{ta{M{9 H I S T O R Y {C{: BY SABLE/INDY {A{5 Here is a bit of a compacted history of Pink Floyd. They started off called The Pink Floyd Sound and consisted of Barrett, Waters, Mason and Wright. They spent their time playing in something called Spontaneous Underground where basically anyone comes along and does anything. Pink Floyd along with the Rolling Stones and the Who started here. They weren't playing music apparently they were playing sounds to an audience squirming in a huge pink jelly?!?!?! The name Pink FLoyd comes from two names in Syd Barretts record collection - Blues player Pink Anderson and Floyd 'Dipper Boy' Council?!?!?. The first tracks that The Pink Floyd Sound played were mainly Rolling Stones greatest hits except they would, right in the middle, break off into psychedelic instrumental breaks with loads off feedback and distortion, spomeone, I can't remember who claims that Jimi Hendrix stole his non-stop feedback idea from the very early Floyd, true he was better at it, but they (or more accurately Syd Barrett) thought of it first. In those days Syd was the driving force for the band, he was the inventive power behind the band. Most {ta{A{5of the others weren't even very good on their instruments. Basically he'd come in and say this is what I want you to do and they would do it. Eventually they got away from reproducing old R & B with pyschedelic breaks and managed to produce some of their own songs, by October 1966 they were often playing classic tracks such as Interstellar Overdrive and Astronome Domine. Anyway they carried on for a bit, released an album and did pretty well. Eventually they started releasing singles and appearing on Top of the Pops. Unfortunately Syd couldn't handle the fame and pressure. He was basically the person everyone looked at in the band, he was the lead singer and guitarist, he used to get all the women and basically enjoyed himself quite a bit, but was even then very mentally unstable. It was about now (late 60s ish) that a major split occured in the band, on the one hand were the people who wanted to smoke pot and take acid and on the other side were those who wanted to drink heavily, this caused great strife as you can imagine but in the end it was solved by the decision to simply do both. Syd gained most of his inspiration from taking acid, and by the end of his career had spent a good year without coming down from this one huge acid trip. The problem was he'd go round someones house and they drop acid into his coffee and not tell him so he'd be already high and another he'd get another hit. A couple of times he would appear on stage and not play anything except one chord all night. Or he'd stare blankly at {ta{A{5people's faces not recognising anyone. Syd's appearance on Top of the Pops was a bit of a disaster, the first time he wouldn't move his lips whilst 'miming' to his song See Emily Play, the second time he turned up in clothes that looked he like he'd slept in for a week and the third he arrived looking OK but changed into rags before going on. The Pink Floyd, after the disaster they had appearing on Top of the Pops, decided to never release another single again and it was only about 12 years later when Roger Waters had really taken over that he managed to go commercial (with the help of Bob Ezrin) and release Another Brick in the Wall (part 2). Syd's decline wasn't helped by the fact that the rest of the band members never even noticed he was going insane and used to take the piss of his weird phases quite a bit. Another thing that didn't help was being called "laughing Syd Barrett" by Jimi Hendrix all the time they were his supporting act. One of Syd's final tracks 'Have You Got It Yet' consisted of something completely different every time, he'd be playing away and he'd sing "have you got it yet?" and the rest would say "no no". They'd say things like "what key is that in" and he'd go "yeah" or "that's funny". One of Barrett's problem was that to him music was an act of expression, he would often refuse to play anything twice and certain tracks would be completely different the second time he performed. Anyway, eventually Syd cracked and left the Floyd to live somewhere in Cambridge with his family. According to a Radio One interview in 1988 with a Barrett {ta{A{5family spokesman "Barret is pursuing a 'very ordinary sort of lifestyle', albeit one devoid of any regular human contact beyond an occasional shopping trip with his elderly mother. He 'doesn't play any musical instruments any more'. As for Syd's musical career, that was a 'part of his life which he prefers to forget now. He had some bad experiences, and, thankfully, has come through all the worst of these, and is now able - fortunately - to lead a normal life here with us in Cambridge" When it was finally announced that Syd had left The Pink Floyd for good all the critics instantly proclaimed The Pink Floyd dead and in fact they were, they changed their name to Pink Floyd (spot the difference, there's no "The") and continued for a few years under the leadership of Roger Waters and with the inclusion of David Gilmour. They floundered for a few years merely reproducing old songs with very few new ones, until 1971 when they released Meddle. This album was very different from anything they'd released before and Echoes was proclaimed the pinnacle of Pink Floyd's achievements. Anyway they carried on a bit more, but as time passed it was obvious that Roger Waters was taking more and more control, he considered Pink Floyd his band and used it to proclaim his 'fuck the establishment' message. By the time Dark Side was released he had all but taken control of everyone and had started getting in really bad arguments with the rest of the band and especially Dave. After releasing Dark Side of the Moon the band suffered their most popular period, {ta{A{5they all earnt loads of money and stopped performing for a short while. About now they released Wish You Were here. In the middle of recording this Syd Barrett turned up in the studio. He'd turned into this huge balding blimp who everyone thought was some sort of caretaker or something. Apparently when they finally recognised him, Roger burst into tears. Anyway, Syd went up to the band and proclaimed that he was ready to let them use his talent. Whilst they were recording Shine On You Crazy Diamond he never even blinked, apparently not realising that it was a tribute to him. When the Floyd were asked to repeat the song for recording, he said 'why bother you've heard it once'. Eventually they took him to the pub (or somewhere) with them and most people mistook him for a Hare Krishna because he kept talking to himself and acting mad. Eventually he went back home and no-one ever saw him again. After a bit more success they reformed, never having actually split up, and released The Wall, most people consider this a solo album by Roger but Dave and Bob Ezrin, who was brought in to help, should have gained a bigger slice of the credit. You will notice that on the cover Rick Wright and Nick Mason aren't named at all, this was A) because Roger wouldn't let them do anything on the album and B) he'd fallen out with them so much that he refused to accept they were even in Pink Floyd. After The Wall's release and even more fame Roger finally decided that Pink Floyd were defunct and after telling them so, left. Dave Gilmour was determined {ta{A{5to keep the band alive. This didn't please Roger and he immediately filed lawsuits on Pink Floyd to stop them playing. This had little affect as the courts realised that Roger was being a petty minded sod. Dave along with Bob Ezrin hired loads of people and they all got together and released A Momentary Lapse of Reason which was a massive success, despite Roger constantly slagging off the lyrics. Now of course Pink Floyd are currently in the middle of another tour, which coincides with the new album (out on Monday 28th March apparently), there are lots of rumours about Dave and Roger getting back together although the Floyd claim this is a load of bollocks, but what do they know. So that as far as I know is an up to date story of Pink Floyd from beginning to (hopefully not the) end. {A{: End. {PH