Often cited as a "holy grail" of early Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd television footage, the band's performances of "See Emily Play" on the BBC's Top Of The Pops weekly music programme [click thumbnail, right] have long been missing. The BBC had a disastrous policy of wiping recordings in the earlier days of the corporation, so that they could re-use the tapes as a cost-cutting measure. Many classic performances and shows have thus been lost forever.

However, on occasion private collectors pop up with their own private recordings, filling in some of the missing gems from yesteryear. One such incredible recent find is a couple of episodes of Top Of The Pops - from July 6th and 27th, 1967. The tape condition is very poor, but nevertheless around 20 minutes of each episode, hosted by Alan Freeman, exists. Both shows feature picture rolling and drop outs but every so often there's a 30 second - 1 minute section in near pristine quality. Amongst the performances recovered is, remarkably, "See Emily Play" from the July 6th show!

Plans are now being drawn up to include the Top Of The Pops footage in a special screening event at the BFI Southbank in London, early next year. More details as we get them. Our thanks to Jim Brackenridge, and Adrian Petford, of www.kaleidoscope.org.uk, who have more details of this and other historic, lost recordings.