{"id":2589,"date":"2024-11-05T14:23:13","date_gmt":"2024-11-05T14:23:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/?p=2589"},"modified":"2024-11-05T14:23:13","modified_gmt":"2024-11-05T14:23:13","slug":"havent-heard-pink-floyds-amazing-disaster-u-s-debut-began-week-1967","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/?p=2589","title":{"rendered":"Guess you Didn’t Know!! – Pink Floyd\u2019s \u201cAmazing Disaster\u201d of U.S. Debut Began This Week in 1967"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Pink<\/h1>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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The last few months of 1967 were a busy time for the United States: the Summer of Love had just come to a close, the Vietnam War was in full swing, the music industry was booming, and Pink Floyd had just landed on the West Coast to make their official U.S. debut. The mini-tour in promotion of the band\u2019s first release,\u00a0Pipers at the Gates of Dawn<\/em>, was a tumultuous week-long affair Roger Waters later called an \u201camazing disaster.\u201d<\/p>\n

Interestingly, some historians suggest this tour was when a business-minded record exec asked the band, \u201cBy the way, which one\u2019s Pink?\u201d Eight years later, the band would immortalize this question in\u00a0\u201cHave a Cigar\u201d\u00a0from\u00a0Wish You Were Here<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The Man Behind The Chaos Of Pink Floyd\u2019s U.S. Debut<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Pink Floyd made their American debut with\u00a0their original lineup: Roger Waters on bass, Nick Mason on drums, Richard Wright on keys, and\u00a0Syd Barrett on guitar. The trip was Barrett\u2019s first and last tour of the United States with Pink Floyd. Following his erratic behavior on the road in November 1967, the band invited David Gilmour to replace Barrett the following month. Gilmour\u2019s replacement was \u201cunofficial\u201d until April 1968, when the band finally announced Barrett was no longer in the group.<\/p>\n

But before their personnel change, Pink Floyd enjoyed a tour of some of the States\u2019 finer musical club offerings of the time. They started their mini-tour at the Fillmore Auditorium and Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco, California. Pink Floyd played these West Coast shows with Big Brother and the Holding Company and Richie Havens. Pink Floyd performed at Santa Monica\u2019s Cheetah Club with The Candymen and Smokestack Lightnin. The promotional run also included a performance at the Cheetah Club in New York City, where Pink Floyd was the sole billing.<\/p>\n

In between these performances, Pink Floyd made television appearances, mingled with Californian musicians and groupies alike, and tried their best to babysit Syd Barrett, whose behavior would grow increasingly erratic and unhinged over the week.<\/p>\n

Melting Hairdos and Catatonic Television Appearances<\/strong><\/h3>\n

According to Barry Miles\u2019\u00a0Pink Floyd: The Early Years<\/em>, Syd Barrett had a fresh perm when the band arrived in the States. Minutes before their performance at the West Coast Cheetah Club, Barrett\u2014apparently unhappy with his look\u2014emptied an entire jar of hair gel and a container of quaaludes onto his head, mixing the two to create an unsettlingly slimy and bumpy hairdo. Under the hot glow of the stage lights, the gel began to melt down Barrett\u2019s face, taking the pills with it.<\/p>\n

\u201cGirls in the front row screamed with horror as Syd\u2019s lips and nostrils bubbled and ran with the gel as rivulets oozed down his cheeks,\u201d Miles wrote, \u201cthe mixed-in sleeping pills looking like tiny gobbets of flesh as if he was discomposing before their eyes in the moving lights. He detuned the strings of his guitar and stared out into space, his right hand hanging limply at his side, too out of it to sing any of the lyrics.\u201d<\/p>\n

Barrett\u2019s performances on television weren\u2019t much better. The guitarist either refused to perform, forcing a bandmate to step in and take over as the \u201clead\u201d lip-syncer, or he would only half-heartedly commit to the song in a sort of catatonic state. During an appearance on the\u00a0Pat Boone Show<\/em>, the host asked Barrett about things he liked. After staring at the host for what probably felt like hours to his bandmates, Barrett stoically replied, \u201cAmerica,\u201d to the roaring delight of the TV audience.<\/p>\n

With Barrett showing no signs of improvement, Pink Floyd\u2019s management cut their tour short and sent the psych-rock band back across the pond.\u00a0David Gilmour joined the following month, and by April, Barrett was officially out of the band.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The last few months of 1967 were a busy time for the United States: the Summer of Love had just come to a close, the Vietnam War was in full swing, the music industry was booming, and Pink Floyd had just landed on the West Coast to make their official U.S. debut. The mini-tour in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2590,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2589","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/pink-floyd.webp",2000,800,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/pink-floyd-150x150.webp",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/pink-floyd-300x120.webp",300,120,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/pink-floyd-768x307.webp",768,307,true],"large":["https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/pink-floyd-1024x410.webp",1024,410,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/pink-floyd-1536x614.webp",1536,614,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/pink-floyd.webp",2000,800,false],"jnews-360x180":["https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/pink-floyd-360x180.webp",360,180,true],"jnews-750x375":["https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/pink-floyd-750x375.webp",750,375,true],"jnews-1140x570":["https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/pink-floyd-1140x570.webp",1140,570,true],"jnews-120x86":["https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/pink-floyd-120x86.webp",120,86,true],"jnews-350x250":["https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/pink-floyd-350x250.webp",350,250,true],"jnews-750x536":["https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/pink-floyd-750x536.webp",750,536,true],"jnews-1140x815":["https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/pink-floyd-1140x800.webp",1140,800,true],"jnews-360x504":["https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/pink-floyd-360x504.webp",360,504,true],"jnews-75x75":["https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/pink-floyd-75x75.webp",75,75,true],"jnews-350x350":["https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/pink-floyd-350x350.webp",350,350,true],"jnews-featured-750":["https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/pink-floyd-750x300.webp",750,300,true],"jnews-featured-1140":["https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/pink-floyd-1140x456.webp",1140,456,true]},"author_info":{"display_name":"Newssoccer","author_link":"https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/?author=1"},"category_info":"Blog<\/a>","tag_info":"Blog","comment_count":"1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/pink-floyd.webp","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2589","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2589"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2589\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2591,"href":"https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2589\/revisions\/2591"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}