A Very Irregular Head. The Life of Syd Barrett by Rob Chapman

Author:Rob Chapman [Chapman, Rob]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Crónica, Arte, Memorias
Publisher: ePubLibre
Published: 2009-12-31T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Six

We’ll Stray Our Pieces

“It’s been quite a long time since you did any poetry”, he remarked. “You might as well have a try this evening, instead of —well, brooding over things so much. I’ve an idea you’ll feel better when you’ve got something jotted down —if it’s only just the rhymes”.

The Wind in the Willows KENNETH GRAHAME

What does it do to a man when he is effectively jettisoned from his own band, and abruptly cut adrift from his creativity? Robert Wyatt’s wife, Alfie, once told me that Wyatt, who endured a similar “did he leave or was he pushed” exit from Soft Machine, had his confidence and sense of direction so severely affected that years after the event that he had dreams where he was playing badly on stage while Miles Davis stood sneering in the wings.

And what does it do to a man, when the circumstances of his leaving are so ill thought-out and executed and when his band mates are so Englishly inept at discussing the matter in detail that they simply go and play gigs without him, leaving the matter to resolve itself? “It got really embarrassing”, says Rick Wright, who was at the time sharing a flat in Richmond with Syd and was his principal confidant and kindred spirit. “I had to say things like ‘Syd I’m going out to buy a packet of cigarettes’ and then go off and play a gig. Of course, he worked out eventually what was going on”.

Well, yes, he would, wouldn’t he? Probably around the time when the band went off and played a short European tour without him. To this day no one in or associated with the band can agree on exactly when Syd ceased to be a functioning member. Anecdotal evidence has settled on those four January gigs played as a five-piece before the band “stopped picking Syd up”, but, leaving aside the small detail of the subterfuge necessary in order to slip out and play a gig when you are sharing a flat with a fellow band member, there is also contradictory evidence as to just how quick and clean —or conversely how prolonged and messy— the break was. “Nick Mason has a bit of super-8 film of Syd with some of the rest of us, tap-dancing in a dressing room at one of the gigs that we did as a five-piece”, remembers David Gilmour. “There were jolly moments. It’s happy tapping —two or three of us in a row including Syd doing a jig in a dressing room before going on stage in, I think, Weston-super-Mare”.

Subsequent to the split there are stories of Syd turning up, guitar in hand, ready to play at numerous gigs and recording sessions throughout the early months of 1968. There are, equally, contradictory accounts of just how many tracks he contributed to on the second Pink Floyd LP, the recording of which was completed in April 1968, the month his departure was officially announced.

While they were on their short European tour in February the new line-up made a series of promotional films for Belgian TV.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.