THEY were dark days – in more ways than one. And for prog rock legends Pink Floyd, it was the night that the Dark Side of the Moon was unexpectedly darker than ever.

Back in February 1972, as the National Union of Mineworkers’ strike started to bite, Britain was beset by power cuts to save what stockpiles of precious coal were left.

A state of emergency had been declared on February 9 after the weather suddenly turned cold, and voltage had to be reduced across the entire National Grid, resulting in electricity outages.

A power cut rota was introduced, lasting from six to nine hours a day between 7am and midnight. It meant that whole areas at a time were prone to being plunged into darkness.

So it was that Pink Floyd turned up at Manchester’s Free Trade Hall on February 11. More than a year before the album came out, they were trialling Dark Side Of The Moon out on a UK tour.

More than that, they were experimenting for the first time with a then revolutionary quadraphonic sound system, with PA stacks at each corner of the hall, allowing fans to enjoy surround sound.

I was among many fans who queued outside, eager to get in and hear what would become the band’s most iconic set of songs for the first time. Best of all, I had good seats down in the stalls.

As we entered, we were warned that there might be a power cut. David Gilmour, Roger Waters, Rick Wright and Nick Mason had all been briefed, and decided to rip up the set list just in case.

They came out onstage to open with the relentless One Of These Days, followed by back catalogue fan favourite Careful With That Axe Eugene. But then came the news we’d all feared.

Someone came out onto the stage to announce that the hall’s management had received the dreaded 10-minute warning routinely given before an outage. 

Floyd launched into an impromptu blues jam as the Free Trade Hall emptied and we trudged forlornly out into the cold as the lights went out in the Dark Side of Manchester.

There was a silver lining to this dark cloud. The band came back a month later to honour their commitment and played the full mind-blowing show – so we got two gigs for the £1.25 price of one!

During the Covid lockdown, I decided to clear out the attic and chanced upon the shamefully neglected boxes of music memorabilia from my years as a fan and as a music journalist.

From the treasure chest came the gig ticket and the two photos I snapped with my Instamatic camera at the gig before the power cut left Dark Side of the Moon well and truly in the dark.

Check out more of my memories, including encounters with Michael Jackson, ZZ Top and Meat Loaf here.