When I saw him at the Technicolor Dream at Alexandra Palace he looked vacant, says Spires. Syd Barrett was the definition of a tortured genius, one who sadly succumbed to a drug addiction that made him increasingly more erratic during the late 1960s. Recently rediscovered ZBS foundation interview from August 1967 Heres how it works. All Rights Reserved Stephen S. Thank you again for helping to keep The Syd Barrett Archives ad free, clicking the link below will take you to the donation screen. But now Syd has his own solo best selling album The Madcap Laughs which had provided a clear answer to that much asked question Whatever happened to Syd Barrett after he left the Floyd? At present Syd is living quietly in his sparsely furnished London flat among his stereo equipment, piles of paintings and a heap of battered LPs. But I dont know how.. Free shipping for many products! S:UhyesI never saw him again. After their first album, PatGoD and their third single, Apples, had been released, the group made the now customary trek around the United States. I havent been doing any work. He was still quite worn out when they signed with EMI and had to go up and down the country doing gigs. Ive got to get some coleslaw. Syd Barrett: \u201cThe doomed poet.\u201d. Still. Syd doesnt live here anymore is how he answered the door to visiting strangers. His last ever show with the band would be in Hastings on January, 20th, 1968, one which all involved didnt know at the time would be his final performancebut the situation soon worsened just as the bandmates had foreseen. This book is the last work and probably the definitive one about the Floyd founder. In their live performances, due to the quality of the sound equipment in those days, and the risk of microphone feedback, the vocals were hard to hear and the band relied heavily on instrumental and rather loud and hard-driving numbers. He had created all those songs, then Floyd had gone off and done an extension of what he was doing that he wasnt interested in.. He played at my 16th birthday party in summer 1965., One of Syds letters recounted how the band had sacked singer Chris Dennis and he was taking over vocals. Watts: Dont you fancy playing live again after two years? The band attempted to go into Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun, but Syd could. I dont have time to do very much. He feels safe there, under the ground. It was at the time of the final such appearance that Syd rather suddenly started to exhibit serious issues, likely as a result of psychedelic drugs. Joe Boyd did all the work on it and I was really amazed when he left. Of what, then? Watts: There were stories you had left because you had been freaked out by acid trips. He had to leave the band in 1968 after his behavior became increasingly erratic and unpredictable, partly as a result of the intense use of reported psychedelic drugs, most prominently LSD. Syd: It wasnt really a war. Barrett obliged saying, Yes, sure. Im sorry I cant speak very coherently, he says, Its rather difficult to think of anybody being really interested in me. He was happy playing rhythm guitar. Hed write and tell me what paintings he was doing. oneSignal_options['welcomeNotification']['title'] = ""; Pink Floyds Nick Mason on the making of The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn 50th Anniversary, Pink Floyd The Early Years 1965-1972 Review, Syd Barrett: Cambridge honours its Crazy Diamond, Pink Floyd The Early Years Box 1965-1972. I mean, ones position as a member of Londons young peoples, I dunno what youd call it underground wasnt it, wasnt necessarily realized and felt, I dont think, especially from the point of view of groups. In a Swedish interview from September 1967, Barrett explained that the name Pink Floyd comes from two blues singers from Georgia, USA Pink Anderson and Floyd Council. He didnt had any contact with Richard Wright, Nick Mason, David Gilmour or Roger Waters. Syd started to develop a more troubled personality, as if he had gone through a watershed of some kind. Here you will find Syd Barrett Articles, pictures, books, news, interviews, lyrics, tabs, an extensive Syd Barrett discography, and much more information on Syd Barrett and early Pink Floyd. You always hear it was an anecdotal thing about this guy nicking underwear, says Spires. He told us thats where we wanted to be., In December 1964, 18-year-old Syd met 15-year-old Jenny Spires at Cambridges Union Cellar. I never get worried about my writing.. He had a real imagination and could instinctively come up with lots of ideas. Cellar Darling, Threshold and Oliver Wakeman to headline Summer's End, Animals As Leaders reschedule UK and European dates for November, Mystery share video for brand new single Behind The Mirror, Every issue delivered direct to your door. Syd: Well, I dont know, it dont seem to have much to do with the job. (Remember 1967 and the psychedelic revolution?). Watts: Whats the hang-up then? The first 30 seconds of Floyds Flaming are supposed to imitate AMM, its title derived from their Later During A Flaming Riviera Sunset. oneSignal_options['notifyButton']['size'] = 'medium'; If he hadnt been the cornerstone of the band in those early days, people would never have looked at them.. Roger Waters Says Ukraine Invasion Was Not Unprovoked at UN Security Council I suppose it was really just a matter of being a little offhand about things. Hed always say he was painting, because he was a painter. Syds lyrics could be cosmic or like fairyland; a weird mixture which was exactly what 1967 was all about. A subscription makes a thoughtful gift for both family and friends. Before Storm Thorgerson died in 2013, Spires had been working with him on a film about Syd, which is being edited, provisionally titled Have You Got It Yet?. That he once went for an afternoon drive and ended up in Ibiza. A:Do you remember [painter and former friend] Duggie Fields? However, the awareness around mental health was completely different back then to what it is today.
Watts: There were stories you were going to go back to college, or get a job in a factory. This story is from the December 23rd, 1971 issue of Rolling Stone. var oneSignal_elements = document.getElementsByClassName("OneSignal-prompt"); Its always been too slow for me. Now you gonna get latest important news'; Theres a train strike at the moment. They seemed an interesting variation on old blues, highly original., Syd started approaching his guitar like a canvas, as displayed on Interstellar Overdrive, one of the live improvisations the Floyd played as house band at UFO, the London countercultures seminal Tottenham Court Road space disco. Syd Barrett: Thanks very much. S:No, not really. But Id be very surprised if it did anything if I were to drop dead. That's why his music was so unique, because he thought like a painter - and he carried on painting for the rest of his life. oneSignal_options['promptOptions'] = { }; Im trying to go back down there, but Ive got to wait. Theyre very pure, you know, the words I feel Im jabbering. Different groups do different things one feels that Slade would be an interesting thing to hear, you know. But, like the tragic spaceman in 2001: A Space Odyssey, Barrett had been cut adrift to float in his private inner world until he died, leaving one of rock's most mysteriously . He will soon be working on another album and he also plans to get a group together, but beyond that he seems to have no particular intentions. Watts: Was it only you who wanted to make singles? We dont know what destroyed that, whether it was the drugs or that something was stopping him creating because he didnt want to join the circus., He could see what he was doing musically in an artistic way because he came from an arts background, says Pete Brown, who recalls talking with Gilmour once about him writing some lyrics for Floyd. oneSignal_options['notifyButton']['text']['tip.state.subscribed'] = 'Hell yeah! More and more people are discovering the unique music, art and life of Syd Barrett, which fascinates and resonates with so many. After three? In an interview with the Telegraph peppered with attacks on his ex-bandmates . Theyd have to be good musicians. I mean, Ive got an idea that there must be someone to play with. He was better than people really knew. Is he one of them rappers? he retorted sarcastically. Gilmour attended three session dates and Waters only the last one, 26 July, which was a sprint that generated four unembellished songs for the haunting second side of Syds debut album, named The Madcap Laughs after a line in the song Octopus and suggested by David Gilmour. Id like a lot of money to put into my physicals and to buy food for all my friends. Many thanks to Jenny Spires and Helen Donlon for their invaluable input. It was like this. EMIs new Harvest label committed to a Barrett solo project, and over the course of a year Syd recorded The Madcap Laughs. Syds letter about recording with Pink Floyd. Most of them stand alone as written pieces. Ive been at home in Cambridge with my mother. There were not that many people but it suddenly felt like something was happening that you were gonna be part of. oneSignal_options['notifyButton']['enable'] = true; The whole saga starts, I suppose at least for convenience's sake, with a band called The Abdabs. Bo Diddley was definitely my greatest influence. Like a character out of one of his own songs. Barrett, whose death was confirmed today, was the first "acid casualty", and few actually remember the man who led the most important group of Britain's counterculture in 1966 and 1967. There remains a strong sense of regret from all members of Pink Floyd that they could, on reflection, have done more to help his situation. Warren Dosanjh, Syd Barrett's first manager. Mostly his answers are fragmented, a stream of consciousness (the words of James Joyces poem Golden Hair are in one of his songs). Kris Needs is a British journalist and author, known for writings on music from the 1970s onwards. The Guardian: Excuse me! (Image credit: sebastian jenkins/barrettbook.com). Are you Syd Barrett? He still paints. . I had to say things like, Syd, Im going out to get a packet of cigarettes and then go off and play a gig. I couldnt have made my mind up to go and get themTo get the train and all thatBut thenI didnt even write to themMum said shed get in touch with the officeThanks, anyway. "; This is the most interesting thing to do now, to see whether it would have been possible to retain the Emily sort of things that were there and on maybe two tracks of the first album., Ive been writing consistently for two years now and I have lots of undeveloped things lying around. oneSignal_options['notifyButton']['position'] = 'bottom-right'; oneSignal_options['welcomeNotification'] = { }; Goodthere you are. In 2010, EMI Records released An Introduction To Syd Barrett, a new collection that brought together for the first time tracks from Syds Pink Floyd and solo work on one album, including some brand-new remixes. That he once went for an afternoon drive and ended up in Ibiza. Syd Barrett interview (Jan 1970) Terrapin #17, 1975 Syd Barrett has returned. oneSignal_options['allowLocalhostAsSecureOrigin'] = true; Syd leaves the cellar and goes up to a sedate little room full of pictures of himself with his family. Its painful for meThank you. You can play guitar in your canteen, you know, your hair might be longer, but theres a lot more to playing than travelling around universities and things. Syd withdrew from the music industry and eventually chose Cambridge and a life of painting, creating large abstract canvases and many other forms of paintings. documentInitOneSignal(); This was a band composition, but most of the other early recordings were songs by Syd, who had established himself as the bands creative innovator. Syd quit the band a few days later after a scathing review. Im full of dust and guitars, he says. Any way, Ive been sitting about and writing. He is in fact alive and as confusing as ever, in the town where he was born, Cambridge. That he became overbearingly egotistical, impossible to work with. Probably my own impatience is the only thing, because it has to be very easy. And I knew I couldnt write. The fact is I havent done anything this year, Ive probably been chattering, explaining that away like anything. Dark Side of. After Syd then talked about the clothes some more and said how it would have been difficult for him to get them because of having to get the train, the journalist then asked if he could take a photo. When Syd had his brain he used it incredibly well., Next, See Emily Play appeared as the perfect marriage of Floyds psych sound and Barretts lyrical genius. But I was soon playing on the professional scene and began to write from there. Id like to be rich. I was lucky enough Ive always thought of going back to a place where you can drink tea and sit on the carpet. His hair is short now, uncombed, the wavy locks gone. He didnt write any more but knew he had books of songs he hadnt used. My uncle Ive been getting used to a family existence, generally. All that time youve just reminded me of it. To make my album was a challenge as I didnt have anything to follow., Now Syd is looking to form his own band, which he hoped he will have going within a year. Hed actually reached a stage where he was quite content with what he was doing in his life. Maybe he has it all figured. Watts: What would you sooner be a painter or a musician? She suggested Syds band would be perfect for the film he was making called Tonite Lets All Make Love In London. Watts: Do you think the glamour went to your head at all? Pre-Floyd: The Tea Set in 1964 with Syd, Bob Klose, Chris Dennis and Roger Waters. Roger Keith Barrett was born on 6 January 1946, in Cambridge, England. I thought The Soft Machine were good fun. Syd: I dont know. Maybe well see each other in London. The legacy continues to live on. ], UhyesI never saw him again. Matt Gaetz Called Out for Citing Chinese Propaganda in Hearing Watts: Did you like what they were doing the fact that the music was gradually moving away from songs like See Emily Play? Syd undertook very little musical activity between 1968 and 1972 outside the studio. He was a pretty child. I dont know that there was really much conflict, except that perhaps the way we started to play wasnt as impressive as it was to us, even, wasnt as full of impact as it mightve been. While performed live in concert and on the radio, they remain to this day officially unreleased. Spires remembers an excited Syd calling her that Christmas, bursting to play her a new song called Arnold Layne. Visiting him is like intruding into a very private world. Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for SYD BARRETT'S FIRST TRIP rare VHS early PINK FLOYD Japan 2000 import at the best online prices at eBay! Its what Syd did on top that really counted. [The interview ends. None of us advocated doing anything more eccentric. Then had to come up to London, he said, I didnt mean to play for ever; it was painting that brought me here to art school. The Madcap Laughs would not be released until January 1970, but was well received and sold reasonably by the standards of the time, so EMI decided to record a follow-up straight away. He produces a guitar and begins to strum out a new version of Love You, from Madcap. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); The French journalists Michka Assayas and Thomas Johnson tracked Barrett and interviewed him back in 1982 outside of his mother Winifred Barretts house in Cambridge. Although he addresses his rift with former Pink Floyd member Roger Waters about the release here, this interview was conducted before Waters targeted Gilmour in a caustic missive about the. In the wake of the loss of their enigmatic frontman Syd Barrett to suspected drug-induced schizophrenia in 1968 .
Wish You Were Here was one album hugely inspired by Syd. The drawing Syd made of Jenny Spires when they first met. David Gilmour and Jerry Shirley also backed Syd for his one and only live concert during this period, on 6 June 1970. '; But I never seem to have any. Suddenly he points out the window. LONDON If you tend to believe what you hear, rather than what is, Syd Barrett is either dead, behind bars, or a vegetable. But very self-conscious about his consciousness. I saw him when he got back from the States and he had to go on the Hendrix tour. I couldnt have made my mind up to go and get themTo get the train and all thatBut thenI didnt even write to themMum said shed get in touch with the officeThanks, anyway. [Syd becomes uncomfortable. (function() {var wf = document.createElement('script');wf.src='https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/webfont/1/webfont.js';wf.type='text/javascript';wf.async='true';var s=document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0];s.parentNode.insertBefore(wf, s);})(); Theres a train strike at the moment., No, not really. His final formal interview was made by Actuel Magazine in 1982, 10 years after he retired from the public life. Ive just had an operation, but nothing too serious. He looked terrible., Floyd famously elected not to pick him up one day, and already had Gilmour in the band. He has never recorded anyone elses. In August 1974, Peter Jenner had convinced Syd to return to Abbey Road Studios in hope of recording another album, but little came of the sessions. window._oneSignalInitOptions = oneSignal_options; I only know the thing of playing, of being a musician, was very exciting. It finishes with: Mind the Reflecting electricity eyes The Life that was ours grew sharper and stronger away and beyond short wheeling fresh spring gripped with blanched bones moaned Magnesium Proverbs and sobs, Syd thinks people who sing their own songs are boring. Obviously, one was better off with a silver guitar with mirrors and things all over it than people who ended up on the floor or anywhere else in London. It was like an awakening. was released by EMI in 2001. It was a tremendous breakthrough when Syd wrote things like Arnold Layne and See Emily Play. He was so far removed it was like he wasnt there. Syd was really thrilled he was going to record, recalls Spires. Roger Waters at the same time, but in another interview, explained the name as something that sounds like a nice name to us. Imagine my voice through all this money! He didnt think he could sing. Like many innovators, Barrett seems to have missed the recognition due to him, while others have cleaned up. Syd: No. Pink Floyd quickly became the pre-eminent underground band, fuelled by audience and supporters close to the London Free School. His favourite is a white semi-circle on a white canvas. What does it mean to lust for life in a country that wants you dead? They cut it, not long ago Before that I liked it a lot. I know because Id heard most of them. But its difficult, Ill have to wait [Syd rummages through a bag of his old clothes the journalists have given him and smiles. Im trying to go back down there, but Ive got to wait. I think I would always advocate that sort of thing the luxurious life. But in a sense, Syd never really left. He was very loving and wrote me letters all the time. I dont think Im easy to talk about. It was while studying fine art at Camberwell School of Art in south London that he started playing with the Pink Floyd, the rest of whom were all at that time potential architects at the Regent Street Polytechnic. Unperturbed, French journalists Michka Assayas and Thomas Johnson tracked Barrett down on behalf of Actuel Magazine. Youre on the ceiling looking down on yourself., In 1972, when Syd said he would like to play again, he started jamming with Spires then-husband Jack Monck and drummer friend Twink. It was on return from that great country that Syd split from the Floyd. Sometimes surreal, images weaving dreamily, echoes of a mindscape that defies traditional analysis. Ive got to get some coleslaw. The Floyd rhythm section was kind of stodgy but they could get in a groove. All Rights reserved. Using the broadest brush strokes, Pink Floyd became the UKs first major psychedelic band thanks to their visionary leader Syd Barrett, then the worlds biggest prog rock band after they cut him loose in early 1968.