The Pink Floyd and Soft Machine at the Roundhouse 1966
I first saw the Soft Machine and Pink Floyd (their first gig) in 1966 when they played at the Chalk Farm Roundhouse, a launch party for our International Times newspaper. The two groups, virtually unknown, were paid a mere two pounds fifty for the evening. The orgaizers of that event had ripped the boards away covering theentrance of that huge derelict building that had been abandoned since the electrification of the trains. There was no staircase, only a narrow, rickety step ladder at the entrance. When I arrived a long line of colorfully dressed hippies were slowly mounting that fracile strucure and disappearing into the semidarkness. Wow! Was the only word possible to describe the interior. It was a ruin of ancient iron, rotting timbers that smelt of mildew soon replaced by the scent of marijuana. An attempt had been made to clean