Pink Floyd / MTV Competition 1987

In 1987 I won a competition on MTV-Europe, that would take me to USA to meet Pink Floyd.

Words can hardly descripe this experience. Here I'll show you newspaper clippings from my time as celebrty ! Oh, those were the days.
My picture was in two of the local racks - Folkebladet and Vestegnen and also in the national paper BT. A bit later there was an article in a youth magazine

Of course I was on MTV, but that I havn't yet got it uploaded to this site (Still on VHS if you remember what that is). As a matter of fact they spend an entire MTV'hour telling about my trip, when I got home. Cut away the music that makes almost 20 min. of MTV time filled with GEORG ! I was on the phone (Should have gone to London but they never invited ;o)and quite a few of my photos from the trip were shown.

The competition I won was as simple as to write my name on a card and send it in. As you can read in the newspaperclippings I sent in 28 cards in all shapes and colours. I even sent in a bag of M&M's with my name on it - wonder if that ever made it through the mail.
I just had to win that competition - and so I did :)

It was a five day trip, but one of the days passed going back and forth from Europe and the USA
When we arrived in San Francisco we were picked up by a streched white limousine in the airport that took us to one of the newest hotels in town. The next day we were moved to a different hotel - one of the finer hotels - and we wondered why. We found out later that day as we went down to the bar : This was the hotel Pink Floyd stayed at. So we spent some time in the bar chatting and sipping champagne with David Gilmour and Nick Mason (By the way his wife was half Danish)

The name of the competition was "learning to fly" from their MTV hit at the time. So I was ment to get flying lessons from the big guys them selves, as it says in the newspaper clippings...... but unfortunately the band plane had broken down earlier on the tour, so we went by ordinary airlines. Obviously Gilmour didn't think he'd be allowed to get me into that cockpit and giving me flying lessons ;o) But I'm not complaining. I came to meet and see Pink Floyd and I can tell you I got my moneys worth !

I've uploaded the commercial for the competition to Youtube for you to watch it. It is pretty cool and worth the while. It's been made much according to the Pink Floyd spirit with a load of old Floyd tracks in the background.

I remeber that Rick Krim from MTV told us that Floyd had to aprove of the commercial and they were quite pleased with what they saw. Just a tiny problem that Gilmour feared could be interpreted as a reference to an album that was released that year by some other artist (You try and guess who)

As you may have noticed celeberties get backstagepasses. That would explain why the ticket show here is still intact, 'cause as a star you don't enter with the mob. The limo driver discreetly drives around to the stage entrance, rolls down the window, and says "They're with Pink Floyd".

So there we were backstage with Pink Floyd. Loads of softdrinks, beers, champagne , and stuff was servered in huge ice trays. So we had a nice time for a while and then the big guys started leaving for the stage. Then we would head for our seats in the audience as well. You know when you're at a concert, waiting for the show to begin "Hey that's it... nah, just the sound engineer. NOW..... nope - just someone fixing the lights" We didn't have that problem. We knew when they went on stage so as we reached our seats, the show started.

We followed Pink Floyd to two concerts; one in San Fransisco and another in Seattle. Both places we were driven around town in limousines and both concerts we got backstage passes. Both cities we stayed in same highclass hotels as Pink Floyd. Uh yeah, sweet life of the celeberties ;o)

There was an American competition as well.
The guy that won this competition was Mark Malone. Not only did he win admition to the two concert like I did. Nej, the name of the competition was "learning to fly", so he won an airplane ! On just like this we're standing next to in an airport close to San Fransisco.
Clic the picture to see more...

At this airport outside San Fransisco MTV made a commercial for the MTV competitions called "people realy win on MTV". The end squence is what you see on this photo.
In the meddle are Mason and Gilmour. To the right Mark and I stand to the left. Then we all had to say loud and clear "People realy win on MTV" We did ... and I did (win on MTV)

I'm afraid that i play a VERY small part in this commmecial. But hey - I was nothing but but a lousy European, only winning 1,000 $. Mark Malone won 5,000$, the trip, and a real airplane. So obviously I go way back in the background of this petite commecial. BUT I'm there !

Yeah yeah, everything has to be bigger "over there", to get people to participate. And by the way, Mark had to sell the plane as soon as he received it, 'cause in the States all prizes you win are not included tax - You'll have to pay that yourself.

Ofcourse I got their autographs on the cover of "A momentary Lapse of Reason". somewhat smeared letters, but hey! it's their autographs.

Nick Mason to the left. David Gilmour to the right and Rick Wright just below Gilmour. Wright's is barely visual on this photograf - but it's there allright.
Clic the picture if you like to see a large image - and then you'll see the autograph of Wright better.