It was in April 1967 when Pink Floyd visited Kennington as part of their first-ever photoshoot. These were the very first publicity shots that anyone took of them.
They were taken by Colin Prime. Although a photographer by trade, Colin’s other love was music and he worked part-time as a disc jockey in the evenings who enjoyed the emerging music scene. Colin had seen the band perform at some of their very first ever shows.
The Kennington Park pictures
The Ruskin Park Pictures
The photos see the band— Nick Mason, Syd Barrett, Roger Waters, and Richard Wright—larking about in jovial spirits in the park. Sitting on benches posing, or in or near the Ruskin Park Portico, a remaining part of the 18th-century villas that once encircled Denmark Hill.
“All the guys were in high spirits at the time (Syd was performing cartwheels) but quite laid back, so after some slightly more formal shots I experimented and came up with these images.” Colin recalls.
Colin Prime, Photographer
The full collection of Colin Prime’s images are available to buy here
Artwork for Debut LP
One of the photos from the shoot was also used by Syd Barrett to create a silhouette illustration of the band which was used as the back cover of the band’s debut album The Piper at the Gates of Dawn.
The Piper at the Gates of Dawn -Number 253 in the Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the “500 Greatest Albums of All Time“.
One of the other photographs taken that day, of us standing in line, arms waving, was used by Syd as the basis of his illustration on the back cover of Piper.”
Nick Mason, Pink Floyd Drummer
That album was released by EMI Columbia on 5th August 1967, four months after the shoot. It was produced by former Beatles engineer Norman Smith at Abbey Road Studio, in the next door Studio to The Beatles who were recording Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.
Back in Lambeth
Pink Floyd was back in the area to play the ‘Games For May — Space Age Relaxation For The Climax Of Spring’ concert at London’s prestigious Queen Elizabeth Hall. Here, they debuted a new musical gizmo which would later become known as the ‘Azimuth Co-ordinator’, a joystick-type device used to ‘pan’ the group’s sound around the venue – thus performing the worlds first-ever surround sound concert
The Financial Times called it, “The noisiest and prettiest display ever seen on the South Bank.”
I think Games for May was one of the most significant shows we ever performed
Nick Mason
Banned
The group were immediately banned from ever playing the hall again after bubbles from a bubble machine and flowers distributed to the audience were blamed for staining the venue’s carpet and seats. Though they were allowed back to the Royal Festival Hall for a concert in 1969,
Read more about the Concert here
Pigs might fly
Perhaps the most iconic connection with our area is the artwork for Pink Floyd Animals – The Story of the Album
The album’s cover shows an inflatable pig floating between two chimneys of Battersea Power Station, conceived by the band’s bassist and lead songwriter Roger Waters, and was designed by long-time collaborator Storm Thorgerson.
It pictures a 30-foot inflatable pig tethered over Battersea Power Station in London. The shoot took three days to complete. On the first day, they hired a marksman to shoot the pig if it broke free. They didn’t recall seeing him on day two when the pig broke free and
The balloon was inflated with helium and manoeuvred into position on 2 December 1976, with a marksman ready to fire if it escaped. Bad weather delayed work, and the band’s manager Steve O’Rourke neglected to book the marksman for a second day; the balloon broke free of its moorings and disappeared from view. The pig sailed through Heathrow airspace and eventually landed in a Kent field whose farmer was furious it had scared his cows. The early photographs of the power station were considered better, the image of the pig was later superimposed onto one of those.
2012 London Olympics – the pig flies again
During the Isles of Wonder short film shot by Danny Boyle and shown as part of the Opening Ceremonies of the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, the camera zooms down the length of the River Thames, from a small spring in the countryside all the way to the Olympic venue. During the fly-by, a pig can be seen floating above Battersea Power Station.
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Thank you – very interesting.