First international retrospective exhibition on rock band Pink Floyd opens in London

The ongoing first international retrospective exhibition on the world-famous rock band Pink Floyd recalls how the British band became a first-rate cultural icon since it was born in the 1960s Western counter-culture movement.

"Pink Floyd is one of the biggest bands of the last half century. They came to prominence in the mid-60s when they were in the vanguard of the psychedelic movement, when music was really changing," the exhibition's curator Victoria Broackes told Xinhua Saturday when the exhibition opened at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

Pink Floyd, formed by young architecture students, chose the name by amalgamating the names of two American Blues musicians Pink Anderson and Floyd Counsel.

The band's principal members included guitarists Roger Waters and David Gilmour, and drummer Nick Mason, all of whom offered items for display. Mason acted as a consultant for the exhibition and a liaison with his band members.

Pink Floyd's cult status in 1960s London grew, but it was the album "The Dark Side of the Moon" which saw them attain a global audience.

"Albums were beginning to outsell singles, and music was beginning to tell the story of the change that was going on in society. But they were still quite a cult band at that stage. And then in 1972-3 they had an amazing hit with 'Dark Side of the Moon,' which incredibly still sells 7,000 copies a week. And, so that changed from being a cult success to being a worldwide hit," said Broackes.

Pink Floyd earned a reputation for musical success and experimentation and was a forerunner of some of the technologies and theatricalities seen in many modern music performances.

The ongoing exhibition titled "Pink Floyd: Their Mortal Remains" records the band's many iconic albums.

"What they always did was to present themselves visually -- and we are a museum of art, design and performance and so Pink Floyd brings together that theatrical aspect with the music in a way that makes it a fantastic subject for a museum exhibition," said Broackes.

The exhibition has some of the feel of a grand rock event, and exhibition designer Ray Winkler, of the well-known design company STUFISH, which has had a close design relationship with the band since the early 1980s, said there were many similarities between the exhibition and a stadium concert.

"The exhibition has all of the bits of a big rock and roll show, but it straddles itself somewhere between a big rock and roll show and some of the buildings we design in terms of shock and spectacle -- because you want the spectacle, you want the visual impact, you want the emotions, you want the audience reaction," said Winkler.

Pink Floyd is renowned for being very early adopters of electronic music, according to Broackes. The exhibition has a focus on synthesizers, microphones and other electronic musical gadgets, she added.

"We have employed a musicologist, an expert to interpret these because I think that many people, like me, don't actually know a synthesizer from another synthesizer," said Broackes.

The exhibition runs till Oct. 1. Endi