Article published in Rave magazine – June 1967
The Pink Floyd were just another group—until they discovered that light plus sound equalled entertainment. Here they entertain RAVE’s pop writer Maureen O’Grady!
The Pink Floyd, pioneers | Roger Waters, Nick Mason, Rick Wright and Sid Barrett are the Pink Floyd. They have been described as one of our most futuristic groups.
People say their act is basically the same as the Move’s, but with less aggression. They say they used flashing coloured lights on stage first. Not that the Pink Floyd are against aggression.
They talked rather fondly of the Move smashing up television sets on stage, and the Who smashing up guitars and amps. The Pink Floyd think it’s a great idea because these two groups are doing things that the audience would love to do if they had half a chance!
They think that most of their audiences are aware that the sets are broken and useless anyway, and the amps and guitars valueless. But that doesn’t matter. That’s not the point. The point about the Pink Floyd they say, is that they want to be visual and fun!
The Pink Floyd, pioneers
In talking, they use the word ‘cat’ to describe anyone who walks around on two legs, and they
like to see people ‘flip their minds’ when listening to and watching their performances, But, strangely enough, with the Floyd, music isn’t the Important thing.
Said Roger, with blue tinted glasses perched on the end of his nose, “For us the most important thing is to be visual, and for the cats watching us to have fun.
This Is all we want. We get very upset if people get bored when we’re only half-way through smashing the second set.
Then all of a sudden they hear ‘Arnold Layne’ and they flip all over again. It’s sad when an audience isn’t always with you.
Mixed Reaction
“At the UFO Club In London, the people there are so blasé that they are bored to death with ‘Arnold Layne’ because it’s become a pop song. Yet in other clubs this song is the only song of ours they know and enjoy.
Some don’t like the song because they think it’s a smutty idea for a man to run around pinching clothes from washing lines. But we think it’s fun!”
Some audience boredom stems from the fact that the Floyd only use their own material. “A lot of people like to hear songs they’ve never heard before,” said Nick, “but some find it rather boring being able to recognise anything.
We’re not a sexy group. We don’t go cavorting across the stage! Even our fans don’t think of us as sexy except on one occasion in Belfast, where they were all old ravers!
Usually girls come up to us after we’ve played and shyly and politely talk to us. We never get mobbed or anything like that!”
Nick wasn’t quite sure whether that was a good or bad thing, but then decided he wouldn’t like to be torn to bits anyway. “Now take three of the biggest crowd-pullers in the country—Geno Washington, Herbie Goins and the Cream—they’re good music, visual and fun. They sell themselves without sex. That’s good.”
Light Music
The Floyd like their audiences to be appreciative but lively, as it was when they first started playing at the Round House in London.
“With us,” said Roger, “it depends on the club’s atmosphere to start with as to how we go down. our music is light and sound. We don’t want any particular image.
Our managers said we should find one, apparently it’s important, but we’re not prepared to be pigeon-holed like other groups.
Two years ago we were a blues group, but then we suddenly stopped playing ordinary music and started improvising around single chords. This gave us a lot more musical freedom.”
The best reaction so far to Floyd’s lights and sounds was in Belfast.
“The kind of place” said Rick, “where if they don’t like you, they let you know in no uncertain manner. However, we were worried about Belfast, but they really rave over there and we were completely knocked out and stunned at the reaction.
“we just never know where we are going to go down well. Some places up north flip over us, while others are cold for no apparent reason. Pete Townshend of the Who was telling me that they are just breaking through with their music up North, after all these years, so we’re not too worried!”
The Pink Floyd, pioneers
Until February of this year the Floyd were all studying. Two were students of architecture, one studied painting and design, and one music. But after two years of playing together and gradually finding a demand for their sounds and lights, studying was pushed to one side.
They don’t and won’t live together, but musically they are as one. Talk about money, and they just shyly shrug their shoulders.
“We don’t get all that much money now because our earnings are split six ways – us four and our two managers. We buy all our own equipment, not to mention hire purchase payments, so our present wage is quite small.
But ‘Arnold Layne’ should bring in a few pounds,” Nick grinned. “In fact we really didn’t want ‘Arnold Layne’ to be our first single. We were asked to record six numbers, pick out the best two, then find a recording company that would accept them.
“We recorded the first two, and they were snatched away and we were told, that’s it! All the recording companies want the disc, so it was just a case of holding out for the biggest offer.
The Pink Floyd, pioneers
“By the time ‘Arnold Layne’ was released, we had already progressed and changed our ideas about what a good hit record should be. We tried to stop it being released, but we couldn’t. Still, it doesn’t matter now.”
The other songs they write are rarely love songs. They do write sort of love songs, but about things other than ‘boy meets girl and falls in love’. They’re already half-way through their first LP now and they think it will really make an impact and show everyone what they’re about.
The life they now lead seems a little foreign to them, and they are a little uncertain about the extra activities of pop group such as interviews and photo sessions.
Apart from not wanting an image or having any definite ambitions, the only thing the Pink Floyd would like is a No.1 in the Charts.
“It would be nice to know that we are pleasing many people instead of just a few” they say. “We haven’t even got a typical fan – they could be twelve or forty-two, and that’s very strange.
Money would be nice, but it’s not everything. We have this horror of boring our fans.
And that thought of just playing for our own pleasure and amusement, we would be better off staying at home.”
Somehow, I can’t see that happening!
“See Emily Play” reviewed here.
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