Syd Barrett & Pink Floyd by Julian Palacios

Author:Julian Palacios [Julian Palacios]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780859658829
Publisher: Plexus Publishing Ltd.
Published: 2015-04-13T04:00:00+00:00

On 1 June, EMI released The Beatles’ Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. As Pink Floyd recorded, the Beatles spent seven hundred studio hours forming their psych-pomp epic in the adjacent Studio Two. Wright had a clear recollection of them arranging ‘A Day in the Life’ section by section. Within days, ‘Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds’ and ‘With a Little Help from My Friends’ resounded from Ladbroke Grove to Haight-Ashbury and all points between.

Pink Floyd took a precious few days off, and threw a party at Edbrooke Road, blasting a pre-release copy from EMI, windows propped open with speakers. June Child recalled with fondness, ‘Unbelievable, the whole house was full, everybody rolling joints. I didn’t smoke, so I just used to roll and I was a wonderful joint roller. I’d sit and roll and keep passing them. None of us had any money, you didn’t go to grand dinner parties but you made many dinners. Everybody would bring cheap plonk and instruments and you’d have a wonderful night.’

In a bitter twist, Hoppy, the birdlike underground impresario behind so many ventures, was jailed the day Sgt Pepper’s was released. IT lamented: ‘The man who drives our UFO is in the hands of the enemy.’ Hoppy spent the much-vaunted ‘Summer of Love’ in prison, where Sgt Pepper’s being played on the radio kept his hopes up during nine months inside. Hoppy’s absence had a distinct dampening effect on the scene. Hoppy embodied the freewheeling sprit of the underground, and was its prime catalyst. In his unobtrusive manner, Hoppy had directed the flow and maintained peace on many a night at events around London during the past two years. He walked into rooms and sparkled with ideas. The Free School, All Saint’s, UFO, 14 Hour Technicolor Dream and IT – all events which, without Hoppy, would not have developed any further than stoned talk. Smoking hash generated ideas, but often robbed one’s capacities for realising them. Hoppy, a notable exception, remarked to author Jonathon Green: ‘There’s something about England I’ve never fathomed, but I’m sure is true: if you’ve got the bottle to go out and do something, anything, it’s like a magnet.’

As a magnet, Hoppy attracted the underground and establishment alike. Hoppy said, ‘A slogan we had, which isn’t true, was “There are no leaders.” Of course there are!’ Hoppy was one. His imprisonment did not bode well for the underground. The psychedelic movement, blooming in volatile colour, showed a touch of withering. Steve Abrams, of SOMA, a lobby for decriminalising cannabis, said, ‘When Hoppy’s trial came up, he insisted on pleading “not guilty” though he had no defence. He had a previous conviction for possession of cannabis but insisted on a jury trial, risking a longer sentence. Hoppy completed a classical recipe for self-imprisonment by lecturing the court on the need to legalise cannabis.’

Sentencing him to nine months imprisonment, Deputy Chairman of Inner London Sessions, A. Gordon Friend, said, ‘I have just heard what your views are on possession of cannabis and smoking of it.

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