Pink Floyd Band: Progressive Rock

museband.net

In 1964, three friends; George  (guitar), Richard Wright (keyboards), & Nick Mason (drums) (all students at the Regent Street School Of Polytechnics), formed a band called Sigma 6. Unsuccessful to get famous, The band changed their name to The T-Sets. Later in middle 1965, the band became The Abdads, with new members Clive Metcalf on bass guitar, and Keith Nobles and Juliette Gale on backup vocals. The band changed their name to both The Screaming Abdads, and The Architectural Abdabs. In 1966, Julliette Gale married Rick Wright and The Abdabs broke up. Later that year George legally changed his name to Roger. In Autumn 1966, the band became Sigma 6 again, Roger switched to bass guitar, and they recruited 2 guitar players; Bob Close and Roger Syd Barret. Before long they changed their name to The  Sound.

Later that year, Bob Close left the band. The band finally had a chance to record their first single, Arnold Layne, a song about a crazy transvestite who steals women's clothes. Before long, they dropped the words "The" and "Sound" in the name and made their first album, The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn. The studio rented out to make the album, was right down the hall from where The Beatles were recording Sgt. Peppers, so the band got to know The Beatles very well.

The band had a subsequent tour scheduled for the U.S.A., but Syd got very sick from being blasted on LSD (better know as acid). His LSD addiction helped his imagination to write songs, but around the time of A Saucerful Of Secrets, his drug habits were out of control.

By the end of 1967, Syd was becoming to spaced out for his writings. The band considered getting a replacement for Syd. They recruited David Gilmour, an old friend of Roger and Syd's. Syd got guitar lessons from David in Grammar and High School.

David was recruited to cover for Syd on stage. If Syd were to make a mistake, David would fill the gap, and fix it. That didn't work out. David would cover for Syd on stage while Syd stayed behind stage and wrote songs. That didn't work out.

The band tried as hard as they could to keep Syd in the band, but his acid addiction took control of him and he went crazy. The band finally decided to kick out Syd. Syd wanted to see their show that night but they didn't pick him up. Goodbye Syd Barret. He was institutionalized for drug abuse in 1974.

In 1968, the band continued on without Syd. This was a major tragedy in England, but not in America. Another major tragedy was when David Gilmour's Telecaster was stolen in Chicago. Later that year, the band played a gig in France, and one of the attendees of the show was famous French hippie movie director, Barbet Schroder. He asked  to do the soundtrack to his next picture, More, which would come out in 1969. The band also had an unreleased rock opera the played on-stage, called The Man and The Journey, which they took 3 songs from for the More Soundtrack; Sleep/Nightmare (which would become Cymbaline), Green Is The Colour, and Death (which both parts of the song became both Main Theme and Dramatic Sequence).

The album and movie would be a success in Europe and Britian. The band retired The Man and The Journey before being recorded, but used one song from the album called The Narrow Way. Barbet Schroder would ask the band to do another soundtrack for another movie in 1972 called La Vallee, known in America and Britian as The Valley Obscured By Clouds.