More Blues

Iain Owen Moore, nicknamed Emo (or Imo), is a legendary figure of the Cambridge Mafia that circled in and around the early Floyd. Actually he was already something of a legend before The Abdabs or The Tea Set became The Pink Floyd Sound. Barrett & Waters liked to have him around for old time's sake, but at the other hand David Gilmour also helped Emo out of trouble a couple of times.

Emo was also an inspiration for the band. The phrase 'I've got a little black book with my poems in' could be his, but it is certain that 'ummagumma' was one of his favourite expressions (and pastimes). Needless to say that Pink Floyd later named one of their albums 'Ummagumma' and that – in true Floydian greedy tradition – Emo didn't get any recognition for that. That's how we know our boys, laughing all the way to the bank, blaming capitalism.

Later Emo also turned up on several Hipgnosis sleeves. He is on A Nice Pair and on AC DC's Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap, if our memory still is correct after all these years. When the Church was formed, nearly a decade ago, we were told that Emo was hard to reach as he didn't believe in all that digital tomfoolery, but he recently discovered Facebook and has been revealing many anecdotes and memories to fans over the world.

Memory Sticks

Not only does Emo has a good memory, he also has an incredible archive with many unseen Floydian pictures. He has uploaded private pictures of Floyd and their friends such as Ginger Gilmour, Lyndsay Korner and Gaylor Pinion (aka Gala or Gayla). And, since a couple of hours... three unseen pictures of Iggy the Eskimo, probably taken at Wetherby Mansion, in 1969.

Rumours & Facts

The Holy Church didn't find these pictures, but was warned by one of its many friends, who also chatted with Emo about this. We do have his authorisation though, to publish them here. The pictures are not of supreme quality and may look a bit deformed, they are photographs of the originals and not scans. Iain Moore:

Naughty Iggy. I only met her twice in 1969 but didn't speak to her. It was during the two weeks she was at Syd's place. Syd (Barrett), Dave (Gilmour) and Sam, my then girlfriend, all lived around the corner, so it was 1969.

Iggy probably frequented Syd a lot longer than these 'two' weeks. Margaretta Barclay, in her interview with the Church, told us that she has a postcard, addressed to her and Iggy (at Wetherby Mansions) from June 1969 (see: Gretta Speaks). There is Twink's testimony that Iggy, Syd, Mick Farren, Steve Peregrin Took and him crashed the launch party of King Crimson's first album, high on Champagne and mandrax (see: Syd's Last Stand). That was at the Speakeasy on the 5th of August 1969. At the other hand, Iggy didn't join Syd on his Formentera trip that year, where he met Emo and Aubrey 'Po' Powell, amongst others (see: Formentera Lady).

Actually these pictures do not belong to Emo. They are in the private hands of a Cambridge collector whose house is nearly a Syd Barrett and early Floyd museum, so told us a visitor. We have been in contact with this person for about a decade and as (s)he never told us about these unknown Iggy portraits we can (hopefully) deduct that these portraits only surfaced recently.

Update December 2017: According to Roddy Bogawa, these pictures date from 1968 and were taken by a certain 'Gabi'.

The Third Man

Iggy, in her interview with Mark Blake (see: The Strange Tale Of Iggy The Eskimo), has claimed there is a set of 'intimate' pictures of her and Syd, taken during The Madcap Laughs sessions. And in one of her many conversations with the Reverend she revealed that there could've been a third photographer around, next to Mick Rock and Storm Thorgerson.

But she also told us, with tears in her eyes, that a suitcase with personal belongings was tossed overboard by a rock star, when they crossed the channel. In that suitcase were probably a hundred different pictures, now lost forever. But the good news is: we have found three, thanks to Iain Owen Moor.

We can only hope that the owner of these pictures will allow us to publish a scanned hi-res version and would be so nice to explain when and where and by whom they were taken.

Meanwhile, the Church will assure that prints of these portraits will be send to Iggy Rose, who has left social media since the beginning of this year and with whom we have sporadic contact.

Many thanks to: Petra Eder, Libby Gausden, Paula Hilton, Iain Owen Moore, Anna Musial, Jenny Spires.
♥ Libby ♥ Iggy ♥

Bigger versions of these three pictures will be published on our Tumblr blog, using the Emo Moore tag.