![Pink Floyd]( "Pink Floyd") |
| Pink Floyd |
Pink Floyd's first performance as a five-piece was Aston University, on January 12th. Following that, they played: Weston Super Mare 13 Jan, Lewes Sussex 19 Jan, Hastings Sussex 20 Jan. Syd Barrett played his last ever gig with Pink Floyd on Jan. 20, 1968. Barrett was the main songwriter, lead singer, guitarist and focal point for the psychedelic pioneers from their formation through the end of 1967, at which time, various issues led to his exit from the band. For that handful of shows David played and sang while Barrett wandered around on stage, occasionally deigning to join in playing. The other band members soon tired of Barrett’s antics.
The next show, at Southampton University on January 26th, was the one Syd was not picked up for. They were supported by Tyrannosaurus Rex, featuring Marc Bolan. Following this, the band hoped to keep Syd on as a songwriter, but have Gilmour be their performing guitarist. But Syd’s songwriting efforts (notably “Have You Got It Yet?”) seemed destined for commercial failure, and the rest of the band didn’t agree with his plan to add banjo and sax players to the group. So it was decided, on March 2, to break up the management partnership of Blackhill Enterprises, and Syd was thus formally and officially out of the group.
On February 1, 1968 Pink Floyd spent the day at Abbey Road studios working on what would become their second album, A Saucerful Of Secrets. Sessions had previously taken place with Syd Barrett and continued with David Gilmour throughout the rest of the month. On February 17, 1968 the band began a five-date tour of the Netherlands and Belgium. The trip also included a TV appearance for RTB in Brussels (performing new songs, Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun and Corporal Clegg, among others) and two performances for ORTV in Paris, including a mimed performance of the single B-side Paintbox.
March 1, 1968 Pink Floyd's partnership with management company Blackhill Enterprises was formally dissolved. The band acquired a new manager, Steve O'Rourke, who was initially employed by their booking agents, the Bryan Morrison Agency. On March 16 Pink Floyd played London's hippest nightspot, Middle Earth in Covent Garden. Syd Barrett was among the audience. On March 28 Pink Floyd were filmed playing Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun for the BBC TV arts programme 'Omnibus'. The documentary, about pop music and politics, was later released as a video/DVD entitled All My Loving. On April 4 Pink Floyd began recording background music for the film noir The Committee, featuring former Manfred Mann singer Paul Jones.
It wasn’t until April 6, 1968 that the Floyd officially announced that Syd had left the band. Barrett friend, poet Spike Hawkins, remembers Syd telling him about the early Floyd recordings, and how he “wanted to go much deeper, using music and lyrics as a key to opening doors.” Hawkins told Barrett he had in fact opened doors for the band, Barrett replied, “Yeah, with cheap keys.”
Barrett did not contribute any material to the band after A Saucerful of Secrets was released in 1968. Of the songs he wrote for Pink Floyd after The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, only one (“Jugband Blues”) made it to the band’s second album; one became a less-than-successful single (“Apples and Oranges”), and two others (“Scream Thy Last Scream” and “Vegetable Man”) were never officially released. Barrett supposedly spent some time outside the recording studio, waiting to be invited in (he also showed up to a few gigs and glared at Gilmour). Barrett played slide guitar on “Remember a Day” (which had been recorded during the The Piper at the Gates of Dawn sessions) and also played on “Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun”. His main contribution to the album, “Jugband Blues,” is often seen by Pink Floyd fans as Barrett’s admission that his days in the band were probably numbered (“It’s awfully considerate of you to think of me here/And I’m most obliged to you for making it clear/that I’m not here”, the song opens). In April of 1968 it was officially announced that he was no longer a member of Pink Floyd.![Bookmark and Share]()
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The Provo movement (1963-1972) was directed by a "playful anarchist" group which combined non-violence and absurd humor to create social change. The name Provo was coined by Dutch sociologist Buikhuizen to describe, in a condescending way, post-war disaffected Dutch teens who spent their time provoking the authorities. Provo is loosely defined as: a creature of my own making. Provo has also been co-opted to mean: hippie though it pre-dates it. The term was used for the movement as a whole and for individual members. It was preceded by the Nozem movement and followed by the hippie movement.
Provo was founded in 1963. The Provos believed and espoused that the Revolution would not come from the Proletariat (working class) but from the “Provotariat”. On 25 May 1965, the first Provo Pamphlets were handed out by Robert Jasper Grootveld, an anti-smoking activist and the anarchists Roel van Duijn and Rob Stolk. These political pamphlets were some of the first, that came to be later called, mass produced psychedelic writings and images of the Sixties. Provo was officially disbanded on 13 May 1967.
Provo fused three countercultural elements: an emerging group of angry, alienated young people; the provocative methods of the performance artist Robert Jasper Grootveld; and the revolutionary ideas of philosophy student Roel Van Duyn.
Provo used pranks to provoke the police into action - and usually overreaction. In fact Provo considered the police to be an essential element of a happening; the happening would provoke the police and the police's response would fire the crowd's resentment which would eventually erupt into revolt. The media were also central players and could fuel a provocation with outrage and panic.
The theatrical street happenings organized by the Provos attracted huge crowds and often resulted in over-reaction by the police. The group found great sympathy among Amsterdammers and at one point obtained five seats on the City Council. Its ideas influenced urban planning, social housing, and cultural life in general. It campaigned against marijuana prohibition, air pollution from urban traffic congestion, and the tobacco industry, and it created numerous anti-royal events and literature. Despite the flippancy of some of their methods Provo's direct actions usually had a serious motivation. Their 'White Plans' are a particularly good example of provocation for public good.
The original Witte Fietsenplan (White Bike plan) was an anarchic free transport programme and the most famous manifesto of the Provos. It proposed that cars be banned from the city centre to be replaced by twenty thousand free bicycles provided by the city. These would be painted white and always left unlocked. Provo released 50 or so, free to use, specially painted white bikes which were scattered across the city of Amsterdam.
This was done as a statement against the rise of consumerism, pollution and congestion caused by the privately owned vehicle. Although the action was short-lived due to theft and vandalism, Provo members used seats on the local council to propose further large-scale white bike plans. The initiative stands as the source inspiration for the (PUB) Public Use Bicycle systems which have been updated and ‘officially’ replicated in cities worldwide.
Both: My White Bicycle, by Tomorrow, and Bike, by Pink Floyd are thought to be inspired by the White Bicycle Plan. According to Tomorrow drummer John Alder, it was inspired by an anarchist group called the Dutch Provos who “had white bicycles in Amsterdam and they used to leave them around the town. And if you were going somewhere and you needed to use a bike, you’d just take the bike and you’d go somewhere and just leave it.”
The Provos had a series of other "White" Programs:- The White Chimney Plan proposed that air polluters be taxed and the chimneys of serious polluters painted white.
- The White Housing Plan proposed that the city legalize and sponsor squatting: the revolutionary solution to the housing problem.
- The White Wives Plan proposed a network of women's sexual health and family planning centers and sex education in schools.
- The White Kids Plan proposed shared parenting in groups of 5 couples who would take it in turns to care for the group's children on a different day of each week
- The White Chicken Plan was a statement against increasingly violent police responses to happenings and demonstrations. It proposed that the police force (then known in Amsterdam as blue chickens) changed its image by disarming, riding white bicycles and handing out free first aid, fried chicken and contraceptives.
Left wing student groups began to unite with Provo to protest against the war in Vietnam. Demonstrations were banned and grew in size and popularity as a direct result. The police responded with increasing force. By the middle of 1966 hundreds of people were being arrested every week. The public began to condemn the police and express sympathy for the Provos and anti-war demonstrators. An official investigation into the crisis was opened in August 1966 and the police commissioner, and eventually the mayor, were fired as a result of its findings.
The Provos had a sting influence upon the Diggers, a well-known counterculture collective in San Francisco. This, in turn, had great influence upon other such organizations at the time.![Bookmark and Share]()
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August 19, 2014, 12:49 pm
The Laughing Madcaps, Syd Barrett Facebook, Group is coming upon 3,000 members! The original group started waaaay back in 1998 on Yahoogroups. A few years ago, the group was moved to Facebook and has taken off. Laughing Madcaps is the source for Syd Barrett information in the world.
Laughing Madcaps has put out THE unreleased Syd Barrett music collection for the fans. They did this for free. That's the world famous Have You Got It Yet?, 19 CD, collection. They have also assembled every single Syd Barrett, early Pink Floyd, picture and burned them to DVD for free. Pink Floyd themselves have consulted LM about images. Not only that, but their own Mark Jones has taken the time to create Folders in this group and copy all of these images into the Photos section so you can enjoy them. To list all of the accomplishments of this group, all that LM have done for the fans, would take a long, long time. And it's all been done for free. You have a lot to be thankful and grateful for.
Click on the image in this post to go and join!![Bookmark and Share]()
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October 16, 2014, 5:09 pm
![Syd Barrett]( "Syd Barrett") |
| Syd Barrett |
Check out this Spotify Syd Barrett Playlist! It has 73 songs and goes from Syd's days with Pink Floyd up through the 1974 Last Minute Put Together Boogie Band (With Syd Barrett & Fred Frith). It's four hours, twelve minutes, long. Enjoy!
Click the picture above, or the Syd Barrett link below, or click the Spotify module right in this blog post.
Syd Barrett![Bookmark and Share]()
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October 16, 2014, 8:07 pm
The original Syd Barrett Pink Floyd discussion group, the Laughing Madcaps, is about to pass 3,000 Members! This is a significant number because 3,000 is the number that the group topped out on at the original interface on Yahoogroups. Laughing Madcaps began waaaaay back in 1998 on the original "groups" social networking interface: Yahoogroups. Those eight years, up until Syd's death in 2006, were exciting and halcyon times.
![Syd Barrett]( "Syd Barrett")
To read a better account of the Making of Have You Got It Yet? go here.
And it continues here.Around four years ago, Yahoogroups was losing market share in the Internet "groups" area. Basically, people were abandonning it for Twitter and Facebook. The group had resisted a MySpace challenge back in the day but the allure to move to Facebook appeared too strong. This turns out to have been a good move as the group has been steadily gaining membership and is expected to top 3,000 soon.
Kiloh Smith says: "We are still the Numba One Syd Barrett group in the world and maintain a healthy and loyal membership."
Join the Laughing Madcaps on Facebook by clicking any of the the images above or this link below:https://www.facebook.com/groups/laughingmadcaps
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November 18, 2014, 9:36 am
![Pink Floyd]( "Pink Floyd") |
| Pink Floyd |
A high pixel scan has surfaced of Pink Floyd backstage at the 5th Dimension in Leicester on September 27th, 1967. Click the image to the left to see full size. The line-up was Pink Floyd, Amboy Dukes, Chris Farlowe and The Family. I was recently informed that this was the UK Amboy Dukes and not the garage/psych Legends from the USA. Annnnnyway, the 5th Dimension was a well known Leicester psychedelic club in the late 1960s. As one can see, many big psych-rock acts played, and although the club no longer exists, the esteemed name has occasionally been revived for psychedelic club nights held in Leicester today.
![Pink Floyd]( "Pink Floyd") |
| Pink Floyd |
We have the picture and the Osiris poster by Michael English, left and Nigel Waymouth. Enjoy!
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December 6, 2014, 8:56 pm
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December 20, 2014, 7:21 pm
![See Emily Play]( "See Emily Play") |
| See Emily Play |
See Emily Play" is Pink Floyd's second single, this 1967 tune was written by Syd Barrett and was originally titled “Games for May,” after a free concert where the group performed. Recorded on 23 May 1967, it featured "The Scarecrow" as its B-side. Though it was initially released as a non-album single, the song appeared on the Tower edition of The Piper at the Gates of Dawn (1967). Long-time Barrett fan John Peel rated the song highly. "It is one of my favourites from that time,' he said. 'I wish they had written a song about me. Syd was a great talent and at one time I was even going to record an album of his lyrics, but when I heard myself reading them I decided to abort the project."
![See Emily Play]( "See Emily Play") |
| See Emily Play |
It's said to be about Sculptor Emily Young. While at Holland Park School in 1966, she became a regular at the nearby London Free School night sessions around the Notting Hill area, which brought her into contact with many in the UK Underground. Here, Ms. Young talks about the London Free School, "I used to go there because there were a lot of Beat philosophers and poets around," she says. "There were fundraising concerts with The Pink Floyd Sound, as they were then called. I was more keen on poets than rockers. I was educating myself. I was a seeker. I wanted to meet everyone and take every drug."
![See Emily Play]( "See Emily Play") |
| See Emily Play |
The details as to the recording remain shrouded in mystery due to the lack of paperwork in the EMI archive. Engineer Jeff Jarrett recalls that "See Emily Play" was recorded in a much longer form which was then edited down for the single release. It was recorded at Sound Techniques studios on 21 May 1967. Barrett did the slide guitar work on this song with a Zippo lighter.
![See Emily Play]( "See Emily Play") |
| See Emily Play |
There was much trickery involved in the recording with backward tapes, much use of echo and reverb, and the first piano bridge between the first chorus and second verse was recorded at a slow pace then sped up for the final master. The four-track master tape was wiped or misplaced. It no longer exists and has never been mixed into true stereo; it was reprocessed for fake stereo on the 1971 Relics compilation. The US single (Tower 356) was released by Tower Records three times between July 1967 and late 1968. Each time it failed to duplicate its UK success.
![See Emily Play]( "See Emily Play") |
| See Emily Play |
Barrett, reportedly, was not happy with the final studio cut. He protested against its release, which producer Norman Smith speculated was based on his fear of commercialism. It was during sessions for the song that David Gilmour became a frequent visitor to the studio, and although being invited by Barrett, was shocked by the perceived changes in Barrett's personality when he did not appear to recognize him. For many years Gilmour would recall this, saying, "I don't know at quite at what point Syd started to go very strange, but I know I came back from France and I called Syd up while I was there and he said why don't I come down they were doing a recording session and he told me the studio. And I went down to the studio and he didn't even recognize me, and that was when - the day they were making 'See Emily Play'"
![See Emily Play]( "See Emily Play") |
| See Emily Play |
Part of the vocal melody was played on a Mini Moog at the very end of "Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Parts VI-IX)" at the end of Wish You Were Here, as a tribute to Barrett. It later appeared on the compilations Relics (1971), Works (1983), Shine On (1992), Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd (2001), The Piper at the Gates of Dawn 40th Anniversary Edition (2007), and on A Foot in the Door – The Best of Pink Floyd (2011). The song was also included on the Barrett retrospective, An Introduction to Syd Barrett (2010). In 2014 it was a Record Store Day product packaged with a Columbia range bag with a 7” 4 panel booklet / poster (i.e. like a 7” booklet with one single piece of paper folded) / backer card.
"See Emily Play"
Emily tries but misunderstands, ah oohShe often inclined to borrow somebody's dreams till tomorrowThere is no other dayLet's try it another wayYou'll lose your mind and playFree games for maySee Emily playSoon after dark Emily cries, ah oohGazing through trees in sorrow hardly a sound till tomorrowThere is no other dayLet's try it another wayYou'll lose your mind and playFree games for maySee Emily playPut on a gown that touches the ground, ah oohFloat on a river forever and ever, EmilyThere is no other dayLet's try it another wayYou'll lose your mind and playFree games for maySee Emily play![Bookmark and Share]()
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December 23, 2014, 8:10 pm
![Pink Floyd Vegetable Man]( "Pink Floyd Vegetable Man") |
| Pink Floyd Vegetable Man |
Vegetable Man was a song recorded from 9–11 October, 1967 Pink Floyd Sessions. The song was an attempt to record a follow-up single to "See Emily Play", as well as the beginning of sessions for the album which would eventually become A Saucerful of Secrets. Among the songs considered were "Paint Box", "Scream Thy Last Scream", "Jugband Blues" and "Apples and Oranges". "Vegetable Man" was scheduled for release, as the B-side to "Scream Thy Last Scream", but cancelled and both tracks remain unreleased but nevertheless have appeared on uncountable bootlegs
![Pink Floyd Vegetable Man]( "Pink Floyd Vegetable Man") |
| Pink Floyd Vegetable Man |
To be fully understood, Vegetable Man, and Syd's swan song - Jugband Blues, must be viewed as satire. At the time Syd was under a lot of pressure to write another "catchy" follow-up to See Emily Play. Legend has it that he needed another song for the session and stooped by Peter Jenner's house and penned a darkly satirical description of himself which described his yellow shoes, blue velvet trousers and bad hair cut, finishing with "It’s what I wear, it’s what you see. It must be me, it’s what I am, Vegetable man. I’ve been looking all over the place for a place for me, but it ain’t anywhere, it just ain’t anywhere. Vegetable Man."
![Pink Floyd Vegetable Man]( "Pink Floyd Vegetable Man") |
| Pink Floyd Vegetable Man |
Peter Jenner: "It was really stressful waiting for Syd to come up with the songs for the second album. Everybody was looking at him and he couldn't do it. The last Floyd song Syd wrote, 'Vegetable Man', was done for those sessions, though it never came out. Syd was around at my house just before he had to go to record and, because a song was needed, he just wrote a description of what he was wearing at the time and threw in a chorus that went 'Vegetable man - where are you?' It's very disturbing. Roger took it off the album because it was too dark, and it is. It's like psychological flashing."
![Pink Floyd Vegetable Man]( "Pink Floyd Vegetable Man") |
| Pink Floyd Vegetable Man |
In Vegetable Man, Barrett describes his alienation from the Pop Culture and civilization in general. Really? He is describing the "Bell Jar" descending upon his consciousness, or the beginnings of his mental illness. Jugband Blues is the complimentary song to Vegetable Man and describes the "Bell Jar" fully descended.
Peter Jenner wishes the song was released: "I always thought they should be put out, so I let my copies be heard. I knew that Roger would never let them out, or Dave. They somehow felt they were a bit indecent, like putting out nude pictures of a famous actress: it just wasn't cricket. But I thought they were good songs and great pieces of art. They're disturbing, and not a lot of fun, but they're some of Syd's finest work – though God knows, I wouldn't wish anyone to go through what he's gone through to get to those songs. They're like Van Gogh."syd barrett-vegetable manby bobstinsonPink Floyd Vegetable Man
In yellow shoes I get the bluesThough I walk the streets with my plastic feetWith my blue velvet trousers, make me feel pinkThere's a kind of stink about blue velvet trousersIn my paisley shirt I look a jerkAnd my turquoise waistcoat is quite out of sight But oh oh my haircut looks so bad Vegetable man how are you?
So I've changed my gear, and I find my knees, And I covered them up with the latest cut, And my pants and socks all point in a box, They don't make long of my nylon socks, The watch, black watch My watch with a black face And a big pin, a little hole, And all the lot is what I got, It's what I wear, it's what you see, It must be me, it's what I am, Vegetable man.
I've been looking all over the place for a place for me, But it ain't anywhere, it just ain't anywhere. Vegetable man, vegetable man, He's the kind of person, you just gonna see him if you can, Vegetable Man.![Bookmark and Share]()
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December 28, 2014, 8:12 pm
![Syd Barrett Interview]( "Syd Barrett Interview") |
| Syd Barrett Interview |
This is an analysis of the Syd Barrett Interview by Meatball Fulton from London, August, 1967. This Interview has been misclassified by many as "stoned gibberish". I think that classification is incorrect. To me, Syd sounds pretty lucid and is trying to answer Fulton's off-the-wall questions as best he can.
![Syd Barrett Interview]( "Syd Barrett Interview") |
| Syd Barrett Interview |
The Interview starts out with Syd talking about his art and uses painting as an example. He states that his desire to paint came out of a very genuine desire to paint within him. Then, this desire was identified and he went into Art School and he speaks about his Teachers "altering" his critical thinking about painting. This is called: Education.
![Syd Barrett Interview]( "Syd Barrett Interview") |
| Syd Barrett Interview |
Syd states that he painted a picture "the other day" and he could hear "quite clearly", in his internal dialog, criticisms and instructions that he could relate back to Art School. Then he speaks about his music career as possibly a "very valuable break" where he can leverage *that* experience against his painting talent and education to try and improve his painting. It's quite interesting about how he refers to his music career as a "break" from painting that he plans to resume.
![Syd Barrett Interview]( "Syd Barrett Interview") |
| Syd Barrett Interview |
Then Meatball Fulton asks him if he ever gets "frightened" by the observation that the world is made up of various "systems" that change the way one thinks when one learns them. This is a pretty off-the-wall fooking question! But Syd does his best to answer it.
![Syd Barrett Interview]( "Syd Barrett Interview") |
| Syd Barrett Interview |
Syd says that it bothers him a bit, like Meatball. But he relates back to Art School by referencing his painting again and states that it was "quite enjoyable" to assimilate *that* system of knowledge (painting technique) and that he wanted to hold onto that enjoyment while assimilating new systems (business, money, music, film, etc, etc...).
![Syd Barrett Interview]( "Syd Barrett Interview") |
| Syd Barrett Interview |
Then Meatball asks him: "Do you find yourself in patterns and constantly repeating the same patterns over and over?" Another off-the-fooking-wall question! Syd does what anybody would probably do when asked such a question; he goes "huh!" and says nothing more. Then Fulton asks him what he is working on at the moment that is inside himself (???!) and Syd says: "Yeah, I can't really say..."
![Syd Barrett Interview]( "Syd Barrett Interview") |
| Syd Barrett Interview |
Then Fulton asks him: "Do you often observe people and think that you could tell them something about themselves that they don't know?" Syd is fumbling for words because it's such an off-the-fooking-wall question. Then he says that talking is not as important as "sensing" people and much of the time that "sense" about somebody can't be adequately put into words and that's cool with him. Again, I think that this is a coherent answer to an off-the-fooking-wall question.
![Syd Barrett Interview]( "Syd Barrett Interview") |
| Syd Barrett Interview |
Then it gets uncomfortable when Fulton asks him "what do you 'sense' about me?" Syd sees it for what it is; a loaded question and one can tell that he doesn't want to answer. Meatball says: "Really be honest.' Syd says maybe the strangest thing is "meeting you at all" in an attempt to steer the conversation back into less confrontational grounds. But Fulton keeps at it and says that he can "edit out" anything bad and that he has all this professional etiquette and he has "done this a few times."
My take, on careful listening to this Interview, is that it is not "proof" that Syd Barrett was going mad. I really think that Syd tried to answer this guy's stupid questions as best that he could.![Bookmark and Share]()
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January 20, 2015, 7:31 am
Many people, including this blog, refer to the 1974 sessions as some exercise in futility. As someone who does multi-track recordings frequently, upon further inspection, I found them to be a solid foundation to edit together into a cohesive unit. I added a few layers of bass and drums and ended up with this amazing recording. Why we continue to get the story that these were a complete waste of time is beyond me.
direct link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcrbdzoSbwY
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If there is one effect that truly defined the Pink Floyd sound from the beginning, it’s the Binson Echorec. The "Binson" has a unique sound and both Syd and Rick Wright (Roger too) used it to create sounds that were quite innovative at the time. That so many have enjoyed the strange, lush atmospherics of the Echorec, if not it’s name, is thanks largely to Syd Barrett and David Gilmour. Syd Barrett used it for psychedelic echo effects on songs such as “Interstellar Overdrive”.
Barrett used the device to conjure manic sheets of sound and unrest to complement his whimsical outings live and in the studio for The Pipers at the Gates of Dawn LP in 1967. In Barrett’s hands, however, the Binson’s unusual multi-head design and capacity for convoluted, syncopated, and interstellar repeats helped shape the foundations of U.K Space and Progressive Rock. When Barrett left, Gilmour took up the lead guitar role and began expanding on the sounds that made the band famous.
Syd had seen a Binson Echorec being used in May 1966, when he'd been invited to watch experimental electronic band AMM recording their debut album with Joe Boyd. AMM's guitarist was Keith Rowe, who favored an unsentimental approach to his instrument that made use of effects, treatments and the use of assorted household implements on his guitar strings making for an unusual grating sound.
Apart from Interstellar Overdrive, Syd used this trick on the middle section of Arnold Layne while the guitar was routed through the Binson. Seeing AMM liberated Syd; he began to use his guitar more as an effect generator than a mere device for playing chords and solos. The Echorec was a spectacularly sounding device as can be heard on tracks like Interstellar overdrive and Astronomy Domine, it's interesting to note that rumours had Syd Barrett placing 2 different Echorecs in 2 different Amps to have a more 360 degree sound!
![Syd Barrett Binson EchoRec]( "Syd Barrett Binson EchoRec")
Four playback heads were mounted at different distances from the record head and these delayed the input signal at different times, up to about 350 milliseconds. You could switch between the heads to choose a delay length or combine them for additional sounds. Complex, fragile and fussy, they were capable of incredible sounds, but also a source of great frustration.
![Syd Barrett Binson EchoRec]( "Syd Barrett Binson EchoRec")
![Syd Barrett Binson EchoRec]( "Syd Barrett Binson EchoRec")
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November 24, 2015, 4:56 pm
Recently, the Laughing Madcaps, Syd Barrett, group sat down with Goran and Phil, from Men on the Border, to ask them about their newest Syd tribute effort - Live in Brighton.
Stream the album on Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/album/6MStF6YtxCYNY7FTIoeNzq
Here is the interview:
1OK, who is the band and how did you manage to convince everybody to try to make a go at playing Syd Barrett music?
Goran: We are borderline men of course. Caught between the conflicts of life. The seed of an idea germinated after a visit to the Idea Gallery arts and letters exhibition in March 2011 and then a Floyd festival in July. Phil and I started recording in October. The first song we completed was Octopus, which was quite a challenge, and then we sort of entered the whole amusement park.
Phil: Goran convinced me to give this project a shot with a couple of very rough and weird acoustic demos recorded on his iPhone which he sent me. I found Octopus intriguing with its odd non-structure and I got lots of psychedelic vibes which I found inspiring. It was a difficult song to learn to play for working out all the parts, but it was actually a very satisfying experience. We spent a few weeks working on and off with Octopus and found a pretty good way of working together – mostly based around sending suggestions back and forth. As it was just the two of us at that time and we were both travelling a lot in our day jobs that was a good way to progress.
We loved that first attempt at an arrangement and I had no qualms about immediately starting on another song, which I think was “Feel” – 7 minutes of dreamy opus. The first half is piano and acoustic 12-string guitar-driven, then it concludes with a strummed Rickenbacker like John Lennon’s rhythm guitar on “Hey Jude” and a wailing solo on top. That song kind of clinched the deal and sparked off the idea of maybe putting together a whole album of Syd songs. Right from the start the aim was to make these songs our own and I didn’t once refer to Syd’s original recordings. Goran could play them all on guitar, but I had never heard any of them! So my starting point was only Goran’s demos.
2It's exciting to see a whole new album of Syd Barrett music performed live. Is the CD out? Where can the fans buy it? Give up the information! Do you have your papers!? Let me see your papers!
Goran: We have earlier made two CD's and a total of 24 tracks. Then we wanted to release a single in July this year but decided that streaming was the way to go. Our fan base is global and CD distribution is a hassle. Besides, it seems plastic is selling less and less, so finally we decided not to waste time and money by producing a CD for the “Live in Brighton” album. CDs are now totally dead in Sweden except for the Christmas albums you can buy in supermarkets and gas stations. All the music stores have closed down, so how do you sell them?
![Live in Brighton]( "Live in Brighton")
Interestingly, the entire outside wall of one side of the Prince Albert is painted with deceased rock and pop icons like Jimi, John Lennon, Syd, Brian Jones, Phil Lynott and many more. So we took a photo and put that on the album cover. We had to move some images around in Photoshop to cover up the door and windows, but it’s still pretty striking. That evening was a Syd/early Floyd event with five or six bands playing. We agreed on a set with the organizer the week before the concert so as not to play the same songs as everybody else, but that worked fine for us. The album is fairly short, only 9 songs, but that’s the slot we got!
I haven’t heard of any other releases from that gig, though I did hear from Stuart that Ham Legion’s superb bass player Nick was mixing songs. There could be some songs on YouTube, but I haven’t looked.
3It's cool to see that our friends at Neptune Pink Floyd were involved. Why, I remember when Keith Jordan was knee-high to a scarecrow. Tell us about how that happened. The full story!
Goran: It was all much by chance and through the wonders of web searching. We had this gig in Cambridge on June 13 and were looking for more places to play. Not quite sure how Neptune Pink Floyd was involved, but I believe they had done something similar earlier. Stuart Avis was the key person there and he seems to have a great network.
Phil: Goran found the event on the net, and it was an incredible coincidence that there happened to be a Syd evening the day before our gig in Cambridge. So we rang the organizer Stuart at Black Bunker, sent him some links to YouTube, iTunes, Spotify etc. and a day later we were in! The only slight problem was that there was already a bunch of people booked, so it meant squeezing us in with a short set. But it was easy to do as the backline and PA was all fixed. We just needed to show up with guitars and pedals. Stuart put us on as next to last band, but we were first up for the sound-check. That was easy too, basically just to plug in and play! We got to Brighton from the Channel Tunnel just a few hours before the gig, and left for Cambridge directly after. We got there at 4 in the morning.
4The posters for the gig. Where can I score some? I want!
Goran: Yeah! We missed picking one up. Stuart Avis of Black Bunker Studios is your man.
Phil: We also have digital copies which could be printed. I think.
5Tell us about the gig. How many people showed up. What was the sound system like. What did you use to record the gig and whose idea was it. You know, EVERYTHING!!!
Goran: Maybe a hundred people. But the right kind, you know! Really avid fans and great in music knowledge. The other bands were very good and fun to see. It was pretty varied too. Some did Syd stuff and others did Floyd. And who is in the audience, but Monty Oxymoron from The Damned. He really loves his Syd Barrett and gave us some compliments on our version of Scream Thy Last Scream. Although my singing is honestly not in good form. I had a cold. Probably from that damned tour bus and a strange gig and late night in Copenhagen two nights earlier.
Phil: The audience wasn’t huge, but was enthusiastic. They were there were for what we were going to do, so we were able to relax and just enjoy playing. Goran’s voice was in fact pretty shot, but that gave the whole performance some bite and it shows how far we’ve come as a live band since recording the songs. I’ve played with David Parkin, the bass-player, since the late 80s and we’ve made four albums together as a duo in the last 20 years. It’s a similar thing with Bjorn Hammarberg, the drummer. We’ve played together in various constellations since 1980. The line-up for the album is completed by Lasse Forsberg on rhythm guitar. He was front man for one of bands I’ve played with for the last 12 years.
The PA system at the Prince Albert looked ancient but sounded great and the engineer had what looked like a new digital mixing desk, which he put to good use. So the sound was very good and we know that from watching the other bands. Onstage the bass sounded a bit like a horse farting but in front of the PA it was massive. So kudos to the engineer and I hope someone tells me his name one day.
6What are the future plans for the band? Playing the USA! Are you going to add some Nick Drake and Roky Erickson to the setlist?
Goran: USA! That would be amazing. If somebody can get us the right audiences we'd come. Next thing is actually a symphony. No kidding! Tentatively titled Dark Floyd and it is all Syd related. Nick is an old love, but we like it more edgy. Roky, yeah, but that's too much edge!
Phil: We’ve started working with a symphony orchestra and we’re now waiting for an offer from an arranger. The concert itself will take place in October 2016, but Goran and I have been asked to put together a promotional package by mid-January 2016, for release at the beginning of February. This is serious shit! So I expect that we’ll start collaborating with the arranger in the New Year and the thought of that is mildly nerve-racking. I’ve never worked on symphonic arrangements, but I believe the arrangements on the albums will lend themselves to this form without any problems. This will be truly awesome! We have plans to take a small section of the orchestra with us for a couple of major gigs in August next year. That idea has so far also been bought by the orchestra.
We'd love to play in the States, but how the hell do you do that without someone to organise it and pay for it. Our pockets are not that deep, but it's an interesting thought.
To book Men on the Border contact them HERE or on Facebook.
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![Pink Floyd The Scene]( "Pink Floyd The Scene") |
| Pink Floyd The Scene |
In the Swinging Sixties the hottest club to see a concert at was Steve Paul's, The Scene, Club in the basement of 301 West 46th Street, in NY's Theater District. The Scene had a knack for hiring rock groups right before they broke big. This list included the Doors, Jimi Hendrix, Tiny Tim, Paul Butterfield's Blues Band, the Velvet Underground and Pink Floyd.
![Pink Floyd The Scene]( "Pink Floyd The Scene") |
| Pink Floyd The Scene |
Steve Paul got his start as the wunderkid Publicist for the Peppermint Lounge. He opened The Scene in 1965 and it soon attracted an "A" list of attendees including Lizi Minnelli, Sammy Davis Jr., Andy Warhol, and Tennessee Williams.
Hendrix used to woodshed there playing long into the night, “At the Scene, Jimi would completely let himself go — playing all he knew and didn’t know, going beyond sharing — playing all,” David Henderson wrote in his Hendrix biography, “ ’Scuse Me While I Kiss the Sky.” “Trying to get it all out.” In fact, the infamous 'High Live and Dirty" bootleg was recorded there which featured a very drunk Jim Morrison.
![Pink Floyd The Scene]( "Pink Floyd The Scene") |
| Pink Floyd The Scene |
The Scene was entered by going down a flight of stairs. Jim Marron (The Scene's maitre d') described the layout as follows: "It had three rooms that focused in, like, a cross on the stage, and as a subterranean basement, it had the sort of Paris-cave-disco style to it."
See a rare video showing somebody entering The Scene here:https://youtu.be/fw0qi4cKsgw
![Pink Floyd The Scene]( "Pink Floyd The Scene") |
| Pink Floyd The Scene |
Pink Floyd played there for three nights in July. The dates were the 15th through the 17th. Below is the set list for one of those nights which was probably the list for all three nights:
1.Interstellar Overdrive2.Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun3.Astronomy Domine4.Flaming5.A Saucerful of Secrets ![Pink Floyd The Scene]( "Pink Floyd The Scene") |
| Pink Floyd The Scene |
As one can see, the band was playing Syd's songs with the single addition being A Saucerful of Secrets from their (then) new album.
Unfortunately, there is not much more to be found about the Pink Floyd The Scene gig. It seems to have been lost in the mists of time except for some cool Photos.
Update, thanks to Pink Floyd Researcher - Mark Scobac both the Cashbox and Billboard reviews of Pink Floyd's Scene run have been found and are published for the first time online here:
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The Laughing Madcaps Group is cooperating with famed Poster Artist - Mishka Westell to offer her amazing Syd Barrett poster! There are four versions available: 1) Cream, 2) Silver Foil, 3) Gold Foil, 4) Holographic Foil.
These are 18 x 24″ prints and officially endorsed by the Syd Barrett estate and the Laughing Madcaps group. If you use the following code with your order Miska will be sure to sign your poster:LAUGHING MADCAPS
This is an AMAZING image of our Syd and these posters are in EXTREMELY, EXTREMELY LIMITED QUANTITIES. See the link here:http://mishkawestell.com/shop
BTW, Miska lives in Austin, Texas and is Roky Erickson's Poster Artist. She is famous for that alone.
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![Syd Barrett Crazy Diamond]( "Syd Barrett Crazy Diamond") |
| Syd Barrett Crazy Diamond |
Syd Barrett Crazy Diamond press releases. Check out these EMI Records press release sheets for Crazy Diamond - The Complete Syd Barrett. The first is dated April 14 1993 and is for the release of the 3CD Box Set. The second is dated April 19 1994 and is for the release of the 3 CDs with bonus tracks, which were originally only available with the 3CD Box Set released the year. Both sheets are in very good to excellent condition. ![]() |
| Syd Barrett Crazy Diamond |
This is a 1993 release and out of print in the U.S., and is the Syd's 1993 box set on EMI. Features both of his 1970 solo albums, 'Barrett'& 'The Madcap Laughs', plus the 1989 rarities compilation 'Opel' with 6 additional tracks added to it; 58 tracks total. Came in a 6' x 12' long-box that also contained a 24 page booklet.
Disc: 1 1. Terrapin 2. No Good Trying 3. Love You 4. No Man's Land 5. Dark Globe 6. Here I Go 7. Octopus 8. Golden Hair 9. Long Gone 10. She Took A Long Cold Look 11. Feel 12. If It's In You 13. Late Night 14. Octopus (Takes 1 & 2) 15. It's No Good Trying (Take 5) 16. Love You (Take 1) 17. Love You (Take 3) 18. She Took A Long Cold Look At Me (Take 4) 19. Golden Hair (Take 5)
![Syd Barrett Crazy Diamond]( "Syd Barrett Crazy Diamond") |
| Syd Barrett Crazy Diamond |
Disc: 2 1. Baby Lemonade 2. Love Song 3. Dominoes 4. It Is Obvious 5. Rats 6. Maisie 7. Gigolo Aunt 8. Waving My Arms In The Air 9. I Never Lied To You 10. Wined And Dined 11. Wolfpack 12. Effervescing Elephant 13. Baby Lemonade (Take 1) 14. Waving My Arms In The Air (Take 1) 15. I Never Lied To You (Take 1) 16. Love Song (Take 1) 17. Dominoes (Take 1) 18. Dominoes (Take 2) 19. It's Obvious (Take 2)![Syd Barrett Crazy Diamond]( "Syd Barrett Crazy Diamond") |
| Syd Barrett Crazy Diamond |
Disc: 3 1. Opel 2. Clowns & Jugglers 3. Rats 4. Golden Hair 5. Dolly Rocker 6. Word Song 7. Wined And Dined 8. Swan Lee (Silas Lang) 9. Birdie Hop 10. Let's Split 11. Lanky (Part 1) 12. Wouldn't You Miss Me (Dark Globe) 13. Milky Way 14. Golden Hair 15. Gigolo Aunt (Take 9) 16. It Is Obvious (Take 3) 17. It Is Obvious (Take 5) 18. Clowns & Jugglers (Take 1) 19. Late Night (Take 2) 20. Effervescing Elephant (Take 2)
![Syd Barrett Crazy Diamond]( "Syd Barrett Crazy Diamond") |
| Syd Barrett Crazy Diamond |
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September 1, 2017, 8:18 am
![Roger Waters Israel]( "Roger Waters Israel") |
| Roger Waters Israel |
The Syd Barrett Pink Floyd Blog denounces former Pink Floyd Member, Roger Waters', stand on Israel as inaccurate and anti-Semitic. In as short and simple terms as possible, below is our explanation.
First, the Jewish people require a Homeland. As guest citizens of the many countries where they have lived, they have always greatly contributed to the culture, economy and way of life where they have been citizens. Still, this always hasn't worked out well for them and the Jewish people have been the victims of well-documented persecution throughout the ages.
Comparatively recently, they endured the Holocaust, or Shoah, where Nazi Germany instituted industrial murder of people that they deemed "unworthy". In all, twelve million people were killed including six million Jews, representing most of Europe's Jews and two-thirds of the Jewish population of the world. After years of wholesale murder of their people in Europe, the Jewish people could not continue as "guest citizens" anywhere anymore.![Roger Waters Israel]( "Roger Waters Israel") |
| Roger Waters Israel |
Little by little, survivors of shattered families moved to their spiritual Homeland, Palestine. By 1949, there were enough Jews in Palestine to affect change and form a government. There is a lot of talk today from some that the Jews "stole" the land from the "Palestinians". It should be known that there were no "Palestinians" in 1949. There were Bedouins who roamed the desert. There was no government; Palestine was overseen by the British.
There had been Jews living in Palestine since Biblical times. Many of these sold, or donated, their land to the creation of a Jewish State. There were Arab land owners who were eager to sell, what was considered wasteland, to the effort for the creation of a Jewish State. The British, eager to leave Palestine after Word War II, allocated land to the creation of a Jewish State after a brief armed struggle. Ultimately, the United Nations stepped in a created a Resolution, taking all of the purchased, donated and allocated land, created the Jewish State - Israel. The surrounding Arab countries, the British, the Jews AND the Bedouins (Palestinians) all agreed to UN Resolution.
![Roger Waters Israel]( "Roger Waters Israel") |
| Roger Waters Israel |
Shortly after the agreement of the leaders of all parties concerned, and the UN Resolution, the group that became known as "the Palestinians" pulled out their support. This began the decades long struggle by the Palestinians dedicated to the destruction of the State of Israel. This struggle has been, almost always, expressed with terrorist actions.
In addition to the terrorist activities, there have been several wars including two where all of the Arab countries surrounding Israel attacked and made bold proclamations to "drive the Jews into the sea". In all these wars Israel was victorious and did seize some land. Much of this land was given back, in an effort to secure peace, a small part of the land has been occupied for security purposes. In many of the peace agreements with the surrounding Arab countries, the Arab proponents for peace with Israel were ultimately assassinated by radical elements of their own population.
Recently, there has been another "Land for Peace" deal where Israel gave back land to the Palestinians in return for solemn vows of "peace forever". This land was for a Palestinian Homeland. This hasn't worked out well for Israel. In Gaza, one of the "Land for Peace" areas, in their first democratic elections, the Palestinians threw out the moderates and elected the radical terrorist group Hamas as their "government". This began the years of using the land, given for peace, as a staging area for terrorist attacks and fire rockets into Israel.![Roger Waters Israel]( "Roger Waters Israel") |
| Roger Waters Israel |
In 2005, the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement (and referred to in this post as BDS) was started. Terrorism hadn't been effective for the Palestinians; Israel was stronger than ever. Taking a note from South Africa's anti-apartheid movement, BDS seeks to compare the situation in Israel to South Africa under apartheid. BDS actually disinclines further negotiation between Palestine organizations and Israel while simultaneously hearkening back to anti-Semitic boycotts of Jewish businesses while seeking to de-legitimize Israel.
Roger Waters is a very vocal supporter of BDS. He has used his fame as a platform to shine a favorable light on BDS while talking about Israel, and the Jewish people, in derogatory and sometimes disgusting ways. To date, Roger Waters has called for a boycott of Israel and has even spoken before the United Nations on behalf of BDS. He has put the Star of David on the rear end of his inflatable pig that he flies at concerts. The Star of David is the primary symbol of Judaism and also appears on Israel’s flag. The "pig" can also be seen as derogatory because the Jewish religion refutes the eating of swine. It can even be said that the placement of the Star of David, on the pig's ass, is deliberate.
![Roger Waters Israel]( "Roger Waters Israel") |
| Roger Waters Israel |
In a supreme act of (at the very least) callousness, Roger Waters has repeatedly compared Israel to Germany under the Nazis. To the Jewish people this is, quite understandably, the ultimate insult. Almost all of the Jewish people today have family members who died in the Holocaust; many had entire branches of their families wiped out. The writer of this blog post used to work with a man whose father was the sole surviving member of both sides of his family. To compare Israel to the Nazis is beyond inflammatory and is likening them to the murderers of their people.
It is an absurd comparison too, Arabs and Jews live in the same neighborhoods in Israel and mix freely at the same stores, restaurants, movie theaters and hospitals. Most importantly, there are no government pogroms to round up and systematically murder the Arab population.
The idea that Israel is an apartheid state is a staple of Waters' (and BDS') argument. The comparison to apartheid South Africa is absurd as well. In apartheid South Africa, it controlled every aspect of life there; the school one attended, the work one did, where people lived, hospitals and ambulances were segregated, interracial marriage was forbidden. One could even face arrest for sitting on the wrong park bench.
More than twenty-percent of Israelis are Arab and have full voting rights. Arabs are found in Israel's military and diplomatic corps. Seventeen members of the Israeli Knesset (the Parliament) are Arab as well as one member of the country's Supreme Court. In Israeli hospitals and clinics, Jewish and Arab physicians and nurses work together to provide care equally to all patients. BDS is not stupid, for them to propagate this comparison under "human rights" is both cynical and manipulative. Waters, announces that Israel is an "apartheid state" constantly and ceaselessly but that doesn't make it true; it makes Waters (at the very least) ill-informed.![Roger Waters Israel]( "Roger Waters Israel") |
| Roger Waters Israel |
Roger Waters has made a public spectacle of writing "open" letters to artists and performers scheduled to appear in Israel urging them to back out of their commitment. Most recently, he has gotten into a public skirmish with the British rock group Radiohead. It should be noted that the number of artists and performers who support Israel far outweigh those few who don't. Currently Radiohead, Nick Cave, Fatboy Slim, Robbie Williams, Duran Duran, Tears for Fears, Rod Stewart and The Pixies have confirmed gigs in Israel.
He has commented that other musicians are afraid of the "control" of the Jews in the US. His life's mission is boycotting Israel, but when people try to return the favor and boycott him he then goes into the classic anti-Semitic rant about how the Jews are trying to control everyone.
![Roger Waters Israel]( "Roger Waters Israel") |
| Roger Waters Israel |
Roger Waters has accused Israel of being the worst regime in the world. He falsely accuses Israel of attempted genocide and slaughter. He refuses to acknowledge other countries that are literally gassing their own citizens. He refuses to acknowledge atrocities in the world. Instead he focuses solely and falsely on Israel. It is noteworthy that while he claims that he is not an anti-Semite, and that he only has a problem with Israel, has made a number of anti-Semitic comments.
This writer finds it odd that Waters' father died fighting Fascism and yet he is anti-Israel himself. The destruction of the Jewish people was one of the supreme tenants to the Nazi regime and the State of Israel is living proof of the defeat of Fascism in World War II. This writer's own father fought in WWII (Japanese) and returned home with (undiagnosed) PTSD that affected him for the rest of his life.
This writer heard tales from his Aunts about his Father the avid hunter and hell raiser around town. That's not the man this writer knew. This writer's father was a pacifist who hated guns and violence. He spent a lot of time in his room, didn't like large crowds, couldn't be woken from sleep without screaming.
This writer's dad wholly supported Israel, as did his mother, and they educated this writer about why that support was so important. This writer's parents also educated him about the destruction of the Jewish people at the hands of the Nazis, the need for a Jewish State and that Israel is the living proof of the defeat of the Nazis. To this writer, it's odd that Waters' own father died, fighting the same fight against Fascism, and Waters seems to "deny" something so fundamental about Israel, the Jewish State.![Roger Waters Israel]( "Roger Waters Israel") |
| Roger Waters Israel |
Finally, this writer asks Roger Waters to imagine a line separating the supporters of Israel and the detractors of Israel. Waters should take a look on "his" side of the line and see what company he's keeping. Other of Israel's detractors are "fine" civics organizations like the Ku Klux Klan, the American Nazi Party and the Aryan Nation. One will also find "peaceful and democratic" countries like Iran, Iraq, Yemen, Pakistan and more. Roger Waters will see "upstanding citizens" such as David Duke, American Nazi Leader - Matt Koehl, skinheads, racist and others. Waters should look at the company he's keeping in his quest; they are all cheering him on.
It is this writer's opinion that Roger Waters is, sadly, the dupe of the latest ploy by the Palestinians to take down Israel; the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement. He uses his cultural platform to advance a movement whose own stated ultimate goal is the destruction of the Jewish State. He also uses his support of BDS as a "cloak" while he expresses his own vile and hateful views.
Therefore, this Syd Barrett Pink Floyd blog denounces Roger Waters. Waters is trying to actively "undo" one of the key outcomes, in the defeat of Fascism, of World War II. He is disrespecting the ultimate sacrifice of his own father. Finally, this writer hates that Waters politicized Pink Floyd in this way; it's like smearing a picture of a beautiful sunset with feces.![Bookmark and Share]()
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September 27, 2017, 6:47 am
Listening to Madcap Laughs, I always used to cringe when Lone Gone, leading into the Breakdown Sequence came on. That's most of the second part of the album. Before Opel came out the Jenner tracks were heavily bootlegged. I used to think: "Why didn't *they* include these, far superior, tracks on the album?
Then I started the famous Laughing Madcaps group years ago I began hearing people post about Gilmour and Waters "sabotaging" Syd's effort. Think about it, Pink Floyd was hardly a household name back then and they had been mired in doing soundtrack work and were further mired in making that, love it or hate it, opus of excess, Ummagumma. I'll tell you this, because I remember, Ummagumma ended up RIGHT in the "cut out" bin when it came out.
I maintain that in the immediate years after Syd was ousted from his own band that he was a much superior creative force to "Pink Floyd". This means that he was writing and recording better songs than them.
I think that the Peter Jenner produced tracks from 1968 are waaaaaaaay better than any of the non-Syd stuff from Saucerful or that hodge-podge LP More. Some of that non-Syd stuff on Saucerful is pretty hard on the ears while More sounds like them farting around in the studio. Some of the tracks are pretty weak too like that drumming track. I wonder whose idea it was to put a tribal drumming track onto the album? Somebody who might have heard Rhamadan? The tracks are waaaaay too similar.
Then we get to that turd of an album called Ummagumma. The first disc is nothing but live Syd covers; them milking the previous era for all it was worth. The second disc is pretty fucking weak.
To compare this weak studio shit from what Syd was doing in the studio for Madcaps Laughs is to compare a yearling stallion to a worn out old plow horse. The Madcap stuff is miles and miles and miles better than the Ummashitta stuff!
Here's mad Syd writing these fantastic songs and acting like he could give a fuck. What better way to "make sure" that his solo effort doesn't eclipse the band's? Put the Breakdown Sequence in! And both Gilmour and Waters stating that they did it to show the "truth" of Syd's condition and "show how it was" making the album lend credence to that theory. WHO does such a thing when making an album? One wants to put out THE BEST effort, the BEST STUFF. So, by their own admission, Waters and Gilmour DID sabotage Madcap Laughs.
You know what? I think Pink Floyd knew it too! That's why Waters wanted to "help" with the mix and ignored monumental finished tracks, right at the mixing console, to hastily record and release demoish sounding tracks that hurt Syd's image. Maybe that's why Syd hated Waters so. He ruined his album and cemented his image as a crazy fuck up.
What did Pink Floyd have at this time that was better than Syd? organization. Pink Floyd had organization. They were more organized. Syd didn't help his cause by walking away from Peter Jenner in 1968. He didn't help his cause in the recording of Madcap. He didn't take things seriously. Pink Floyd, with their superior organization, did.
But all factors taken into account, Syd was outperforming and out-producing Pink Floyd in 1968 - 1969. So Waters needed to throw a monkey wrench into things. But Syd could have prevented that by being more organized.
If Madcap Laughs had come out with the below revisions, I think that it would have been much better received.
Replace:She Took a Long Cold Look 1:55Feel 2:17If It's in You 2:26
with:Opel 6:26Swan Lee (Silas Lang) 3:13And if one wanted to make the album even stronger, replace:Long Gone 2:50with:Lanky (part 1) 5:32
So, the revised Madcap Laughs tracklist would be:1. Terrapin2. No Good Trying3. Love You4. No Man's Land5. Dark Globe6. Here I Go7. Octopus8. Golden Hair9. Opel10. Swan Lee11. Lanky (part 1)12. Late Night
Tracklist of what came out:1. Terrapin2. No Good Trying3. Love You4. No Man's Land5. Dark Globe6. Here I Go7. Octopus8. Golden Hair9. Long Gone10. She Took a Long Cold Look11. Feel12. If it's In You13. Late Night
Find a link to a Revised Madcap Laughs Spotify playlist HERE.
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Syd Barrett Concert Recollection: 1967-11-25 Blackpool Opera House (early show) by Simon Phillips
![Syd Barrett Concert]( "Syd Barrett Concert") |
| Syd Barrett Concert |
I was 15 in 1967 and very much into the Beatles and the Yardbirds. Living in Lancashire, I had no access to anything that was happening in 'Swinging London'. There was no internet (of course) so we relied on pirate radio and the weekly music papers for our news. I think I heard Arnold Layne on the radio pretty much around the same time I first read of Pink Floyd. I liked it immediately - firstly it was pretty 'catchy'; and secondly it seemed like a progression from what the Yardbirds were doing.
At around the same time, they appeared on TV twice within about a week. I missed their first appearance (Scene Special?) but my friends at school were talking about it. I was annoyed to have missed it but tuned in over the next few nights and, sure enough, they were on again (I don't recall what this would have been).![Syd Barrett Concert]( "Syd Barrett Concert") |
| Syd Barrett Concert |
The music press continued to run articles on them over the following months and I duly bought Emily (which I loved) and Piper. I still recall playing Piper for the first time on the day of its release - the music was far beyond anything I was expecting or had even heard at that time, and I played Interstellar Overdrive over and over, following each instrument as best I could. This is still my favourite version. I missed their Top Of The Pops 'Emily' appearances as we were on a family trip to Italy at the time.
![Syd Barrett Concert]( "Syd Barrett Concert") |
| Syd Barrett Concert |
When the Hendrix/Move/Floyd tour was announced, they were coming to Blackpool, 15 miles from where I lived. Tickets were (if I remember correctly) 4 shillings and 6 pence (which is 22.5 pence, or 1/5th of a £, in current money). My parents were OK with me going with a couple of friends so long as it was to the early show (thankfully, as it turned out, from the Hendrix point of view). The bus journey was about an hour.
We got to the Opera House around 6pm. It was an old Victorian theatre, with Stalls, a Circle (which curved round to where one might usually find boxes towards side-stage) and an Upper Circle. We were in the centre stalls, about 12-18 rows back from the stage. The stage itself was a bit of a mess with the equipment of several bands all set up - drums and amplifiers, loads of them, in two rows.![Syd Barrett Concert]( "Syd Barrett Concert") |
| Syd Barrett Concert |
When the show started, the venue was still only about half full and the compere invited those in the Upper Circle to come down into the stalls, presumably a) so they could turn off the heating upstairs, and b) to make the place look fuller (imagine…this was Hendrix and the Floyd playing for peanuts!!!!!)
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| Syd Barrett Concert |
As I recall, the bottom-of-the-bill acts got about 5-10 minutes each. I think The Nice did maybe three numbers (one of which was 'America'). Just before Pink Floyd came on, a huge long white sheet was draped across the rows of amplifiers. The compere (Pete Drummond?) introduced them as being “fresh from wooing the hippie emporiums on America’s West Coast”). They came on in darkness and did about 20 minutes.
They wore exactly the same clothes as they do in the photographs of them cutting a cake and drinking champagne, except that Syd wore the hat that Nick has on in the photographs. I know this because I saw the photograph only a short time later in one of the music papers and the show was still very fresh in my mind. They definitely did Set The Controls and Interstellar Overdrive.![Syd Barrett Concert]( "Syd Barrett Concert") |
| Syd Barrett Concert |
I kept a scrapbook of news cuttings at the time and remember writing down Stethoscope as being the other song but, with hindsight, it was more likely to have been Pow R Toch H (I was still a bit unsure about some of the album’s song titles and often got those two mixed up). [All set lists that I’ve seen for this date have the early and late shows the wrong way round].
We (or, at any rate, I) had no idea of Syd’s struggles at the time and I can say that, at that show, it was definitely him and he seemed in good form as he and Rick led the band through a dazzling Interstellar Overdrive. I can still close my eyes and picture him, 20-30 feet away, hat on, head down over his guitar (which I picture as being his mirrored Esquire.... I may be wrong).
![Syd Barrett Concert]( "Syd Barrett Concert") |
| Syd Barrett Concert |
The light show was of the liquid oil type played onto the band and onto the white sheet behind them. They also had a strobe low down at the front which projected their silhouettes high up onto the backdrop of the stage (the stage curtains in the Hendrix footage from the show weren’t closed at all other than for Hendrix).
The sound was loud but clear and each instrument could be distinguished. The combination of light and sound was exactly what I hoped it would be from the reviews I'd read of their London shows. I was mesmerised but all too soon it was over.
Afterwards, the Move did about 20 minutes at deafening volume, and then Hendrix did about 50 minutes. Just before he came on, they closed the stage curtains thus blocking out all the other amplifiers on stage. We'd seen a camera up in the right-hand side of the Circle. There was now someone filming him (no, the camera was definitely not used during the Floyd's set) and two of the songs are now up on Youtube. The following week, I read in the local paper that, playing to a half-full house in the late show, Hendrix said “this ain’t my scene, man” and walked off stage after 10 minutes.
After the show, we had about an hour to kill before our bus home. We slipped into a pub for one pint (very nervously as we were under-age) and then walked along the promenade. We saw a very dirty and dusty Ford Transit van parked up outside a club. It was covered in graffiti written in the dust, amongst which were references to Pink Floyd so we looked in the cab and, wow, Rick Wright was sitting behind the wheel in his stage gear.![Syd Barrett Concert]( "Syd Barrett Concert") |
| Syd Barrett Concert |
We tapped on the window and said we’d been to the show. We all got his autograph and asked where Syd was. He pointed into the club (no way we could blag our way in there). We chatted to him for a couple of minutes and went for our bus. And that was it really. I was so shocked when, a few weeks/months later, it was announced that Syd was out of the band.
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December 17, 2017, 9:58 am
![Five Man Pink Floyd]( "Five Man Pink Floyd") |
| Five Man Pink Floyd |
Everybody is familiar with Syd Barrett's descent into madness and departure from Pink Floyd. This post focuses on the brief time that he was still in the band with David Gilmour. The Five Man Pink Floyd couldn't continue because Syd was so ill and we were not worthy.
Coming back from a disastrous American tour, Pink Floyd embarked on an almost equally disastrous package tour with the Jimi Hendrix Experience. It was the last straw for poor Syd. There is a photo of him sitting dejected right behind the amps while Jimi Hendrix makes music history on the stage.
Syd's last gig, as the leader of Pink Floyd, was at an event called Christmas on Earth. It was an attempt to re-create the vibe of the 14 Hour Technicolour Dream earlier that spring.
![Five Man Pink Floyd]( "Five Man Pink Floyd") |
| Five Man Pink Floyd |
Here is an account of that from June Bolan:"The last gig Syd played was at the Christmas on Earth gig. We found Syd in the dressing room and he was so....gone. Roger waters and I got him to his feet and onto the stage. He had a white Stratocaster and we put it around his neck and he walked onstage. The band started to play and Syd just stood there. He had his guitar around his neck and his arms just hanging down and I was in the wings wondering what to do. Suddenly he put his hands on the guitar and we thought, 'Great, he's actually going to do it!' But he just stood there, he just stood there tripping out of his mind.”
Andrew King says about the same night:"There was little communication between Syd and the rest of the band. It’s hard to manage a band in that state. Could you have a conversation with him? Yeah, he seemed withdrawn but a lot of the time he was fine. The band – everyone – felt, how can we go on like this? I’m sure Syd did too. Unreliability was an element but there was more to it. They were totally directionless. I don’t think they’ve ever played worse. The rest of the band just gritted their teeth, stood there for an hour and sort of played their instruments."
![Five Man Pink Floyd]( "Five Man Pink Floyd") |
| Five Man Pink Floyd |
He continues:"The organisers just got the event wrong. There was no reason why it shouldn’t have sold out. It was too much of an imitation of the 14-Hour Technicolour Dream and events like that. There had been too many of them. Every time you opened Melody Maker, there were adverts for this Happening and that Freakout. It got like that with raves and dance music in the last few years. Some of them did well and some went down the tubes.”
It was at this gig that Nick Mason approached David Gilmour and asked him if he would be interested in joining the band. Nick said things were getting "pretty desperate".
Shortly after that, the phone rang, “I would be the front-man, on stage, “ Gilmour says in a DVD. “But it wasn’t really workable. The notion passed by very quickly. In fact, I think there were only five gigs, as I remember it, where there was the five of us played together. Then we ceased to go pick him up.”
Check out an interview with Gilmour about that here:
“I was 21, and one is fairly ambitious,” Gilmour says in an unedited bonus interview on the Pink Floyd and Syd Barrett Story DVD.
“You want to get on with stuff. That sort of offer is a very hard one to turn down. And, logically speaking, it wasn’t working. Syd was not performing at all on stage. It was kind of tragic.
"I don’t suppose I saw any option, but to just do the best that I could. I’m sure we were all full of some sort of guilt, and remained that way for a long time.”
Gilmour was incorporated into the band during three days of rehearsals in a West London school hall in January 1968. This was where Syd attempted to teach the band a new song called Have You Got It Yet? Each time the song reached the chorus, Syd would change the song, so the band could never get it. As a piece of performance art or comedy, it was rather clever.
"It was an open page," Gilmour says. "My initial ambition was just to get the band into some sort of shape. It seems ridiculous now, but I thought the band was awfully bad at the time when I joined. The gigs I'd seen with Syd were incredibly undisciplined. The leader figure was falling apart, and so was the band."
The band’s first performance as a five-piece was Aston University, on January 12th. It appears that Syd knew what was up and didn't like it. Barrett went and stood onstage right in front of Gilmour, seemingly oblivious to the fact that they were in the middle of playing a show. Syd then began walking around Gilmour, his childhood friend, like a panther, “as if checking that Dave was a three dimensional object” in the words of Floyd roadie Iain “Emo” Moore, checking “that he was real. It was as if Syd was thinking: Am I dreaming this?”
"There were jolly moments," Gilmour said in the Barrett biography. "Two or three of us in a row including Syd, doing a jig in a dressing room before going on stage."
Gilmour says, "It was tragic, really. There were five gigs we did together. We've got a bit of film of Syd in a dressing room somewhere at one of those gigs, and he dances this little jig, a little dance, and he's all smiling and laughing. But you look at him and go: 'Oh God, no, tragic.' Poor chap. I can't remember much about it. I was brand new and I think they knew I'd be taking over."
Following that, they played
- Weston Super Mare 13 Jan
- Lewes Sussex 19 Jan
- Hastings Sussex 20 Jan
![Five Man Pink Floyd]( "Five Man Pink Floyd") |
| Five Man Pink Floyd |
The Lewes' gig has some documentation about it. The concert was staged as a fund-raiser for Lewes Football Club with the profits going towards buying the first-ever floodlights at The Dripping Pan. Music enthusiast Norman Ashdown, who was on the club’s management committee, thought bringing big name bands to Lewes would make money. As well as thinking up the idea, he did all the legwork, from booking the groups and the Town Hall to organizing the publicity and bar. Pink Floyd were not actually Norman’s first choice. He first tried for Jimi Hendrix but found the £700 asking price too high. Instead he got Floyd for £500.
Norman’s son Mark was seventeen in 1968. “Because my dad was the Promoter, I remember being allowed backstage in the dressing rooms. I got to sit next to Rick Wright on his keyboards but all I could manage to play was chopsticks. They were a really nice bunch of guys”.
To around five hundred people, the band played two forty-five minute sets including tracks from "Piper at the Gates of Dawn”. The set included “Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun”, “Flaming” and “Interstellar Overdrive”. And when the band started “Careful with that axe Eugene” (probably Pow Toc H) everyone was asked to sit down on the floor and watch the light show. “It was amazing.” remembers Mark “Almost like meditation.”
![Five Man Pink Floyd]( "Five Man Pink Floyd") |
| Five Man Pink Floyd |
After the Hastings show, the next show, at Southampton University on January 26th, was the one Syd was not picked up for. According to Gilmour in a 1995 interview with Guitar World, "One person in the car said, 'Shall we pick Syd up?' and another person said, 'Let’s not bother.'” However, they neglected to tell Syd his services were no longer needed in the band he created. The gig went so well, they didn’t call for him the next night either.
There was one gig on that UK tour however when Barrett did turn up, according to roadie Emo. He was already there when the band set up the gear onstage. Barrett sat at the side, waiting for the show to begin. It wasn’t until Floyd took the stage without him that it sunk in that there was someone else playing his part.
![Five Man Pink Floyd]( "Five Man Pink Floyd") |
| Five Man Pink Floyd |
The 1968 album A Saucerful of Secrets was the last collaborative effort between all five members and the recording only featured one wholly self-composed track by Barrett. According to an interview with Gilmour on the 2006 documentary Which One's Pink?, the studio version of the song contained minor guitar work both from Gilmour and Barrett, making "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun" the only Pink Floyd song that features all five band members, though some listeners may not fully discern the guitar tracks as Gilmour's guitar is played through an amplifier that makes it blend in with Richard Wright's keyboards and organs, and Barrett's guitar effects first sound like groaning, then seagulls.
Much later, asked about leaving Pink Floyd, Syd said,"It wasn't really a war. I suppose it was really just a matter of being a little offhand about things. We didn't feel there was one thing which was gonna make the decision at the minute. I mean, we did split up, and there was a lot of trouble. I don't think The Pink Floyd had any trouble, but I had an awful scene, probably self-inflicted, having a mini and going all over England and things. Still..."
June Bolan said later,"I think it's indicative of 'fame'-it could be just one record, something like 'See Emily Play,' and your first 'Top of the Pops'-and then things change," she says. "Before, they were four people who'd grown up together, or gone to college together. It became separate camps of people: your smokers and dopers, and your drinkers."
And affirms, "Once Syd lost his grip, they were really wicked to him. With Syd behaving like a complete cretin, they would send him up on long car journeys where you're all stuck in one vehicle, and there's nowhere to go because you've got to end up at the gig. Perhaps had they been kinder, in those early days of his breakdown or cracking up or whatever you want to call it, he may not have been hit so hard by it all. But that is speculation. It may have happened anyway, in exactly the same way, or it may not have happened so badly-but I do feel that they were horrider to him than they need to have been."
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