Syd Barrett On Bbc2 Tonight

Crazy clothes and acid full of soul and crazy hip…

The long-awaited Omnibus documentary ‘Syd Barrett – Crazy Diamond’ is to be screened on BBC2 this evening at 19:25 (GMT). (Sorry about the short notice…got lost in Syd stuff) The fifty minute programme features contributions from former Pink Floyd colleagues such as Roger Waters who had this to say about ‘Shine On You Crazy Diamond’, the Floyd tribute to Syd from the album ‘Wish You Were Here’:

“When I’m singing ‘Shine On’, Syd’s right there all the time…the song is just absolutely about him. It describes how I experienced his disintegration.”

Mick Rock also witnessed this “disintegration” during his time with Syd around the late Sixties and the start of the Seventies, when Mick produced the stunning shots for the first solo Barrett album ‘The Madcap Laughs’, released in January 1970. The shot above is an outtake from that session. It was Mick who conducted the last ever interview with Syd for Rolling Stone magazine in 1971.

All of Mick’s pictures of Syd, and indeed the full transcript of that interview, can be found in a new book, ‘PSYCHEDELIC RENEGADES’ released next year through Genesis Publications. There is a beautifully produced version of the book that is actually signed by Syd himself…his first public act since the release of his last solo album. But if you’re interested, I suggest you reserve a copy fast…these volumes are bound to be snapped up in no time at all. Watch for contributions from Mick tonight.

Of course, David Bowie himself has never made secret his admiration for Syd Barrett. Apart from being the proud owner of the picture above, painted by his old friend George Underwood, David recorded a wonderfully unhinged version of the Barrett-penned Pink Floyd classic, ‘See Emily Play’, for his 1973 album, ‘PinUps’.

He has hinted more than once that Syd was one of the many ingredients that helped in the creation of Ziggy. This was his reaction to seeing Barrett live in London:

“Syd Barrett with his white white face and his black eyeliner all around his eyes – this strange presence singing in front of a band that was using light shows. I thought, ‘Wow! He’s a bohemian, a poet, and he’s in a rock band!”

So nip over to BBC2 shortly for one of the saddest Rock ‘n’ Roll tales of unfulfilled promise there ever was.