A chap called Bob Klose had been a fifth member of the embryonic group, but he had to leave due to pressure from his parents to concentrate on his university studies.
The Pink Floyd established themselves as a psychedelic band at the Marquee, and in 1966 met there Peter Jenner, who was later to become their manager. Even in those days the band’s light show made them very hard to see on stage. At this time they were still themselves trying to continue with their architecture studies, but realised they could not go on doing both things; they needed to get to be professional musicians in a serious way.
To this end, on 31 October 1966 they entered into a six man partnership called “Blackhill Enterprises” with Peter Jenner and Andrew King, who was a co-manager of the band with Peter Jenner.
The band (and indeed the partnership) only knew one person in the music business, and that was Joe Boyd, who had formed a production company called “Witchseason Productions” (a name born from Donovan’s song “Season Of The Witch”). Joe Boyd had recently recorded the Incredible String Band’s first LP, something which we shall very soon be coming to in the parallel posts in this series. Joe Boyd was an agent for Elektra Records, on which label that first Incredible String Band album had been released. He therefore tried to get The Pink Floyd signed up there, but the offer was turned down. [Bad mistake as things eventually turned out]. After some really sharp wheeling and dealing in the music business world of that time, The Pink Floyd ended up signed to EMI on a contract for one single, and this was ordered to be “Arnold Layne” with “Candy And A Currant Bun” as the B-side, recorded on 29 January 1967, a few days before I sat my 11+ exams. The Pink Floyd had not really wanted this to be their first single, being a slightly fetishistic thing about a chap who stole female underwear from washing lines, but it did reach number 20 in the pop charts. Many decades later, I was able to acquire a second hand copy:
Thanks for including the attractive images– so vulnerable
to a sense of contemplation. http://sisliescort.istanbulgenelevi.com/author/nevabowe053/