David Gilmour, February 27 1980 at

Nassau Coliseum in Long Island, NY
PHOTO: WARING ABBOT T/GET T Y IMAGES

THE WALL
T
he Wall is a landmark album for Pink No matter the width or breadth of the The show featured a drone-powered
Floyd and a personal milestone for stage, his ‘wall’ filled an entire end. Used pig, daubed in political slogans, hovering
Roger Waters – but it is also so much as a projection screen for myriad political over the crowds, a mammoth towering
more. Cultural phenomenon, record messages – including photographs, many schoolmaster lecturing all and sundry on
breaker and modern icon – is there sent in by fans, of hundreds of people eating practices, and a Stuka bomber
another album that reaches so far beyond killed by the actions of war – it rose to the zipping down a wire and ‘exploding’ into
its original remit? occasion in every venue. The highlight the wall. When the resulting concert film
In 2010 Roger Waters embarked on was often the lone guitarist appearing was ready it was only fitting that it get a
what would become a three-year tour of atop the construct for the co-singing parts worldwide cinema release.
record breaking proportions. Playing to of Comfortably Numb. On 12 May 2011
4.2 million people, grossing $458 million that guitarist was David Gilmour repaying LIVE IN NO MAN'S LAND
along the way, his 219 shows eclipsed a debt to Waters, owed since his erstwhile The origins of the new tour were born 22
Madonna’s record for most lucrative solo colleague agreed to appear at a charity years earlier, on the 21st of July 1990
tour ever. event. when Roger Waters mounted a one-off
Ever watchful of the pennies, on it. In fact, when he appeared on the commercially tuneful for his input.
Waters took a decision in summer that accompanying tour it was as a paid Getting even these ideas over to
proved the final straw for Wright. session musician. Waters, however, proved no small task.
When US record company Columbia The bassist’s way of coping with the
offered the band a cash incentive to get WALL COMES TUMBLING DOWN various external pressures on the band
the album out by Christmas, Waters Waters and Wright’s was not the only was to bunker down, not letting his
agreed. Gilmour, Mason and Ezrin fell relationship tested during recording of bandmates in.
into line. Wright, however, refused to The Wall. The final result, including And Comfortably Numb nearly
cut short a rare family holiday. unexpected No 1 single Another Brick didn’t happen. Even on the tracks
Incensed, Waters allegedly called on In The Wall Pt II, eventually filled four where David Gilmour is billed as
O’Rourke to eject the keyboard player sides of vinyl, totalling 26 songs of collaborator, it often needed Bob Ezrin
post haste. Gilmour’s attempts to which 16 were sung outright by Waters. to play a role to make them see the
placate matters lasted only until Gilmour sang three and the two men light of day. The original concept for
Waters said he wouldn’t continue with shared the remainder. The guitarist Comfortably Numb, for example, – or
the album unless Wright went. managed to co-write only Comfortably at that time a Waters tune titled The
When The Wall as it became known, Numb and Run Like Hell – both songs Doctor – had Roger rhyming ‘listen’
finally appeared in November 1979, he still performs as encores today – with ‘physician’ , ‘condition’ and
Richard Wright’s name did not appear plus Young Lust, all of them far more ‘magician’ , like an uninspired O-Level

PINK FLOYD
Roger Waters onstage at Bankers Life
Fieldhouse on June 11 2012 in Indianapolis
as part of his mammoth Wall tour
“THEY WERE NEVER

HUNGRIER… NOR
WERE THEY EVER
AS UNHAPPY…”
Storm Thorgerson
spectacular of The Wall in Berlin. 350,000 his own creation, ‘Pink’, screen tests technically resolute enough although on
paying customers plus 100,000 crowded proved not favourable and rising punk star his record-breaking tour Waters duetted
into the former ‘no-man’s land’ between Bob Geldof was persuaded instead each night on Mother with the 1980
Potsdamer Platz and the Brandenburg (despite huge reservations, hilariously version of himself singing at Earls Court.
Gate to celebrate the fall of the Berlin Wall overheard by Waters’ taxi driver brother On 27 March 2000 Pink Floyd
some eight months earlier. A cast of while dropping Geldof off at the airport). A themselves released a live double CD of
luminaries including Van Morrison, Joni plot, the album music, and added the tour, taken from various nights. The
Mitchell, Bryan Adams, Albert Finney and graphics from Gerald Scarfe produced a cover of Is There Anybody Out There?,
Cyndi Lauper took to the stage to fill the cinema cult classic. once again by Storm Thorgerson, shows
various roles. And then there's the original ground- the four masks of Waters, Wright, Gilmour
That The Wall has a life beyond the breaking Wall shows… Pink Floyd’s own and Mason, worn onstage by the
record is evidenced in the fact Alan Parker 31-date tour in the early 1980s was filmed surrogate band. “They were never
wanted to make a film based on it. with the intention of broadcast in the hungrier,” Thorgerson said. “Nor were
Originally slated to star Roger Waters as movie. Sadly, the footage was not they ever as unhappy.”
student. Producer Ezrin persuaded him compelling”. Fans were less perform it live he wanted this enacted.
to not make it so personal and to work ambiguous. The Wall hit the No 1 spot And so, for 31 glorious nights between
with Gilmour instead. The result is in the US and stayed there for 15 weeks, February 1980 and June 1981, it
arguably one of the best songs Pink selling more than 19 million copies happened. On those rare nights in the
Floyd ever made. Certainly, it features within the decade. If it weren’t for The US, Germany and London, Pink Floyd
one of the best guitar solos and garners Dark Side Of The Moon outselling played the album in its entirety and
the biggest reception during concerts everything, it would be renowned as gradually stage-hands assembled large
30 plus years later. Pink Floyd’s commercial masterpiece. white blocks which eventually
As magnificent in scope, ambition and obscured the band from the audience
IS THERE ANYBODY OUT THERE? production as The Wall is, for a band and, crucially, vice versa. Then the wall
Critical reception to The Wall was renowned as a live entity it would was destroyed and the band played out
mixed. Columbia Records – Floyd’s prove a headache. A migraine, in fact. in full technicolour glory. It remains a
label in the US – were not instantly Waters had conceived of the album as landmark in rock production and the
sure of the hit on their hands. Some the journey of a man who builds a wall last tour where Waters, Gilmour,
journalists were equally nonplussed. between himself and reality – Wright and Mason all took part.
Melody Maker in the UK is a case in entertaining vile dictatorish delusions Together. As a band. The next
point: “I’m not sure whether it’s along the way (notably Run Like Hell chapter in their story would be very
brilliant or terrible, but I find it utterly and its controversial introduction). To different indeed…

MUSIC MILESTONES
Studio Gilmour’s Hookend Manor, Waters’ Billiard Room Studios, Mayfair Studios, RAK Studios, Eel Pie Studios,
Olympic Studios, Abbey Road Studios, Audio International Studios
Producer Roger Waters, James Guthrie, Michael Kamen
Released 1983
The Final Cut

Or the final straw? The album that emerged when the wall came tumbling down…
B
y 1982 Pink Floyd were less a band than a man on a he leaps into shouty mode. Cue drum crashes, bomb blasts,
mission plus a couple of disenfranchised backing six-string stabs and the inevitable solo (guitar or sax). On
musicians. Following a dispute with Roger Waters paper it sounds formulaic. But, oh, the emotions…
about not pulling his weight during the recording
of the previous year’s The Wall, Richard Wright What really bothers Roger Waters, of course, is war. He never
THE FINAL CUT
had ceased to be an official band member. He took knew his father Eric Waters, because he was killed at the
part in the subsequent tour as a salaried musician. Battle of Anzio in 1944, and here his son’s anger at war
resonates on just about every track. When The Tigers Broke
Letting down Waters on The Wall was never going to end Free, added to all reissues of The Final Cut post-2004, is
well. The album was received as the bassist’s pet project. essentially a list of Eric Waters’ movements during the
He’d conceived the whole enterprise, written most of the campaign. But in 1983, Waters can’t scream at Winston
songs and sung the majority as well. When ownership of the Churchill so it’s Margaret Thatcher – revelling in her
‘Pink Floyd’ name hit the courts following Waters’ own ‘success’ during the Falklands War – who is the subject of his
departure in 1985, it’s notable that he ‘won’ the rights to the wrath on The Post War Dream.
album (along with the ‘pig’ from the cover of Animals).
Three decades later his globe-spanning Roger Waters’ The Being too emotional is never an accusation one could level at
Wall tour played to more than four million people over three David Gilmour. Yet emotion doesn’t just come from the
years, grossing nearly $460 million. voice. Despite rumours of working separately to Waters for
the majority of the album, Gilmour puts in some guitar work
When Alan Parker began work on a movie based on the story as passionate as his bandmate’s libretto. The solo on The
in the songs, Waters decided that Pink Floyd would write a Fletcher Memorial Home is every inch as personal as Waters’
soundtrack of new songs. In the event just one of the songs, lyric. It swoops, soars and penetrates over 60 unhurried
When The Tigers Broke Free, made the cut. Originally seconds. So few notes, so measured, so full of space.
written for inclusion on The Wall, it was vetoed by the rest of
the band as ‘too personal’ – an achievement considering the Your Possible Pasts is another that circles Comfortably Numb
semi-autobiographical nature of the rest of the album. level artistry. But what would really make it Pink Floyd is
Gilmour singing. By 1983 Roger Waters had learned to write
Never one to let a good idea go unrepeated, Waters decided songs that suited his voice. But for one song, Not Now John,
to turn his plans for the disused soundtrack into the next he required a proper singer.
Pink Floyd album, 1983’s The Final Cut. As a result it ploughs
familiar furrows, with abandonment, the futility of war and Not Now John begins with an incendiary exploding and just
declining social mores at its core. Each track is credited in its gets louder from there. It is epic, anthemic and Gilmour,
entirety to Waters and he sings all but one song. completely in his element, lets rip in his trademark faux
strained style, the gospel backing singers beautifully parrot
Like its predecessor, the album plays more like a single ‘Fuck all that’ throughout. Now that is a lyric the guitarist
theatrical piece than a collection of songs. The individual can identify with.
parts all follow roughly the same structure. First a sound
effect (a missile on Not Now John; a ticking clock on One Of Ultimately, like The Wall but more so, The Final Cut is one to
The Few; whistling wind on The Gunner’s Dream and a radio be filed under ‘experience’ as much as ‘album’. Luckily for
station sweep – reminiscent of that on Wish You Were Here everyone, it succeeds at both.
– on The Post War Dream). Next, Waters sings first
mournfully, over occasional piano, guitar or effect. Finally, Jeff Hudson

PINK FLOYD
David Gilmour live onstage

in New York, circa 1984
PHOTO: L. BUSACCA /WIREIMAGE/GET T Y IMAGES

MUSIC MILESTONES
By Jeff Hudson
End
Of An Era
THE FINAL CUT
y 1982 Pink Floyd was no
B
Roger Waters’ paean to his father – and very nearly the longer a single entity but
rather one man in charge
final album from Pink Floyd – The Final Cut remains the with a raggle taggle band of
most controversial in the band’s canon. disenchanted musicians. On
paper, David Gilmour and
Nick Mason were every bit Roger
Waters’ equal. It just didn’t feel like it.
The Wall was widely received as
Waters’ masterpiece. When talk of a
new Floyd album began in 1982, the
band met to discuss ideas. Gilmour saw
it as an opportunity to discuss what the
band wanted to do next, planning to
work with Waters on writing new songs
together. Waters had other ideas. Tons

PINK FLOYD
“PINK FLOYD WAS NOT A SINGLE

ENTITY BUT ONE MAN IN CHARGE
WITH A RAGGLE-TAGGLE BAND OF
DISENCHANTED MUSICIANS”
of them, in fact. Just as he’d done with Wright, Mason and Gilmour voted were all passed on as well. In response
The Wall, he presented Gilmour and against doing something then Waters Waters decided that Alan Parker’s
Mason with a demo tape of an album had little option but to agree. And that planned motion picture of The Wall
already largely conceived and written. rankled. As the driving force behind should have a soundtrack of new songs
Perhaps lazily, Gilmour has since the entire project Waters felt his vision – called Spare Bricks – including those
admitted, he and Mason decided to go should have been left untempered, excluded from the original album.
with Waters’ songs because they were especially by three men whose only After More and Zabriskie Point, it
there. The only problem was, hadn’t contributions were, he felt, to every so certainly wouldn’t be their weirdest
they heard a lot of them before? often say ‘no’. But say ‘no’ they did, film gig. In the event this didn’t
several times. materialise with just one of the songs,
MORE BRICKS? When The Tigers Broke Free is a When The Tigers Broke Free, making
Roger Waters might have taken the case in point. Originally written for the transition.
majority of writing credits on The Wall, inclusion on The Wall, it was vetoed by A soundtrack is one thing. A proper
but that didn’t mean he always got his the rest of the band as ‘too personal’. Pink Floyd album is quite another.
own way. The band was, at least on The Hero’s Return, One Of The Few, Gilmour, for one, could not see the
paper, still a democracy. As such, If Your Possible Pasts and The Final Cut value in rehashing old material on a

MUSIC MILESTONES
new record. “If the songs weren’t good

enough before, why are they good
Dave Gilmour live in
Utrecht, playing a
enough now?” he demanded. Buoyed
Fender Stratocaster
by the ongoing success of The Wall
(not Black Strat)
– success he was beginning to take
very personally – Waters was in no
mood to kowtow.
“Have you got anything better?”
The answer, in 1982, was “no”.
BAND OF GOLD
Never really more than close colleagues
rather than intimate friends, the
relationship between David Gilmour
and Roger Waters, for so long the joint
hearts of Pink Floyd, was tested like
never before during recording of The
Final Cut. Things began well. Studio

downtime was shared together, with
Mason, discussing the issues of the
day, watching movies and playing
video games, Donkey Kong, being a
particular favourite. There were
certainly moments of agreement.
Having enjoyed working with two
co-producers on The Wall (Bob Ezrin
and James Guthrie), Waters wanted to
go down the same route again, this
time bringing in Michael Kamen, noted
Hits And Misses

for his keyboard skills and talent to
write orchestration. Gilmour and
Mason agreed, with the caveat that
THE FINAL CUT
Gilmour also join Waters to co-produce

the record, as he’d done on The Wall.
Waters said, ‘Yes’.
So far, so good. Now they just had to
When EMI stared at years ahead with no Floyd
agree on the subject matter. releases, they engaged in some lateral thinking.
MAGGIE, WHAT HAVE WE DONE?
I
n 1971, worried that there’d be no Wish You Were Here and, of course,
Despite a sticker on the single of When new Pink Floyd product for at least the only thing with even a vague
The Tigers Broke Free saying, ‘Taken a year, EMI decided to release a danceability, Another Brick In The Wall
from the album The Final Cut’ the song ‘best of’ compilation. Relics is a Pt II – are intended to give new
never made it onto the album (until the typically Floyd title, poking fun at a listeners as broad an introduction to
2004 reissue, that is). But it certainly band considered all too serious by the band as possible. Unlike its
would not have sounded out of place fans and media alike. But its subtitle, A predecessor, however, there are no
given that it is essentially a diary of Bizarre Collection Of Antiques And new tracks.
events leading up to death of Waters’ Curios, is even more apt given that the
father. album assembles most of the band’s OR ARE THERE?
Eric Fletcher Waters, a second singles to date (not Apples And In order to include a song from The
lieutenant of the 8th Royal Fusiliers, Oranges, Point Me At The Sky or It Dark Side Of The Moon, former US
was killed, we now know, during WWII Would Be So Nice) and just one record company and American licence
at Anzio in Italy on 18 February 1944. B-side (Candy And A Currant Bun). holder of the album Capitol needed to
But the young wife he left behind and What it did offer of note, however, was agree. They didn’t. Undaunted, David
her baby son barely five months old a new track, the previously ‘live only’ Gilmour entered the studio with The
were only told he was missing in Biding My Time, by Roger Waters. Wall engineer (and soon to be The
action, presumed dead. Not only did Ten years later EMI decided to pull Final Cut co-producer) James Guthrie
the boy, young Roger, grow up without the same trick again. Faced with the and started re-recording the track
a father but part of him always prospect of three or maybe even four himself. He played drums, he played
expected Eric to one day still come years without a new Pink Floyd album, bass, synths and keys, guitar and he
home. That Roger would never know they released another retrospective, sang, both lead and harmonies. The
his father remains the greatest curse of this time taking audiences from where only instrument he didn’t pick up, in
his life, but arguably an unparalleled Relics left off to the present day. Like fact, was sax – original player Dick
creative motivator. The Wall might be its forerunner, the title of A Collection Parry was drafted in to reprise his role.
his most famous platform on the Of Great Dance Songs is wilfully The result is impressive – and not
subject but for The Final Cut he wanted tongue in cheek. And, also like its entirely detectable from the original.
to go further – especially given what predecessor, the running order is a Remember that the next time Roger
was happening in the UK at the time. matter of taste rather than logic. Six Waters gets tarred with the ‘write
In 1982, Prime Minister Margaret songs – One Of These Days, Money, the theme tune, sing the theme
Thatcher, responding to Argentine Sheep, Shine On You Crazy Diamond, tune’ brush.

PINK FLOYD
perceived provocation by despatching sending to battle. As he says in The them to die. As he puts it in When The
warships to protect the Falkland Final Cut’s closing song, Two Suns In Tigers Broke Free, ‘That’s how the High
Islands. As daily reports of casualties The Sunset (and on a plaque unveiled at Command took my daddy from me.’
on both sides came in, Waters could the site of his father’s death), ‘Ashes But The Final Cut is not simply an
not understand why Thatcher had been and diamonds/Foe and friend/We were anti-war rant. It’s an exposé of the
so quick to go down the military route all equal in the end’ – in other words, it hypocrisy at the heart of a government
when negotiation was still an option. is not the opposing soldiers who are that on the one hand is prepared to see
But then it wasn’t her son she was the enemy, it is the monsters who send innocent men and women die in the
name of their country but, when it
comes to commissioning new ships to
replace those destroyed in the process,
would prefer to save money buying
from Japan rather than investing in
“THE FINAL CUT IS AN ANGRY RECORD – jobs back home.
The Final Cut, then, is an angry
AN EMOTION THAT INEVITABLY SEEPED record – an emotion that inevitably
seeped into the lives of those making
INTO THE LIVES OF THOSE MAKING IT.” it. David Gilmour was very
uncomfortable producing such a
political statement. Waters’ response,
as ever, was to challenge him to come
up with something better.
On the one hand Waters resented
doing, as he saw it, all the work. On the
other hand, the less interference from
anyone else the better. Increasingly
dismissive of Gilmour’s input, the two
men ended up working separately,
either at different studios (eight were
used in total) or in the same studio at
different ends of the day.
Ultimately, Gilmour was
stripped of his co-producer
credit, although not the
How The Tigers

financial rewards.
Waters’ micro-
management of every detail
– he would even design the
Broke Free
cover – didn’t end with the guitarist.
With Richard Wright already ejected
and Gilmour banished to nocturnal
hours, now it was the turn of Nick
Mason to be sidelined. With a second
The story of Eric Waters’ death during WWII – then third – drummer brought in to
play his parts, Mason’s only real lasting
is a tale of bravery and abandonment. contribution to the album was
recording some of the innovative
‘holophonic’ effects. It was a new low
A
t the outbreak of WWII, Eric The mission goal was to liberate
Fletcher Waters, name-checked Rome from German control. On 17 in the life of a once equal band.
in The Fletcher Memorial Home, February 1944, en route to the capital,
was a conscientious objector who the Allies encountered a massive AND FINALLY...
refused to fight. As the news continued German force, fronted by a phalanx of The Final Cut achieved something both
to flood in of his fellow countrymen Tiger tanks. The odds of survival let its immediate predecessor and Dark
falling on the front line to protect their alone victory were slim and initial Side had failed to: reach No 1 in the UK.
nation, so they believed, he had a casualties were high. The frontline In the US it peaked at No 6. If Waters
change of heart and signed up for commanders asked for permission to felt vindicated by the positions it was
active service. It was as part of the withdraw and regroup. The generals, Gilmour who had the last laugh, quietly
Royal Fusiliers’ 8th Battalion, Z miles away in safety, declined. blaming the album’s weak songs for
Company, that he left British shores in Z Company and its companions set the fact it would become the band’s
1944. Operation Shingle was go. up a perimeter and throughout the 17th worst-selling album since Meddle in
When Z Company arrived on the they defended the line with everything 1971. Critical response was largely
beaches of Anzio, Italy they were not they had. It was only a matter of time, negative. Reviewers compared it
alone. Troops from the 9th Royal however, and in the early hours of 18 unfavourably with The Wall with many
Fusiliers and the 7th Oxfordshire and February 1944, the Tigers broke mocking Waters’ paranoid obsessions.
Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, under through. Only in later years did writers begin to
the command of the 167th (London) The body of Eric Waters, like those recognise, rightly, its artistic merits.
Infantry Brigade, as well as the US VI of so many of his fellow comrades, Either way, it would be the last Pink
Corps were alongside them. was never found. Floyd record with Roger Waters and, if
he had had his way, the last ever.

MUSIC MILESTONES
Studio Astoria Studio Houseboat

Producer Bob Ezrin & David Gilmour
Released 1987
A Momentary Lapse Of Reason

Gilmour’s baby and the late-period release that the rock press loves to hate.
I
t’s hard not to wince while flipping through the tracks here conjure an atmosphere as rich and immersive as
cuttings file for A Momentary Lapse Of Reason. Since the band’s halcyon era, vindicate the oft-maligned Gilmour
its original release back in September 1987, Pink Floyd’s era and justify the album’s restorative sales.
A MOMENTARY LAPSE OF REASON
13th studio album has become something of a critical

whipping boy, variously dismissed as “fluffy tour Out of the blocks, Signs Of Life is a magical opening salvo,
merch” (Rolling Stone), “made to keep the Floyd brand with the dip of oars and an eerie organ line evoking a
going” (The Telegraph), “essentially a David Gilmour solo journey across the River Styx. When Gilmour enters the fray
album” (Q) and “very facile, very third-rate, poor in at the three-minute mark, stroking gorgeously spacey licks
general… but a quite clever forgery” (that’s Roger Waters, atop glistening synth, you’d struggle to describe it as Floyd
sniping from the sidelines). lite. Another highlight follows on its heels in Learning To
Fly. With its clattering beat and cascade of processed vocals
Does Reason really deserve such flagellation? Yes and no. – and elevated by another vintage Gilmour solo – it’s an
Revisit the album three decades later and you’ll find anthem of spring-heeled, skyscaping brilliance. One Slip
brilliance here in flashes – yet it would plainly be absurd to might almost have scaled the same heights, were its driving
pretend that these 10 tracks don’t suffer from momentary beat and WOMAD wind-chimes not maddeningly dated by
lapses of quality. Waters’ assessment is viperous, but he has both the production and a dubious mid-point bass solo that
a point: at its lowest ebbs, this album does indeed feel like a sounds like the sort of horror that Alan Partridge would
facsimile of the Floyd’s prime-time 70s peak, offering up all mime in a full-length mirror. A missed opportunity.
the sonic calling-cards – not to mention the Storm
Thorgerson sleeve art – but sorely missing the trenchant Much is forgiven, though, thanks to On The Turning Away:
snarl of its ousted bassist and agent provocateur. Consider the undisputed album standout that closed the original first
The Dogs Of War: a track whose sinister stabs of organ and side. Gilmour has perhaps never sung quite so tenderly as on
polemical lyric could almost have fallen off The Wall, but the almost-a capella intro, and as a sadly strummed acoustic
which leaves you wondering how much deeper it might have guitar prepares the ground for a soul-in-fingers solo, only
bitten had Waters been there to douse it in vitriol. the most cloth-eared of Waters diehards would argue this
was a backward step from 1983’s wretched The Final Cut.
There’s also some weight to the argument that Gilmour is a
little too dominant in proceedings (as well he might be, after A New Machine (Parts 1 & 2) remain claustrophobic mini-
a decade in the passenger seat). With Waters gone, Richard masterpieces, catching the listener with cri de coeur vocals
Wright relegated to waged musician and Nick Mason keeping that burst from the gloaming, while Yet Another Movie is
his head down, Reason finds the guitarist presiding over a notable for a white-hot Gilmour solo. Sorrow, too, starts
cohort of studio yes-men who sound keen not to rock the strongly with scything guitar lines, but can’t maintain the
(house) boat. In the absence of a coherent concept, he momentum, its eight-minutes exposing lack of ideas.
delivers too many dreamy offcuts from a proposed third solo
album, many of which seem to exist purely as a canvas for It would be ridiculous to cast A Momentary Lack Of Reason
his (admittedly astonishing) Stratocaster work. At points – as the essential first purchase for a Floyd newcomer: there
as in the meandering six-minute instrumental Terminal are other albums in the canon that explore the same ground
Frost – you wish there was a creative rival to drag his safer and mine the same musical motifs, but do so far more
material into choppier waters. effectively. But neither is this the avoid-like-the-plague
disaster of pub and chat-room repute.
For all that, the forest of one-star hatchet jobs doled out to
Reason over the decades are wide of the mark. The best Henry Yates

PINK FLOYD
On tour in the States:

(L-R) Dave Gilmour, Guy Pratt,
Rick Wright, 1987
PHOTO: LORNE RESNICK /REDFERNS/GET T Y IMAGES

MUSIC MILESTONES
An Act Of
Defiance
History has not been kind to the critically-panned
A Momentary Lapse Of Reason but, as Mark Blake explains, beneath
the technology and 80s bombast, the first Floyd album without
Waters is not without its merits.
n December 1985, Roger Waters, a ripping track”, but which sadly remains
I
man billed on a later solo tour as unreleased. Only Phil Manzanera’s
“the creative genius behind Pink co-write One Slip would make it to the
Floyd”, formally announced that he final album.
was leaving the group. As a Within a few months, Gilmour had
parting shot, Roger Waters issued amassed enough ideas to approach
a high court injunction to try and former Floyd collaborator Bob Ezrin.
prevent the name ‘Pink Floyd’ ever With Ezrin hired as co-producer, the
being used again. sessions (conducted on the guitarist’s
houseboat/studio Astoria near
It was the first act of aggression in a Hampton Court) took on greater
war of words that would dog the urgency; if not quite the same level as
creation of A Momentary Lapse Of if Waters had been there.
Reason, the first Floyd album recorded
without Roger Waters. And one now
The Reason tour 1987:
BRAVE NEW WORLD
languishing, overlooked and rather keyboard player Jon Carin. At just 21 he Sampling, sequencing and music
Gilmour (centre left)
unloved in the Floyd catalogue. More’s was much younger than Gilmour but a technology had advanced
on acoustic guitar
the pity. committed Pink Floyd fan, also capable immeasurably since 1983’s The Final
A Momentary Lapse Of Reason was of creating a fair facsimile of the sound Cut, enabling Gilmour and Ezrin to
partly made to prove a point. “Roger Rick Wright brought to the band. work alone if necessary. Before long,
said, ‘You’ll never fucking get it During these early months, Roxy they’d pieced together the bones of
together to make a record’ ”, recalled Music’s Phil Manzanera, 10cc’s Eric Learning To Fly, Terminal Frost and
David Gilmour; a statement Nick Stewart, poet Roger McGough and The Dogs Of War. But the pace of the
Mason later compared to “a red rag session drummer Simon Phillips also sessions was still rather leisurely and
PHOTO: EBET ROBERTS/REDFERNS/GET T Y IMAGES
to a bull”. spent time writing or jamming with Gilmour had yet to write any lyrics.
Gilmour and Mason ignored the Gilmour. Phillips apparently played on With Waters gone, Pink Floyd were
attempted injunction, resurrected the what Gilmour later described as “a missing a lyricist. Ezrin invited the
name and informed EMI they were
making a new Pink Floyd record. But it
would prove to be a long and arduous
“ROGER WATERS SAID, ‘YOU’LL NEVER
process. In early 1986, Gilmour began GET IT TOGETHER TO MAKE A RECORD’...
casting around for collaborators. His
first recruit was former Bryan Ferry IT WAS A ‘RED RAG TO A BULL’”
PINK FLOYD
By Mark Blake Canadian poet Carole Pope to England.

Pope worked with Gilmour on an as-yet
unreleased song, Peace Be With You.
But their collaboration never went any
further. In the end, Gilmour chose to
work with singer-songwriter Anthony
Moore, previously a member of the 70s
art rock groups Slapp Happy and Henry
Cow. Moore contributed lyrics to The
Dogs Of War, Learning To Fly and On
The Turning Away.
In the meantime, sessions were
interrupted by frequent phone calls
from Pink Floyd’s lawyers. Realising no
judge in the land would rule in his
favour regarding use of the band name,
Waters began sniping from the
sidelines. Still a director of Pink Floyd
Music, he was soon blocking any
London Arena, in July decisions made by his estranged
The Tour
Proving a point via a pig with testicles
1989 on Another Lapse
Of Reason, tour
bandmates, and slowing them down
even further.
By now, Gilmour and Mason had also
re-recruited Rick Wright, who’d been
living in Greece since quitting the
band. “I just woke up one day and
thought, ‘God! what have I been
doing?’” he said. “So I phoned Dave up
T
he A Momentary Lapse Of Diamond, Wish You Were Here and
Reason tour was a marathon trek, Comfortably Numb. and he said he was planning another
beginning in September 1987 and The tour came with a full album. I told him that if he needed
finally ending in June 1990. In between, production. Floyd’s stage set was anyone to play keyboards,
Pink Floyd played 197 shows, including housed within a 80-ft high steel that I’d love to do it.”
dates in Australia, Japan, the former framework containing a huge circular
Soviet Union and the Grand Canal in projection screen. The show’s piece de LAWS AND LIES
Venice. resistance was the reappearance of However, a clause in his
However, like the album the tour their famous mascot, the flying pig, leaving agreement meant
was blighted by the fall-out between which, to circumvent Waters’ claim of Wright was prohibited from
Waters and the band. Waters wrote to legal ownership, was customised with re-joining as a full member.
every promoter in the US threatening a pair of huge testicles. Instead, he was hired as a session
to sue if they staged a Pink Floyd The first leg opened in Ottawa and musician, and was absent from the
show. Canadian promoter Michael crossed America before winding up in group photograph on the final album,
Cohl ignored the threat and agreed to Vancouver just before Christmas 1987. and from most of the music inside.
promote a date in Toronto’s Exhibition After two years of legal sparring, According to Waters, the music itself
Centre. When all 60,000 tickets sold Waters and Gilmour met on the Astoria had also become an issue for some.
out in just a few hours, he added soon after and came to an Talking to Billboard in 1987, Waters
further shows, and other promoters arrangement. It was agreed Gilmour claimed a representative of Floyd’s US
soon followed. and Mason could use the Floyd name record label, Columbia, heard their new
Producer Bob Ezrin was hired to, in perpetuity, but that Waters would songs and suggested they start again.
as he put it, “knock the band into retain the rights to certain items in the However, talking to the author in 2013,
shape” with a series of pre-tour back catalogue, including The Wall. Gilmour insisted this was never the
rehearsals in Toronto: “The problem Finally free of possible legal action, case: “A tissue of lies. I never stopped
was, there was no producer or director Pink Floyd went back on the road in and started again”.
and David was busy working out which January 1988 – and stayed there for In February 1987, Floyd escaped the
guitar to play.” Ezrin helped Gilmour the rest of the year. By the time the lawyers’ phone calls and Waters’s
choose the setlist and corral the tour ended in summer 1990, it had sniping and moved the sessions to
group’s extended family of additional played to 5.5 million people and A&M Studios in Los Angeles. It was a
musicians. Pink Floyd’s touring party grossed $135 million. As a parting positive change of scene. But both
now included new bassist Guy Pratt, a shot, a cassette copy of the Wright and Mason struggled to play to
second drummer (Gary Wallis), an subsequent live album Delicate Sound the standard required. Neither was
additional keyboard player (Jon Carin), Of Thunder was taken into space by match fit. “I hadn’t played seriously for
second guitarist (Tim Renwick), cosmonauts on the Soyuz TM-7 four years and didn’t even like the
PHOTO: TIM HALL/REDFERNS/GET T Y IMAGES
saxophonist (Scott Page) and four rocket; proof that the ‘new’ Pink Floyd sound and feel of my playing,” said
backing singers. could take their music anywhere. “We Mason. “I ended up struggling to play
A setlist was chosen that wanted to be world-conquering,” said some parts satisfactorily.”
accommodated songs from the new David Gilmour. “We wanted to leave
album but didn’t skimp on the ‘hits’, no-one in any doubt that we really LEARNING TO FLY
including Shine On You Crazy meant business.” In LA, Ezrin and Gilmour drew on an
extensive cast of session musicians,
including former John Lennon

MUSIC MILESTONES
drummer Jim Keltner and Little Feat’s oars gently sculling through the
keyboard player Bill Payne, to complete water set the tone for everything
the album. It was a good short-term that came thereafter.
strategy but presented Mason and The album’s standout tracks,
Wright with the challenge of having to Learning To Fly and Sorrow, leaned
learn the parts anyway before Floyd’s heavily on Gilmour’s hushed vocals
planned tour. and measured guitar solos. The former
After a long and troubled birth, A (a collaboration between Gilmour,
Momentary Lapse Of Reason finally Ezrin, Anthony Moore and Jon Carin)
arrived on 7 September 1987. Gilmour, had that same pacy, slow-building
who later admitted he’d been nervous drama as Shine On You Crazy
about the public’s reaction to the Diamond – and a similar choir of
record, insisted it was the musical female backing vocalists.
successor to Wish You Were Here. Interviewed later, Ezrin claimed the
“There was a better balance [Reason] title and lyrics were a metaphor for the
between the music and the lyrics than ‘new’ band’s feeling of freedom and
on those later albums,” he said, escape. But the song’s roots were more
Let there be light! Another referring to The Wall and The Final Cut. literal than that. Learning To Fly
Lapse of Reason tour, Meanwhile, Nick Mason tactfully contained a sample of Nick Mason’s
London, 4th-9th July 1989 described Reason as: “a careful album, voice during a flying lesson. Both he
with very few risks taken”. and Gilmour were keen pilots and
In hindsight, both were right. The owned a Cessna 421 Golden Eagle
‘new’ Pink Floyd’s album began with between them.
the instrumental scene setter Signs Of Sorrow continued in a similar vein
Life: all purring synthesisers, and contained Gilmour’s most
Gilmour’s textbook string bending and climactic finale since Comfortably
the sound of the Astoria’s caretaker/ Numb. The instrumental, Terminal
boatman Langley Iddins rowing up the Frost, reproduced Pink Floyd’s very
river Thames. familiar melodrama with an orchestra
Wisely, they hadn’t tried to make a of synths and drum machines and
concept album without a concept, but saxophones played by Supertramp’s

had created pieces of music that shared John Anthony Helliwell and jazz
a similar mood. The sound of Iddens’ musician Tom Scott.
PHOTOS: (FROM TOP CLOCKWISE) TIM HALL/REDFERNS; LORNE RESNICK /REDFERNS; KRISTOF VAN ACCOM/AFP; CHRIS SO/ TORONTO STAR – ALL GET T Y IMAGES
Ezrin On The Album
The Wall producer returns to the fold for Reason...
P
roducer Bob Ezrin began his Angeles. Waters had insisted he make
working relationship with Pink Floyd the whole album in England; something
on 1979’s The Wall. But Ezrin fell out Ezrin’s wife couldn’t agree to.
with Roger Waters soon after when he “Those early sessions for Reason on
revealed details of the Floyd’s upcoming the houseboat were just magical,” Ezrin
shows to a Billboard journalist. Declared recalled. “There was a lot of laughter and
persona non grata at the time, come the a sense of adventure… here we were on
mid-80s Ezrin was in demand again, and the river, like a boys’ camp.”
co-produced David Gilmour’s solo However, Ezrin also acknowledged
album, About Face. the size of the hole left by Waters, and
In summer 1986, Ezrin arrived in the problems caused by Mason and
England to co-produce A Momentary Wright’s long time away from a studio.
Lapse Of Reason; a move that went “David was ready to go make a record;
down badly with Waters, who’d asked I’m not sure the others were. And we’d
him to do the same on his new solo lost our main lyricist. There was no
record, Radio K.A.O.S. “I was surprised getting around that.”
to get David’s call,” Ezrin told the author. “Working with Pink Floyd was a
“Roger had told me he’d left the band familiar ground for me,” said Ezrin, who
and there was no Pink Floyd, and that later returned to work with the band on
the ‘muffins’ – as he called them – would The Division Bell. “It felt right. Listening
never dare carry on without him.” to A Momentary Lapse Of Reason again,
Ezrin chose Pink Floyd over Waters, there are things I’d certainly do
partly because Gilmour agreed to record differently now, but I think a lot of it is
half the album in the UK and half in Los still surprisingly good.”

PINK FLOYD
Gilmour in the spotlight

on the US tour, 1987
“ROGER WATERS WASTED LITTLE TIME IN Nevertheless, any doubts

that David Gilmour and Nick
DAMNING IT AS ‘A CLEVER FORGERY’; A Mason had about the veracity

of a Roger Waters-less Pink
STATEMENT BACKED UP BY WRIGHT” Floyd were soon quashed. A

Momentary Lapse Of Reason
went into the Top 5 in the UK
and the US, proving the brand was still
This was Pink Floyd re-connecting Madonna’s producer Pat Leonard) strong. Roger Waters, somewhat
with the sound of what their audience wouldn’t have sounded out of place predictably, wasted little time in
and many critics considered their on Gilmour’s 1984 solo album, About damning it “as a clever forgery”; a
classic era. Face. This was Pink Floyd without the statement later backed up by none
venom and idiosyncrasy Waters bought other than Rick Wright. Largely
TECHNOLOGY RULES to the music. sidelined from the finished record,
Elsewhere, The Dogs Of War aspired to At times, especially on the effects- Wright told the author “it’s not a band
the cold brutality of Wish You Were heavy A New Machine (Parts 1 and 2), album at all”.
Here’s Welcome To The Machine, but technology overpowered the music.
missed Waters’s natural vitriol. While You could hear every pound and dollar A PRODUCT OF ITS TIME
One Slip (featuring session man Tony spent, and the inside sleeve credits told Reflecting on A Momentary Lapse Of
Levin’s ubiquitous Chapman Stick), the their own story; listing the 17 Reason many years later, David
AOR anthem On The Turning Away and additional musicians used to complete Gilmour insisted that the record was
Yet Another Movie (a collaboration with the record. the best possible Pink Floyd album
they could make at the time. That it
was kept off the top spot in the US by
Michael Jackson’s Bad and
Whitesnake’s 1987 speaks volumes.
Like those albums, A Momentary Lapse
Of Reason is the 80s incarnate: an
album made to do battle in the new
digital age. But beneath the drum
machines, sequencers and sometimes
overpowering din of technology, its
The Sleep Under The songs are far better than history would
Stars arts project in have us believe.
Oostende depicting
the cover of A Mark Blake is the author of Pigs Might Fly:
Momentary The Inside Story Of Pink Floyd (Aurum
Lapse of Reason Press, 2007 & 2013)

MUSIC MILESTONES
Studio Britannia Row Studios, London / Astoria Houseboat Studio

Producer Bob Ezrin
Released 1994
The Division Bell

A lighter, more widescreen production… Versus a lack of lyrical cohesion.
B
y the time that The Division Bell emerged from stage from the outset, seemingly in conversation with Rick
hiding in March 1994, Pink Floyd had been Wright’s piano lines on the album opener, Cluster One. But
virtually silent, in terms of new material, for the following track What Do You Want From Me seemed to
nearly seven years. Album designer Storm be asking a question of the band’s fanbase in the most direct
Thorgerson refers to this intervening period as the terms. What did they expect from Pink Floyd and this new
THE DIVISION BELL
band being “in the doldrums” , and apparently direction, with Waters now in exile?
unsure of what to do next. The previous release, A
Momentary Lapse Of Reason, had done well, having outsold Certainly many of the band’s trademarks were present on
The Final Cut, but had enjoyed only a mixed reaction from the album in the use of real world sound effects, segued
fans and critics. The 1987 tour and resulting live album The tracks with the odd crafty reference to their heritage, most
Delicate Sound Of Thunder seemed to many that the band notably the return of the Dark Side heartbeat at the end of
was merely treading water, seemingly deciding on its next the Rick Wright penned track Wearing The Inside Out. This
move at the start of this post-Waters era. particular track featured Wright’s first vocal with the band
for 20 years, a celebration of sorts as he was now
There’s little doubt that, with Waters’ departure from the contractually a full member once again since his dismissal
band, it was as if the dark heart had been ripped from the during the infamous in-fighting around The Wall era,
band. Gone was the bite and bile and much of the direct enjoying only session man status on subsequent ventures.
political commentary that had surfaced on the albums
drawn from the acknowledged classic period, from Atom Are there any classic songs here? A good guess as to the
Heart Mother to The Wall. But they had survived the fall of material that Floyd as a collective thought to be the
Syd Barrett years earlier, surely they could rise again and strongest must be drawn from the two singles taken from
overcome this near fatal blow? If they had anything to prove The Division Bell. The first, Take It Back (May 1994) was a
at all, it would be with the next studio release; a new era for Gilmour rocker that bore a distinct stylistic resemblance to
the band, but it desperately needed consolidating and it all some of the material from his solo album About Face (1984).
hung on The Division Bell to launch the new manifesto. The second single was a double-header comprising High
Hopes coupled with Keep Talking (October 1994). Of these
In hindsight, of course, it was to be the final album of new two tracks, the former was a yearning for the past and its
material, the death of Rick Wright in 2008 sealing the band’s connection to the future, the latter imploring everyone
fate for good. After the release of The Endless River in 2014, – from couples to governments and so on – to communicate.
Gilmour went on record as saying that it was all over and It even had Stephen Hawking’s voice lifted from a BT advert
that from now on he intended to concentrate solely on his to ram home the message. Out of the three, it’s probably
own solo career. High Hopes that has any enduring quality, but, to many, it
falls far short of Comfortably Numb, Money or Wish You
PHOTO: MICK HUTSON/REDFERNS/GET T Y IMAGES
So what can we make of The Division Bell now that the dust Were Here to name but three concert staples.
has well and truly settled? From a fan’s point of view, the
no-expenses-spared packaging, with iconography based The Division Bell is far from being the worst Pink Floyd
around a theme of communication – the CD jewel case even album, but far from being the best. Production values are on
had ‘Pink Floyd’ inscribed in Braille on its spine – a par with anything they’ve done in the past, but the ghost
everything was looking like it was business as usual for a of what could have been had Waters been there will haunt
band known for its attention to detail. The music, too, was a the album forever.
lighter, more widescreen production than its predecessor,
with Gilmour’s trademark liquid guitar lines taking centre David Mead

PINK FLOYD
Dave Gilmour
performs The Division
Bell on tour

MUSIC MILESTONES
By David Mead
Ringing The
Changes
With the litigious wrangles of its predecessor behind
them, Pink Floyd employ a raft of former compadres
to record their 14th studio album.
Live at Earl’s Court,

THE DIVISION BELL
London, the band

show off the amazing
stage set of The
Division Bell tour

PINK FLOYD
ree at last from the legal that a lot of the band’s swansong sometimes cynical lyricism had
F
entanglements that had been album The Endless River is drawn. adorned much of their previous and,
reverberating during the there’s no doubt, finest work. After
recording and release of 1987’s BACK IN THE STUDIO much consideration, lyrical content
A Momentary Lapse Of Reason, The recording sessions were split was to be provided largely by Gilmour’s
Gilmour, Mason and Wright between Gilmour’s riverboat Astoria, soon-to-be wife, journalist Polly
decided to go ‘old school’ for their 14th Britannia Row, Abbey Road, Metropolis Samson and a theme began to emerge.
release and merely meet together in and the Creek Recording Studio. As the Themes had always played an
the studio and jam, and see what came music solidified, other players were important part of Floyd’s back
from it. These first tentative sessions called in along the way. Some were catalogue and here it was
began in the early part of 1993 at chosen from the ranks of the previous communication with songs like What
Britannia Row Studios, featuring the tour, including Tim Renwick on guitar Do You Want From Me, Poles Apart and
trio feeling their way through some and Dick Parry on saxophone (a A Great Day For Freedom, a nod
instrumental ideas, extending and long-serving Floyd auxiliary having towards the felling of The Berlin Wall
modelling them as they had done in played on Dark Side Of The Moon and in 1989. For the track Keep Talking the
the past. Still shell-shocked from Wish You Were Here, and a former voice of Professor Stephen Hawking
Roger Waters’ departure and aware of bandmate of Gilmour’s during his can be heard extolling the virtues of
the acrimony that existed in that Jokers Wild days). Extra hands were communication. This sample was
quarter, observers relate that these also summoned to the sessions in the taken from a TV advert for BT, Gilmour
initial sessions left the band unsure form of Jon Carin and (producer) Bob having thought that it framed the
that they actually had anything to say Ezrin on keyboards, Gary Wallis on sentiments of both the song and the
musically. With the bass chair empty, it percussion and a host of backing new album’s general theme perfectly.
was decided to call upon the services of vocalists, including Sam Brown, Another sound sampled by the band
touring stalwart – and boyfriend to daughter of British rock’n’roller Joe. includes that which is heard at the
Wright’s daughter Gala – Guy Pratt to One problem remained: that of beginning of The Division Bell’s
fill this most obvious void. The lyrics. None of the surviving members opening track, Cluster One. What
sessions continued and gradually songs of Floyd felt they could fill the vacuum sounds a little like radio static is, in
began to form and it is from this period left by Waters, whose snarling and fact, a recording of the solar wind
“THREE STAGES WERE BUILT AT A

COST OF £3M TO LEAPFROG EACH
PHOTO: MICK HUTSON/REDFERNS
OTHER AS THE BAND PLOUGHED ITS

WAY ACROSS AMERICA AND EUROPE”

MUSIC MILESTONES
Marmite, Branston and Fireworks

Inside the $100 million 1994 Division Bell tour
he release of The Division Bell
T was perfectly timed with a

world tour. Indeed, the first
US date took place two days after
the album was released in the UK
and five days prior to its US debut.
Production rehearsals began in a
hanger at Norton Air Force Base in
San Bernardino on the 3rd March
1994 before moving to Universal
Studios in Orlando on the 23rd.
The stage for the tour was
purpose built after the band
remarked that the onstage
acoustics at The Hollywood Bowl
were so good they wished they
could pack it up and take it with
them. Of course, when you’re Pink
Floyd, anything is possible and so
their wish was granted – in fact, it
was granted three times over as
three stages, designed by Marc
THE DIVISION BELL
Brickman and Mark Fisher at a

cost of $3M, were built to leapfrog further 747 for the band and crew. feature of Floyd’s performance weren’t at all certain how it would
each other as the band ploughed Sat in privileged VIP seats above might interfere with navigation and go.” Initially, it was met by stunned
its way across America and the mixer special guests lure one for landing. silence, but the internet, still in its
Europe. It took 200 crew witnessed a spectacle beyond One unexpected pleasure for infancy back then, started to
members, 49 trucks – 33 of which words. The light show alone was fans during the tour was the spread the word and the famous
carried the staging alone – to phenomenal with 270 Vari*Lites inclusion of Dark Side Of The heartbeat intro was greeted
move the gear around between and powerful Oxford ACL45 lasers Moon played in its entirety for the eagerly from then on.
dates. Each stage took three days that had never been used for first time since the 1970s. David The resulting live album and
to assemble the steel components entertainment purposes before. Gilmour explains how this came video/DVD from the tour – both
and 18 hours to complete, with They were so powerful that about: “I don't know if we ever titled Pulse – while impressive,
breakdown taking seven hours spotters had to be dispatched on played the whole thing through clearly fail to transmit the power
and a further two days to the higher reaches of each before we did it,” he said in 1995. and intensity of the actual concert
disassemble the steel open-air stadium to watch for “It was quite frightening, the first experience and at the time nobody
components. At the time it was the aircraft, the fear being that this time we did it in Detroit – we guessed that this would be Floyd’s
biggest tour by any rock band final tour. In the video, Gilmour
ever. Figures from EMI suggest plays a line or two from the
that, during the North American wartime classic We’ll Meet Again
tour alone, Floyd played 59 during his intro to the final encore,
sold-out dates in 48 cities in Run Like Hell from The Wall,
front of almost three in anticipation perhaps of
million people, grossing the band’s future outings
in excess of $100 – and, right at the end of
million. During the US the song, as the band
dates, Floyd’s rider plays an extended final
included the provision crescendo, the end of
of Marmite, Branston the proceedings is
Pickle, English punctuated by the whole
PHOTO: MICK HUTSON/REDFERNS/GET T Y IMAGES
marmalade and stage seeming to explode

Weetabix to be added to in a spectacular – and
the day-to-day catering noisy – pyro apocalypse.
requirements. When Gilmour was asked
When the tour moved to how he thought they would
Europe in July 1994 it took follow that: “That’s something
three 747’s to fly the gear and for you to worry about, not for
staging from the USA, with a me,” he laughed.

PINK FLOYD
The band, as a three piece

cutting a dash in one of
very few official
photographs from the time
“WITHOUT A TITLE GILMOUR TURNED TO DOUGLAS

ADAMS FOR A SUGGESTION. ADAMS SAID THAT
THE ANSWER WAS RIGHT UNDER HIS NOSE…”
interacting with planet Earth’s the significance of the figure ‘42’ in The famous CD sleeve running throughout the new album.
magnetosphere, a phenomenon also Adams’ great work as being the answer featured a blinking red LED Storm set to work, settling on the idea
known as the ‘electromagnetic dawn to life, the universe and everything. in its spine making the of massive sculptures of Easter Island
chorus’. Space rock indeed. large in-store displays for style heads, at once facing each other
VISUAL IMPACT the record's release and seeming to look the viewer in the
WHAT’S IN A NAME For any Pink Floyd release, the album’s sparkle enticingly eye. The figures were drawn from
With recording complete the new artwork is an integral part of the sketches by Keith Breeden. One pair
album still lacked a title and Gilmour proceedings – reference the made from metal, riveted together in
turned to his friend and author of The iconic covers of The Dark Side the style of old aircraft and the
Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, Of The Moon and Wish You other from polystyrene and
Douglas Adams for suggestions. On Were Here, for instance. fiberglass. Each one as tall as a
hearing the album, Adams is reputed Once again the services double-decker bus –
to have told Gilmour that the answer of another member of and commissioned from
was right under his nose and hiding the Floyd ‘Old John Robertson and Aden
within the lyrics. The line, ‘The ringing Contemptibles’ was Hynes respectively.
of the division bell had begun…’ turns called upon in the Whereas much of the progress of
up in the first verse of High Hopes, a form of Storm the album had been cloaked in
song that seems to be Gilmour Thorgerson secrecy – although
reminiscing on his past. Once revealed, who was rumours abounded
it did indeed seem to be the obvious briefed as among the Floyd
choice and Adams was rewarded by to the fanbase – perhaps
appearing onstage with the band at ‘commun– the first physical
Earl’s Court on the 28th October, ication – or lack evidence of the new
Adams’ 42nd birthday. Let’s not forget thereof’ leitmotif release came about in a

MUSIC MILESTONES
Single sleeves show farmer’s field just outside the

Thorgerson's relentless Cambridgeshire city of Ely in January
cavalcade of imagery and 1994. Motorists on the nearby A10 were
Waiting For The

packaging; (below) surprised to find the somewhat surreal
tickets for the sight of the sculptures at large, often
accompanying huge surrounded by ant-like flurries of
stadium tour activity as Storm and his crew waited
for the winter sky to provide a suitable
Waves To Break
Backstage With Pink Floyd in 1994
backdrop for their photograph. Ever
the perfectionist, the heads remained
in situ for two weeks before Storm was
satisfied that he had the right shot. At
one point – and make what you will of
the irony here – a winter storm blew
the metal heads down, but they were
T
here are many tales from Pink different reasons, but generally I’m just soon reinstated and the weather vigil
Floyd’s The Division Bell US and listening for any of the equipment continued. In the end, the metal heads
THE DIVISION BELL
European tour, some printable, going wrong. I’m always on red alert! appeared on the CD cover with the
others perhaps not. One endearing “On this tour we’ve had to deal with ‘stone’ versions saved for the cassette
one features saxophonist Dick Parry a lot of temperature changes and and LP versions.
who mentioned that he had a lot of we’ve had to set up in the rain a lot
time to spend waiting around because of the number of outdoor THE WHOLE PACKAGE
backstage between his appearances venues we’ve been doing,” Phil This wasn’t the only photography or
and that there was nowhere for him to acknowledged. “You set up in the artwork to adorn The Division Bell’s
sit. So David Gilmour sent out a minion morning and it may be cold and raining cover as it was decided that the CD
to purchase a leather sofa and pot and then, by afternoon, the sun’s come booklet should contain a photograph or
plant especially so that Dick could be out and it’s got really hot so you have artwork representing each track. As
more comfortable. to put space blankets on the such, the booklet gave Storm an
Phil Taylor, Floyd’s Head Of equipment to keep the sun off.” opportunity to flex his muscles to
Backline is the man with the plan and One of the elements of The Division serve the album’s thematic concept
explained Gilmour’s onstage set-up at Bell show was the amount of pyro – still further. Videos were filmed around
the time: “I always set his gear up so explosions, leaping flame and so on – Ely each underlining the band’s
that it sounds good to me and the that occurred every night. “The pyro association with the area and, in one
levels seem right, however, the reason onstage contributes a lot of dust and scene, a bust of Syd Barrett is held
why he likes to have his rack onstage filth every night, which gets into aloft, a further nod to
with him every night and the reason everything. I’ve had a few failures; Floyd’s origins.
why his pedals are mounted on the top nothing went wrong on the first part of The album was
is so that he can wander over and give the tour but gradually some of the released in the
them a tweak as he feels necessary. pedals started not UK on the 28th
“Between projects there are often working properly March 1994 to
quite long periods where David doesn’t and I had two or mixed acclaim
play much guitar, but when there is three of those go from critics and
something – a tour or an album – down and some fans alike. Rolling
about to happen then I keep my eyes transmitters fail.” Stone awarded the
open as to what’s around and take him album a meagre two
stuff to try,” he confirmed. Being and a half stars, Uncut a
PHOTO: PETER STILL/REDFERNS/GET T Y IMAGES
located just behind Gilmour during a more enthusiastic four

show, things must have become pretty and other reviews
loud in his area. “Pretty loud, yeah, but continued this polarised
not horrendously so; you can stand hot and cold theme. The
by each other and talk. Basically, I’m most scathing review,
here listening to Dave’s system and however, came from Roger
tuning. I get called up onstage for Waters, who dismissed it simply
as being, “Just rubbish…”.

PINK FLOYD
Studio Astoria Houseboat Studio & Medina Studios, UK

Producer David Gilmour, Youth, Andy Jackson, Phil Manzanera
Released 2014
The Endless River

A tribute to the late Richard Wright and Floyd's “farewell album”.
F
loyd fans were kept waiting 20 years for the Endless River finally hit the shelves in November 2014.
follow-up to 1994’s The Division Bell. A painfully Instrumental except for a single track (Louder Than Words)
long period during which time Floydians could The Endless River is an ambient affair that glides its way
contemplate at leisure the turbulent and acrimonious through 53 minutes with Rick Wright’s keyboards
history that had plagued the band throughout its taking centre stage on many of the tracks, with
THE ENDLESS RIVER
then 49-year history. It’s somewhat appropriate then Gilmour and Mason the supporting cast.
that this, their 15th studio album plays out some of those Manzanera says he wanted to capture the Floyd
troubles. Setting the mood is intro track Things Left Unsaid, sound throughout all its incarnations – from Syd
which kicks off proceedings with half-whispered Barrett to post Waters and this album undoubtedly
ruminations about arguing and fighting. It’s notable too that has a nostalgic feel – not least as an exploration of
The Endless River is a tribute to keyboardist Rick Wright, the quintessential Pink Floyd sound and the
who was famously sacked in 1978 by Roger Waters and then position they hold in the canon of British music.
re-employed as a touring session musician. Wright died in
2008 and with much of the material on The Endless River There’s also a sense of closure. This is not Floyd forging new
taken from old recordings, this is a fitting swansong. “The paths but rather a tip of the hat to their own legacy and an
Endless River is a tribute to Rick,” drummer Nick Mason told acceptance of their history as a band. If the prospect of a
The Wall Street Journal. “I think this record is a good way of band contemplating their past rings alarm bells, fear not!
recognising a lot of what he does and how his playing was at The band almost hop and skip through the tracks with some
the heart of the Pink Floyd sound. Listening back to the only lasting just over a minute – so there’s no self
sessions, it really brought home to me what a special player indulgence or over-egged solos here. Highlights of the album
he was.” The glaring omission of Roger Waters, who was not include Skins, on which Nick Mason takes the reigns on
asked to contribute to The Endless River, speaks for itself. rotodrums and Autumn 68, featuring Rick Wright
performing in the Royal Albert Hall on pipe organ.
The Endless River is steeped in Floyd history - not just Undoubtedly, Louder Than Words is the moment on this
thematically and musically but literally as much of the album that feels like unalloyed Floyd. With lyrics written by
album is constructed largely from old takes, jams and Gilmour’s wife Polly Samson, Gilmour opens with “we bitch
recordings from the cutting room floor of its predecessor and we fight” and while it’s undoubtedly an
The Division Bell. Its story begins in 1993 when producer acknowledgment of the band’s bickering it’s ultimately a
Andy Jackson fashioned an hour’s worth of outtakes and tribute to Rick and how love and respect ultimately wins
improvisations from The Division Bell into a mix entitled over acrimony. Gilmour’s rich, warm vocals embrace the
The Big Spliff, which was never released. When Gilmour told ears and the track acts as the album’s anchor amidst the
Phil Manzanera about The Big Spliff revealing there were an cinematic swirls of the ambient instrumental tracks.
additional 20 hours of mixes, the curiosity of the former
Roxy Music guitarist was piqued and he spent the next six Gilmour has said that The Endless River is Floyd’s farewell
weeks arranging the material into four suites. The fledging – although, tantalisingly, Nick Mason told Rolling Stone in
album was then passed into the hands of Youth (former 2014, “I’m not entirely sure Pink Floyd is over.” While The
member of The Orb, producer and Floyd obsessive) who Endless River doesn’t carve any new direction for the band,
agreed to co-produce it. The life cycle of the album finally this is not a band aching for its past and the addition of new
came to fruition when in 2014, 20 years on from The Division material from Gilmour and Mason keep it fresh and vibrant.
Bell, Gilmour and Mason decided to record new guitar and A solid goodbye from one of rock’s biggest acts… or is it?
drum parts for the album, maximising on modern studio
technology to seamlessly blend the new with the old and The Katie Nicholls

MUSIC MILESTONES
THE ENDLESS RIVER
Fond By Michael Leonard
Farewell
PHOTO: EAMONN MCCABE/REDFERNS
The Endless River has been described by David Gilmour as the

final Pink Floyd album. Yet its roots lie in 20-plus year-old
recordings. Back in 2014, the album’s co-producer Phil
Manzanera spoke of its source and
meandering soundscapes…

PINK FLOYD
Phil Manzanera relaxing
after painstakingly building
The Endless River for close
ike seemingly every Pink Floyd
L
friend David Glimour
album, The Endless River has
somewhat convoluted origins.
After cutting The Division Bell
(recorded 1993, released 1994),
Floyd – Gilmour, drummer Nick
Mason and keyboardist Rick Wright
– had hours of left-over jams and
improvisational pieces of music,
composed mostly by Gilmour and
Wright. Album engineer Andy Jackson
later mixed an ambient ‘album’ of this
music, notionally called The Big Spliff,
and Floyd did consider releasing it.
Eventually they decided not to. But
when Gilmour asked long-time friend
Phil Manzanera to “listen to some
stuff” from those days, it soon went
beyond The Big Spliff mix.
“There was no great plan,” says
Manzanera. “But soon I was on
(Gilmour’s boat studio) Astoria, having
a listen, and him asking me what I
thought. Andy Jackson was there, and
PHOTO: JOBY SESSIONS

he talked about The Big Spliff mix. I
immediately said, ‘Stop there. I want to
hear every single bit that was recorded’.
It was 20 hours of music in total. Andy
behind 90s techno/house

“STOP THERE. I WANT TO HEAR EVERY music duo Blue Pearl with
singer Durga McBroom, who
SINGLE BIT THAT WAS RECORDED. IT WAS had also contributed vocals to
Floyd’s A Momentary Lapse
20 HOURS OF MUSIC IN TOTAL. ANDY Of Reason.
THOUGHT I WAS JOKING” Phil Manzanera

“It was Polly (Samson,
author and Gilmour’s wife) who
suggested: ‘Why don’t you play this to
Youth?’”, says Manzanera. “Youth heard
thought I was joking. recordings sounded like classical a couple of parts, and he just loved it.
I said: ‘No, I’m not!’ At first I music, which prompted him to create That got them excited.”
thought, ‘What the hell am I going to four movements. Modern technology Gilmour thought it had
do with this?’ But I just pulled out any created new editing possibilities, he “possibilities”. Then, Manzanera also
bit that I thought was good, and hadn’t says. “If the key isn’t right, you can invited Nick Mason to his Gallery
been used before, and made my own change it. You can change the tempo. It studio in London and played him some
notes. It was six weeks of just listening, was great, but at the time I was only of this old 'stuff'. “Nick thought there
again and again.” working with what was available. And I were possibilities for this, too. We left
took some diabolical liberties. it for nine months. Eventually, Nick
FRIEND AND FAN Something might have sounded like and David decided it could be a Pink
Apart from one track, it’s instrumental. Echoes but with no rhythm. Okay, let’s Floyd album.”
The late Rick Wright’s keyboards loom put on a beat. I found a recording of Gilmour and Mason then agreed to
large on The Endless River, punctuated Nick (Mason, drums) warming up in add new guitar and drum parts to
by the gliding guitar solos of Gilmour. Olympic Studio and took a loop. I had complete The Endless River.
“In my head was: what would a Pink tapes of Rick Wright playing the organ
Floyd fan like to listen to?” says at the Royal Albert Hall from 1968.
Manzanera. “I’m a Pink Floyd fan, of After six weeks, I had something.”
all different eras, so I tried to get an Gilmour eventually put the
idea of all those different eras with the proto-project in others’ hands, also.
music we had. And I found that, with Alongside Manzanera and engineer
Rick especially, there were bits I just Andy Jackson, Youth (Martin Glover)
loved. For example, he hadn’t used the was involved. Youth (ex-member of
Farfisa Duo Compact keyboard since Killing Joke and The Orb, producer of
Wish You Were Here… until these 1993 The Verve) had also produced Us And
jams. Rick hadn’t revisited his famous Them: Symphonic Pink Floyd in the
‘French horn’ sound, and that was also 90s: based on Killing Joke’s Jaz
really good.” Coleman’s reworking of classic Floyd Part of Gilmour's carefully maintained studio kit
Manzanera stresses that the songs. It also helped that Youth was

MUSIC MILESTONES
PHOTO: BRIAN RASIC/GET T Y IMAGES
PHOTO: ANDREW WHIT TUCK /REDFERNS

Manzanera himself, however,
Pink Floyd launched The Endless River With a live
lightshow by the band's original 1967 UFO Club lighting
surprisingly doesn’t play on The
designer Peter Wynne Willson. Porchester Hall, London.
Endless River. “I never try and play on
Pink Floyd or David’s songs. I’ll play
The
bass, keyboards, demos, I produce. I
think my role was showing there was a
structure that could be achieved. And
that could result in a 21st century Pink
Wright Man
Floyd album.
“YOU COULDN'T HAVE DONE

THE ENDLESS RIVER
THIS IN 1993. BUT NOW WE USE Around 20 hours of instrumental

THE STUDIO AS A PALETTE, AN music was unearthed from 1993's
INSTRUMENT. IT ENEABLED US The Division Bell sessions for
use on The Endless River. For
TO WEAVE THE WHOLE THING
David Gilmour and Nick Mason, it
TOGETHER” Phil Manzanera was a poignant reminder of
“You couldn’t have done this in playing and tone. His sound needs to
Richard Wright's immense
1993,” continues Manzanera. 'It was all have that context.” musical contribution...
analogue, but now we use the studio as And listening to the evolving
a palette, an instrument. It enabled us texture of The Endless River, it
A
s we went through this process, our minds focused
to weave the whole thing together. All certainly serves up some classic on the fact that Rick isn't coming back," David
the links between tracks are made of ‘Floydian’ guitar. It’s What We Do and Gilmour told Rolling Stone magazine in 2014. "We'll
hundreds of little sounds we found on Surfacing boast rich archetypal never get another chance to play with him. This is his last
those jams. It’s a real tapestry.” Gilmour-isms. recorded moment with Pink Floyd. It's so sad.”
Apart from closing track Louder The Lost Art Of Conversation even A gentle, unassuming and private man, Richard
Than Words, the album is exhibiting shades of Shine On You Wright's contribution to Pink Floyd was significant, as
instrumental. Much of it highlights the Crazy Diamond. Gilmour stated on his website following Wright's death
contributions of late Floyd keyboardist Manzanera: “In the back of my from cancer in 2008. “His soulful voice and playing were
Rick Wright. As Manzanera notes, “I mind, I was always thinking: ‘legacy’. vital, magical components of our most recognisable Pink
guess this album shines a light on Rick. It couldn’t be opportunistic, it had to Floyd sound.” said Gilmour. “In my view the greatest PF
David’s guitar playing, singing, and have thought, musicality and moments are the ones where he is in full flow.”
Roger Waters’ writing, were always construction. It was like having a Wright's vocals were also pivotal to the distinctive
talked about. But no-one ever really documentary point of view, the context Floyd sound. “The blend of his and my voices and our
talked about Rick. And there were only of the music that these three people musical telepathy reached their first major flowering in
four of Pink Floyd at any one time. provided. And David worked a lot on 1971 on Echoes,” said Gilmour in his eulogy.
“But I do think Rick’s choice of constructing his solos to reflect that. It was on Dark Side that Wright contributed what are
chords and sound provided a wonderful To me, it bookends Pink Floyd’s career. arguably his most memorable compositions – The Great
context for a singer or a guitarist to It’s not all guns blazing. It’s a chill-out Gig In The Sky, featuring the rousing, iconic vocal of Claire
play. You can play simple notes, as a farewell, maybe. It’s a different, Torry – and Us And Them, which is now regarded as one
guitarist, if there’s this wonderful immersive listen. But if you put in the of Floyd's most defining melodies. "He was such a lovely,
ever-changing sound beneath you. I time, you will drift off and have a gentle, genuine man.” reflected Gilmour, “and he will be
think that has highlighted David’s fantastic listening experience.” missed terribly by so many who loved him."

PINK FLOYD
Welcome
To The Machines
David Gilmour’s long-serving tech Phil Taylor
discusses the instruments, amps and effects that the
Pink Floyd legend used to summon up the rich
soundscapes of The Endless River.
Charged with keeping Gilmour's

collection primed and ready at a
moments notice, Phil Taylor inside
the Medina studio
D
avid Gilmour clearly likes water. His Gilmour has his own custom control room
famed houseboat studio, Astoria, is rack, with switching that allows him to
moored on the Thames near turn on any combination of amps in the
Hampton. His other studio, Medina, near live room – if he fancies recording in the
Brighton, overlooks the Channel. Aptly control room. Even the wiring of Medina is
enough, it was these two watery venues custom-designed by Taylor.
that were employed to record the bulk of Taylor explains: “Because David
the final Pink Floyd studio album, The records with single-coil guitars – his
Endless River. Strats, his Teles – particular attention was
Medina is smaller than you may expect paid to the electrical installation to avoid
for a musician of Gilmour’s legendary creating mains power ‘radiating’ and
status, but size isn’t everything: Medina is interference. The entire building was wired
bespoke to Gilmour’s needs. “It was a in shielded mains cable. All earthing is
derelict storage unit when David bought it connected to the regular main ‘company’
three years ago,” Phil Taylor explains. earth – except the audio-technical earth,
Once the building’s ‘shell’ had been which has two 60-foot copper rods sunk
Personalised picks are one of surprisingly renovated, Taylor got to work on bespoke into the ground. All lighting systems are
few nods to rock 'n' roll indulgence
appointments. The control room’s mixing run in 12 volts DC, and the technical
desk is hand-built and on wheels so studio power is derived from a balancing
Taylor can access its rear for servicing. transformer.”

MUSIC MILESTONES
THE BLACK STRAT MOD SQUAD SEEING RED

David Gilmour’s most celebrated guitar is As a close-up examination of the original Black Like the Black Strat, the Red Strat has been
something of a ‘mongrel’. He bought the Strat attests, it is a much-modded guitar. It extensively modded. Gilmour eventually
Fender Black Strat from Manny’s Music store was originally a Fender 1968 to ’69 alder body replaced the single coils on his main Red with
in New York in May 1970 during Pink Floyd’s with black painted over the original Sunburst. It active EMG pickups – 1979-made forerunners
US tour. Gilmour had, just weeks earlier, had a Fender late ’60s maple neck (large of what became the signature DG20s (DG still
bought his first black Fender Strat at Manny’s, headstock) and 21 frets, but a rosewood- employs the originals). The EMGs feature an
but it was soon stolen, along with much of necked version features on The Dark Side Of EXP control boosting treble and bass and an
Floyd’s rig. Floyd cancelled their remaining US The Moon and Wish You Were Here. To muddy SPC control, boosting the midrange for a
dates, but David again visited Manny’s and the waters still further, it later had a Charvel humbucker-esque tone. Gilmour also added his
bought this before returning to the UK. The neck fitted! When it came back from Hard ‘custom’ 4.25-inch vibrato arm. As well as
Black Strat was first played by Gilmour at the Rock Cafe, it was damaged and with knobs being used on The Endless River it also
Bath Festival in June 1970. missing, so the mods have continued. featured on A Momentary Lapse Of Reason.
THE ENDLESS RIVER
FENDER CUSTOM-MADE BARITONE TELE ROGER WATERS’ FENDER PRECISION BASS 1956 GIBSON LES PAUL GOLDTOP
“David has a 1963 Fender Bass VI,” says Phil When Roger Waters exited Pink Floyd, there “We got this because it had an original Gibson
Taylor. “It’s strung relatively light for a baritone. were several ‘band-owned’ instruments. One of factory Bigsby on it,” explains Phil Taylor. “He
But it’s still a 30-inch scale, so I thought I’d get them was this 1970s Fender Precision played has his ’55 (hardtail) Goldtop – that’s the one
him a new one made. I wanted it to be more by Waters. David Gilmour kept it. “This was the on Another Brick In The Wall Pt II. But David
like a guitar, shorter scale, but it also had to bass Roger had from 1974 to ’78,” says Phil wanted a Bigsby one. And he didn’t want a
have a vibrato on it. I talked to Fender, and they Taylor. “It was his main bass. It was played on modified one, with a later-added Bigsby. “It’s
made two. They have a 27-inch scale, so Wish You Were Here and Animals, mostly. I got P-90s. The only humbuckers David uses
between a guitar and a bass. You can put replaced the pickguard to be black just before are on the Gretsch Duo-Jet – and although
lighter strings on these, it feels very nice. But I the Animals tour, 1976. Roger had three black they are humbuckers, they sound more like
had to change a few things – I put a Vibramate basses – one with a rosewood neck, two with single coil pickups. He also has a reissue
String Spoiler on the back-end of the Bigsby.” maple. But this was his main one.” Gibson Les Paul from about 2009.”

PINK FLOYD
Though they might be vintage,

they're all in perfect working
order and tirelessly kept that way
WIRED FOR SOUND

“These were David’s main amps on The
Endless River,” comments Phil Taylor on the
beautiful array of vintage and modern amps
that can be found in the studio’s live room. “He
also used the Leslie Studio 12 cab with the
Allesandro Redbone Special 55-watt model.”
The set-up is made more flexible by the
addition of a rig that allows the amps to be
operated from the control room. Note the
Fender Tremolux and Champ amps.
“If David wants to record in the control
room he can, without being in the live room,”
says Phil Taylor. “This [effects] rack is not a
mirror of his main rack, it’s a system in its own
right. But you can select the studio amps in the
live space or from here. He can use the effects
in here, or play in here and send the signal to
the effects in the live room. It all means he can
monitor what he’s recording in the control
room. He can alter the speed of his Leslie
cabinet, or the speed of the Yamaha RA200, all
from here.
“The Tim de Paravacini board (wall-
mounted) is custom-made: 24 tracks into 12.
Once David’s selected his amps, he can then
control the amp mics, too, plus a couple of
ambient mics as well. And he can send all this
direct to Pro Tools. Is it complicated? Not
really. It’s actually very user-friendly. David can The Tim de Paravacini custom mixing
come in, hit four switches and the whole place board overlooks a rack of pedals
powers up. Ready to go.” arranged just how Gilmour likes them

MUSIC MILESTONES
10
TRACK
1
ASTRONOMY DOMINE SHINE ON YOU CRAZY DIAMOND
ALBUM: The Piper at the Gates of Dawn TRACK TIME: 04:15 ALBUM: Wish You Were Here TRACK TIME: 13:19
Arguably one of the oddest, boldest and At 26-minutes long, and in nine parts,
most exhilarating tracks to kickstart the track is credited to Waters, Gilmour
any band. A sublime piece of space rock and Wright, but it’s Waters' lyrics that
freak out, Astronomy boasts ominous define this as a deeply personal and
Farfisa organ from Wright, spiralling heartfelt tribute to Syd Barrett. It’s
guitar from creative commander-in- entirely fitting that Waters’ takes the
chief Barrett and crashing cymbals lead vocal on this one. His delivery is
from Mason. To set the scene, the track raw and imbued with feeling. A
is ushered in by then-band manager peerless Floyd moment – heartfelt,
Peter Jenner reading out planet names. timeless and true.
ESSENTIAL
TRACK
INTERSTELLAR OVERDRIVE 7 WISH YOU WERE HERE
ALBUM: The Piper at the Gates of Dawn TRACK TIME: 09:41 ALBUM: Wish You Were Here TRACK TIME: 05:40
Allegedly this came into being when Featuring a down-home, rootsier
TRACKS Syd Barrett heard Peter Jenner singing

a song and then attempted to interpret
it on the guitar. Its raw, visceral quality
– largely enhanced by the spiky,
instrumentation of acoustic guitars and
acoustic piano. Snippets of Tchaikovsky
and a Radio 4 play feature within the
static from a car radio at the start of
angular tones of Barrett's Telecaster the track. “We're just two lost souls,
If you only could only – gives the track an almost timeless swimming in a fish bowl, year after
quality. Discordant tones and shifting year...” Sparse and heartfelt, one of the
take 10 tracks with you… tempos only add to its ambience. most potent songs of Floyd's career.
From the space rock
TRACK
2
psychedelia of the ECHOES DOGS
Barrett era to their
ALBUM: Meddle TRACK TIME: 23:32 ALBUM: Animals TRACK TIME: 17:08
If one track marks the moment at Stretching to over 17 minutes it's a
monumental which Floyd discovered the classic savage conceptual piece. While Waters'
sound that catapulted them into the lyrics compare businessmen to dogs
progressive anthems stadium league, then this is it. A classic (canines can even be heard barking
from the opening effected submarine through vocoders in one section),
and beyond, here are 10 bleeps (a high A note played on a grand Gilmour's twin guitar harmonies
outstanding tracks piano and the signal then sent through
a Leslie speaker) to their echoed
dominate, providing the soaring
progression before the synth-driven
across five decades that refrains almost 24 minutes later. passage kicks in.
define the very best of

TRACK
BRAIN DAMAGE / ECLIPSE 19 COMFORTABLY NUMB

Pink Floyd… ALBUM: The Dark Side of the Moon TRACK TIME: 03:47 + 02:01 ALBUM: The Wall TRACK TIME: 06:25
Two tracks that meld seamlessly into While The Wall is very much Waters'
By Neil Crossley one. Brain Damage is inspired by the album, the music for arguably its
breakdown of Barrett and emerging strongest track is written by Gilmour.
from the album's prevailing themes of Waters lyrics concern playing a gig in
madness, greed and isolation, the Philadelphia while under the influence
hugely emotive and rousing Eclipse of doctor-prescribed tranquillisers.
offers a sense of hope and resolution Anthemic and rousing, the track
– a life-affirming postscript to one of features two of the most blistering
the finest albums ever made. guitar solos ever from Gilmour.
TRACK
TIME 3 HIGH HOPES

ALBUM: The Dark Side of the Moon TRACK TIME: 07:05 ALBUM: The Division Bell TRACK TIME: 08:32
The passage of the years and the fear of A new chapter, with Gilmour now
unrealised aspirations is the focus firmly at the helm. Church bells usher
here. The song settles into a strident, in the result of a cathartic and feverish
steady groove, the bedrock for Gilmour burst of writing from Gilmour, with
and Waters’ shared vocals. But the real lyrics co-written by his wife Polly
highlight is Gilmour’s guitar solo that Samson. The song finds Gilmour
stretches from 3:15 to 4:40. Soaring, reminiscing about his past, leaving his
searing, majestic… Transporting the hometown of Cambridge and the seeds
listener to a higher emotional plane. of division sewn in Floyd's early years.

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The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn Ummagumma

Obscured By Clouds Animals The Division Bell

A Momentary Lapse Of Reason

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Studio Abbey Road, London

The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn

Studio Two. Nearly half a century later the two records

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Pink Floyd at the Casa Madrona Hotel, Sausalito,

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“I WASN’T THAT KNOWLEDGEABLE

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[From left] Nick Mason, Syd Barrett, Rick Wright

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Studio Abbey Road, London

more solid and staid former schoolmate David and a vocalist.

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The first sessions for this

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Barrett’s final contribution and a

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Studio Pye Studios, London

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