| Pink Floyd mini-bio:
One of the most predominant and celebrated rock bands of all time, the origins of Pink Floyd can be traced to Cambridge High School in England. Syd Barrett (born Roger Keith Barrett, 6 January 1946, Cambridge, England, d. 7 July 2006, Cambridge, England; guitar/vocals), Roger Waters (b.
George Roger Waters, 9 September 1943, Great Bookham, Surrey, England; bass/vocals) and David Gilmour (b. 6 March 1946, Cambridge, England; guitar/vocals) were pupils and friends there. Mutually drawn to music, Barrett and Gilmour undertook a busking tour of Europe prior to the former's enrolment at the Camberwell School Of Art in London.
Waters was meanwhile studying architecture at the city's Regent Street Polytechnic. He formed an R&B-based band, Sigma 6, with fellow students Nick Mason (b. Nicholas Berkeley Mason, 27 January 1944, Downshire Hill, Birmingham, England; drums) and Rick Wright (b.
Richard William Wright, 28 July 1945, London, England; keyboards). The early line-up included bass player Clive Metcalfe - Waters favoured guitar at this point - and (briefly) Juliette Gale (who later married Wright) but underwent the first crucial change when Bob "Rado' Klose (lead guitar) replaced Metcalfe.
With Waters now on bass, the band took a variety of names, including the (Screaming) Abdabs and the Tea Set. Sensing a malaise, Waters invited Barrett to join but the latter's blend of blues, pop and mysticism was at odds with Klose's traditional jazz outlook and began to create tension.
Barrett, Waters, Mason, Wright and Klose reconvened as the Pink Floyd Sound, a name Barrett had suggested, inspired by an album by Georgia blues" musicians Pink Anderson and Floyd Council. Within weeks the quartet had repaired to the Thompson Private Recording Company, sited in the basement of a house.
Here they recorded two songs, "Lucy Leave", a Barrett original playfully blending pop and R&B, and a cover version of Slim Harpo's "I'm A King Bee". Although rudimentary, both tracks indicated a defined sense of purpose, but Klose left the line-up shortly afterwards leaving the remaining members to continue as a quartet.
Ditching the now-superfluous "Sound" suffix, the Pink Floyd attracted notoriety as part of the nascent counter-culture milieu centred on the London Free School. A focus for the emergent underground, this self-help organisation co-founded by John "Hoppy" Hopkins, Peter Jenner, Andrew King and Joe Boyd, inspired the founding of Britain's first alternative publication, International Times.
The paper was launched at the Roundhouse in London on 15 October 1966; it was here Pink Floyd made its major debut. By December the band was appearing regularly at the newly founded UFO Club on Tottenham Court Road, spearheading Britain's psychedelic movement with extended, improvised sets and a highly visual light show.
Further demos ensued, produced by UFO-co-founder Boyd, which in turn engendered a recording contract with EMI Records. Surprisingly, the band's hit singles were different to their live sound, featuring Barrett's quirky melodies and lyrics.
"Arnold Layne', a tale of a transvestite who steals ladies" clothes from washing lines, escaped a BBC ban to rise into the UK Top 20. "See Emily Play", originally entitled "Games For May" in honour of an event the band hosted at Queen Elizabeth Hall, reached number 6 in June 1967.
It was succeeded by The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn, which encapsulated Britain's "Summer of Love". Largely Barrett-penned and produced by former Beatles engineer Norman Smith (b, 22 February 1923, London, England, d.
3 March 2008), the set deftly combined childlike fantasy with experimentation, where whimsical pop songs nestled beside riff-laden sorties, notably the powerful "Interstellar Overdrive". Chart success begat package tours - including a memorable bill alongside the Jimi Hendrix Experience - which, when combined with a disastrous US tour, wrought unbearable pressure on Barrett's fragile psyche.
His indulgence in hallucinogenic drugs exacerbated such problems and he often proved near comatose on-stage and incoherent with interviewers. A third single, "Apples And Oranges", enthralled but jarred in equal measures, while further recordings, "Vegetable Man" and "Scream Thy Last Scream", were deemed unsuitable for release.
His colleagues, fearful for their friend and sensing a possible end to the band, brought Dave Gilmour into the line-up in February 1968. Plans for Barrett to maintain a backroom role, writing for the band but not touring, came to naught and his departure was announced the following April.
He subsequently followed a captivating, but short-lived, solo career. Although bereft of their principle songwriter, the realigned Pink Floyd completed Saucerful Of Secrets. It featured one Barrett original, the harrowing "Jugband Blues", as well as two songs destined to become an integral part of their live concerts, the title track itself and "Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun".
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