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"… like an architectural diagram". A Saucerful of Secrets was released to mixed reviews in June that year; Record Mirror urged listeners to "forget it as background music to a party", and John Peel claimed that the album was "… like a religious experience …". NME, however, viewed the title track as "… long and boring, and has little to warrant its monotonous direction". The album cover was designed by Storm Thorgerson and Aubrey Powell of Hipgnosis. Upon the album's release Pink Floyd performed at the first free Hyde Park concert (organised by Blackhill Enterprises), alongside Roy Harper and Jethro Tull. The band considered Morrison's assistant, Steve O'Rourke, as a "great deal-maker", whose business acumen overshadowed his lack of interest in aesthetic matters, and when Morrison sold his business to NEMS Enterprises O'Rourke became the band's personal manager when Bryan Morrison sold his business to NEMS Enterprises. This also enabled the band to take complete control of their artistic outlook. They returned to the US for their first major tour, accompanied by Soft Machine and The Who.

The band's next work was on the score for The Committee. Just before Christmas 1968 they released "Point Me At The Sky", which was no more successful than the two singles they had released since "See Emily Play", and which for several years remained the band's last single ("Apples and Oranges" was not released in the US). In 1969 they worked on the score for Barbet Schreder's More. The soundtrack proved important; not only

did it pay well, but along with A Saucerful of Secrets the material they created became part of their live shows for some time thereafter. A tour of the UK ended at the Royal Festival Hall in July 1969, during which an electric shock caused by poor earthing sent Gilmour flying across the stage. The performances, built around two long pieces called The Man and The Journey, were backed with performance art created by artist Peter Dockley, and some of the sound effects were later used on 1970's "Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast".

While composing the soundtrack for Zabriskie Point (directed by Michelangelo Antonioni) the band spent almost a month at a luxury hotel in Rome. Waters has since claimed that but for Antonioni's continuous changes to the music, the work could have been completed in less than a week. Eventually he used only