Before Pink Floyd, They Were The Tea Set – A Name Change Sparked by Syd Barrett

Before they were Pink Floyd, the band performed as The Tea Set (sometimes spelled The T-Set). They were still students at the Regent Street Polytechnic in London, playing covers and early originals under that name.

The switch happened when they discovered another band was already using the name “The Tea Set.” To avoid confusion, they needed a fresh identity. Syd Barrett, the band’s original frontman and creative force, suggested Pink Floyd — a mashup of the first names of two obscure American blues musicians, Pink Anderson and Floyd Council, whose names he’d spotted on a record sleeve. The name stuck, and the rest is history.