On a hot summer's day in 1972, I arrived home from school on the 107 bus from Edgware to Borehamwood. I had now got the chance to listen to the LP that I had recently bought. We had two record players in our house. One was my sister’s in her bedroom, and the other was our father's very own, rather expensive Bang & Olufsen turntable and a Tandberg amplifier. I wasn’t allowed to use my sister's relatively cheap, but effective player, nor was I or any of us allowed to play this ‘rubbish’ on his turntable. Let alone sit in the chair next to it. That was reserved exclusively for my father. If I happened to be sitting in it when he came in, I was told very swiftly to get out of it. I had my place on the 3 seater couch. I was on the left, my brother in the middle and our sister on the other end. My mother and father were in London at their showroom in Essex Road, Islington, on this particular day. I knew I had time to get the record on the turntable and listen to it through the headphones. I was very excited; it was Pink Floyd’s album, Meddle. I put the record on the player, put the headphones on, and just sat there and drifted off listening to Pink Floyd. I was already a big Floyd fan and loved everything I had heard of theirs. I set my 35 mm camera up and took a self-timed shot of me actually sitting in the forbidden chair and looking rather ravishing, or so I thought. Looking back, I am not so sure. As the album played away, I was listening to it quite loud, and as I drifted off in thought, I realised that this music did release endorphins or Dolphins as I prefer to call them. I played side one, then turned it over, side two, and back to one again. It was quite incredible. I was also thinking about photography whilst listening. This music inspired me, and as those Dolphins raced around my head, I became even more of a Floyd fan. It all ended with the sound of my parents coming in and me having to vacate his lordship's throne suddenly. My father disliked many things, including anyone with long hair, tattoos or both. Simply put, Pink Floyd didn’t fit into the Frank Sinatra category after all; they were “disgusting looking hippie types” according to my parents. So there I was with a few albums up in my shared bedroom, and I could only really listen to them at my friend’s houses. I was becoming increasingly excited about photography and was already shooting a few bands in and around London. I left school when I was very young. I slipped out without anyone really noticing me in early 1974 when I was 15. I then blagged myself a job at a photo press agency called Fox Photos in Farringdon Road, London. I went back to the school to try and take any exams that I was reminded about by my former school friends. While working during the week at the press agency, I got a Saturday job in a camera shop on Essex Road, Islington. It was called Derek Smith Studios. Derek, my boss, was fantastic. I loved working there. I was learning so much about actual cameras at that time. I finally saved up enough to buy myself a Nikon F2As body and Hasselblad 500cm. I still have these cameras to this day. It wasn’t long before I realised that a little road called Britannia Row was only a few hundred yards (meters) away from the camera shop! Now, that was the base and studio for Pink Floyd. I was stunned that they were so close to me. After six months, I had become a big shot and quit my job at the press agency and gone freelance. I had no bloody idea what that entailed at that age, but I suddenly learnt that I got no paycheck at the end of the week. Since that day, I have had to be a pirate and make every day count financially. It is not an easy path, especially then at the age of 16. It’s a rather long story, as is this one you may be reading, but, I managed to get myself involved with Pink Floyd in 1975 and have done bits and pieces for them ever since. But, before working with them, I met Dave Gilmour, Nick Mason & Richard Wright backstage at a gig in London’s Hyde Park in 1974. Roy Harper, Dave Gilmour, and my late and missed lovely friend, Julie Felix, were performing.
I was only there because the fantastic guitarist Ollie Halsall let me hang onto him when I bumped into him in Edgware on his way to the gig. I met him sometime before this as he was a great friend of my then-schoolteacher, the brilliant John Altman, whom many of us know and love. A year after Hyde Park, I found myself at Knebworth with Pink Floyd in an official capacity. Then many things in between that at Live 8 in 2005.
Not to forget me being with them all at the Syd Barret tribute concert at The Barbican Theatre in London in 2007. I stood backstage with David Gilmour, Richard Wright, and Nick Mason. Andy Bell from Oasis would jump up and play bass with them as they were somewhat estranged from Roger Waters. Suddenly, I looked to my left, and there was Roger Waters. I asked if I could take a shot of the four of them together, and the answer was @*ck RIGHT OFF. So that was a NO. I didn’t utter another word. I just did a few shots of the band chatting, but, nothing with Roger and David together, primarily because they said NO and added to the fact that those two would not stand anywhere near each other.
David, Nick Richard, and Andy Bell (on bass) played a few Syd Barret Floyd-era songs onstage. After they finished, Roger went on stage and played a few songs too. There is a lot more I could write about Pink Floyd, me and this part of my career, but I will save that for another rainy day.
You may wonder why I am rambling on about all of this today. Pink Floyd, the band and their music have inspired me throughout my life; today, the incredible and lovely Richard Wright would have been 80 years old. So, happy 80th birthday to Richard Wright
#davidgilmour #richardwright #pinkfloyd #music #progrock #sydbarrett #rogerwaters #islington #BritanniaRow #hydepark #keyboard
This is me sitting in his lordshios chair before he came home and I took this rather sexy (hello ladies) shot of me on self tim on my wonderful Nikon F2As. Actually, I look rediculous!