Further early Pink Floyd shows uncovered
Written by Matt   
Tuesday, 09 November 2010

Pink Floyd - Wolves Polytechnic 1970 concert posterSome exciting news for the Pink Floyd historians amongst us - details of some early English appearances have now come to light, thanks to some Brain Damage visitors who've provided some documentary proof!

First, as Brian Viner (who organised the gig) has told us, there was an appearance at London's Roundhouse on July 9th, 1967, which was filmed for the BBC's "Late Night Line-Up". Looking at the invoice for this, the payment for the gig was made not to the bands involved, but to Muscular Dystrophy Research. The session, scheduled to be 40 minutes, was an evening show. Even then, the stage show was important to them, with a stipulation of a platform "not less than 8 ft in height and 30 sq ft in surface area to support artistes lighting equipment". The other band for the night was the Moody Blues ("a bargain at £60!"), and Brian recalls "dragging a piano into the Roundhouse that we borrowed from the pub across the road at the request of The Moody Blues."

There was also an appearance at the New Year Ball at Waltham Forest Technical College on December 31st, 1968. Booked by the social secretary for the princely sum of £600 (a lot in those days), Chris Hall recalls them playing Set The Controls, Saucerful, and more. He recalls there were no tickets ("they were ALL hippies, it was a stamp on the hand job..."), and his friend Dave Colli was also there. Dave recalls that the band were not playing on the main stage, but on a temporary stage at the side of the hall. He remembers "staring at Dave Gilmour in wonder from only about five feet away", and roadie Pete Watts mooching around.

Finally, January 23rd 1970 saw the band perform at the Civic Hall at Wolverhampton Polytechnic in the West Midlands. As you can see from the poster, there was an eclectic mix in the show that ran from 8pm to 2am, and included the likes of Zoot Money's Musicband and Cliff Bennett alongside Pink Floyd. Our thanks to Geoff Pearson for this info and the poster...