That March, Waters had played two nights at a stadium in Buenos Aires. This time, the inflatable pig read “Nunca Más”, or “never again”. The famous slogan recalled the 30,000 people who were “disappeared” by their country’s brutal dictatorship between 1974 and 1983 when the military ‘pigs’ were forced from power following their humiliating defeat in the Falklands War. The plastic pig took off, crash-landing in the River Plate.

Pig’s ear

‘Pigs’ – as policemen, not the animal – had been an obsession for hippies and rock bands since at least 1967. They symbolised the authorities that beat up protesting students in US university campuses and busted members of English rock bands, including The Beatles. The members of Pink Floyd, however, were traumatised by the effect that LSD had on their colleague Syd Barrett, who was excluded from the group in April 1968 as he became catatonic and unable to perform. It was Barrett, though, who had given Pink Floyd its first chart hit the previous year with the dippy-trippy song Arnold Layne.

Pig references were common at the time in the world of rock music. When, the singer-songwriter-guitarist Mick Abrahams was looking for a name for his new band, pianist Graham Waller listened to the jazz-infused blues-rock band. He solemnly intoned, “Thou shalt ever more be known as Blodwyn Pig”. Whatever it meant, the name stuck. The memorable gatefold sleeve of the band’s first album, Ahead Rings Out, featured a bright pink pig’s head sporting sunglasses, headphones, a ring through its nose and a cigarette in its mouth. The back cover showed the pig’s tail.