50 years since psychedelic rock legends played small Birmingham ballroom
NEXT month sees the 50th anniversary of the night a little known band, soon to become a psychedelic superstars, appeared at a small suburban club in Birmingham.
Pink Floyd’s performance at Kings Heath’s Ritz Ballroom – a hall graced by some of Britain’s biggest names – coincided with the release of their second single, See Emily Play, and their first album, The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn.
Two years later, they would return to Birmingham with much more of a fanfare.
They would record the live part of album Ummagumma at the legendary Mothers Club, in Erdington.
But it is the lesser known December 16, 1967 Ritz gig that is to be remembered, thanks to Birmingham music historians Bob Prew and Ken Whittaker.
On December 3 local musicians will honour Floyd’s unique sound at Fletchers Bar and the Hare And Hounds. The Ritz itself later became a shop and was destroyed in a recent blaze.
But when Pink Floyd stepped on to the stage all those years ago, the legendary Barrett was still the frontman. The line-up was completed by Roger Waters, Rick Wright and drummer Nick Mason, who was born in Edgbaston.
But the gig represents something of a lost gem for rock aficionados.
For supporting Floyd that night were Birmingham’s Rare Breed.
Though the band’s name will mean little, the line-up will certainly strike a chord – it included Ozzy Osbourne and Geezer Butler, who went on to find fame and fortune with Black Sabbath.
The Rare Breed came together after Osbourne placed a scrawled ad in Ringway Music, a shop in the Bull Ring.
The godfather of heavy metal wrote on a card: “Ozzy Zig – vocalist looking for a band. Owns own PA.”
The ad attracted the attention of guitarists Roger Hope and Terence “Geezer” Butler, who invited Ozzy to be singer for their fledgling group.
The Rare Breed split up after six months because some members weren’t prepared to give up their day jobs.
Bob Prew said: “Can you imagine how much a ticket for a concert like the one at The Ritz would cost today? “Yet, back then, the public paid around five bob and Pink Floyd would’ve been lucky if they got a tenner. I doubt very much if it was a sell-out – Pink Floyd were just starting off.
“Fifty years later they have become one of the bestselling and most influential groups of all time and were earlier this year the subject of a major retrospective exhibition at the Victoria And Albert Museum in London.”
The set that night is not known, but Mr Prew said: “They would almost certainly have played Arnold Layne, See Emily Play and Astronomy Domine, all of which were written solely by Syd Barrett, and Interstellar Overdrive, which was written by the whole group.”
Mr Prew and Ken Whittaker are now searching for anyone who attended the concert and can fill in the blanks.
We know it was not Floyd’s first live performance in Birmingham – that honour goes to Digbeth Civic Hall, the setting for a concert on July 2, 1967.
A month after the Ritz, Floyd were back to play Aston University.
The days when they packed stadiums were a long way away.
The book Echoes: The Complete History Of Pink Floyd devotes only one sentence to the concert : “Early show supported by Gospel Garden and The Rare Breed and DJ Dave Terry.”
Interestingly, the book also lists a gig on the very same day that seems to have slipped the net, a performance at The Penthouse, Constitution Hill, Birmingham.
For Nick Mason, son of a documentary film maker, the concerts would be something of a homecoming, although his family moved to Hampstead, London, when he was very young.
But Floyd were yet another heavyweight name to add to the Ritz’s impressive list of performers. out
Back then, the public paid around five bob and Pink Floyd would’ve been lucky if they got a tenner Bob Prew