David Gilmour Revisits the Jammy Side of the Moon Landing

This past Monday marked the 40th anniversary of Apollo 11's historic moon landing and while most people watched the events of July 20, 1969 unfold on the news, Pink Floyd was busy taking television where no band had gone before.

In a recent piece published in The Guardian, Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour recalls that the band was invited to perform a live, improvised soundtrack of the moon landing for the BBC. The band played in a TV studio and, essentially, jammed along to the live footage. Rolling Stone points out that the jam, which the band dubbed 'Moonhead,' has appeared on countless bootlegs but was never officially released. Now, fans can watch the footage as it appeared on the BBC via YouTube.

The session was memorable for Gilmour, who says that of all the spacey jams Pink Floyd pulled out over the years, 'Moonhead' is one he'll never forget, even though he hadn't really heard it since that night. Still, it remained a one-off improvisation that the band never revisited. "It didn't have a significant impact on our later work," writes Gilmour in the Guardian. "I think at the time, Roger [Waters], our lyricist, was looking more into going inwards, going into the inner space of the human mind and condition. And I think that was sort of the end of our exploration into outer space."

And yes, four years after that broadcast, Pink Floyd released their definitive album, entitled 'The Dark Side of the Moon,' though that was less about space and more about human frailty. And indeed, its astronomical success was one giant leap for the band.