A stencilled hashtag — #amusedtodeath — which appeared on the streets of Fitzrovia this week is part of a marketing ploy to promote a 23-year-old recording, but it also has an even older connection to the neighbourhood.
It is part of a campaign by a record company to publicise the re-release of Amused To Death (1992) by Roger Waters, a former member and founder of Pink Floyd. This, his third solo album, is being re-issued on Friday 24 July.
The stencilled hashtags have been sprayed in chalk dust (so they’ll wash off) and can be seen on the pavements in Charlotte Street, Rathbone Place and Oxford Street.
We didn’t see any along Tottenham Court Road near the junction of Stephen Street which is rather surprising since it was where the UFO Club was located and where Pink Floyd played in December 1966. The site of the venue was featured this summer as part of Fitzrovia Festival.
Earlier this year Roger Waters and Nick Mason unveiled a plaque honouring the band at the site of the former Regent Street Polytechnic where they met in the sixties.