'On This Day' in the Pink Floyd history...

General discussion about Pink Floyd.
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twcc
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Re: 'On This Day' in the Pink Floyd history...

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On this day, 04 August 1967, the album 'Piper at the Gates of Dawn' was released in the UK; some sources state 05 August, but I'll go with the Friday date.
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How the album cover shot came about in the words of the photographer, Vic Singh.

In the mid-1960's, I was a young established photographer and a member of the 60's swinging "in-crowd". I first met Pink Floyd at an event - or happening as it was called in those days - under the statue of Eros in Piccadilly Circus in London. They were a new, unknown band and we all chatted for a while. They looked trippy and said they were making their first record album.

A few weeks after our meeting at Piccadilly, their manager rang me at my studio and asked me if I would like to shoot the album cover for The Piper at the Gates of Dawn. I agreed, and we fixed a date for a one-day shoot in my studio. I asked their manager if he or the band had any ideas for the album cover, the answer was "no", and so it was left up to me to come up with ideas. I don't know if the band had seen any of my work, and since I was not given much to work with visually, the inspiration would need to come from the music and the band's image.

The band was psychedelic, and their music was surreal, and alien compared to other popular music of the time, so it needed a far-out image. Having to work with a small production budget (Colour labs for special effects were mega-expensive, and there was no technology like today), I decided to use a prism lens which George Harrison had given me because he could not find a use for it and I had not used it up till then, so it seemed like the perfect solution. All I had to do was screw it on my Hasselblad camera lens and the creative special effect would go straight on to the film.

The photo shoot was in my studio and was shot on a white background with flat, even electronic strobe lighting (i.e., a studio flash). I used my Hasselblad with an 80-mm lens and 2¼-inch square Kodak Ektachrome Daylight type film. As I had decided to shoot with the prism lens - which multiplied and softened some of the images - I also asked the band to bring colourful psychedelic clothes (fashionable at the time) which would stand out and provide us with more contrast as the prism lens tended to soften and lose contrast as it split the image. I don't know how long it took the band to get the clothes together, but they arrived at the studio in the morning, put the coffee pot on, and sat around the studio chatting. There was a lot to chat about as London was buzzing - it was a time of love and peace.

Finally, we decided to get on with the photos and the boys went to the changing room and started trying on the clothes. I first started with some test Polaroid shots, positioning them on the white background, which was a bit tricky as the prism lens multiplied each figure - they all overlapped each other! - so I had to get the figures positioned right or the whole thing looked like a mess. Syd got especially interested at this point and was quite intense, changing outfits and the positions of the band on the background and shooting tests on the Polaroid film with me.

They loved the photos and Syd got inspired to create the back of the album cover.
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Re: 'On This Day' in the Pink Floyd history...

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Now, this is an important date in PF history.
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Re: 'On This Day' in the Pink Floyd history...

Post by space triangle »

Happy 53th birthday 'The Piper'! You are growing old. :shock:
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Re: 'On This Day' in the Pink Floyd history...

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Annoying Twit wrote: Tue Aug 04, 2020 9:10 am Now, this is an important date in PF history.
Agreed, hence a bit more than just a picture of the album sleeve ... :D
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Re: 'On This Day' in the Pink Floyd history...

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Radio documentary on PATGOD from Glasgow-based writer, broadcaster, musician John Cavanagh (author of PATGOD 33/3):

https://www.mixcloud.com/Radio_Six_Inte ... dHQ4cODiF4
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Re: 'On This Day' in the Pink Floyd history...

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Ooops, we missed the 45th anniversary of the release of 'Wish You Were Here' on 12 September 1975.

:-;
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Re: 'On This Day' in the Pink Floyd history...

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Back on track ... Thirty years ago on this day, 21 September 1990 (which itself was two months after the Potsdamer Platz concert in Berlin on 21 July 1990), Christie’s in London held an auction of artwork associated with The Wall album, film cells from the animated concert film and props from the Berlin concert.
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Re: 'On This Day' in the Pink Floyd history...

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On this date, 9 October, in 1986 the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical ‘Phantom of the Opera’ was premiered.

Andrew Lloyd Webber came under fire for an alleged plagiarism when Roger Waters claimed he stole the riff to the band's 1971 song Echoes. Roger told Q magazine: "Yeah, the beginning of that bloody 'Phantom' song is from 'Echoes.' DAAAA-da-da-da-da-da. I could not believe it when I heard it. It is the same time signature - it's 12/8 - and it's the same structure and it's the same notes and it's the same everything. Bastard. It probably is actionable. It really is!"

Roger Waters made a dig at Webber in "It's a Miracle" on his 1992 solo album Amused to Death. He sang:

"We cower in our shelters with our hands over our ears,
Lloyd Webber's awful stuff runs for years and years and years.
An earthquake hits the theater but the operetta lingers,
Then the piano lid comes down and breaks his f--king fingers,
It's a miracle…"
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Re: 'On This Day' in the Pink Floyd history...

Post by Hadrian »

I love Roger Water's embedded digs. The Final Cut album cover has a figure holding a can of film with a knife sticking out from his back - a stab at Alan Parker, The Wall movie director, apparently.
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Re: 'On This Day' in the Pink Floyd history...

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Hadrian wrote: Fri Oct 09, 2020 10:58 pm I love Roger Water's embedded digs. The Final Cut album cover has a figure holding a can of film with a knife sticking out from his back - a stab at Alan Parker, The Wall movie director, apparently.
Who else has Roger worked with and then had problems with? (Genuine question).
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Re: 'On This Day' in the Pink Floyd history...

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Annoying Twit wrote: Sat Oct 10, 2020 11:38 amWho else has Roger worked with and then had problems with? (Genuine question).
He had problem too with Michaelangelo Antonioni working on the Zabriskie Point soundtrack'.

Roger Waters: ''I remember Antonioni had this terrible twitch - he'd go, ''Eet's very beauteeful but eet's too sad.'' or ''Eet's too strroong.'' It was always wrong, consistently.