Background
Architecture students Roger Waters, Nick Mason and Richard Wright and art student Syd Barrett had performed in various guises since 1962, and began touring as "The Pink Floyd Sound" in 1965. They turned professional on 1 February 1967 when they signed with EMI, with an advance fee of £5,000. Their first single, a song about a kleptomaniac transvestite titled "Arnold Layne", was released on 11 March to mild controversy – Radio London refused to air it. About three weeks later the band were introduced to the mainstream media. EMI's press release claimed that the band were "musical spokesmen for a new movement which involves experimentation in all the arts", but EMI attempted to put some distance between them and the underground scene from which the band originated by stating that "the Pink Floyd does not know what people mean by psychedelic pop and are not trying to create hallucinatory effects on their audiences". The band returned to Sound Techniques Studio to record their next single, "See Emily Play", on 18 May. The single was released almost a month later, on 16 June, and reached number six in the charts.
Read more about this topic: The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn
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