If the glamour and glory of rock ‘n’ roll lie in its albums and live performances, then the magic lies in the small, seemingly mundane moments that led to these music history milestones. From Led Zeppelin forming from the ashes of The Yardbirds to The Beatles coming together through shared bus routes, all of these iconic bands were one last-minute decision away from never happening at all. That includes Pink Floyd, which had a series of youth art classes to thank for the eventual creation of the pioneering group.
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Before the members of Pink Floyd were painting sonic landscapes with dreamy, psychedelic arrangements á la Dark Side of the Moon, most of the musicians were, at the very least, dabbling in visual art. Perhaps most surprisingly, they had no idea that they were developing these creative skills right beside each other. “Apparently, Syd [Barrett] and I first met as children at a Saturday morning arts class in this big semi-attic room at Homerton College on Hills Road,” David Gilmour said of the band’s founding member, whom he eventually replaced following Barrett’s worsening mental health episodes.
“I discovered later that Syd and Roger [Waters] went to the class at the same time for something like three or four years,” Gilmour continued, per Pink Floyd Shine On: The Definitive Oral History. “But I have no recollection of either.” Memories of those classes were more prominent in Waters’ mind, who had a close friendship with Barrett.
“I was about ten, and Syd would have been eight,” Waters explained. “We used to make pottery crocodiles. I lived in Rock Road, and he was on Hills Road, a few doors away from my aunt.”
Pink Floyd Also Came To Be With the Help of a College of Art Teacher
David Gilmour, Roger Waters, and Syd Barrett were only in the same art class for a few years in their late childhood. However, their paths continued to cross in their teens and young adult years as they went off to the same colleges and universities in the U.K. Gilmour and Barrett both studied at Cambridge Tech, while Waters attended London Polytechnic with future Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason. It was during his studies at Polytechnic that Waters once again established integral creative relationships, this time with the help of an art instructor.
Part-time tutor at Hornsey College of Art, Mike Leonard, rented his apartment to Waters and Mason at 39 Stanhope Gardens. According to Mason in his memoir Inside Out, the living arrangement “made a real difference to our musical activities. We had our own permanent rehearsal facility, thanks to an indulgent landlord. We used the name Leonard’s Lodgers for a while. Rehearsals took place in the front room of the flat, where all the equipment was permanently set up. Unfortunately, this made any study very difficult and sleep almost out of the question since it was also Roger’s and my bedroom.”
When Mason moved out of the apartment one year later, Waters began playing bass with a different group of musicians. Soon, Barrett joined, and the first substantial buds of Pink Floyd began to develop. By 1965, Pink Floyd was the official name of the group that consisted of ex-art classmates who, fortunately for rock lovers everywhere, decided to take a Saturday morning art class in the early 1950s.
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