Pink Floyd

Pink Floyd was a British musical group known to the Doctor and some of his companions.

The Sixth Doctor liked Pink Floyd, especially their first album, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn. (PROSE: Business Unusual)

Unlike the Doctor, Sam Jones didn't like Pink Floyd. (PROSE: The Scarlet Empress) Chris Cwej was at least passably au fait with their work, since he knew about Battersea Power Station from listening to Pink Floyd's Animals as a student. (PROSE: Anteus) Ace was reminded of the Pink Floyd lyric, "There's someone in my head, but it's not me", when she heard Azathoth's voice. (PROSE: All-Consuming Fire) And Fitz Kreiner once tried to play "Interstellar Overdrive" by Pink Floyd on his electric guitar, but Anji Kapoor was so unimpressed that she thought he was attempting the Steptoe and Son theme song. (PROSE: The Slow Empire)

Behind the scenes

Pink Floyd was a British band that was active from 1965 to 1995; initially starting off as a psychedelic rock band, the group switched to experimental rock and eventually progressive rock (colloquially known as "prog rock" or simply "prog") after their first lead, Syd Barret, was forced to leave due to his deteriorating mental health. Under Roger Waters's leadership, the group gained mainstream popularity in 1973 with their album The Dark Side of the Moon, and released several more successful albums before Waters himself left in 1984 due to creative differences with the rest of the band; David Gilmour would serve as the head of Pink Floyd for the next ten years before the band finally dissolved in 1995. Pink Floyd would briefly reunite twice in the years following: once for the 2005 Live 8 concert in London, and a second time in 2014 for the production and release of their final original album, The Endless River.

In the television story The Caretaker, the Twelfth Doctor whistled Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall" at Coal Hill School. Caretaker does not identify "Wall" as a work by Pink Floyd, but contextually it is exceedingly clear that he is in fact whistling that tune.

In The Woman Who Lived, the Doctor plays "Wish You Were Here", another song by the band, on his electric guitar, but again the piece is unidentified.