Major Pink Floyd exhibition coming to London next year

Their Mortal Remains will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the band's first single

Pink Floyd famously used pig props in their dynamic live shows (REUTERS)

Pink Floyd have long held a soft spot for the humble hog, so when passers-by spotted a huge inflatable pig flying above London’s V&A on Wednesday, it came as no surprise to learn that the psychedelic rockers will be getting the career retrospective treatment from the famous museum.

The Pink Floyd Exhibition: Their Mortal Remains will run from May until October next year to celebrate the 50th anniversary of their first single, “Arnold Layne”. Fans are promised an “immersive” experience featuring 350 artworks and artefacts, previously unseen concert footage, fresh stage designs and a laser light show designed especially for the event.

Pink Floyd achieved staggering global success over a decades-long career, including releasing two of the most successful albums of all time, Dark Side of the Moon and The Wall. The exhibition will honour the band’s achievements in everything from graphics and staging to lighting, film and photography.

Drummer and co-founder Nick Mason told Reuters at the exhibition’s launch that it is a tribute to the band’s unexpected longevity. “It’s the fact that we still sort of exist and we still seem to interest people after 50 years in an industry that was seen as entirely ephemeral by all of us when we first started,” he said.

“I’m fond of reminding people that Ringo thought that he’d open a chain of hairdressers when the Beatles came to an end. I don’t think we saw any 50 years ahead of us when we kicked off.”

The first ever Pink Floyd Exhibition in the UK opens at the V&A next May (PA)

Mason added that doubts Pink Floyd would have succeeded were they starting today in the age of streaming and so much competition. “I don’t think we’d even get on The X Factor,” he said.

Pink Floyd became known for their use of pig props in live shows. The original balloon pig, Algie, was flown over Battersea Power Station for the cover of their 1977 album Animals. Jeffrey Shaw built the forty-foot inflatable but while shooting the photography, it broke free and reached heights of thirty thousand feet, grounding planes at Heathrow Airport, before landing on a farm in Kent later that night.

The Pink Floyd Exhibition: Their Mortal Remains will be the V&A’s third recent foray into the world of rock music. It held a critically acclaimed exhibition on David Bowie in 2013 and launches You Say You Want a Revolution? Records and Rebels 1966-1970 in September.