Roger Waters Recalls the “Best Purchase He Ever Made” That Led to Pink Floyd’s Formation

Sometimes, the best things in life are free, but for Roger Waters in the mid-1960s, that “best thing” cost a pound—still pretty cheap, considering the magnitude of wealth and success of his band, Pink Floyd, that this relatively minor purchase led to. At that time, Waters was studying at the Regent Street Polytechnic School of Architecture. Two particularly formative things happened to Waters there.

Notably, Waters met who would become his future Pink Floyd bandmates, Rick Wright and Nick Mason. But without that “staggering” one-pound-ticket concert at his school’s end-of-term celebration, these men might have stayed just friends instead of becoming bandmates.

Roger Waters On The “Best Purchase He Ever Made”

Former Pink Floyd bassist Roger Waters initially enrolled in the Regent Street Polytechnic School of Architecture to become a mechanical engineer. But within a few terms, Waters was looking elsewhere for inspiration. Still, he opted to attend the end-of-term celebratory concert that featured a band Waters had yet to see live: Cream. That one-pound concert ticket changed everything for Waters.

“I had never seen or heard anything like it before,” Waters recalled in an essay for Rolling Stone. “I was simply staggered by the amount of equipment they had. By Ginger Baker’s double bass drum, by Jack Bruce’s two 4-by-12 Marshall amps, and by all of Eric Clapton’s gear. It was an astounding sight and an explosive sound.”

“Two-thirds of the way through their set, one of them said, ‘We’d like to invite a friend of ours from America out on stage.’ It was Jimi Hendrix. That was the first night he played in England. He came on and did all that now-famous stuff, like playing with his teeth. That ticket cost a pound or so. It might have been the best purchase I ever made.”

Cream Inspired Countless Bands In Addition To Pink Floyd

After watching Cream and Jimi Hendrix, Roger Waters committed himself to a musical career. He, Nick Mason, and Rick Wright began performing together with mutual friends under the name Sigma 6, then Meggadeaths, then Abdabs. The list of eccentric names and band members changed in those first few years until they finally settled on the name Pink Floyd in 1966. The original lineup consisted of Waters, Mason, Wright, and Syd Barrett. Once Pink Floyd started performing professionally, Waters developed a newfound appreciation for Cream’s tremendous influence on the industry.

“They affected so many people,” Waters said in his Rolling Stone essay. “Jimmy Page must have looked at Cream and thought, ‘F*** me, I think I’ll do that,’ and then put together Led Zeppelin. Along with the Beatles, they gave those of us entering the business at that time something to aspire to that wasn’t pop but was still popular. Cream were very innovative within the context of all the music coming from the West Coast of the U.S. at that time, from bands like the Doors and Love.”

“Apart from being a great blues band, Cream had a real good go at so many other styles, even if some of it sounds a little silly now. There are songs on all the Cream albums that amaze me still, like “Crossroads” [the first song the band played that fateful night at the Regent Street School], “Sunshine of Your Love,” “White Room,” and “I Feel Free.” They were desperately trying to write material that was truly progressive and original, and they achieved that.”

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