Peter Watts | |
|---|---|
| Born | Peter Anthony Watts 16 January 1946 Bedford, Bedfordshire, England |
| Died | 2 August 1976 (aged 30) Notting Hill, London, England |
| Occupations | |
| Employer | Pink Floyd |
| Spouses | Myfanwy Edwards-Roberts
(m. 1966; div. 1972)Patricia Deighton (m. 1976) |
| Children | |
Peter Anthony Watts (16 January 1946 – 2 August 1976) was an English road manager and sound engineer who worked with rock band Pink Floyd.[1][2]
Watts was born on 16 January 1946, in Bedford, Bedfordshire, England, the son of Jane Patricia Grace (née Rolt; born 1923, in Naivasha, Kenya Colony)[3] and Anthony Watts. Watts had one older brother, Michael, and one younger sister, Patricia. Watts' mother remarried, to Anthony Daniells, in 1989.[4]
Watts was the road manager for Pretty Things before joining Pink Floyd as their first experienced road manager.[5] Alongside fellow roadie Alan Styles,[1] he appears on the rear cover of Pink Floyd's 1969 album Ummagumma,[1] shown with the band's van and equipment laid out on a runway at Biggin Hill Airport, with the intention of replicating the "exploded" drawings of military aircraft and their payloads,[1] which were popular at the time. On the 1973 album The Dark Side of the Moon,[1] he contributed the repeated laughter on "Brain Damage", was also heard in the album's overture, "Speak to Me".[1] His wife Patricia 'Puddie' Watts[6] was responsible for the line about the "geezer" who was "cruisin' for a bruisin'" used in the segue between "Money" and "Us and Them", and the words "I never said I was frightened of dying." heard near the end of "The Great Gig in the Sky".[7]
In 1966, Watts married Myfanwy Edwards-Roberts, the daughter of a Welsh father and Australian mother, who was an antiques dealer and costume and set designer.[8] They had two children, Ben (b. 1967; a photographer), and Naomi (b. 1968; an actress).
The couple divorced in 1972.[9] After the divorce, the children were raised by their grandparents and their mother as she built a career. The family relocated to London.[citation needed]
Peter Watts left Pink Floyd's service in 1974. In 1976, he married Patricia Deighton, known as "Puddie", who can also be heard on The Dark Side of the Moon.[10]
In August 1976, Watts was found dead in a flat in Notting Hill, London, from a heroin overdose.[11][12] After his death, Pink Floyd provided financial support to his two young children. The money allowed the family to move to Sydney, Australia, in 1982, where Edwards-Roberts became part of a burgeoning film industry.[13]
