This Pink Floyd trivia quiz runs from the UFO Club to Live 8 and beyond in 50 free questions with answers: the two bluesmen behind the name, Syd Barrett's brief brilliant reign and his ghostly studio visit in 1975, the cow, the prism and the pig, Clare Torry's £30 vocal, the cash-register loops in Money, the Battersea pig that closed Heathrow, the Montreal spitting incident that became The Wall, Wright's firing, Waters' walkout and the court fight over the name, the Division Bell heads outside Ely, Stephen Hawking's cameo, the Hyde Park reunion and the 2022 song for Ukraine. About a third of the questions are ones any fan can answer; the rest are for people who know their Ummagumma from their Obscured by Clouds. It works for a music-round at quiz night, a listening party, or a solo test with headphones on. Every answer has been checked against a reference source, and each question shows its explanation and citation once you have answered.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Pink Floyd took their name from two musicians in which genre?
Piedmont blues
Syd Barrett had records by Pink Anderson and Floyd Council in his collection.
Q 02In which city was Pink Floyd formed in 1965?
London
Barrett, Waters and Gilmour had all grown up in Cambridge, but the band came together at architecture school in London.
Q 03Which of these was NOT one of the four founding members of Pink Floyd?
David Gilmour
Gilmour joined at the end of 1967, initially as a fifth member to cover for the increasingly erratic Barrett.
Q 04What was Pink Floyd's first single, released in March 1967?
Arnold Layne
The song about a clothes-stealing transvestite was banned by Radio London.
Q 05The album title The Piper at the Gates of Dawn comes from a chapter of which children's book?
The Wind in the Willows
The chapter features the god Pan; the album is the only one made under Barrett's leadership.
Q 06Recording their 1967 debut at Abbey Road, Pink Floyd worked down the hall from which band making a landmark album?
The Beatles
Sgt. Pepper was being finished at the same time; producer Norman Smith had been the Beatles' engineer.
Q 07In which month and year did the band announce the departure of their original frontman?
April 1968
Syd Barrett's mental health had collapsed amid heavy LSD use; he made two solo albums in 1970 and then retreated to Cambridge to paint and garden.
Q 08The 1970 album Atom Heart Mother was the band's first UK number one. What is on its cover?
A cow in a field
The Holstein-Friesian was called Lulubelle III, and there is no text on the sleeve at all.
Q 09The title Atom Heart Mother was taken from a newspaper story about what?
A woman with a nuclear-powered pacemaker
The headline read "Atom Heart Mother Named"; Waters later said he would refuse a million pounds to play the piece again.
Q 10"Echoes", the 23-minute track that fills side two of Meddle, is on an album whose cover shows what?
An ear underwater
Designer Storm Thorgerson later said the album was much better than his cover.
Q 11The Meddle track "Seamus" features what unusual guest performer?
A howling dog
The dog belonged to Steve Marriott and Gilmour was dog-sitting; "Fearless" on the same album ends with Liverpool fans singing.
Q 12The 1972 concert film shot in a Roman amphitheatre shows the band playing in front of how many people?
None
Director Adrian Maben got the idea after losing his passport in the ruins; power came by a 750-metre cable from the town hall.
Q 13Which EMI staff engineer worked on The Dark Side of the Moon before forming his own Project?
Alan Parsons
The sessions ran at Abbey Road from May 1972 to early 1973.
Q 21The Wish You Were Here cover shows two businessmen shaking hands. What is happening to one of them?
He is on fire
Stuntman Ronnie Rondell Jr. really was set alight on a Warner Bros. lot and got minor burns for his trouble.
Q 22The 1977 album Animals is loosely based on which book?
Animal Farm
Its songs are Dogs, Pigs and Sheep, bookended by two parts of "Pigs on the Wing".
Q 23The inflatable pig photographed over Battersea Power Station for Animals was nicknamed what?
Algie
It broke loose in December 1976, drifted into Heathrow's airspace and came down in a Kent field, alarming a farmer's cows.
Q 14The famous prism on the cover of The Dark Side of the Moon was drawn by which designer at Hipgnosis?
George Hardie
Storm Thorgerson's team took the idea from a physics textbook photograph.
Q 15"Money" is written in which unusual time signature?
7/4
The rhythm track is a tape loop of coins and cash registers; the song shifts to 4/4 for the guitar solo.
Q 16How much was Clare Torry originally paid for her vocal on "The Great Gig in the Sky"?
£30
She later sued and settled for a share of the royalties and a co-writing credit.
Q 17Roughly how many copies has The Dark Side of the Moon, the world's third best-selling album, sold?
45 million
It stayed on the Billboard chart for more than fourteen years the first time round.
Q 18"Dark Side of the Rainbow" is the fan claim that the album synchronises with which film?
The Wizard of Oz
The band has always called it a coincidence.
Q 19"Shine On You Crazy Diamond" from Wish You Were Here is a tribute to which former bandmate?
Syd Barrett
By eerie chance Barrett wandered into Abbey Road while it was being mixed on 5 June 1975, so changed that nobody recognised him.
Q 20Who sang lead vocals on "Have a Cigar", the song that asks "which one's Pink?"
Roy Harper
The folk singer was recording next door; the lyric mocks a record executive who thought Pink was a person.
Q 24An incident at a 1977 concert in which city, when Waters spat at a fan, inspired The Wall?
Montreal
He told producer Bob Ezrin he felt cut off from the audience by a wall, and a rock opera followed.
Q 25The children's chorus on "Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2)" came from where?
Islington Green School
The song was Pink Floyd's only number one single in both the UK and the US, and the UK Christmas number one of 1979.
Q 26Which band member was fired during The Wall, then rehired as a salaried player for the tour?
Richard Wright
The tour lost about £400,000, so the man on a wage was the only one who made money from it.
Q 27For how many weeks did The Wall sit at number one on the US Billboard chart?
15
It has sold more than 30 million copies, second only to Dark Side in the band's catalogue.
Q 28Who played Pink in the 1982 film Pink Floyd – The Wall?
Bob Geldof
It was the Boomtown Rats singer's film debut; director Alan Parker called the shoot one of the most miserable experiences of his life.
Q 29Who created the animation for The Wall film and its marching hammers?
Gerald Scarfe
The film won two BAFTAs, for Best Sound and Best Original Song.
Q 30The Final Cut (1983) went straight to number one in the UK. Who wrote all of its words and music?
Roger Waters
It is dedicated to Waters' father, killed at Anzio in 1944 when Roger was five months old.