Pink Floyd - The Early Years 1965-72

The Guardian 80

This exhaustive document of Pink Floyd’s sonic explorations contains some tantalising glimpses of the different paths they could have taken – as well as 15 versions of Careful With That Axe, Eugene

On the second DVD in this mammoth 27-disc set, there is some extremely telling footage of the Pink Floyd, as they were still known, on continental television in 1968. It is a few months after Syd Barrett had finally been ousted from the band; in TV studios across Europe, his replacement, David Gilmour, is obliged to mime Barrett’s parts, mouthing along to records he never appeared on. Things only seem to get worse when they play the material they have managed to come up with since their frontman and chief songwriter departed. Both Gilmour and Roger Waters look authentically mortified while performing It Would Be So Nice, keyboardist Rick Wright’s hopeless attempt at mimicking Barrett’s brand of psychedelic whimsy. The rest of the time the band wear the sombre expressions of people who know in their hearts that their 15 minutes of fame are over.

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