Echoes of Pink Floyd

A MANCHESTER author is looking for people who may have seen legendary rock band Pink Floyd play in Hinckley in the 1960s.

Pink Floyd are best known for their 1970’s prog-rock album The Wall and fabulous stage effects, including the inflatable pig Algie who once slipped his moorings at Battersea Power Station and flew off across London.

But before selling out arenas around the world, Pink Floyd started out playing smaller venues, including the St George’s Ballroom in Hinckley in May 1967.

And Richard Houghton is trying to trace fans that may have witnessed this early show to help him write a ‘people’s history’ of the group.

Richard Houghton said: ‘Pink Floyd began performing over 50 years ago and are one of the biggest rock acts of all time, with their 1970s album Dark Side of the Moon having racked up an incredible 741 weeks in the charts and 45 million copies sold. But their first success was with founding member Syd Barrett and their early hits ‘Arnold Layne’ and ‘See Emily Play’. It is recollections of that earlier line up which performed in Hinckley that I am particularly interested in.’

Richard, who has already written books about The Beatles, The Who and the Rolling Stones, said: ‘The St George’s Ballroom hosted a lot of top acts in the 1960s and Pink Floyd were one of many that went on to achieve big things. I’m hoping some of your readers may have witnessed that Hinckley show and I’m really interested to hear from them. I’m hoping to capture people’s memories of the earliest flowerings of psychedelic rock and preserve these for posterity.’

You can share your memories of Pink Floyd at isawpinkfloyd@ gmail.com or by writing to Richard at 1 Totnes Road, Manchester, M21 8XF.