The Complete 'Top Gear' Sessions

[The Piper]

The Complete 'Top Gear' Sessions

by Ron Fleischer

Late being a popular group in Britain in the sixties, inevitably
found the Pink Floyd appearing several times on John Peel's "Top
Gear" program. Peel, who was originally a DJ for Radio London,
went on to become BBC's "token hippie", regularly featuring the
Floyd and other "progressive" bands. Their first appearance was
on September 30, 1967 and gave the band, then fronted by Barrett
the opportunity to perform some songs from their debut album,
"The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn". They also played "Apples And
Oranges" (a single that had yet to be released) which is the only
known performance of the pieces. All songs remained true to
their original recorded versions. The December 19th session was
the last to include Syd, whose once great contribution to the
band had become a burden. His songwriting and performing
capabilities had become obscure to the point that rendered him
incapable of playing with the other members of the Floyd, as his
withdrawal into drugs and psychosis were taking its toll. His
state of mind at the time was evident, with the unreleased tracks
"Vegetable Man" and "Scream Thy Last Scream". These songs had
been recorded earlier that year along with "Jugband Blues", which
later appeared on "A Saucerful Of Secrets" and were played for
the first time. David Gilmour had replaced Syd and performed
with the group on "Top Gear's" June 25th show in 1968. This was
one of the few times that they played "Julia Dream" and premiered
two tracks from their soon to be released second album.
"Murderistic Women" was the earliest incarnation of "Careful With
That Axe, Eugene" and also it's shortest, omitting Roger's primal
scream and most of the tensional build up. "The Massed Gadgets
Of
Hercules" was an early abbreviated version of "A Saucerful Of
Secrets", which was also performed as the climax to "The Journey"
later on that year. The Floyd's next appearance wasn't until
early next year on January 14th. The set started off with "Point
Me At The Sky", with a slightly altered lyric and extended spacey
bridge (this session could be the only time this song was played
live). "Baby Blue Shuffle In D Major" is an early version of
"Narrow Way/Part One", which became one of Gilmour's acoustic
contributions to the "Ummagumma" LP. This was one of the first
pieces to be recorded for the new album along with "Embryo",
which was dropped when the decision was made to divide
"Ummagumma's" second LP into four solo sections. Since "Embryo"
was performed by the entire group, it was not officially released
until the US "Works" compilation came out in 1983 (and accidently
on "Picnic", a Harvest sampler from 1970). The session ended
with an unusually short version of "Interstellar Overdrive",
which seemed to start off from the middle of the piece. Their
final "Top Gear" performance was on May 12, 1969. This session
best represented the Floyd's live repertoire at the time
featuring selections from "The Man" and "The Journey", the band's
first conceptual pieces. "Daybreak" (aka "Grantchester
Meadows"), a pleasant acoustic number complete with sound
effects, was the first part of "The Man" suite. "Green Is The
Colour" had been seemlessly joined with "Careful With That Axe,
Eugene", and were still in their early stages, along with
"Cymbaline" which had yet to be released on the "More"
soundtrack. The set concluded with "The Narrow Way/Part Three",
the final contribution to Gilmour's portion of "Ummagumma" which
was also featured during "The Journey". Although Pink Floyd had
also made two classic appearances on John Peel's BBC One Show
from the Paris Theatre in 1970 (eventually airing in the US on
the "BBC Rock Hour"), these are the complete "Top Gear"
performances. From their rise and fall with Syd, to their new
beginning with Gilmour, these recordings represent the group
throughout its embryonic evolution. The rest, as they say, is
history.


- Ron Fleischer