Pink Floyd Ricky Tick Poster 1967
The embryonic Pink Floyd underwent seismic changes in 1967. The band signed a record Deal with EMI Records, recieving a £5,000 advance, equivalent to £96,500 in 2021. It saw the release of the band’s first three UK singles. Arnold Layne backed by Candy and a Currant Bun was released in March. This was followed up in June with See Emily Play and its b-side The Scarecrow. November 1967 saw the release of the band’s third UK single Apples and Oranges with its flip-side Paint Box. August saw the release of the band’s first album Pipers at the Gate of Dawn. The album is made up of two different kinds of songs: short, quirky and catchy pop songs written by Syd Barratt and lengthy improvisations typical of the the band’s live performances at the time.
The band had played just four concerts in 1965, starting with a gig at a Milton Keynes Youth Centre on December 31. In 1966, 36 shows were were played. Venues included the notorious UFO Club, the legendary Marquee Club and the famous Roundhouse as well as a residency at All Saints Church Hall in London. 1967 saw the band step up their live performances still further. They played more than 160 shows. The most concerts the band would ever play in a single year.
Pink Floyd concerts in 1967
The year began on 6 January when the band played at the ‘Freak Out Ethel’ happening at Paddington’s Seymor Hall. At the end of the month the band entered Chelsea’s Sound Techniques studios to record Arnold Layne and Candy and a Current Bun. In March, Pink Floyd were filmed performing Arnold Lane for an appearance on the BBC’s Top of the Pops. The single’s lyrics describing the antics of a transvestite knicker nicker saw it banned by BBC Radio London. In part because of the lack of airplay, the single dropped three places that week and the performance was never broadcast.
Major concerts of 1967 included headlining the multi-artist event the 14 Hour Technicolour Dream Concerts in April. May, saw the band play their first significant concert. The concert held at the Ally Pally, London’s Alexandra Palace, saw the band sharing the bill with Soft Machine, The Pretty Things, and Social Deviants.
On 12th May, the Floyd played The Games for May. The event was described at the time as a “Space Age Relaxation for the Climax of Spring – electronic composition, colour and image projection, girls, and the Pink Floyd”, was held at the Queen Elizabeth Hall on the South Bank in London. This was followed by the band’s first Top of the Pops appearance ‘proper’. They performed their new single See Emily Play on 6 July 1967 and appeared on the show on two further occasions in July. In August, Pink Floyd performed at the ‘International Love-In’ festival at London’s Alexandra Palace, sharing a bill with The Animals and Cream. The month also saw the UK release of the seminal debut album The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn.The album contained some of the bands best-known and much loved early trackes including Astromony Domine, Lucifer Sam, Interstellar Overdrive, Scarecrow and Bike. It is the only Pink Floyd album made under the leadership of founding member, lead singer and guitarist Syd Barrett who wrote all but three of the albums songs. The album has been hailed as a pivotal psychedelic masterpiece. It made No. 6 in the UK album charts.
In October, the band entered De Lane Lea Studios, Holborn in London to begin the recording of their next album A Saucerful Of Secrets. Further sessions took place throughout October at De Lane and at The Beatles Abbey Road studios.
Just two weeks after the US release of the Piper At The Gates Of Dawn album, Pink Floyd embarked on their first American shows. The group made their US debut at San Francisco’s Winterland Auditorium supporting Big Brother And The Holding Company, featuring Janis Joplin. Two days after the show a US only single, titled Flaming back with The Gnome was released and on November 7 Pink Floyd made their debut US TV debut miming to Apples and Oranges on the hugely popular American Bandstand music show.
By now, Syd Barrett’s erratic behaviour was beginning to show. On 18 July, a scheduled performance for the BBC’s ‘Saturday Club’ music programme was cancelled at the last minute when Syd Barrett walked out during the recording. On 1 August, an appearance on German TV’s ‘Beat Club’ was cancelled with the explanation that “Syd is tired and exhausted and has been advised to rest for two weeks”. Barrett took a holiday on the island of Formentera.
The beginning of the end for Syd Barrett
In November the band embarked on a 16 date UK tour. The concert line-up consisted of Amen Corner, Eire Apparent, The Nice, The Move, Pink Floyd and the headliner Jimi Hendrix. Two shows per day were scheduled. Hendrix was allotted exactly 40 minutes. The Move, who preceded Hendrix onstage, had just half an hour, and Pink Floyd were allowed between 15 and 20 minutes. Tickets cost from 7/6 to 15 shillings (37.5p to 75p).
According to reports, Barrett was not enjoying the tour. At the shows Barrett would start songs in the wrong key, sing the wrong words on purpose and change the arrangements without telling anyone else in the band. Arriving in each new town, Syd would go for a walk, and not get back to the venue until just a few minutes before Floyd were due onstage. He’d play the show, go off again, come back hours later, in time for the second performance. But on the 18 November gig at Liverpool Empire Syd just didn’t show up at all. He was replaced by The Nice’s guitarist ‘Davy’ O’List.
Barrett’s behavior was threatening to bring the band down, just as things were really looking good for the group. It was impossible for the band to continue in this manner. At a concert on 6 December Pink Floyd played London’s Royal College Of Art. David Gilmour was in the audience and was invited by the drummer Nick Mason to jam with the group later in the month. He would soon be asked to join the band.
At the end of both a trumphant and turbulent year the group played their final show on 22 December 1967 at London’s Olympia Exhibition Hall as part of the ‘Christmas On Earth Continued’ festival. It was their final concert as a four piece with Syd Barrett.
By 1968 Gilmour was a full fledged member of the band and Barrett was on his way out.
The Ricky Tick Club, Windsor… Hounslow… Maidenhead…
The Ricky Tick was a notable, if nomadic, R&B club in England during the 1960’s. It was the first outside of London. The club at any given time could be an upstairs room behind the Star and Garter pub, the Thames Hotel pub on the Thames riverside front or many other Ricky Tick locations included the Guildford, Hounslow, High Wycombe, Maidenhead, Slough, Newbury, Reading. In total 27 venues across the country.
The most popular of the Ricky Tick venues was Clewer Mead, a semi-derelict, council owned mansion on the River Thames. The sprawling property included six flats made up of 58 rooms. Jon Mansfield, founder of the influential club, writes in his 2019 book, ‘As You Were‘ the rent on the mansion was £16 a week. Mansfield and his business partner Philip Hayward then spent a fiver ‘refurbing’ the place. According to the book, the refurbishment consisted of pasting black paper on to the walls. Lighting was made out of ice-cream tins and furniture was made out of packing cases from the old Volkswagon depot in Slough.
The Ricky Tick in all its forms became a hot-bed for new talent. On December 14th, 1962 The Rolling Stones played their first ever gig with Bill Wyman at the club. Within eighteen months the Stones had played Ricky Tick clubs over forty times. A young Eric Clapton played there while in The Roosters. He continued to gig there with John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, The Yardbirds and Cream.
During its four-year existence, the Ricky-Tick was a hot bed for new talent and the list of artists that performed there reads like a who’s who of 60’s rock, pop and soul royalty. In addition to the Rolling Stones, other British R&B groups including The Animals, The Who, John Mayall, Georgie Fame, The Alan Price Set, the Moody Blues, Van Morrison, Rod Stewart, Elton John and The Pretty Things would all perform there. American acts including Jimi Hendrix, Fleetwood Mac, Bill Hayley and the Comets, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Geno Washington, Ike & Tina Turner, Howling Wolf, John Lee Hooker, Sonny Boy Williamson, The Supremes, Stevie Wonder and The Temptations would all appear.
Pink Floyd at the Ricky Tick Club, Windsor
Pink Floyd played some of their earliest gigs at the Ricky-Tick. This Pink Floyd Ricky-Tick poster advertises one of the two nights the band first played at Ricky Tick venues. On the 24th February the band played the Ricky Tick Club at Hounslow in Middlesex before travelling to the UFO on Tottenham Court Road, London, for a show named the Return of the Invisible Pink Floyd.
This Pink Floyd Ricky Tick Poster is for the second show at the Thames Hotel, Windsor on February 25th 1967. According to reports Jimi Hendrix played the venue on 3 February for the princely sum of £20. When Pink Floyd played on 25 February 1967 they received a fee of £160. The concert poster is typical of the Ricky Tick posters of the time. It features black text over a pale tangerine background. It reads, Ricky-Tick Windsor. Saturday 25. 7/6 (37 and a half pence). PINK FLOYD. Todd A’O 3D. in Cinemascope. At the time Todd-AO was a perfected film process that gave the audience a sense of participation in the action, the feeling of being present in every scene. A 4m 31s clip of Pink Floyd at the Ricky-Tick club on the first night is available to watch on Youtube. The sound is not great quality and the footage appears to be more about the audience participation and reaction than focussing on the band. Still if you’re a fan, it’s interesting!
Pink Floyd were one of the most bootlegged bands in the world. Unfortunately there are no bootlegs available for 1967. Even setlists seem scarce. However, a show on 12 May 1967 gives us an idea of a typical Pink Floyd setlist from this time period. At that show the band performed Dawn, Matilda Mother, Flaming, The Scarecrow, See Emily Play, Bike, Arnold Layne, Candy and a Currant Bun, Pow R. Toc H., Interstellar Overdrive, Bubbles with Lucifer Sam as an encore.
The band would return to the club a month later. The show on March 24 1967 was the last Ricky-Tic performance of the band’s career. That Saturday night would prove to be a busy night for the band who after the show at Windsor would make their way over to Swindon for a show at the New Yorker Discoteque. Then they would travel down to Bognor Regis for a show in the early hours of the 26th March at The Chichester Inn.
How much is an original Pink Floyd at the Ricky Tick Club, Windsor worth?
The Pink Floyd Ricky Tick Poster is from the early part of the band’s hugely successful career. In the 1960s, concert posters weren’t produced to be sold at the venues. Printed onto cheap poster paper, they were simple, temporary advertisements created to promote the show. They would be pasted over or discarded very quickly. In their original form not many of these Ricky Tick posters have survived. An original copy came up for sale in 2020 with a guide price of between £1,500 – £2,500. The item did sell but we don’t know the final sale price.
Of course, if you can find an original copy and can afford to buy it, you’re on to a winner. There’s nothing like owning an original vintage poster and they often make a great investment. Chances are in just a few years you’ll be able to sell it for more than you paid for it. Unfortunately, for most of us, an investment, even at the entry-level prices of the collectible poster isn’t even close to being a possibility. This is where our stunning high-quality reproductions come into their own. Our reproduction posters offer an authentic vintage look, cost a fraction of an original, and look absolutely fantastic when they’re framed and hung on your wall.
Hey You! If you’re a fan of Pink Floyd, especially Syd Barrett era Floyd, this poster is a great way to declare your love of the band. A proper nod to the inspirational tracks like Interstellar Overdrive, Astromony Domine, Bike, Scarecrow and Matilda Mother, that you know and love. A Pink Floyd poster promoting the great gig in the 60’s that’ll eclipse all your other posters. It’ll impress your mates and leave them feeling comfortably numb. You can have it in any colour you like as long as its pale tangerine. We know you’ll have high hopes, but once you see it in the flesh, you’ll be lost for words. You’ll be able to breathe easy, relax and have a cigar knowing you’re one of the few to own one. We promise you won’t be disappointed, order yours today, we’ll interstellar overdrive it to your front door.
