Mason, Waters and Wright had all played together as Sigma 6 whilst studying at Regent Street Polytechnic. With the addition of Barrett, Gale and Close they became first the T-Set, then The Screaming Abdabs and finally The Abdabs. They played mostly R&B material and when Close left and Juliette Gale dropped out of the band they became Pink Floyd. All these events took place in 1965.

As the Pink Floyd (the name was taken from two Georgia bluesmen, Pink Anderson and Floyd Council) the band dropped the R&B and concentrated on a new experimental sound involving feedback and electronic sounds in extended musical "Freak-outs".