syd barrett interview
syd barrett interview
The Look of the Week was a Sunday night arts programme on BBC2, which looked at. He's also written for MOJO, Record Collector, Classic Rock, Prog, Electronic Sound, Vive Le Rock and Shindig! The trio played four songs at the Olympia Exhibition Hall, London, as part of a Music and Fashion Festival. Thats why the people who watched them became possessive and they became our underground group. Ill show you a book of all my songs before you go. Of what, then? Six cool new prog songs you must hear this week! "; The pair were briefly detained by the St. Tropez police for busking. He's taking things easily, as he has been doing for the last two years, composing, writing and painting as inspiration comes, and making some plans for the future. If you would like to visit Cambridge this summer, it is too late to book an I Spy Syd In Cambridge tour. In 1982, Syd had spent well over a decade almost fully retired from public life and had moved away from the bright lights of London to his mothers house in Cambridge four years earlier. Im disappearing, he says, avoiding most things. He seems very tense, ill at ease. But its difficult, Ill have to wait, he added before rummaging through the bag of his old clothes the journalists have given him and flashing a smile. Six songs were recorded by this first version of Pink Floyd, and after 50 years they finally received their proper release in November 2015. 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. Syd Barrett, Rolling Stone, December 1971. I have to say the acid did help. Roger Keith Barrett was born on 6 January 1946, in Cambridge, England. He played in a number of groups in that area from the age of 16 onwards, doing Bo Diddley and Jimmy Reed numbers especially. Thanks to his usual helpfulness, Tim gave his second interview to "Dolly Rocker", trying to clarify some questions for Syd's fans and . I dont have time to do very much. He was a pretty child. Now you gonna get latest important news'; Meanwhile, Roger Waters had formed a band called Sigma 6 with college friends including Richard Wright and Nick Mason. When two of the 6 band members left, there was space for Syd to join, along with Rado Bob Klose. He might have been able to retreat and go on creating, but I dont think the creativity was still there. Im not going to see anyone in London. Probably my own impatience is the only thing, because it has to be very easy. Syd: I feel though the record would still be the thing to do. Please contact the developer of this form processor to improve this message. 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. Thats part of it but, it was also a protest song about decriminalising homosexuality., The song influenced Pete Brown to change his singing style. 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. oneSignal_options['promptOptions']['actionMessage'] = "Do you want to receive the latest news about Classic Rock? window.addEventListener("load", function(event){ 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. He is in fact alive and as confusing as ever, in the town where he was born, Cambridge. Watts: Did you like what they were doing the fact that the music was gradually moving away from songs like See Emily Play? The sessions for the album Barrett started on 26 February 1970, with David Gilmour as producer and on bass guitar, Richard Wright on keyboards and Humble Pies Jerry Shirley on drums. I dont have time to do very much. Melodys Echo Chamber is an album shrouded in mystery. When I became a journalist I knew I wanted to write about my passions. 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. The fans of Syd since 5/19/97: var site="sm4sydbarrett" The pace of things. Syd Barrett - Interviewed By Meatball Fulton - London August 1967 The Acoustic Warrior Chris Warren 88K views 2 years ago Pink Floyd 1967 full interview [Syd Barrett & Roger Waters]. S: Leave me alone. Roger was the fourth of five children, the others being Alan, Don, Ruth and Rosemary. He was very loving and wrote me letters all the time. But too many people got in the way. function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);} Although the bandmates tried to look afterSydin the immediate following his departure, he soon became a recluse and went off-grid. That would be the last time the public ever heard from Barrett before his death in 2006 and his story remains one of the great travesties of rock music, a tragic one that saw one of the purest talents who was the mastermind behind the formation of the band never got to have the fruitful career he deserved. We want to hear it. Recently rediscovered ZBS foundation interview from August 1967 We were playing Stones numbers. Interview with Mick Rock. Syd: Well, Im a painter, I was trained as a painter I seem to have spent a little less time painting than I mightve done you know, it might have been a tremendous release getting absorbed in painting. Fellow scout Brian Boydell remembers that this was when he gave Roger the nickname of Sid, at an age of twelve. Syd could really improvise, says poet Pete Brown (who would soon write lyrics for Cream). I think Emily was fourth in the hits. The Syd Barrett book is available from Essential Works. Roger Waters: When he was still in the band in the later stages, we got to the point where anyone of us was likely to tear his throat out at any minute because he was so impossible, When Emily was a hit and we were third for three weeks, we did Top Of The Pops, and the third week we did it he didnt want to know. The doomed poet. This was his last rehearsal with Pink Floyd and on 25 January 1968, after only a handful of shows as a 5-piece, the band elected not to pick Syd up on the way to Southampton. Trump Melts Down Over Murdoch Admitting Fox Lied About Election Fraud The two bands played Spontaneous Underground events at the Marquee between January and March 1966, and at UFO from December 1966. All that time youve just reminded me of it. Do you want some money? It was on return from that great country that Syd split from the Floyd. Watts: Your writing has always been concerned purely with songs rather than long instrumental pieces like the rest of The Floyd, hasnt it? That he became overbearingly egotistical, impossible to work with. That he once went for an afternoon drive and ended up in Ibiza. I really need to prove myself right, he says. Barrett was a founding father of the Floyd. His final formal interview was made by Actuel Magazine in 1982, 10 years after he retired from the public life. But its difficult, Ill have to wait [Syd rummages through a bag of his old clothes the journalists have given him and smiles. Syd leaves the cellar and goes up to a sedate little room full of pictures of himself with his family. Syd: Yeah thats nice. Once youre into something he says, looking very puzzled. Syd hangs around in my local pub. Whenever he was in control then it was happening., Jenny Fabian was there too; I thought they were incredible. Eight miles a day, he says. Im trying to go back down there, but Ive got to wait. Hed actually reached a stage where he was quite content with what he was doing in his life. I mean, we did split up, and there was a lot of trouble. I dont have time to do very much. I didnt think Id get these things back. Its better than callingourselves CCE338, or something like that. The blues singers Syd referenced actually originated from South and North Carolina respectively and the name combination was picked up from thelinearnotes of a Blind Boy Fuller compilation album. Using the broadest brush strokes, Pink Floyd became the UK's first major psychedelic band thanks to their visionary leader Syd Barrett, then the world's biggest prog rock band after they cut him loose in early 1968. Roger "Syd" Barrett died of pancreatic cancer on 7 July 2006 at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge, but his legacy lives on in the acknowledgement of his increasing influence over scores of musicians. Bye [The interview ends. He wrote some great songs that had a huge influence on all sorts of different people. By the time he chose his first love of painting over music, it was too late. People always say he was into The Beatles but he was more into the Stones. Im sorry I cant speak very coherently, he says, Its rather difficult to think of anybody being really interested in me. Syd: Singles are always simpleall the equipment was battered and worn all the stuff we started out with was our own, the guitars were our own property. documentInitOneSignal(); Three days later he wrote to his girlfriend Libby that I could write a book about his merits perhaps I will sometime.. I must find myself a flat in London. Mostly his answers are fragmented, a stream of consciousness (the words of James Joyces poem Golden Hair are in one of his songs). The fine arts thing at college was always too much for me to think about. Many thanks to Jenny Spires and Helen Donlon for their invaluable input. We start with a bang as this one is already a world exclusive, an interview with the manager of one of Syd's first Cambridge bands: Those Without. Syd Barrett - The breakdown of Syd as told by his sister and band members - Radio Broadcast 09/06/11 Raised On Radio 974K views 4 years ago PINK FLOYD'S RICHARD WRIGHT UNFILTERED INTERVIEW. Syd says his favourite musician is Hendrix. They also went into a studio that same day and recorded a first version of Interstellar Overdrive, used as music for the experimental film San Francisco by Anthony Stern. Started briefly with Blackhills Peter Jenner, recording commenced in earnest in April 1969 with EMIs Malcolm Jones, and at the final stretch involved David Gilmour and Roger Waters. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. LONDON If you tend to believe what you hear, rather than what is, Syd Barrett is either dead, behind bars, or a vegetable. oneSignal_options['notifyButton']['text']['message.action.resubscribed'] = 'Oh yeah, you\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'re back! But its difficult, Ill have to wait, [Syd rummages through a bag of his old clothes the journalists have given him and smiles.]. Ive got to get some coleslaw. Instead, the sunnier single Apples and Oranges was released in November 1967, but did not chart. The 200 Greatest Singers of All Time I wanted to do a job. Whereas when Brian Jones left the Stones, they erased him then moved on, Syd became a spectral fifth member of the Floyd. Devastated by the LSD consumption indulged by many with joyful abandon but which proved excessive to his own constitution, Syd was an artistic genius, gifted in so many mays he couldnt separate one from another in his beleaguered, swirling brain. 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. oneSignal_options['appId'] = '7306da2e-1e23-436b-8361-6ac0257193f8'; Watts: What have you been doing since you left The Floyd, apart from making your two albums? I suppose it was really just a matter of being a little offhand about things. Its what Syd did on top that really counted. French journalists Michka Assayas and Thomas Johnson had discovered Barretts residence and decided to take the Channel Tunnel in the hope of conducting an interview with the former Pink Floyd man. By the time he moved to London, he had already been part of local bands including Geoff Mott and the Mottoes, born out of collaborations at the Barrett family home from 1962 onwards. Other musicians paying tribute included Roger Waters, Damon Albarn, Kevin Ayers, Captain Sensible, Mike Heron, Robyn Hitchcock, Chrissie Hynde, John Paul Jones, Kate McGarrigle, and Martha Wainwright. I think he saw the music as a kind of blip on his life. When in Cambridge to visit the childhood home of Syd Barrett, the enigmatic former member of Pink Floyd who died in 2006, Mulholland noticed a pile of leaves and detritus from the property's. I havent got any blue jeans I really prefer electric music. I think its so exciting. Watts: Do you think the glamour went to your head at all? Had he gone on a different route, he could have ended up being John McLaughlin. Syd still thinks he's . 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. Barrett would later be approached by a Guardian reporter in 2001 for another attempted interview. Its my new 12-string guitar. S:UhyesI never saw him again. Very polite. Ive got a black Fender which needs replacing. Terrapin #17, 1975. 1993s Crazy Diamond is a box set of all three albums, each loaded with further out-takes from his solo sessions. Syd knew Roger Waters from primary school and met David Gilmour as a teenager, so their paths were to cross many times. Syd Barrett interview (circa 1971) He didnt write any more but knew he had books of songs he hadnt used. The picture encapsulates the mood of his songs, which are pared-down and unembellished, unfashionably stripped of refined production values, so that one is left to concentrate on the words and the stream of consciousness effect. Sessions in April and July followed, and the album was released in November 1970, the last official Syd Barrett album, bar compilations. Perhaps you could see it as something went to ones head, but I dont know that it was relevant. Bo Diddley was definitely my greatest influence. They were older, by about two years, I think. Barrett passed away from pancreatic cancer on July 7, 2006. Syd Barrett interview. I swapped it for the black one, but Ive never played it., Trending Thats all really. He was happy playing rhythm guitar. It was his writing and performance that made Pink Floyd successful in the first place. In the wake of the loss of their enigmatic frontman Syd Barrett to suspected drug-induced schizophrenia in 1968 . The band attempted to go into Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun, but Syd could. That occasionally he goes to the house of Richard Wright, The Floyds organist, and sits there silently for hours without speaking. Melody Maker, Mar 27 1971, Michael Watts. The writer initially asked him if he was Syd Barrett, to which he responded Who? before they then repeated their initial question, Never heard of im. Id like a lot of money to put into my physicals and to buy food for all my friends. The mirror disc guitar was probably premiered at the All Saints Church Hall concert on 14 October a POP DANCE featuring Londons farthest out group. It should be 12 singles, and jolly good singles. I even think I should be. Occasionally, Syd responds directly to a question. The cover of Madcap has a picture of him crouching watchfully on the bare floorboards of a naked room. He is very aware of what is going on around him, but his conversation is often obscure; it doesn't always progress in linear fashion. Heres how it works. Like a character out of one of his own songs. ], UhyesI never saw him again. 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. var oneSignal_options = {}; 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. Syd and Pink Floyd officially parted company in March 1968, with the bands management Blackhill Enterprises deciding to stick with Syd as a solo artist. I'd known he was ill for a long time. Roger Waters at the same time, but in another interview, explained the name as something that sounds like a nice name to us. Throughout 1966 they honed their live performance skills, often developing songs into long jamming sequences. On return trips to Cambridge, he began playing guitar with The Hollerin Blues, who by 1965 had turned into Those Without. 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. Syd: Roger Waters is older than I am. England and Wales company registration number 2008885. Perhaps it has something to do with what I felt could be better as regards music, as far as my job goes generally, because I did find I needed a job. Its probably because I dont do much work. G: No. Syd doesnt live here anymore is how he answered the door to visiting strangers. oneSignal_options['notifyButton'] = { }; oneSignal_options['safari_web_id'] = "web.onesignal.auto.18c6dc90-7633-4ce6-8875-ae2763214094"; was released by EMI in 2001. At a job at London's Saturday Club, Barrett showed up and was unusually (even for him) uncommunicative. Syd Barretts famous mirrored guitar was created at this time by modifying his original white Fender Esquire with adhesive plastic to give it a new silver coloured body, and then mounting 15 reflecting discs on it. In 2008, Warren Dosanjh, Syd . All Rights reserved. Syd Barrett had stage fright early on Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images In October 2022, Guitar reported on a recent interview with Pink Floyd bassist Roger Waters performed by podcaster Joe Rogan. They only intended to do some low-key shows and played a local coffee bar a couple of times as Stars, before playing a brilliant outdoor gig at the Market Square in Cambridge. We waited until we had got the lights together and then went out.. I thought it was good fun. I was really moving backwards and forwards to London. I suppose it was relevant im sorry I cant speak very coherently, he says, Mar 1971! 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