Pink Floyd's gig at Shrewsbury beauty contest
Long before they were putting any bricks in the wall, rock legends Pink Floyd played a gig in Shrewsbury which was perhaps not something they would want to remember for their memoirs.
But it will have been an unforgettable night for 17-year-old Lyn Ellis, a student at Priory School in the town.
Feeling "a little bit depressed" after finishing her O-level exams, she went to the dance at the Music Hall and came away with the "Miss Shropshire Student 1968" beauty queen title.
Lyn, of Mytton Oak Road, said afterwards: "It was a real tonic winning after my exams."
That gig by The Pink Floyd - that's how they were billed - was at a students' celebration dance at the Music Hall on Friday, June 28, 1968, and it was described as "The End Of It All Ball," perhaps referring to the end of term or end of exams.
The students' beauty contest was all part of the evening's fun.
Of course, for Floyd that gig and others during that tour which coincided with the release of their second album, A Saucerful of Secrets, was far from the end of it all as they went on to achieve international stardom.
And now an author who wants to tell the story of Floyd's early years through eyewitness accounts is appealing for people who were there on that night to contact him.
Richard Houghton, of Manchester, said: "Before selling out arenas around the world, Pink Floyd started out playing smaller venues, including the Music Hall in Shrewsbury in June 1968 for the Students Celebration Dance.
"I'm interested in capturing people's memories of this gig for posterity and hopefully in the process telling the band's story in a slightly different way via first hand accounts of their earliest shows.
"I'd love to hear from anyone who saw them in their early career and I can be reached at isawpinkfloyd@gmail.com."
Houghton has already written books about the early years of The Beatles and The Rolling Stones using the accounts of concertgoers.
According to the pre-concert advertising, "The Pink Floyd" were appearing with supporting groups, and the event was from 9pm to 2am.
"DRESS (if you want to)," said the ad.
The cost of being a part of pop and rock history would have been 10 shillings a ticket - 50p - or 12s 6d paying on the door, which works out at about 62p.
The Floyd line-up at the time would have been David Gilmour, Nick Mason, Roger Waters, and Rick Wright - Syd Barrett had left the band a couple of months earlier.
