When did you discover Pink Floyd and what are some of your favourite memories of the band?

General discussion about Pink Floyd.
User avatar
space triangle
Hammer
Hammer
Posts: 858
Joined: Tue Jan 21, 2020 1:25 pm

Re: When did you discover Pink Floyd and what are some of your favourite memories of the band?

Post by space triangle »

I discovered Pink Floyd when I was 16-17 years old. I never forget that night(or early morning). :)

At the time, as a teenager I was a heavy into Ramones, Sex Pistols and New Wave - Talking Heads, The Cure, The Smiths....and such bands.

One night it was a party at my friend's house. A lot of beer and cigarettes. And of course, the music of the above-mentioned groups was constantly spinning on the turntable. Well. about 3-4 o'clock in the morning, some other friends came to the party too. One of them carried an LP under his armpit. Without saying much, he removed the record from the cover and put it on the turntable.

Well, the music that began to come out of from the speakers was totally different from the Ramones, Sex Pistols. Talking Heads or any other band we used to like at the time. We all sat pretty sleepy and listened to the LP in silence. We were all like hypnotized all of a sudden.

And, it was the beginning of Shine On Crazy Diamond vi all heard for the very first time., and the LP was off course 'Wish You Were Here'

We were many who were musically speaking saved that night. Suffice ito say, from the next day i went on a feverish quest to collect all of the Pink Floyd albums.
Calva
Embryo
Embryo
Posts: 2
Joined: Tue May 05, 2020 1:01 pm

Re: When did you discover Pink Floyd and what are some of your favourite memories of the band?

Post by Calva »

I had heard the big hits like Wish You Were Here and Another Brick In The Wall but didn't really listen to them. I've just turned 19 and started listening to them a few months ago. The first of their lesser-known songs I heard was Let There Be More Light and it intrigued me a lot so I decided to listen to Piper and it blew me away.
NickTheHat
Embryo
Embryo
Posts: 3
Joined: Wed Jul 08, 2020 3:42 pm

Re: When did you discover Pink Floyd and what are some of your favourite memories of the band?

Post by NickTheHat »

First discovered PF at secondary school with Another Brick as a hit single. Then me and my friend slowly worked our way backward through the albums both settling on the the Syd and very early Rog years as our favourites.

In the 1983 general election the school ran a kids equivalent with speeches etc and voting. We created an Apathy Anarchy party that one could vote for and put posters up around the school, Called it Terrapin as Syd felt very underground at that point.

My dad had been into racing old cars and took the two of us to Silverstone for a day out with classic car racing in the eighties. We got to see Nick Mason race and then we were briefly introduced to him by my dads mutual friend. That felt very cool and he signed my Floyd book.
KingQueenKnave
Embryo
Embryo
Posts: 15
Joined: Sat Jul 25, 2020 3:01 pm
Gender: Male

Re: When did you discover Pink Floyd and what are some of your favourite memories of the band?

Post by KingQueenKnave »

I knew of Pink Floyd growing up - who didn't? - largely because my Dad is a fan. He even saw The Wall live in Earl's Court, 1980, and even though he wasn't a big fan of the album he loved the show.

I started only listening to Pink Floyd technically in 2012. My parents bought me The Piper at the Gates of Dawn because, trying to be different - yeesh in hindsight quite cringy - I wanted to listen to the lesser known stuff, or the stuff with Syd. I am a massive post-punk fan, and quite a few of the bands either explicitly name dropped the Barrett stuff or I read they sounded like Barrett era Floyd. Either way, I wanted to start at the very beginning.

First thoughts: this is, uhh, kinda weird. I shelved it for a good couple of years because I couldn't make heads or tails of it. It was only in 2016 when Pink Floyd entered my orbit again. I had signed onto another music website, RateYourMusic, and noticed that The Dark Side of the Moon was (at the time) the #2 album of all time, and Wish You Were Here was #5. I had come across these albums in a book I owned, 1001 Albums To Hear Before You Die, and I never actually got around to listening to them.

I discovered the classic Floyd in about September of that year. It was sort of a formative time for me. The only bands/artists I listened before, say, 1977 (was into a lot of punk) were The Velvet Underground and David Bowie. I was mostly unfamiliar with what I suppose is now derogatorily labelled "boomer-core". So, having never heard a note of The Dark Side of the Moon, I went into it without much of an idea of what to expect, even though this was a famous album with a lot of hype.

Well, the album was worth the hope. Whilst I was somewhat familiar with the idea of albums having a flow or structure to them, this was one of the first albums I had heard where everything fit into place with songs fading into each other in succession. I loved the individual moments and the overall work. Straight after, I listened to Wish You Were Here, and fell in love even more.

The next day was Animals which...well, it's Animals!

I associate Pink Floyd with some great memories. Me and my dad went to the Their Mortal Remains at the V&A. It gave him both a nostalgic yearning and gave me further insight into the band. I also associate the Floyd with my growing musical journey, as it was through them that I decided to check out other classic bands, such as The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Doors, Led Zeppelin, Steely Dan, etc.

I even decided to go back to Piper and revisit that, too, and I consumed their pre-DSOTM over a weekend. Whilst not everything blew me away, I was glad that I did that.

The Wall was a tough nut to crack. Initially, I disliked it, even though I could see what Waters and co. were going for. It took nearly three years for me to love it, and when I did, it has stuck with me since. I still don't have a high opinion of their post-70s output, but I'm glad I at least listened to them and experienced them. Ultimately, they were an amazing band who represented the best of the 1970s and, for a time, I considered them the best band to ever walk the Earth.

In fact, I'm not so sure I've changed my mind on that.