Pink Floyd & Cambridge Part 1.

I remember the night of April 27th 1969 very well. It was a Sunday and I was 15 and just weeks away from my 'O' level examinations. My mother said 'out of the question' but I could not miss seeing Pink Floyd record a live set which was to be released as part of the  'Ummagumma' album. We argued, I made all sorts of promises and off I went. I became a regular at Mothers, a relatively small club above an undertakers in Erdington Birmingham. John Peel was a resident DJ and I saw some of the world's best bands there and paid a pittance for entry. On one occasion, I remember Steve Howe, of the band 'Yes', during an amazing virtuoso guitar solo, leap into the air, piercing the low ceiling with his guitar head which then got stuck before putting the electrics out!

I arrived early for the Floyd show and secured a front row seat. However, the occasion was a let down. The material had not been rehearsed of course, the band bickered and the recording engineers struggled to get much down on tape. But, nonetheless, I had been there but I now faced a walk  of several miles to get home because I'd missed the last bus and, of course, a boring morning at school! Another 'Brick in the Wall'!
See here for more on the Mothers club: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mothers_(music_venue)

So what of the Cambridge connection? The top photograph of Morley Memorial Primary School in Cambridge was taken this morning. It is the very place where, it could be said, the Floyd started because it is where a certain Roger Waters and Roger (Syd) Barrett, two of the band's founding members, met. On Saturday mornings, Barrett went to art classes at nearby Homerton Teacher Training College where he befriended another local lad, David Gilmour, who would later replace him in the band.

The bottom photo is from the front cover of the Floyd's best selling album: 'Dark Side of the Moon'.

More on the Floyd and Cambridge tomorrow......