Sigma 6: The Pre-Pink Floyd Band That Started It All

Before they were Pink Floyd, the core members played together under a handful of rotating names. The earliest known incarnation was Sigma 6, formed in 1964 while Roger Waters, Nick Mason, and Richard Wright were architecture students at the Regent Street Polytechnic. Guitarist Bob Klose was also a key member, and the lineup occasionally included vocalist Chris Dennis and saxophonist Juliette Gale (who later married Wright). Syd Barrett hadn’t joined yet—he was still playing in another band.

Sigma 6 played covers of R&B and blues standards, rarely wrote original material, and mostly rehearsed in a rented room above a pub. The name itself came from a random pick by the band’s then-manager, who grabbed “Sigma” and “6” from a list of Greek letters and numbers. It had no deeper meaning, but it marks the very first anchor point on the long timeline that eventually led to The Piper at the Gates of Dawn.