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17 September 1967 Fifth Dimension Club, Leicester, England
An amateur tape (likely a 8mm tape) could exist. Highly unlikely.
A rare picture of this show
October 1967« Scream Thy Last Scream » promo clip
The poet Spike Hawkins (friend of Syd) recalls being involved in a never seen promo film for this title directed by Stacy Marking. It seems to be weird to shot a promo clip about a unreleased song. except if the Floyd's management had shelved the project later.
1 October 1967 Saville Theater, London, EN
According « Embryo - A Pink Floyd Chronology » book, Yoko Ono has filmed one of these two gigs.
17-20 October 67 « Belgian TV appearance »
The 16 September 1967 edition of « New Musical Express » reported that the band would be appearing on Belgian and Dutch television during the month of October. The 7 October edition of the same magazine gave the dates as 17-20 October. This would appear to be incorrect, given that the Floyd had scheduled their American tour for the end of the year. Nevertheless, the band's schedules in the 60s were crazy enough for the Floyd to have made the round trip in the same day (cf. 29 April 1967).
October 1967 « Jugband Blues Promo Clip », Central Office of Information, London, England The 9 December 1967 issue of « Melody Maker » stated that the group had recorded a video as part of a cultural exchange programme. Filmed just before the American tour.
Alan Walsh :
« I met Barrett and guitarist Roger Waters with managers Peter Jenner and Andrew King at the Central Office of Information in Lambeth. The had been viewing a colour film insert of the group for a magazine programme on Britain networked across America and Canada. The number they filmed was Jugband Blues written by Barrett which manager Jenner said he had wanted to release as a single instead of Apples and Oranges … It is almost a poetic recitation by Barrett with avant-garde sound effects by the group .. After the filming, we retire to nearby coffee bar …»
«Interview with Alan Walsh », Melody Maker, 9 December 1967.
The film was lost for a long time (its existence was even questioned) but finally reappeared on the collectors' circuit in 1999 after an intense search by the group's major collectors.
Vernon Fitch:
« In 1968, two members of «The Manchester Arts Lab» traveled to London to try and obtain some films to show at the Art Lab. They managed to borrow a 16 millimeter print of the Beatles, Magical Mystery Tour, loaned to them by a friend of The Beatles. They also visited Blackhill Enterprises, where they were loaned a copy of the Jugband Blues promo film. They returned to Manchester with these films and showed them on a regular basis for quite some time at the Manchester Arts lab. Eventually, the Magical Mystery Tour film was returned to the Beatles, but the Jugband Blues film remained in the possession of one of the organizers of the Arts Lab until 1999, when it was re-discovered and transferred from film on to videotape. The video transfer of the Jugband Blues film looks pretty good, although it does suffer somewhat from age. Parts of it are dark, while other parts show scratches and other imperfections that were on the film. But for a film that is 34 years old, it still looks remarkably good.
The audio for the Jugband Blues film, however, is another story. The soundtrack that is on the film has badly deteriorated. The person with the video master referred to the sound as "shot to pieces and like listening to mud." In order to try and improve the sound quality, a new soundtrack was dubbed onto the video. The audio of Jugband Blues that was used for the new soundtrack came from a bootleg recording of the song, and is most likely the version from the BBC recording session on December 20, 1967. While the new soundtrack sounds clear, it does suffer from occasional dropouts, and it is out of synch with Barrett's lips as he sings during various points in the film».
« A Fleeting Glimpse », PinkFloydz Website, 1999.
November 1967 «Jimi Hendrix 8mm footage» We know, thanks to Mitch Mitchell, that Jimi Hendrix filmed the Floyd (and Barrett in particular) during the tour with his 8mm camera. These tapes were left by Hendrix with his girlfriend, Kathy Etchingham, when he left England for good in March 1969. She stored them near a radiator, which had the effect of erasing everything! Everything was lost, not just for Floyd fans but also for the guitarist's fans, because he used to film a lot! An amateur tape taken on the tour bus was sold on eBay 15 or 18 years ago (the contents remain unknown).
Syd Barrett :
« Lindsey Kroner and i used to sit in the back of the bus, with him up front: he would film us»
«Interview with Mick Rock »; Rolling Stone Magazine, 23 December 1971.
Bernard White (Pink Floyd collector) :
« I know Jimi Hendrix did have a small film camera and filmed the tour. Noel Redding had the tapes.I think they were stolen.
Maybe a girlfriend might have them somewhere »
« Interview w/. Bernard White by Grimble Gromble », VegetableFriends group, 2003.
Nick by Jimi … Jimi by Nick
5 November 1967 Pacific Ocean Park, Santa Monica, USA
Very rare 8mm footage shows the band walking on a beach. These images were surfaced on 1984 with the electronic press kit « The Pros & Cons of Hitch Hiking », produced for the release of Roger Waters' album in 1984. Other footage was also used in the 1988 MTV documentary « Over the Wall ». These videos must have been made by Storm Thorgerson. As a matter of fact, during the 1974 French tour, Storm shot a film projected onto the stage screen showing some of Syd's stills taken from the beach wandering. For several years, this film was linked to an excursion by the band to North London in May. The Floyd specialist Hacullalation recently determined the exact date and location based on the infrastructure of the abandoned amusement park seen in the background. It's worth noting that it was a view of one of the attractions that inspired Syd Barrett to write the song Octopus a few years later. Chances are it was filmed when the band took part in the « Groovy » programme, which filmed them on this very beach (see entry below).
It should be noted that a famous Floyd collector, EskimoSpy, made a montage of these two sources.
5 November 1967 Cheetah Club, Venice, Santa Monica, USA
A few years ago, a documentary apparently showed a few seconds of the band performing at the Cheetah Club with artists Michiel Blodgett and The Clingers. The footage was broadcast on KHJ TV's 'Groovy' programme on 16 November 1967. If true, this was the gig where Syd Barrett had his famous Mandrax incident (which may well be just a rumour).
So it seems unlikely that their performance was filmed.
6 November 1967 « Pat Boone in Hollywood », KHJ TV Studios, Los Angeles, USA
The band's appearance on the show was confirmed by host/singer Pat Boone when he said he had enjoyed meeting the band, whom he described as very professional and gentlemanly. The band mimed Arnold Layne and See Emily play.When the BBC wanted to make a documentary on Syd Barrett, they tracked down the person in charge of archiving these video documents, who told them that everything had been destroyed! Apparently Pat Boone kept a few copies for his personal use, but unfortunately not this tape!
Pat Boone:
« The band were very co-operative, even Syd, and made a great impression on the audience at our studio, which helped to dispel growing apprehensions about the anti-social attitudes of British rock bands. Although I don't remember talking to Syd, I do remember that their appearance was very well received, and that they behaved like perfect gentlemen. »
« Late Night », Interview with John Allan.
Roger Waters:
« We did the Pat Boone show, and we were taping the show, and he would do the run-through and Syd would stand with his Telecaster with silver bits all over it and mime happily. «Cut, cut, we are going to do it now …» He knew perfectly well what was going on, he was just being crazy and they did four or five takes like that. Eventually I mimed it »
« Pink Floyd - The Early Years », Barry Miles
Roger Waters:
« And then they’d go «OK guys, were gonna do it now -ah roll the tape - and playback - and go!» and he’d go .. and stand there and not move a muscle, and then «Cut! Cut! No, we’re gonna do it now!» »
« The history of Rock & Roll », BBC TV, 1994.
7 November 1967 « American Bandstand », ABC TV Studios, Los Angeles, USA The existing copies have suffered greatly during the various transfers. However, there is a second-generation copy which is of less poor quality and is complete (introduction by Dick Clark, playback and interview); it was used by VH1 Classic or the BBC for the documentary « The Story and the Evolution of the Rock'n Roll » (in 1995). Other copies carry a tImecode. The programme was originally broadcast in colour but was saved in black & white. If the tape is well known, it would be incomplete as the band would then play (mime) See Emily Play with video effects superimposed. Vernon Fitch, the only person to have the tape in its entirety, claims not. Included in the « Pink Floyd - The early years 1965-1972 » boxset.
Dick Clark
« We had little or no time to talk,’ Clark explained. ‘The only conversation was a brief interview on television. The interview had very little content, because there was no opportunity to talk before airtime. I don’t recall Syd Barrett failing to lip-synch vocals on “Apples and Oranges”. He did appear very lethargic.»
« Dark Globe - Syd Barrett and Pink Floyd », Julian Palacios, 2010
9 November 1967« Boss City », KHJ TV Studios, Los Angeles, USA
Broadcasted on 11 November. Rick Wright has mimed Apples and Oranges instead of Syd. The others guests were The Standells, The Stone Poneys and Bobby Hebb.
9 November 1967« Boss City », KHJ TV Studios, Los Angeles, USA
Broadcasted on 11 November. Rick Wright has mimed Apples and Oranges instead of Syd. The others guests were The Standells, The Stone Poneys and Bobby Hebb.
Andrew King :
«It came time for the take and Syd had disappeared. So i went up to the director who was classic Hollywood, and said: « our lead singer isn't here » and said « OK. He'll back in a few minutes, will he ? » It was so beyond this guy's comprehension that something like this could happen that he practically passed out in shock. You don't walk out of prime-time TV shows. It's unheard of. But Syd did. I just think he thought it was boring and he couldn't be bothered »
«Scream thy last scream», Uncut, November 2016.
9 November 1967 Fillmore West, Los Angeles, USA
It is reasonably believed that the band was filmed on stage at the Fillmore West. An Associated Press documentary on the hippy scene broadcast on 14 November may have suggested that the band appeared on film. Unfortunately, only a shot of an advertisement announcing the Floyd's show has survived.
Interviewer : « There was a rumour that all concerts in Fillmore were taped ... »
Peter Jenner :«They were indeed. But perhaps that started later, because the Floyd were there quite early. Weren't the archives of the Fillmore called Bear Tapes or something ? »
«An innerview with Peter Jenner», Birdy Hop Website, 25 April 2014.
16 November 1967 « Fan Club », Nederland 1, Amsterdam , Netherlands
A mysterious performance by the band that was lost. Charles Beterams, one of the band's foremost historians, suggests a playback version of Apples & Oranges recorded in September of that year.
22 November 1967 « Yin Yang », VARA TV Studios, Zaandam, Netherlands
A new TV show devoted to pop music, in which excerpts from Pink Floyd were broadcast. According to the Dutch newspaper « Hitweek » (1st December issue), Interstellar Overdrive was used as the theme song.
25 November 1967 Opera House, Blackpool, England
Contrary to popular belief, the Floyd's set was not filmed.
Peter Neal (Hendrix's set Director) :
«In my wisdom I’d decided to hire Auricon 16mm cameras, which were incredibly clumsy and had this habit of misting up as soon as you put your eye to the viewer… Also we only had six rolls of film which meant we could only film two numbers so we decided to concentrate onPurple Haze,which was his biggest hit, andWild Thingbecause Jimi had recently come back from Monterey and everybody was saying how good it was»
«Experience: The Making of Peter Neal’s 1967Film»
27 November 1967 « Festival 67’ », Queens College, Belfast, Irland
An 4 minutes segment from this show exists. It would be broadcasted on the french TV in May 1983 (as said in the « Late Night » fanzine).
Late November 1967 « Hendrix's English Tour »
« Univibes », a fan magazine dedicated to Hendrix stated a pro-shot showing all the artists has circulated among collectors in 1987. Dubious.
17 December 1967 39 Stanhope Gardens, Highgate Court, London, England On 12 December 1967, the band was filmed in the house of the Floyd's former landlord (and keyboardist during Rick Wright's 1965 break), Mike Leonard. The programme focused on the band's experimentation with sound and light on Mike's projections. The band played an improvisation written by Waters and Mason and, led by Barrett, followed with a cover of Booker T & MG. The show was broadcast on 17 January 1968 at 18:40 on the BBC's Tomorrow's World programme. It may come as a surprise that this tape survived, given the venerable English broadcaster's policy of destroying tapes. In fact, Mike Leonard kept a copy in his private collection which he circulated among collectors. Unfortunately, although in perfect condition, this film has a timecode. It was first shown again in the Pink Floyd Omnibus special in 1994. More weirdly, Jools Holland recently showed to Roger Waters this tape without a timecode on one of his shows. What was the source? Finally included in the «Pink Floyd - The early years 1965-1972» boxset.
Colour outtakes of the show are in the « British Pathé » vaults (the same archives who have the outtakes for the promo clip of Scarecrow). No traces of the band however.
22 December 1967 « Christmas on earth (continued) », Olympia Hall, London, England
This show was a turning point in the carreer of the band. Testimonies shows the set was a disaster thank to Syd's mental state. David Larcher shot it for the promoters, Image Inc . It was early days and Hendrix was overpriced for those times in the U.K., and there wasn’t enough money to pay everybody. The idea was that they’d sell the film to pay the cost of putting on the show, because shows didn’t make any money. But old film stock was used, which wasn’t very good, so most of the film was pretty useless. The Hendrix clip is the only bit to have surfaced – on Live At Monterey. Chander said he watched it after the festival too. Apparently the guy that produced the filming, one Tommy Weber, stored it in the basement of a friends house where it was repossessed when the guy defaulted on the mortgage.
Interviewer: « Is it true that the Christmas On Earth show, on the 22nd of December '67, was the turning point and that it was decided then to put Syd on a 'Brian Wilson' status ? »
Peter Jenner: « Was that in Olympia? »
Interviewer: « Yes. Apparently you took the money and ran... »
Peter Jenner: « I think it was a financially very strange show. It was all a bit questionable what was happening. I can't really remember what exactly happened, but I do recall it was all a bit of a disaster. There wasn't a lot of people there and I think that was really the problem. Not a lot of people also meant not a lot of money and by that time we were getting short of cash so we needed whatever we could get.
Interviewer: « Legend goes that June Child cashed the money before Pink Floyd started and that she ran away with it. After two or three songs the promoter came to you to reclaim it, because the Floyd was so bad …»
Peter Jenner: « Well, I don't think we ever paid them back! I don't think that ever happened. It was all a bit too rough, they were wrong as well. Congratulations to June for getting the money. I'm sure we were all involved in telling her to go and get it and then... run for it... It wasn't a great gig. »
Interviewer: « Apparently not »
Peter Jenner: « I don't mean just the Floyd, but the whole organisation. It was a disaster, it was run by an amateur who just thought it would be a good thing. Because there weren't that many professional promoters, if you thought you could do it, you did it. After all, Hoppy (John Hopkins) had done things and Joe Boyd had done things and neither of them had ever been promoters before. And we did things and we never had been promoters. It was all very new, so you did what you thought you could do. Then things like Middle Earth came along and that was all done by people who never had done that before. So a lot of people trying things out who did not know what they were doing, including me ... »
« An innerview with Peter Jenner », Birdie Hop Website, 25 April 2014.
Jimi Hendrix, the headliner, was overpriced at the time in the UK and there certainly wasn't enough money to pay everyone. It was precisely for this reason that the Floyd's management literally stole his fee to avoid the promoters deciding not to pay the band for their disastrous performance.
« The party is expected to cost anticipated capacity gate money of around £15,000 to stage. Profits will be derived from the sale of television rights. Already one leading ITV company, two U.S. and one French film company are bidding for the rights to film London’s youth celebrating “Christmas On Earth, Continued" as a television documentary »
« Pop goes Christmas », The Kensington News and West London Times, 15 December 1967
The organisation of the event meant that there were two stages facing each other at either end of this large hangar. Given the crowd movements generated by the concerts given in turn by each artist, the director decided to mount a platform in the centre of the hangar in order to film the two performances without being hampered by the need to change the positioning of the film crew during each performance. The result was a distant shot, enhanced by untimely zooms and a few shots taken from the side of the stage. Once the twelve-hour film had been edited, the result was disappointing, to say the least. The film was therefore not broadcast.
So what was left of the tapes? Chas Chandler has said that he saw the film a few weeks after it was made. Joe Boyd owned the tapes from 1968 and showed them on rare occasions.
John Love (Co-organisateur):
« The real disaster, in the end, was that the film was no good. The person who was in charge of the capture bought a stock of second-hand film which, if it had been in good condition, would have made us millionaires. Very little of it was usable »
« Christmas on Earth Continued », Record Collector, December 1997.
Keith West(Performer):
« We made a film and recorded the soundtrack. After the show, we all went to Joe Boyd's house and watched it. I remember it well because we were all tanned! »
« Christmas on Earth Continued », Record Collector, December 1997.
Picture by John Newey
No trace of this recording has been found for decades.It is not impossible that John Hopkins owned a copy of the tape. At the beginning of 1968, Tommy Weber reedited the film to include certain sequences in a larger project entitled « Watch out your Ears » He took Eric Burdon & The Animals' Hey Gyp, three Hendrix tracks and two Traffic tracks (plus a few bits and pieces).
Given that nothing was filmed during the UK tour in November-December (apart from short passages with Hendrix), it's possible that this corresponds to the film of 22 December 1967 (pure speculation). So what happened to these tapes?
Apparently, the film's producer, Tommy Weber, had stored the tapes with a friend who had a modest production company. Tommy's work came to an unexpected end in the mid-1970s, when he suffered a long descent into drug addiction.
Keith West(Producer):
«in a house that belonged to a friend of mine. But his public company went bust, and the Grosvenor Estate moved in and took everything out of the house. All my archives were in the basement, and they’ve been lost to this day. Of course, now they would be worth millions. For a start, fifteen hours of Jimi Hendrix on his own. The Beatles, The Stones, Pink Floyd, Graham Bond, Traffic, The Animals. A huge portfolio»
«A Day in the Life: One Family, the Beautiful People, and the End of the Sixties»
John Love (Co-organiser): « The real disaster, long term, was the the film was no good. The person who took care of the filming bought outdated film stock which, had it been good, would have made us all millionaires. Very little was usable »
Tommy Weber :
« All my archives were in the basement, and they’ve been lost to this day. Of course, now they would be worth millions. For a start, fifteen hours of Jimi Hendrix on his own. The Beatles, The Stones, Pink Floyd, Graham Bond, Traffic, The Animals.A huge portfolio »
«Christmas on Earth Continued», Record Collector, Décembre 1997.
No trace of this recording has been found for decades.It is not impossible that John Hopkins owned a copy of the tape.At the beginning of 1968, Tommy Weber reedited the film to include certain sequences in a larger project entitled "Watch out your Ears". He took Eric Burdon & The Animals' Hey Gyp, three Hendrix tracks and two Traffic tracks (plus a few bits and pieces).
Given that nothing was filmed during the UK tour in November-December (apart from short passages with Hendrix), it's possible that this corresponds to the film of 22 December 1967 (pure speculation). So what happened to these tapes?
Apparently, the film's producer, Tommy Weber, had stored the tapes with a friend who had a modest production company. Tommy's work came to an unexpected end in the mid-1970s, when he suffered a long descent into drug addiction.
The first video footage was released in 1985, when the documentary "Are you experienced?It shows Jimi with his characteristic Flying V guitar.
The clip showing Hendrix is the only bit that has survived. It's hardly surprising that there's so much material about the prodigy, given that Hendrix's management intervened while the tape was being edited.The source seems to be a copy made by Hendrix's entourage, ruling out any recording of the Floyd.
Finally, a promo clip of Joe Cocker's famous version of With a little help from my friends has appeared. It's a very curious one, showing footage of the event including the only (very short) footage of the Floyd's performance. Finally, according to Robert Greenfield, Tommy Weber found most of the reels from the event in 1995. We know that a wealthy collector bought Hendrix's performance for $200,000! We don't know what happened to the rest.In 2011, extracts from the Traffic show were released on the net. It's not impossible that this source came from tapes found 16 years earlier (pure speculation). What remains of the Floyd's performance is these 3 seconds of film, which can be reduced to 2 shots interspersed with an insert of a shot of Soft Machine (thanks to Hallucination for this clarification). This tape exists in excellent condition in the « Huntley archive ».
In any case, Pink Floyd's performance seems to have added nothing to the band's legend:
John Newey (Punter) :
« There’s a legend about Syd Barrett, that he sat in the dressing room and dolloped this crumbled Mandrax (a prescription sleeping drug) and Brylcreem on his head, which melted under the lights and ran down his head. I remember seeing this liquid stuff – I thought his black eye make up was running. And he was sweating profusely.It was Syd’s last big gig with Pink Floyd. He just stood there as if he was on another planet. He contributed very little and his arms were hanging limply down. It looked sad and all over the place. They had coloured perspex triangles on stage that lit up. There were long rambling Interstellar Overdrive jams. But it was far from Floyd at their best»
Pete Jenner (Co-manager of Pink Floyd):
«Not a great event. It didn’t develop a head of steam. It reads better than it was, a cash-in plus the horrors of the Olympia acoustics. Mind you, our life with the Floyd was getting turbulent. Syd and Mandrax? That sounds more like a myth. I remember the story of him pouring loads of gunk into his hair in America. Mandrax wasn’t very psychedelic. It was a very unhip drug. I think it was a disaster. Someone lost a lot of money. Little did they know that we may have all been extremely alternative but even the most ardent hippies went home at Christmas for the presents!»
«Christmas on Earth Continued», Record Collector, December 1997.
Noel Redding (Performer): «Syd Barrett was going silly by that point»
Iam Gopal (Performer): «Pink Floyd is a blur. They don’t register in my brain somehow. Syd? Well there were a few characters up in the clouds!»
Andrew King (Co-manager of Pink Floyd):
«This was after the U.K. package tour with Hendrix. Alan Dale was the chief hustler of «Christmas On Earth», a Fulham boy. We were wary of doing business with Image. Gigs were still our principal source of income. In retrospect, I reckon there were people who saw their interest in pink Floyd and one way was to put financial pressure on them. I was part of that underground culture, the same age, nut never an out –and-out hippie. I certainly didn’t drop acid that night. It would have been a horrendous experience. The evening was gruesome because the Floyd were falling apart in front of our eyes in an alarming manner. I saw them worse when we were in America but this was bad enough. It gives me shivers even to think of it. There was little communication between Syd and the rest of the band. It’s hard to manage a band in that state. Could you have a conversation with him? Yeah, he seemed withdrawn but a lot of the time he was fine. The band – everyone – felt, how can we go on like this? I’m sure Syd did too. Unreliability was an element but there was more to it. They were totally directionless. I don’t think they’ve ever played worse. The rest of the band just gritted their teeth, stood there for an hour and sort of played their instruments. The organisers just got the event wrong. There was no reason why it shouldn’t have sold out. It was too much of an imitation of the 14-Hour Technicolour Dream and events like that. There had been too many of them. Every time you opened «Melody Maker», there were adverts for this Happening and that Freakout . It got like that with raves and dance music in the last few years. Some of them did well and some went down the tubes»
Jeff Dexter (Punter) :
«Pink Floyd ? Not a great gig. A sad night for them. People had realised Syd was losing it but that was acceptable, if you were on the underground scene, man! It was all experimental, but it got boring – they carried on with an experimental riff for what seemed like ages»
«Christmas on Earth Continued», Record Collector, December 1997.
In 1969 The Observer newspaper reported on 22 June that an undated concert screening (scheduled for 24-28 June 1969 at London's Open Space Theatre) would feature the Floyd and Jimi Hendrix.
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