“Games for May “ was a show, which took place at the Queen Elizabeth Hall on 12 May 1967; in London's upscale South Bank performing-arts district, usually only used for classical concerts.
This concert was one of the first significant events held by Pink Floyd, described by their manager Christopher Hunt as a: “Space Age Relaxation For The Climax of Spring – Electronic Composition, Colour And Image Projection, Girls, And The Pink Floyd". The first in U.K in to feature both a complex light show with quadraphonic speaker system.
Unfortunately was not recorded, so there is no possibility of listening to it, that is the reason of this new reconstruction made with studio recordings. This is the soundtrack of a great lost concert or the alternate way to hear the first album of Pink Floyd.
Spring of '67, Pink Floyd were in the middle of recording sessions for their debut album, “Piper at the Gates of Dawn”: little by little they had grown to become one of the representatives of Britain's psychedelic pop movement.
A weeks before the concert, the band asked to Bernard Speight, Abbey Road's techies, if he could invent something with which to manipulate the sound. He built a box with four separate 90-degree potentiometers, one for each speaker, all controlled by a single joystick. If the joystick was upright, the sound was centered, but moving it diagonally would dispatch the sound to the speaker in the equivalent corner of the hall. This invention was given the fittingly futuristic name of the Azimuth Coordinator was stolen after the show.
In this perfomance, not only featured some of material from the debut album: that would be published in August; also the band members created sound effects with a series of tape recordings. Bit.ly/67pf1 Roger Waters created the opening dawnusing bird calls and various natural sounds (an effect he would use in both "Cirrus Minor" and "Grantchester Meadows"). Syd Barret wrote for this event "See Emily Play" was known as "Games for May.
Side A: (19.27)
1.Dawn. (0.35) (Unreleased).(Sound effects).
2.Matilda Mother. (3.59) (A.k.a: “Matilda´s Mother“).
3.Flaming. (2.46) (A.k.a: “Snowing“).
4.Scarecrow. (2.11) (A.k.a: “The scarecrow“).
5.Games To May. (2.54) (A.k.a: “See Emely Play“).
6.Bicycle. (1.53) (Alternate version).(A.k.a: “Bike“).
7.Arnold Layne. (2.56)
8.Candy And A Currant Bun. (2.09) (Unreleased alternate version).
Side B: (19.03)
1.Pow R. Toc H. (4.26)
2.Interstellar Overdrive. (10.00) (Unreleased alternate version).
3.Ending. (1.29) (Unreleased in this way).(Sound effects).
4.Lucifer Sam. (3.07).
Syd Barrett – lead guitar,;acoustic guitar & vocals. Roger Waters – bass; slide whistle & vocals. Richard Wright – Farfisa; Combo Compact organ; piano;organ; pianet ; celesta; cello; harmonium &vocals. Nick Mason– drums, percussion.Peter Bown–engineering. Norman Smith–production. Recorded 21 February – 21 May 1967. EMI Studios, London.
The anecdote: Rick Wright created bubbles produced from a machine at the end of the show,, it was not a good idea because they spoiled the seats and the floor of the enclosure. As a consequence,
Pink Floyd were banned from ever playing there again.Even so the concert was a success described by Nick Manson as the best they ever gave. A year later, much had changed for Pink Floyd. Barrett had fallen into a spiral of worsening mental illness brought on partly by overuse of LSD and was voted out of the band and replaced with guitarist David Gilmour.
That´s all, for now. Enjoy It.
Photo: Cover inspired by the original drawings used in the concert poster.