Everything Under The Sun: The Dark Side Of The Moon at 50

Pink Floyd's eighth studio album, The Dark Side Of The Moon, is one of the cornerstones of modern music., capturing a band at their peak, honing and refining the experimentation of their recent past into linear progressive pop songs. Haunted by the spectre of their absent leader Syd Barrett, and bewildered by the rituals of adulthood, Roger Waters wrote of ageing, war, religion, avarice and lunacy in a manner so recognisable that it has resonated down the ages. As for its artwork, nestling just behind Sgt Pepper's bass drum, the prism on the album's cover is one of the most iconic in rock. The icing on the VCS 3, Waters' vision would be nothing without the textures provided by David Gilmour, Richard Wright and Nick Mason. To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the album, issued originally on 1 March 1973, Mike Barnes and Jo Kendall explore this classic from new angles, from the live shows that shaped the record to the music press reaction. They meet the young woman behind the lens on tour, and assess the album's impact on the next generation. And Stefano Tarquini and Joe Geesin provide expert discographical detail...

- By Stefano Tarquini and Joe Geesin

A Great Gig For This Guy

When Pink Floyd unveiled material from Dark Side, at the Dome in Brighton in January 1972, a young Mike Barnes (inset, right) followed its course up to the album's release the following year. One of the first-ever gigs he went to was when Pink Floyd played it live at Wembley in 1974. Here's what he remembers...

On 20 January 1972, Pink Floyd debuted an album-length collection of new material live at the Brighton Dome, The Dark Side Of The Moon - A Piece For Assorted Lunatics. But due to technical problems with the backing tapes this first performance was abandoned, and the old favourite Atom Heart Mother played instead. The title of this work-in-progress was changed to Eclipse for a while, then reverted back to The Dark Side Of The Moon.

Pink Floyd habitually road-tested new songs and improvised extensively onstage, which made them a target for bootleggers. One early performance of The Dark Side Of The Moon at The Rainbow Theatre, London, in February 1972, was released as the bootleg LP The Best Of Tour 72. The audio quality was good, albeit with some brutal edits. The group's name was missing from the record label, and even some covers, presumably so as not to arouse suspicion in a pressing plant. It's reputed to have sold over 100,000 copies (it has recently been made available in unedited form on Spotify).