SET THE CONTROLS FOR THE MOON

In Pink Floyd’s long and illustrious history, Cyril Van Den Hemel’s name is a footnote at best. Yet in 1968 he had the rare distinction of booking Britain’s premier art-rock band to play matinee gigs in Dutch primary schools. “To eight-year-olds, sitting cross-legged on the floor, wondering what the hell was going on,” remembered Floyd’s former bass player Roger Waters.

Van Den Hemel ran the Europop Agency, who booked the cream of underground bands, such as Floyd, Deep Purple and Jethro Tull, to play Amsterdam’s hippie nightspots The Paradiso and Fantasio.

In early summer 1968, Van Den Hemel booked Pink Floyd for a tour of the Netherlands and Belgium. Their hit single See Emily Play and whimsical debut LP The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn had accompanied the previous year’s so-called Summer Of Love. But by the end of 1967 Floyd’s talismanic frontman Syd Barrett was on his way out.

Waters, keyboard player Rick Wright and drummer Nick Mason replaced Barrett with guitarist David Gilmour. But their future looked uncertain. Pink Floyd began 1968 grateful for any work, which is how Van Den Hemel persuaded them to play in schools.

These clandestine performances took place in the afternoon before a regular show, and without the knowledge of the band’s management. “Cyril would say: ‘You only need to bring the drum kit and one amp,’” said Waters. “He’d then wheel us into the school auditorium.” Nobody involved can remember what Floyd played, only the baffled expressions on the faces of their junior audience.

These gigs lasted as long as it took Van Den Hemel to extract their fee in guilders, and rarely more than 15 minutes: “He’d say: ‘We got the money! We go now!’” This was the band’s cue to throw their instruments in the van and high-tail it away like bank robbers fleeing a heist. A few hours later they’d be on-stage somewhere like the Concertgebouw in the Dutch harbour town of Vlissengen, blowing stoned young minds with songs like Astronomy Domine and Interstellar Overdrive. Business as usual.

“After Syd left, a lot of people thought we were over.”
Nick Mason

In 1973, Pink Floyd’s eighth studio album made them one of the biggest bands in the world. But back when they wheel-spun their van out of school carparks in Holland, global stardom seemed unlikely. Pink Floyd were still working out what sort of group they were going to be. This journey of self-discovery would involve film soundtracks, performance art happenings, a man dressed as a monster urinating on the audience, a woman named Constance Ladell with