11
single, moved to a 19th-century farm in Essex. Waters installed a home recording studio at his house in Islington, in a converted tool-shed at the bottom of his garden. Returning from touring Atom Heart Mother, at the start of 1971 the band began work on new material. Lacking a central theme they attempted several largely unproductive experiments; engineer John Leckie described the sessions as often beginning in the afternoon, and ending early the next morning, "during which time nothing would get done. There was no record company contact whatsoever, except when their label manager would show up now and again with a couple of bottles of wine and a couple of joints." The band spent long periods working on simple sounds, or a particular guitar riff. They also spent several days at Air Studios, attempting to create music using a variety of household objects, a project which would be revisited between The Dark Side of the Moon and Wish You Were Here. Meddle's production was spread over a considerable period of time; the band recorded in the first half of April, but in the latter half played at Doncaster and Norwich before returning to record at the end of the month. In May they split their time between sessions at Abbey Road, and rehearsals and concerts in across Great Britain, and June and July were spent mainly performing at venues across Europe. August was spent in the far east and Australia, and September in Europe. Meddle was released on 30 October 1971 in the US, and 13 November
in the UK, while the band were touring in the US. Reviews were mixed. Rolling Stone's Jean-Charles Costa wrote "Meddle not only confirms lead guitarist David Gilmour's emergence as a real shaping force with the group, it states forcefully and accurately that the group is well into the growth track again", and NME called it "an exceptionally good album". Melody Maker were however more reserved, claiming the album was "...a soundtrack to a non-existent movie". Meddle is sometimes considered to be a transitional album between the Barrett-influenced band and the modern Pink Floyd. The group's other releases around this period, More and Zabriskie Point, were soundtracks, and Atom Heart Mother was influenced as much by Ron Geesin and the session artists as it was by the band. The band again worked with Barbet