49 Fun Facts About Pink Floyd

Pink Floyd took their name from two American musicians who played which style of music?

Blues: the band's co-founder combined the first names of two Carolina bluesmen, Pink Anderson and Floyd Council.

In which city was Pink Floyd formed in 1965?

London: Waters and Mason lodged with a Highgate tutor who built light machines, and the band even played gigs as Leonard's Lodgers.

Which guitarist did Pink Floyd bring in as a fifth member in December 1967, months before their frontman left?

David Gilmour, a childhood friend of the frontman, was brought in to cover for him on stage, and by early 1968 the frontman was out.

What was Pink Floyd's first single, released in March 1967?

Arnold Layne was based on a real thief who stole women's underwear from the washing lines where the band members' mothers housed student lodgers.

The album title The Piper at the Gates of Dawn comes from a chapter of which children's book?

The Wind in the Willows: in chapter seven, Rat and Mole search for a missing baby otter and find him asleep at the hooves of the god Pan.

Recording their 1967 debut album, Pink Floyd worked down the hall from which band making a landmark album?

The Beatles were making Sgt. Pepper next door, and Pink Floyd were invited in to watch them record 'Lovely Rita'.

After leaving Pink Floyd in 1968, the band's original frontman eventually retreated to which English city?

Cambridge: he moved back in with his mother, painted and gardened for decades, and preferred to be called by his real first name, Roger.

What is on the cover of the band's 1970 album Atom Heart Mother?

A cow in a field: not even the band could say what the album was about, so the designers put a cow on the cover.

The title Atom Heart Mother was taken from a newspaper story about what?

A nuclear-powered pacemaker fitted to a woman made the Evening Standard headline 'Atom Heart Mother Named', just as the band needed a title for a BBC broadcast.

What does the cover of Pink Floyd's 1971 album Meddle show?

An ear underwater: designer Storm Thorgerson had first pitched a close-up of a baboon's backside, but the band overruled him.

The Meddle track "Seamus" features what unusual guest performer?

The howling dog was Seamus, belonging to Humble Pie singer Steve Marriott, and a band member was dog-sitting him during the sessions.

Which Pink Floyd epic is split in two to open and close their 1972 concert film shot in an empty Roman amphitheatre?

Echoes: director Adrian Maben chose the setting after losing his passport in the ruins and going back alone to look for it.

Which EMI staff engineer engineered The Dark Side of the Moon at Abbey Road?

Alan Parsons had heard session singer Clare Torry on a covers album and brought her in to sing on 'The Great Gig in the Sky'.

Which design group created the prism cover of Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon?

Hipgnosis, run by Storm Thorgerson and Aubrey Powell, offered the band several designs, and all four members chose the prism.

Pink Floyd's 'Money' is written mostly in which unusual time signature?

7/4, though some accounts give 7/8; its beat is set by a seven-part loop spliced from recordings of coins, a cash register and tearing paper.

How much was Clare Torry originally paid for her vocal on "The Great Gig in the Sky"?

£30, the standard fee for a Sunday session; Clare Torry sued in 2004, and the song now credits her as co-writer.

Which track opens The Dark Side of the Moon?

Speak to Me is credited to Nick Mason alone; Mason says he made it himself, while Waters has called the credit a gift he later regretted.

Fans claim The Dark Side of the Moon syncs up with which classic film when the two are played together?

The Wizard of Oz: fans call the pairing Dark Side of the Rainbow, but Roger Waters has dismissed the sync as coincidence.

"Shine On You Crazy Diamond" from Wish You Were Here is a tribute to which former bandmate?

Syd Barrett, the band's co-founder, is its subject, and when he turned up at Abbey Road while they were recording it in June 1975, at first nobody recognised him.

Who sang lead vocals on Pink Floyd's 'Have a Cigar'?

Roy Harper, recording his own album at Abbey Road at the time, sang it, and Waters later said he regretted asking him because Harper played it for laughs.

On the Wish You Were Here cover, what is happening to one handshaking businessman?

He is on fire: stuntman Ronnie Rondell Jr. really was set alight, and after 15 takes came away with a singed moustache.

The 1977 album Animals is loosely based on which book?

Animal Farm: Waters cast society as dogs, pigs and sheep, and for the cover the band flew a giant inflatable pig over Battersea Power Station.

The inflatable pig photographed over Battersea Power Station for Animals was nicknamed what?

The pig, nicknamed Algie, broke loose in December 1976, drifted into Heathrow's flight path and came down in a Kent field, alarming a farmer's cows.

An incident at a 1977 concert in which city, when Waters spat at a fan, inspired The Wall?

At Montreal's Olympic Stadium, Waters leaned over and spat at a noisy fan, then was so shocked at himself that he began imagining a wall between band and audience.

The children's chorus on "Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2)" came from where?

Islington Green School's pupils got no royalties at the time, but decades later former choir members lodged a claim for the unpaid money.

Which band member was fired during The Wall, then rehired as a salaried player for the tour?

Richard Wright stayed on as a hired hand, and as the tour lost money he was probably the only member who made any from it.

Pink Floyd's The Wall topped the US chart but peaked at number three in which country?

The UK: at home The Wall stalled at number three, even though 'Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2)' went to number one.

Who played Pink in the 1982 film Pink Floyd – The Wall?

Bob Geldof, the Boomtown Rats singer, got the part after Waters, originally meant to play Pink himself, was dropped following poor screen tests.

Who created the animation for The Wall film and its marching hammers?

Gerald Scarfe clashed so often with Waters and director Alan Parker that he admitted carrying a bottle of whiskey to fortify himself each morning.

Which war prompted Roger Waters to rewrite Pink Floyd's 1983 album The Final Cut as an anti-war concept album?

The Falklands War: Waters saw Thatcher's response as pointless, and dedicated the album to his father, killed in Italy in 1944.

Suing in 1986 to stop his bandmates using the name, Roger Waters called Pink Floyd a spent force in what sense?

Creatively: Waters said the band was 'a spent force creatively', but in 2013 he told the BBC, 'I was wrong! Of course I was.'

What was the first Pink Floyd album released after the bassist's departure, in September 1987?

A Momentary Lapse of Reason was recorded largely on a Thames houseboat, with hired players, singers and lyricists far outnumbering the two remaining members.

Which author suggested the title of Pink Floyd's 1994 album?

Douglas Adams, author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, was later invited to play guitar with the band on stage at Earls Court for his birthday.

Whose synthesised voice is sampled on Pink Floyd's 1994 song 'Keep Talking'?

Stephen Hawking's lines came from a BT advert that nearly made the band's guitarist weep, and he asked the ad agency to let the band use them.

The two giant heads on Pink Floyd's 1994 album cover were photographed near which cathedral city?

Ely: the heads were real sculptures, built for the cover and set up outdoors with the cathedral on the horizon.

Which 2005 charity concert reunited Pink Floyd's classic four-man line-up for the first time since 1981?

Live 8: the four played Hyde Park for the first time since a 1981 Earls Court show, and never again, as the keyboardist died in 2008.

Which 1969 Pink Floyd double album paired a live disc with solo studio pieces by each member?

Ummagumma: the band later turned against the album, and one member admitted they had been 'floundering about'.

The 2014 album The Endless River was built from unused sessions for which earlier album?

The Endless River grew out of The Division Bell sessions and was framed as a tribute to the band's late keyboardist.

Pink Floyd's 2022 single 'Hey, Hey, Rise Up!' features the singer of which Ukrainian band?

BoomBox's Andriy Khlyvnyuk had cut short a US tour to take up arms, and the song is built on his Instagram clip singing a Ukrainian song from the First World War.

Which 1990s alt-rock frontman inducted Pink Floyd into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996?

Billy Corgan inducted one of his biggest influences, then joined the band on acoustic guitar for 'Wish You Were Here'.

Roger Waters's 1990 Berlin show of The Wall was staged on vacant land between Potsdamer Platz and which landmark?

The Brandenburg Gate: Leonard Cheshire had asked Waters to stage the show to raise money for charity, eight months after the Berlin Wall fell.

Which Italian town did Pink Floyd's guitarist return to play in 2016, 45 years after the band filmed there?

Pompeii: the band had filmed in its amphitheatre in 1971 with no audience, but in 2016 he played there before a real crowd.

What does Nick Mason's line on Pink Floyd's 'One of These Days' threaten to do?

Cut you into little pieces: it's the track's only vocal, and one bass sounds dull because a roadie sent for new strings went to see his girlfriend instead.

Which orchestral collaborator co-composed the 23-minute Atom Heart Mother suite with the band?

Ron Geesin: EMI's session players gave him such a hard time that choir conductor John Alldis had to take over conducting the recording.

Waters and Mason met in 1962 studying which subject at the Regent Street Polytechnic?

Architecture: they played in a band called Sigma 6 with other students, rehearsing covers in a basement tearoom at the college.

Which university lecturer spotted Pink Floyd at the Marquee Club in 1966 and became their manager?

Peter Jenner saw a fairly standard R&B band, but the weird improvised effects in the middle of their songs won him over.

Before signing with EMI in 1967, Pink Floyd were a house band at which club?

The UFO Club: its co-founder, American producer Joe Boyd, also took the band into the studio to make their early recordings.

In 1975 Pink Floyd built their own recording studio on which street?

Britannia Row: the band recorded parts of The Wall there, and in 2016 the old studio was approved for conversion into flats.

In 2024 Pink Floyd sold their recordings catalogue to which company for about $400 million?

Sony Music: years of feuding between the band's two principal members had stalled a sale before the 2024 deal.