BBC unearths vintage footage of Pink Floyd

Pink Floyd’s 'Top Of The Pops' performance of their hit 'See Emily Play' on the BBC1 show – something of a holy grail for music fans – has been unearthed after more than 40 years.

The damaged, almost unwatchable, footage has now been partially restored and is to be screened publicly for the first time since its 1967 broadcast at an event in the New Year.

Storage issues meant that BBC bosses routinely dumped tapes of the broadcasts because they were cumbersome and costly, if they were recorded at all.

It means little remains of the 1960s 'TOTP' performances of many of the greatest names in rock, despite regular amnesties for tapes removed from the vaults and pleas for copies from private collections.

But now the Floyd performance has turned up on a one-inch, reel-to-reel tape which has been handed in to the British Film Institute. It will be shown at the BFI’s annual screening of rare footage, Missing Believed Wiped.

The vintage, primitive recording – said to come from an unidentified rock star’s collection – features two editions of the show from July 6 and 27, 1967.

Hosted by the late DJ Alan Freeman, they feature Floyd’s performance with then frontman Syd Barrett, who left the band the following year and died in 2006.

But the poor vintage recording made it impossible for it to be screened on today’s more technologically advanced TV screens because of the picture resolution.

Experts at the BFI have now enhanced the quality for the screening at London’s Southbank on January 9.

Dick Fiddy of the BFI told Mojo magazine: “We gave the tape to the archive boffins. It was in a dreadful condition, with the oxide falling off. The best possible picture quality was recovered.”