February

Barrett Resurfaces With Stars

Like the banquet ghost at Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Syd Barrett continued to manifest himself at unlikely times, even appearing one day at Abbey Road Studios in 1971 when Ron Geesin was working on sections of ‘Atom Heart Mother’. In 1972, he was encouraged by former Tomorrow drummer ‘Twink’ to form a three-piece band including bass player Jack Monck under the banner of Stars. Two support slots at the Cambridge Corn Exchange on 24 and 26 February 1972 baffled the crowd as Barrett stumbled through the set with one apparent lyric: ‘Hay, hay, Saturdays in the hay.’

June

Obscured By Clouds

The recording of the soundtrack to Barbet Schroeder’s La Vallee (1972) where a young French couple embrace native life of New Guinea took place in late February/early March 1972 in the Strawberry Studios at Chateau D’Herouville, France. Instrumental pieces were taut and the uncomplicated beauty of vocal tracks like ‘Burning Bridges’ and the almost Rex-tacy of ‘Free Four’ revealed a Floyd delighting in the simple pleasures of short rock songs. When released in June, the album was titled Obscured By Clouds due to the strength of the opening track which began to be incorporated into the band’s live set.

September

Pink Floyd: Live At Pompeii

Floyd’s dream of appearing in a feature film was realized in September 1972 when Pink Floyd: Live At Pompeii was premiered at the Edinburgh Festival. The band had been filmed performing tracks like ‘A Saucerful Of Secrets’, ‘Echoes’ and ‘Careful With That Axe, Eugene’ in the old Roman amphitheatre over four days between 4–7 October 1971. There was no audience to allow the camera crew’s full unfettered licence and with the breathtaking backdrop, results were stunning. Other segments and tracks like ‘On The Run’ and Dark Side taster ‘Brain Damage’ were filmed in a Paris recording studio in 1972.

Personalities | Introducing Pink Floyd
Personalities | Pink Floyd | The Collaborative Era (1973) | Key Events