Pink Floyd and The Incredible String Band.
Pink Floyd.
This time we continue with “Alex the Gnome”s notes in the insert which came with the CD “An Italian Tale”:
“Everything looked pretty much established (posters had already been printed advertising the event) when, once again, the fear of public disorder led local authorities to deny the necessary permissions (the music of the Floyd obviously appeared very antagonistic at that time). A curious thing to highlight is that James Brown has played one of his high-octaine shows at the Palazzo dello Sport in Bologna in 1971, without any kind of problem from unrest nor needed any special permission to play.
“The show was about to be cancelled when the band promoter finally managed to find the availability of another city not too far from Milan, Brescia, where the “Palace of Art Events” was available for the band. The ticket price was set at 1500 Lire (about 1 Dollar 15 cents or 65 new British pence). The Floyd played for two hours in front of an audience that had arrived from many parts of Italy but the light show, that the band would later become renowned for, was not very sophisticated or developed at that time so it was mainly the job of the music to captivate the audience. “Echoes” was still listed as “The Return of the Son of Nothing” (Its name was changed during their first Japanese tour in 1971) and had been performed live no more than a dozen times before that evening. “Atom Heart Mother” without its familiar brass and choir had a major impact, and after closing the show with “A Saucerful of Secrets”, the Floyd were forced to deny the rumour that Syd Barrett should appear on stage with them for the concert the following day in Rome, that rumour being originated from EMI before the Italian tour ( a Machiavellian attempt to increase number of tickets sold).”
More from these notes next PF time. Meanwhile, another pic from the insert:
Listentomusicanywhere's Blog 
Comments