The house where Pink Floyd formed is for sale - Deník.cz

They had 20 pence for a meal

“It was a great place for young student musicians. They had a place where they could live and a place where they could rehearse, and the housekeeper, who understood them, didn't mind at all that they were making noise. This is where Pink Floyd came together," Mark Blake, author of Pigs Might Fly: The Inside Story Of Pink Floyd, told Britain's Daily Mail.

Almost fifty years have passed since the members of Pink Floyd embarked on their journey to immortality. Drummer Nick Mason and bassist Roger Waters can hardly remember the time, but they have the impression that they moved into the ground-floor flat in September 1963. Those were still the days when their albums The Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here and, of course, the rock opera The Wall to write history, even in the distant future. And so when, about a year later, the original singer and leader of the group, Syd Barret, also moved in and was given the task of providing food for himself and his two companions, he had a total of 20 pence to do it.

The bonnet of Mason's car is buried in the garden

The house is due to be auctioned on September 20 at the Millennium Hotel in central London's Mayfair. The starting price was set at 1.2 million pounds, i.e. about 37 million crowns. The dusty interiors still preserve many evidences of the work of avant-garde musicians. Instruments such as bongos, tambourines and also a large home-made xylophone are lying around everywhere. Then hidden in the attic is a real rarity, the Binson Echorec 2 sound unit that Barrett and later his successor David Gilmour used to create the band's signature sound.

Leonardo's workshop has also been preserved, where a friend of rock legends designed and assembled a set of lighting systems that helped create the image of Pink Floyd. According to Nick Mason, the hood of his Aston Martin, which his father once gave him, should be buried in the garden in front of the house.

It is a question whether an admirer of the legendary band will show up at the Millennium Hotel on September 20 with a duralumin briefcase attached to his wrist by a chain and feel for two hours that he has touched history. But fans of Syd Barrett, David Gilmour, Nick Mason, Roger Waters and Rick Wright know that in the end they are just bricks in the wall.