Page 33 - Seniors Today Dec 2019

So, how did all this come about? In 1963, three
British architecture students in London named
Roger Waters, Nick Mason and Richard Wright
started playing some music together with three
other friends as a sextet. They called themselves
Sigma 6. The band started performing in small
restaurants, private parties and music rooms.
Sometime in 1964, Syd Barrett who was known
to Roger Waters for some years, joined the band.
He was a creative genius and he quickly became
the frontman for the group, playing the guitar
and singing the lead. He also wrote many of the
songs initially. They continued to play in clubs. The classic Dark Side Of The Moon album
The name Pink Floyd Sound was adopted for Syd Barrett in London and knew him well.
the band. It was a combination of the first names He was also a lead guitarist and singer. The
of two blues singers, Pink Anderson and Floyd group took him on as the fifth member of Pink
Council, whose music was liked by Barrett. Floyd, to stand in for the increasingly erratic
True to their first love, the band started playing and undependable Barrett and eventually
many rhythm and blues numbers and started replaced him completely. By 1968 Barrett was
working with sounds. Barrett and Wright out of Pink Floyd. While he was considered
started experimenting with sonic effects and the most talented and inspirational for many of
keyboard sounds made their way into the music. the Pink Floyd creations, his departure led to
Roger Waters taking up song writing seriously
Professional identity and became the creative leader. The others also
By 1966 the band started to get more recognised contributed during their careers.
and got some regular commissions to play in Jenner and King the management team also
different venues. Peter Jenner and Andrew King parted company with the band and backed
started managing the band professionally by Barrett in his solo career. Steve O’Rourke took
then. Around this time, they dropped the Sound over as manager of the band.
from their name and became Pink Floyd! The second album to be released by the group
In 1966, their first single with Arnold Layne
on one side and Candy and Current Bun on
the flip side was released by EMI. This was
followed by the single “See Emily Play” in 1967.
This did much better at the music charts and
rose to number 6 in Britain. In middle of 1966
EMI released the first Pink Floyd album “The
Piper at the Gates of Dawn”. The album did
respectably and rose to number 6 on British
charts.
Pink Floyd’s live performances started drawing
large crowds. But, by this time Syd Barrett the
front man had started to behave in bizarre ways.
His mental condition became fragile and drugs
added to the confusion. He started to appear in
the band, without actually performing. And, he
continued to write songs.
David Gilmour was a fellow student with David Gilmour

33 SENIORS TODAY | Volume 1 | Issue 6