A Painful Show: Rick Wright revealed the “worst” thing Pink Floyd ever did
Pink Floyd’s entire career trajectory is the ultimate example of triumph from tragedy. The whole fallout of losing Syd Barrett had to do a number on any of the members, and getting the chance to realise their rock and roll dreams for a second time felt like their dreams may finally be coming true. They could do without some of the window dressing, though, and Richard Wright was particularly pissed off about the band’s appearance on Top of the Pops.
If you were on the famous music show, this should have been the moment you realised that you had arrived. This is the kind of one-in-a-million shot that everyone enjoys. In just a few minutes of playing a song, you hit the eyeballs of every kid in England interested in music, practically using the MTV model years before it became widespread.
It’s not like Pink Floyd wasn’t a great visual band, either. Sure, the new version of the group had everyone stand incredibly still while the trippy effects happened around them. Still, the early version of them as a psychedelic outfit felt like watching an acid trip without having to do a number on your nervous system.
This was before Barrett was let go from the band, though, and none of their effects were going to go over well with the show’s core audience. Looking to give them an abridged version of what they did at their shows with their commercial song ‘See Emily Play’, Barrett was not thrilled about playing the gig, thinking they had sold out.
Wright would also think that their appearance was far from their finest hour, recalling in A Saucerful of Secrets, “Top of the Pops was definitely one of the worst things I did. It was horrible to be on it, a real drag.” You don’t have to take their word for it, though. Just look at their appearance from that time.
There’s nothing wrong with their appearance, per se. The band seem to be playing the song fine and is giving their all trying to sell their psychedelic experience to the rest of the world. It’s completely fine… and that’s the biggest problem.
Pink Floyd was never known to make albums that were merely fine when they brought them to the stage. Barrett wanted to make the kind of tracks that made you feel like you stepped into a fever dream, so seeing them playing the most neutered version of the song tends to feel like a letdown by comparison.
Also, this is a nitpick from the time, but it is a crime that the whole thing is shot in black and white. There had never been a band better suited to bright colours than Barrett’s version of Floyd, and seeing them in a drab setting makes them look like they’re just wearing shiny robes instead of their psychedelic wares.
By this point, Barrett wouldn’t be in the fold for much longer. After going through one too many bad experiences with psychedelics and losing his own sanity, the band would have to let him go, replacing him with David Gilmour midway through making the album A Saucerful of Secrets. Barrett wasn’t long for Pink Floyd anyway, but when you see his appearance on Top of the Pops, you can see that he had started to lose the fire he once had.