Pink Floyd in Cork

The legendary band only ever played one gig in the Republic of Ireland. Jack Lyons recalls being part of that sparse crowd at the Arcadia in Cork in 1967.

SEPTEMBER 1967 — having spent seven years in west London working as a clerk filing legal papers, I was back in Cork. At home one night in Gillabbey Street an ad in the Echo newspaper jumped off the page at me: “Pink Floyd at the Arcadia, Sunday 17 September!” I had to read it several times to believe it.

I had known Syd Barrett and the other members of the Floyd since their residency days at the old Marquee Club — as well as the London Free School activist centre in Powis Square when they played for practically nothing.