User:Peterwbates/sandbox

Pink Floyd at Queen Mary College, University of London, Mile End Road

In Spring 1969, QMC had no more funds for dances or concerts. Graham Roundtree and I decided to create an entity that would fund a concert by selling shares in a production. With a little help from our friends we got together a few hundred pounds selling shares to students, most making a minimal investment, which was a few pounds. Graham and I originally booked The Who but early enough we got word from the agency the The Who would have to cancel (probably a much better offer elsewhere). At this point we had few investors so almost nobody knew of the cancellation, or in fact, that a concert was being planned, although we had reserved the Great Hall at QMC. To compensate us for the cancellation, the agency offered some other choices but at that time Pink Floyd stood out among them, being perhaps the favorite band of both Graham and myself. We advertised by putting a few printed pages up on notice boards in colleges in London and some clubs and shops. No radio advertising or anything remotely professional. We worried that hardly anyone would know about the concert because we advertised quite late for the May 3, 1969 event. Early that evening, some of our friends manned a ticket table at the entrance to the hall, while Graham and I ran around making sure the gear was in place. We hoped we would get enough money to repay shareholders since nowhere near enough tickets had been sold at QMC beforehand. QMC had less than 2000 students I believe and most had tastes rather far removed from the music of PF. On the other hand, we and all our shareholders recognized that we were not trying to form a for-profit corporation but were helping to finance a concert and that it was with our favorite band (although some of the shareholders invested without having ever heard of Pink Floyd but they knew us). At the appointed hour, we opened the doors to the Great Hall and started selling tickets. The mob of people trying to get in was almost overwhelming and I suspect several concertgoers entered without tickets, especially since we had only enough tickets to fill the seats in the theatre-styled hall. The band arrived in a van and I showed them to their dressing room behind the stage where we had a brief chat about the playlist (I had my favorites of course).

The show was phenomenal with most of the playlist coming from the albums “A Saucerful of Secrets” and “Ummagumma” but also with at least one item from “Piper at the Gates of Dawn”. Ummagumma had not been released at that time but Graham and I had heard parts in concerts at the roundhouse and other venues so we were not surprised by the new pieces. We and our friends who helped pull this off were ecstatic. All shareholders received their investment back with a very small financial profit but a great sense of achievement and memories of a spectacular concert to last a lifetime. PB