![\"You\u2019re](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Youre-invited-to-New-Years-Eve-1968-with-Pink-Floyd-The-Who-and-more-Far-Out-Magazine-1140x855.jpg\")
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(Credits: Far Out \/ YouTube Stills)<\/p>\n
Wed 31 December 2025 15:05, UK <\/p>\n
Got any plans for New Year\u2019s Eve? Well, you better cancel them because you\u2019ve just nabbed a spot at the hottest party of 1968, an invitation-only TV broadcast from Paris featuring performances by the likes of The Who,<\/a> Small Faces, Pink Floyd, The Troggs, Booker T & The MGs, Marie Laforet, Fleetwood Mac, The Equals, Fran\u00e7oise Hardy and Jacques Dutronc. Remember to pack a turtle neck and a gram of the good stuff: it doesn\u2019t get choicer than this.<\/p>\n The three-and-a-half-hour\u00a0New Year\u2019s Eve Surprise Party\u00a0was broadcast on ORTF, the only French TV channel at the time. The audience featured many famous faces from the world of fashion, music, art and film \u2013 all of whom arrived impeccably dressed in the latest styles. The performance immortalised a liminal moment in 1960s pop culture, standing at the threshold between the glitzy pizzazz of the early \u201960s and the rock revolt of 1969.<\/p>\n Many of the artists performing were captured in an equally undefined mode, with The Who lip-syncing tracks such as \u2018I\u2019m A Boy\u2019, \u2018Magic Bus\u2019 and \u2018I Can See For Miles\u2019 while doing their best to ignore that they hadn\u2019t had a hit in a whole year. Unperturbed by this downturn, months later, they released their rock opera, Tommy, cementing their legacy with a fittingly non-commercial classic.<\/p>\n Small Faces, meanwhile, didn\u2019t even plug in their instruments. Was it satire, was it disgruntlement? Well, they would part ways less than a month later, so perhaps that explains the evident apathy. <\/p>\n Pink Floyd also struggled to find their feet, having recently bid farewell to vocalist and songwriter Syd Barrett. This marks the footage as a rather pivotal moment in their history, as they looked to reinvent themselves without their dazzling founder. By 1969, they were back in the game, recording their fourth album Ummagumma, showcasing a band very much deciding to just be themselves. Clearly, the Surprise Partie was something of a watershed moment.<\/p>\n