Pink Floyd, BBC Radio, 14 May 1967

After their second successful live performance at the Queen Elizabeth Hall on the 12th of May 1967, The Pink Floyd participates on the 14th of May to a BBC radio show called 'Look of the Week'.
As an introduction, the band plays a haf minute extract of Pow R Toc H, then the interviewer Hans Keller starts by showing hostile opinions on the band, in words that make him a fool when you read them as we now know the successful future of the band! Interestingly, his points are either trivial - they play too loud - or rather silly - they are repetitive. The most ridicule part is when he claims that he is too much a musician to appreciate them. Poor Hans obviously does not understand at all what The Pink Floyd is up to.
Hans Keller:

"That sight, those sounds were made by the Pink Floyd, a pop group who took over the Queen Elizabeth Hall on Friday Night for the entertainment they called 'Games For May', of them, more hereafter."

"The Pink Floyd - you're going to hear them in a minute and I do not want to prejudice you. Hear them and see them first and we'll talk about them afterwards but four quick points I want to make before you hear them.

The first is that what you heard at the beginning, that short bit, those few seconds, are really all I can hear in them, which is to say to my mind, there is continuous repetition and propotionally they are a bit boring.

My second point is that they are terribly loud. You couldn't quite because of course it isn't as loud from your sets or as it was at the Queen Elizabeth Hall on Friday. I will ask them about that when we come to talk.

My third point is that perhaps I am a little bit too much of a musiciain to appreciate them. And the reason why that, why I say that is that...

Four, they have an audience. And people who have an audience ought to be heard. Perhaps it is my fault that I don't appreciate them."
At this point a BBC recording of the band playing a shortened 3 minutes version of Astronomy Domine is broadcasted. An the interview begins.

Hans Keller:

"... Let me first turn to Roger. I want to ask one fundamental question, of which I'll tell you viewers may not be quite aware of the significance of it because they didn't hear all of it. Why does it all got to be so terribly loud? For me, frankly, its too loud. I just can't bare it. I happened to have grown up with the string quartet which is a bit softer. So, uh, why does it got to be so loud?"

Roger:

"Well, I don't think that it HAS to be. But I mean, that's the way we like it. And uh, we didn't grow up in the string quartet so I guess that could be one of the reasons why its loud. I mean, it doesn't sound terribly loud to us."

Hans Keller:

"Actually not everybody who hasn't grown up in a string quarter turns into a loud pop group. So your reasons weren't altogether committed. But I accept that you like it. What are you saying is that, if one gets immune to this kind of sound one may find it difficult to appreciate softer types of sound. Syd? Yes? No?"

Syd:

"I don't think that's so."

Hans Keller:

"No."

Syd:

"I mean everybody listens. We don't need it very loud to be able to hear it. And sometimes it's very quiet in fact. Personally I like quiet music just as much as loud music. We play in large halls and things so we're obviously going to use it as necessary. And when people dance... like volume, you know, it comes in a bit further."

Hans Keller:

"Well, that's interesting. You say 'when people dance', you did start, if I'm not mistaken as a group which accompanied dancing. Is that it?"

Syd:

"Yeah, you could say that."

Hans Keller:

"And how did you turn into a concertizing group? "

Roger:

"Well, we've only done two concerts. Because they're seen with Pop music, which I guess is what we are. And we play gigs with ballrooms and dancehalls and the sort of scene because that's how it works at the moment. But we felt that there was no real reason, you know, why we shouldn't do an organized concert in a large hall where people can come and sit and actually listen to what we do. You could say with Dance Halls, generally speaking, are not very good places to actually listen to the music. Most people come along and the music for most of them has been, over the past few years anyway, a background noise that they can jig about to."

Hans Keller:

"Were those two concerts successful? Syd?"

Syd:

"Yes, I think so. When we play - I think the way our act's developed in the last six months has been influenced rather a lot by the fact that we play in ballrooms. Necessarily. Because obviously this is the first market. Which I think has given us a chance to realize maybe the music we play isn't directed at dancing necessarily like normal pop groups."

Hans Keller:

"Have you encountered any hostility towards your creation?"

Roger:

"Well, yes we have. I mean there's been quite a lot of hostility going on, you know, in places in the country. I mean the only hostility we've actually seen, of course, is that which hit the national press. A sort of professional knockers like Marve Pittman and..."

Hans Keller:

"Do you in turn feel agressive towards your audiences?"

Roger:

"No, not at all."

Hans Keller:

"In spite of all the loudness?

Roger:

"No, not at all."

Syd:

"There's not really been anything to sort of to cause... you know... the dislike of our audience.

Hans Keller:

"There's no shock treatment intended?"

Syd:

"No, certainly not. Some people think that we deliberately try and... sort of... shock the audience and make them, blind them to keep the quiet. No, this isn't so."

Hans Keller:

"Well there it is. I think you can pass your verdict as well as I can. My verdict is that its a little bit of a regression to childhood. But after all, why not?"