Hip to the Trip Sounds of the Sixties

The time is almost 11 minutes past 11.

At approximately 11:42,

ten minutes later than published in Radio Times,

there will be recorded excerpts from today's solemn opening

of the Roman Catholic Cathedral in Liverpool. Now The Look Of The Week.

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# Woo-woo!

# Woo-woo-woo-woo-woo

That sight, those sounds, were made by 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.

Together with an interview with Christopher Isherwood,

whose new novel, A Meeting By The River,

is published at the end of the month,

but first, Dame Laura Knight. The retrospective exhibition of her work

opens at the Upper Grosvenor Galleries in London next week.

An assault on the senses, an LSD trip without drugs.

Flashing strobe lights, colour.

SONG: "The Golden Road"

# See that girl, barefootin' along

# Whistlin' and singin', she's a-carryin' on

# There's laughing in her eyes, dancing in her feet

# She's a neon-light diamond, she can live on the street

# Hey-hey Hey

# Hey, come right away

# Come and join the party every day

# Hey-hey Hey

# Hey, come right away

# Come and join the party every day

# Well, everybody's dancin' in a ring around the sun

# Nobody's finished, we ain't even begun

# So take off your shoes, child, and take off your hat

# Try on your wings and find out where it's at

# Hey-hey Hey

# Hey, come right away

# Come and join the party every day

# Hey-hey Hey

# Come right away

# Come and join the party every day

# Hey-hey

# Take a vacation, fall out for a while

# Summer's comin' in, with us goin' outta style

# Well, tonight I'm smokin', honey, have yourself a ball

# Cos your mother's down in Memphis

# Won't be back till the fall

# Hey-hey Hey

# Hey, come right away

# Come and join the party every day

# Hey-hey

# Hey, come right away

# Come and join the party every day

# Hey-hey

# Hey, come right away

# Come and join the party every day

# Hey-hey

# Hey, come right away

# Come and join the party every day

# Hey... #

Do you find you have much sympathy for the pop world today?

Well, since I met my godson, yes.

-Your godson is Kit Lambert, manager of The Who.

-Yes, yes, yes.

-The Who.

-The Who, yes.

Who...

There was a beautiful song called

# Who takes my heart away... #

or something, in my young days.

Do you approve of his activities?

I don't know what they are.

SONG: "I Can See For Miles"

# I know you've deceived me, now here's a surprise

# I know that you have cos there's magic in my eyes

# I can see for miles and miles

# And miles and miles and miles

# Oh, yeah

# If you think that I don't know about the little tricks you've played

# And never see you when deliberately you put things in my way

# Well, here's a poke at you

# You're gonna choke on it too

# You're gonna lose that smile

# Because all the while

# I can see for miles and miles

# I can see for miles and miles

# I can see for miles and miles

# And miles and miles and miles

# Oh, yeah

# You took advantage of my trust in you when I was so far away

# I saw you holding lots of other guys

# And now you've got the nerve to say

# That you still want me

# Well, that's as may be

# But you gotta stand trial

# Because all the while

# I can see for miles and miles

# I can see for miles and miles

# I can see for miles and miles

# And miles and miles and miles

# Oh, yeah

# I know you've deceived me, now here's a surprise

# I know that you have cos there's magic in my eyes

# I can see for miles and miles

# And miles and miles and miles

# Oh, yeah

# The Eiffel Tower and the Taj Mahal are mine to see on clear days

# You thought that I would need a crystal ball

# To see right through the haze

# Well, here's a poke at you

# You're gonna choke on it too

# You're gonna lose that smile

# Because all the while

# I can see for miles and miles

# I can see for miles and miles

# I can see for miles and miles

# And miles and miles

# And miles and miles

# And miles and miles

# And miles

# I can see for miles and miles

# I can see for miles... #

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

The Pink Floyd.

You're going to hear them in a minute and I don't 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 proportionately they are a bit boring.

My second point is that they are terribly loud.

You couldn't quite hear that because, of course,

from the sets it isn't as loud as it is here in the studio, and as it was

in the Festival Hall, in the Queen Elizabeth Hall on Friday.

I will ask them about that when they come to talk.

My third point is that perhaps I'm a little bit too much

of a musician to fully appreciate them,

and the reason why I say this is that, four, they have an audience,

and people who have an audience ought to be heard.

Perhaps it's my fault that I don't appreciate them.

SONG: "Astronomy Domine"

# Lime and limpid green, a second scene

# A fight between the blue you once knew

# Floating down, the sound resounds

# Around the icy waters underground

# Jupiter and Saturn, Oberon, Miranda and Titania

# Neptune, Titan, Stars can frighten

# Woo-oo-oo-oo

# Woo-oo-oo-oo

# Woo-oo-oo-oo

# Woo-oo-oo

# Woo-oo-oo-oo

# Woo-oo-oo-oo

# Woo-oo-oo-oo

# Woo-oo-oo-oo

# Blinding signs flap

# Flicker, flicker, flicker, blam

# Pow! Pow!

# Stairway scare, Dan Dare

# Who's there?

# Woo-oo-oo-oo

# Woo-oo-oo-oo

# Woo-oo-oo-oo

# Woo-oo-oo-oo

# Lime and limpid green

# The sound surrounds

# The icy waters under

# Lime and limpid green

# The sounds around

# The icy waters underground. #

If I firstly turn to Roger,

I want to ask one fundamental question,

of which our tele-viewers may not be quite aware

the significance of it because they didn't hear all of it.

Why has it all got to be so terribly loud? For me, frankly, it's too loud.

I just can't bear...

I happen to have grown up in the string quartet, which is a bit softer.

So why has it got to be so loud?

So amplified.

Well, I don't guess it has to be, but, I mean,

that's the way we like it.

We didn't grow up with a string quartet

and I guess that could be one of the reasons

why it is loud. I mean, it doesn't sound terribly loud to us.

Yes, actually, not everybody who hasn't grown up in a string quartet

turns into a loud pop group, so your reason is not altogether convincing.

But I accept that you like it.

SONG: "With A Little Help From My Friends"

# What would you do if I sang out of tune

# Would you stand up and walk out on me

# Lend me your ears and I'll sing you a song

# I will try not to sing out of key

# Oh, baby

# I get by with a little help from my friends

# All I need is my buddies

# I get high with a little help from my friends

# Oh, say, I'm gonna give it

# Gonna try with a little help from my friends

# Ooh

# Do you need anybody

# I need someone to love

# Could it be anybody

# Oh, I need somebody

# Don't you know where I'm going, yeah

# Somebody to

# Oh, show me

# Baby

# I get by with a little help from my friends

# Ohhh

# I get high with a little help from my friends

# Don't you know I'm gonna get

# Gonna try with a little help from my friends

# With all of my friends

# Would you believe in a love at first sight

# I'm certain it happens all the time

# What do you see when you turn out the light

# I can't tell you but it sure feels like mine

# I get by with a little help from my friends

# Whoa

# I get high with a little help from my friends

# I said I'm gonna make it with my friends

# Gonna try with a little help from my friends

# Do you need anybody

# Aaaahhhh

# Yeah, yeah, I know

# Do you need anybody

# All I need is somebody

# Somebody, baby

# Oh, yeah, yeah

# I get by with a little help from my friends

# I get high with a little help from my friends

# Said I'm gonna make it with my friends

# I get by with a little help from my friends

# Hey, hey

# I'm gonna try to do my best with my friends

# I'm gonna take them all along with me now, yeah

# I'm gonna make you my friend

# Oh, I get by with my friends. #

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

It was reported recently that Bernstein has banned

the version of his song America as performed by The Nice.

He's reported to have said that they turned it into an anti-American

dirge. We asked him if this was true.

-The Nice? I haven't heard of them.

-You haven't heard of them?

-No.

MUSIC: "America"

America...

is pregnant with promise and anticipation.

But is murdered by the hand of the inevitable.

APPLAUSE

You don't approve of all this modern music that...?

Well, of course I do. But it's not very...not modern enough.

What would you like to see? The Who?

Well, it's better than what we get from the classical stuff, isn't it?

I think you're probably right.

-Sir William Walton, thank you very much.

-APPLAUSE

What are you doing that for?

This is what I've been kept waiting for the last two hours and a half?

LAUGHTER

SONG: "Voodoo Child"

# Well, I stand up next to a mountain

# I chop it down with the edge of my hand

# Well, I stand up next to a mountain

# I chop it down with the edge of my hand

# Well, I pick up all the pieces and make an island

# I might even raise just a little sand

# Hey, baby

# Cos I'm a voodoo child, child

# Lord knows I'm a voodoo child, baby

# I didn't mean to take up all your sweet time

# I'll give it right back to you one of these days

# I didn't mean to take up all your sweet time

# I'll give it right back one of these days

# And if I don't see you no more in this world

# I'll meet you in the next one and don't be late

# Don't be late

# Cos I'm a voodoo child, child

# Lord knows I'm a voodoo child, baby. #

Well, there it is.

I think you can pass your verdict as well as I can.

My verdict is that it is a little bit of a regression to childhood.

But, after all, why not?

# Call out the instigator

# Because there's something in the air

# We got to get together sooner or later

# Because the revolution's here And you know it's right

# And you know that it's right

# We have got to get it together

# We have got to get it together now. #