The West End basement bar where Pink Floyd got their big break will be recreated inside the V&A for a new blockbuster show dedicated to 50 years of the giants of rock.

Fans will enter the exhibition by climbing into the back of a replica of the beaten-up old Bedford van they toured in during their early days.

The story of their career, taking in multi-million-selling albums and spectacular concerts full of theatrical effects, will then unfold.

A section dedicated to the UFO club in Tottenham Court Road, where Pink Floyd be-came the unofficial house band 50 years ago, includes a psychedelic light show  created by designer Peter Wynne Willson, who worked with the band at the time.

The show will open in May. Researchers, led by long-time Pink Floyd collaborator Aubrey “Po” Powell, spent more than two years hunting down memorabilia in the homes of band members including bass player Roger Waters. Some 350 exhibits include a painting by original lead singer Syd Barrett, guitars, album art, and clothes worn by the band when they were starting out and kept ever since by drummer Nick Mason.

Mr Powell said: “Nick was a collector from the early days. He had a very well organised archive and had shirts from the UFO days kept on hangers.

“We searched through their houses and barns and sheds. You would open up a box and there would be a Gerald Scarfe piece of animated film in pristine condition that’s been untouched for 30 or 40 years.”

One exhibit is a letter from the helicopter pilot hired to chase the giant inflatable pig, suspended above Battersea Power Station for the cover of 1977 album Animals, after it broke free and floated off towards Kent.

Another item is a cane used to punish some of the band members during their Cambridge school days which helped inspire the character of the Teacher in The Wall.

Mr Powell said: “The Teacher was taken directly from Roger’s teacher at school, who was a bully. We went back to the school and found they still had the cane that was used  on them. I told Roger and he was over the moon about that.”

Waters and Mason were expected to make a rare public appearance together today to discuss the show — but Mr Powell said the trip down memory lane had not plastered over all the cracks in the band’s famously fractious relationships. “I would like to say ‘yes’ but no comment will be appropriate,” he said.

“This is about a band that have gone on for 50 years, made some of the most fantastic music ever, and judging by audiences at their solo shows are as popular as ever.”

The Pink Floyd Exhibition: Their Mortal Remains runs from May 13th to October 1st. Tickets are on sale now.

British label Network Releasing will bring to Blu-ray Peter Whitehead ‘s 1967 semi-documentary entitled “Tonite Let’s All Make Love In London” about the “swinging London” scene of the sixties. The film consists of a series of psychedelic performances and interviews and features live performance by Pink Floyd, together with footage of John Lennon, Yoko Ono, Mick Jagger, Vanessa Redgrave, Lee Marvin, Julie Christie, Allen Ginsberg, Eric Burdon, Michael Caine and many others attending one of the band’s concerts

The release will be available for purchase on May 1st.

Synopsis: Featured here as a brand new restoration, Peter Whitehead’s celebrated film probes the myth and the reality of “Swinging London” presenting an intimate, impressionistic collage of rare concert and studio performances, interviews with key figures from the worlds of music, art and cinema, and images of Sixties counterculture.

John Lennon, Yoko Ono, Mick Jagger, Vanessa Redgrave, Lee Marvin, Julie Christie, Allen Ginsberg, Edna O’Brien, David Hockney and Michael Caine are among those captured on film and in sound; bookended by a performance of Pink Floyd’s Interstellar Overdrive, the soundtrack features songs by the Rolling Stones and Eric Burdon. Made when many young people saw politicised hedonism as the logical response to global uncertainty, Whitehead’s “Pop Concerto for Film” taps into both the confidence and the confusion of an iconic moment in time.

Thanks go to forum member AphroditeMF for the heads up.

Roger Waters and Nick Mason made a rare public appearance together today at London’s Mayfair Hotel at a media briefing and Q&A session for The Pink Floyd Exhibition: Their Mortal Remains, due to open in May at London’s V&A museum.

Hosted by DJ Matt Everitt, the event started with a short description of the exhibition by co-curator Victoria Broackes, outlining the attention to detail that has gone into every aspect.

This was followed by a Question & Answer session with Matt and Pink Floyd’s Creative Director Aubrey ‘Po’ Powell of Hipgnosis, alongside Ray Winkler, CEO of the exhibition’s designers Stufish. Po spoke evocatively and warmly of his personal history with the members of Pink Floyd, and with Syd Barrett in particular, providing a creative and cultural overview of the ups, downs and importance of Pink Floyd’s career, while Ray Winkler touched on the design and architectural elements of Pink Floyd’s live staging.

On 24 March 2017, Pink Floyd will release ‘The Early Years, 1965-1972: The Individual Volumes’, a series of book-bound individual collections of the band’s seminal music during those years. The six individual collections were first released as part of ‘The Early Years 1965-1972’ box set, but will now be available as bite-sized volumes broken down by years 1965-1967, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971 and finally 1972. Outtakes and demos from the band’s early albums are included alongside live versions, as well as radio sessions and television appearances, on these packages.

To celebrate the 35th anniversary of its original release, The Prince Charles Cinema in central London has had six showings of the 70mm print of Alan Parker’s Pink Floyd The Wall . This is the first time since its original release date that it has been presented in this format on the big screen.

“Being a second generation Pink Floyd fan, and with the release of the movie based on their 1979 album The Wall pre-dating my arrival in this world by approximately 9 years, I of course missed the opportunity to experience the film on the big screen. Somewhat of an obscurity, even amongst some dedicated Floyd fans, The Wall movie is undoubtedly a cult movie which is somewhat alienating for a mass audience, not fully versed in Pink Floyd’s tone and style. One of the best independent cinemas in the country however, the excellent Prince Charles Cinema in London’s Leicester Square recently screened The Wall in an extended month-long run, and even better, on authentic 70mm film, with all its original fading and crackles in tact! It was here that I was finally able to experience the film on the big screen for the first time, and taste something of what it was like to watch it with the full cinematic experience.

I’ve watched The Wall many times before; in fact at the height of my Floyd obsession circa 2007-2010, I would probably watch it once a month! It is an interesting experience for sure, telling the story of the album in visual form using a mixture of live action and Gerald Scarfe’s incomparable animation, and with very limited dialogue. The album itself tells a story, but without some extensive research or listening, it might be tricky for the untrained ear to pick up on the story at it’s heart. The film itself doesn’t do too much to make it any less impenetrable, but it does add an extra layer to this already celebrated album, that is absolutely worth a watch, and especially on the big screen.

Watching this film at a time when literal walls are being talked about by a certain someone across the pond, it feels strangely timely to watch this, and in particular the scenes of Pink (Bob Geldof) as a quasi-Fascist dictator in his own mind are even more compelling. As was always the case with this film, the animation is the highlight, and the sequences which accompany Goodbye Blue Sky, Empty Spaces, and my personal favourite, The Trial, are disturbing, powerful, and funny in almost equal measure.

Whilst The Wall is undoubtedly an odd film, and still somewhat alienating for those who perhaps aren’t familiar with the album’s concept and central themes of abandonment and isolation, watching it on the big screen perfectly marries the unusual and unforgettable imagery with the sheer power of the music, making it a wholly more satisfying experience. The familiarity with songs such as Another Brick in the Wall pt. 2 and Comfortably Numb are given new weight and meaning when listened to with the accompanying visuals, and whilst disturbing in places, the operatic visceral quality of songs such as In the Flesh and Run Like Hell have even more raw power when viewed as opposed to just listening to them.

It is perhaps ironic for a film and album which focuses so heavily on isolation as it’s central theme, that the film makes the album somehow less of an isolating experience, and whilst newcomers might still have some questions, it is incredible to see Waters’ visionary album visually coming to life. You might be a second generation Floyd fan like me, or perhaps seeing this film at the cinema in 1982 feels like somewhat of a distant memory, but if you’re able to experience The Wall on the big screen, then it is an experience not to be missed!”

We would like to take a moment to send special thanks to Sarah Buddery for taking the time to write and send in this review.