All language subtitles for Have You Got It Yet The Story Of Syd Barrett And Pink Floyd 2023 WEB-DL H264

(DISTANT CHURCH BELLS RING)

NARRATOR:
'Fame requires every kind of excess.

I mean, true fame.

A devouring neon.

Long journeys across grey space.

Danger.

The edge of every void.

Understand the man who must inhabit
these extreme regions.

Even if half-mad, he is absorbed
into the public's total madness.

Even if fully rational,
a bureaucrat in Hell,

a secret genius of survival,

he is sure to be destroyed by
the public's contempt for survivors.'

MALE INTERVIEWER: What are you
working on at the moment

inside yourself?

SYD BARRETT: I can't really say.

Maybe this would be very valuable,
this break,

to try painting again after
a break of going into pop music.

I don't know.

If I wanted to say nothing,

or if I want to act
in an extraordinary way,

then I feel that
that, too, is justified.

(BIRDS CHIRPING)

NEWSCASTER: Syd Barrett, one of
the founding members of Pink Floyd,

has died at the age of 60.

A statement from the band
described him as "a guiding light

who leaves a legacy
which continues to inspire".

He left the Pink Floyd in 1968

and lived as a recluse in Cambridge

for three decades.

(BIRDS CHIRPING)

# PINK FLOYD:
Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Pts. 1-5)

# (WISTFUL INSTRUMENTAL INTRO)

MALE INTERVIEWER:
How would you describe now,

in your maturity...

(CHUCKLES WRILY) Thank you.

..his contribution to Pink Floyd?

ROGER WATERS: Well, it wouldn't have
existed, if it hadn't been for Syd.

We would have been one of those
thousands and thousands of bands

who come up and they play blues
and Louie Louie.

They might write the odd crappy song

and then they disappear, you know?

They get proper jobs
and that's the end of it.

# PINK FLOYD: Shine On You Crazy
Diamond (Pts. 1-5)

MAN: I discovered Pink Floyd's music

through the music they made
in the late '70s.

For people that got into Pink Floyd
at that point

and were listening
to those records first

and they knew that there had been
this guy Syd in the band,

the story was always, "Oh,
he went mad and left the group."

That's all we knew about it.

# (TRACK CONTINUES)

MAN: There was religious acid-taking
at that time.

Syd was one of the sort of saints

of that underground cult.

MAN: Literature - the Bible,
for example - is full of people

who deliberately
isolated themselves,

the hermits
who went into the desert.

People who had visions,

who preferred to be on their own,

and others
who, having those experiences,

were determined
to preach to the multitude.

(BIRDS CHIRPING)

The romantic ideal is

that a creative person is drawn
by something so powerful

that he or she will follow that

regardless of the price
that has to be paid.

These people are out there in front.

They're not looking
over their shoulder.

They're just gonna do it.

YOUNG MAN:
Syd is the ultimate kind of loner.

It's the same a little bit
with Brian Jones, or something.

# (WISTFUL ELECTRIC-GUITAR SOLO)

(WHOOSH)

MAN: I suppose what is sad
is about somebody

who is still extremely relevant

just decides to stop.

It's OK when someone
carries on into irrelevance

and then stops. No-one cares.

The last thing he was interested in

was explaining himself

and, consequently,
he became a figure

of intense, focused interest,

because there was a mystery there.

MAN: He is the perfect god, you see.

A god must actually
be killed and eaten,

but then he must be reborn.

# (EMOTIVE ELECTRIC-GUITAR RIFF)

# (PERCUSSION BUILDS)

# (ORCHESTRATION SWELLS)

'The life of Syd Barrett,

founding member of Pink Floyd,

is full of unanswered questions.

Though he named the group
and wrote their first two hit songs,

Barrett was later pushed out
of the band by its members,

who were convinced he was having
an LSD-induced psychotic breakdown.'

(FILM REEL WHIRS)

'But to examine
the complex story of Syd Barrett,

one needs to take a trip.'

(PANTING)

'A trip back
to the picturesque and historic

English university town
of Cambridge.'

# SYD BARRETT: Dominoes
(ACOUSTIC-GUITAR INTRO)

# It's an idea someday

# In my tears, my dreams

# Don't you want to see her proof?

# Life that comes of no harm

# You and I

# You and I and dominoes

# The day goes by...

'Roger Keith Barrett
was born in Cambridge

on January 6 1946,

one of five children,

closest to his sister Rosemary.'

He was always wanting
the next bit of fun...

..and if it didn't arrive,
then he'd make it.

I can remember once,
at the dinner table,

when he had a little bit of cabbage

sticking out of his mouth,

and he knew it was there

and he kept it there
for the whole meal

and pretended he didn't know.

Of course, everybody was giggling,
because it just...

His face was, "I know it's there,

I know you're laughing at me
but I'm going to ignore it."

# Life that comes... #

'Barrett's father,
a pathologist and avid botanist,

encouraged the artistic leanings
of his son,

who loved to write and draw.

By the age of 13 or 14,

Roger had acquired the nickname "Syd"

from his friends at school,

as legend has it, after a local jazz
bass player, Syd "the Beat" Barrett.

At home, he remained Roger or Rog.'

# PINK FLOYD: Butterfly

I'm speaking at this level.
I'm speaking at this level.

MAN: OK. This is er...Slate 3.

I believe Storm's interview
is at 8:10.Big clap.

My name is Storm.

I knew Syd
in the early '60s.

We were both
at the same school

as Roger and Dave,
who became Pink Floyd, obviously.

The peer group in Cambridge
that Syd was part of

was full of aspiring artists.

Not businessmen, not medical,

not lawyers.

Syd was not unusual and seemed
to be, as it were, one of the gang.

The group evolved
by itself.

Nobody was really
the leader.

The centres of Seamus and Storm

was simply because their mothers
were very indulgent

towards teenage boys.

STORM: The start came
at Cherry Hinton Road

and your
mother's house.

I tended
to be into...

beer and jazz and students

and your lot were more into drugs
and rock music and cool people.

I deny it totally!

I went
to the county high school,

Cambridgeshire
High School for Boys,

and was in the same year as Syd.

We had to choose
between woodwork, metalwork and art,

so I went into the art class

and there discovered
a bunch of people who were useless,

a teacher
who was equally useless,

but one student,
by the name of Roger Barrett,

had a flair way beyond his years.

'The Christmas holiday of 1961

was overshadowed
by his father's death from cancer

just a month
before Syd's 16th birthday.

Syd's family moves to 183 Hills Road.

Libby Gausden
lives several houses up the street.'

I met Syd
I think in 1961.

We'd have both been 15.

STORM:
Where did you meet?

I met him
at Jesus Green,

which is a wonderful place
in Cambridge.

I'd been swimming and diving,
actually, with Dave Gilmour,

and after the swimming,
I came out with some friends

and we were messing about

on the see-saw outside,
and I met Syd there.

He was kind,
he was gentle, he was generous.

He liked buying presents.

He wrote to me all the time.

STORM: I had always thought of you
as Syd's first major girlfriend.

We were always together.When
you went out with him, how was he?

It always looked like
he was full of the joys of spring,

which he was.

# (ELECTRIC GUITAR
PLAYS)

STORM: Let's go back,
way back

to the early '60s.

What is your sort of
abiding memory of Syd?

Erm, just a guy
who was fiercely intelligent

and loads of fun.

Life was just too easy for him,
really, in a way.

He had huge gifts

which were natural to him,
so he didn't see them as huge.

Everything he turned his hand to
worked.

The girls worked, the painting
worked, the music worked,

the friendships worked.

STORM: I always remember Syd's hair.
MAN: Do you?Yeah.

Curly, black...
Yeah.

Lovely - and I also
remember his walk.

He smelt nice.

Sorry?
He smelt nice. (CHUCKLES)

You could see
this extraordinary buoyancy,

which was most clearly evidenced
in the way he walked.

He walked with a bounce. He walked
on the front of his feet

with his heels off the ground
all the time.

You could spot him several
hundred yards away in Cambridge

wandering up the street.

We used to go
on my Vespa

down to Hills Road

for Sunday-afternoon
jam sessions,

where I saw Syd playing guitar

for the first time.

# PINK FLOYD: Butterfly
(Intro guitar chords)

The music side
of the story
really begins

with Geoff Mott
And The Mottoes,

of which Syd was
an august member.

I remember
when Syd bought his first Futurama.

It was bright red, as I recall,

and he used to learn
Duane Eddy things on it,

like Walk Don't Run.

# PINK FLOYD: Double O Bo

WATERS: We'd started to go to shows
in London

and I remember sitting on the train

having seen Gene Vincent.

We sat there with a piece of paper

and figured out the amplification

for the band that we were gonna be,

and it had, like,
two Vox AC30s drawn on it

and we were going,

"Well, the vocals and the bass,

and then this
can go through this one.

The rhythm guitar...
Will we have a keyboard?"

"Mm... Don't know - maybe."

# SYD BARRETT: Effervescing Elephant
He used to appear at parties,

of which we had quite a lot of
in Cambridge at that time...

(INSECTS CHIRRUP)
# An effervescing elephant

# With tiny eyes
and great big trunk

# Once whispered to the tiny ear

# The ear of one inferior

# That by next June he'd die
Oh yeah

# Because the tiger would...

..and he used to play
a lot of the songs

that later became
songs on his album,

but because he was just,
as it were, one of the gang,

I don't think anybody
thought anything about him.

# ..one of you

# I much prefer something to chew

# And you're all too scant
Oh yeah

# He ate the elephant #

(INSECTS CHIRRUP)

He had this grin
that you could mistake for a smirk,

but it wasn't -
it was almost

like he knew something
you didn't know.

He was one
of those people

that was part of the crowd,
very much so,

and then, the next minute,
he'd slipped away from a room

and it'd be, "Where's Syd?"
Nobody knows.

(HUM OF CONVERSATION)

# PINK FLOYD: Remember Me
(Punchy opening chords)

'Syd's enthusiasm for painting

sees him enrol at
the Cambridge School of Art in 1962.

Simultaneously,
he discovers Beat poetry,

Kerouac and rhythm and blues.

He gets into The Beatles and sees
the Rolling Stones in concert.'

He drew very often

with a lovely kind
of whirly, twirly drawing quality.

Very refined line, I would say.

He seemed to me a born painter

and to have, really,
the temperament of a born painter -

slightly recessive
and contemplative.

I'd taken up painting.

David Gale suggested
that we have an exhibition together.

It is our first venture
into commercial art.

A total failure -
STORM: Did you sell anything?

No, we sold nothing.

We used to have jam sessions
with the guitar

in the art school

and later, joined by Dave,

in the common room
to the whole technical college.

GILMOUR: We loved Beatles and Stones

and the blues stuff - Chuck and Bo.

I can remember learning Come On...
STORM: Stones?

..by the Stones, and Off The Hook.

I can see in my mind
the back bench

against one of the walls

and people sitting there
at, probably, ten the morning

and just strumming away.

# Remember me
# (FAST-PACED BLUES GUITAR)

STORM: Do you remember whether
you were impressed by his paintings

or by his personality?I was more
impressed by his personality.

He just looked like somebody
who was going places.

He was quite a star in our small
firmament, as it was at the time.

# Don't go away now

# Come and stick around some more #

He was very unusual,
very interesting.

STORM: "The complete package",
I believe you'd say?

The complete package.

STORM: Jenny, dear,

when did you
first meet Syd

and how was he?

I met him
in the Cambridge
Student Union Cellars

and he was playing with a band
called Those Without.

He came up and said hello,

introduced himself.When did
you start going steady, as it were?

Well, a week later,
a week after that,

he phoned me and said

he would like to meet up
and have coffee,

so I met him in the Guild,

and he wrote to me and said

that he'd drawn a picture of me
leaning against the bar

and he sent this picture

with a beautiful piece
of pink tissue paper written on it,

"I love you, I love you, I love you.

I can't stop thinking about you."

# SYD BARRETT: Feel

# How I love you to be by my side

# They wail #

# (ACOUSTIC-GUITAR CHORDS)

STORM: And how long
did you go out with him?

GAUSDEN: I probably saw
him nearly every day

from '61 to '63.

I think he went to art school
in London...'64,

so that was a bit of a messy year.

# Listen all you girlies

# Even though I haven't met you

# Gonna catch you...

'In September 1964,
Syd moves to London.'

# You'd better watch out #

In 1960-whatever it was,

he duly arrived
and he moved into the apartment

that I was already sharing

with Nick Mason and Rick Wright.

STORM: Mike Leonard's place?
Mike Leonard's place.

We were Leonard's Lodgers.

# PINK FLOYD: Lucy Leave

WATERS: Bob Klose was in the band.

As soon as Syd arrived,
things changed,

because Syd had other aspirations.

Syd tuned
into that whole West Coast thing.

If you asked me, "What did Love do?"

I'd go, "I've no fuckin' idea,"
but I know Syd did.

He was one of the most emotionally
and intellectually curious people

that I've ever met.

'Gigging under various names

- the Architectural Abdabs
and The Tea Set -

Syd renames their band
The Pink Floyd Sound

by combining the names
of two obscure bluesmen,

Pink Anderson and Floyd Council.

Bob Klose leaves the band

as they start moving
towards more improvised music,

largely as backing tracks to their
increasingly elaborate light shows.'

# (HAUNTING PERCUSSION)

'Syd starts to write songs

including Let's Roll Another One,

which later becomes
Candy And A Currant Bun

and Bob Dylan Blues.

The band becomes solidified

with Syd on guitar,
Roger Waters on bass,

Rick Wright on keyboards

and Nick Mason on drums.'

# PINK FLOYD: Nick's Boogie

STORM: When you were
at Camberwell with Syd,

what kind of guy
was he?

The thing that
I really remember

is his innocence -

all this very glamorous
dark, curly hair,

very alive eyes

and a general air of glamour
about him,

but he had this innocence,
almost like a child.

He painted with great energy,

terrific sense of colour

and what I remember is big,
very painterly abstract paintings.

Towards the end of that first year,

he went to Robert Medley,
who was head of painting,

and he said to Robert,

"At the moment, with my group
I'm getting £200 a week."

A lot of money.
STORM: A fortune, really.

He said, "Could I possibly have
the year off, have a sabbatical?"

# PINK FLOYD:
Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Pts. 1-5)

His college work was important
and he'd write to me and say,

"Oh, I've got to do a painting this
size so I can stay on next year,

but I wrote this really nice song."

STORM: So did Syd then leave
for a year?

He left and he didn't come back.

# PINK FLOYD: Shine On
You Crazy Diamond (Pts. 1-5)

(DOOR CREAKS)

(NO AUDIBLE SPEECH)

# (EXPRESSIVE
ELECTRIC-GUITAR CADENCE)

SYD BARRETT: Having left art school,

there are a lot of things
that I could do,

a lot of things I see now,
a lot of things that went into me...

# (EXPRESSIVE GUITAR CADENCE)

..thinking
that these were, perhaps, changing

and altering things.

(SEDUCTIVE CALLS)
# (PERCUSSION BUILDS)

# (EXPRESSIVE GUITAR CADENCE)

# (ELECTRIC GUITAR
AND PERCUSSION INTENSIFY)

# (BLUESY, WISTFUL MELODY)

'Roger Keith Barrett,
aspiring painter,

drops out of art school

so that Syd Barrett, pop star,
may be born.

Before long, Barrett would
find himself at the epicentre

of the biggest underground movement
ever to hit Britain.'

# PINK FLOYD: Shine On You Crazy
Diamond (Instrumental break)

(HUM OF CONVERSATION)

MAN: You've got a bright future.

(MUSIC FADES AWAY)

There's a general sea change goes on

in English music anyway,
during 1965-'66.

You get a band like The Paramounts
turning to Procol Harum

and stop doing cover versions
of Poison Ivy

and, within two years, they're
doing A Whiter Shade Of Pale

and I think Syd is at the very
cutting edge of that movement.

I think Syd's one of the first ones
who transforms

from just copying R&B

to actually doing something
utterly new.

# PINK FLOYD:
Candy And A Currant Bun

RAWLINSON: We were reading
Alan Watts, Marvel comics,

Kerouac and Cybernetics -
all at the same time.

Syd was an extraordinarily
quick absorber.

It was just a series of,

"Look at this! Listen to this!
What about this?"

And it was just going
on and on and on and on.

All of the arts, all simultaneously

and then we can just throw LSD
into the mix, if you feel like it.

# SYD BARRETT: Milky Way

# What'd you ever say today

# When you're in the milky way

# Oh, tell me please

# Just to give you a squeeze

# (ACOUSTIC GUITAR STRUMS)

# If I met you

# I told you

# What to do

# Seems a while

# Since I could smile

# The way you do #

# (GUITAR CHORDS)

There was a lot of rumours
going around, you know,

that acid can damage your brain

and hippies would say,
"Ah, it's just the CIA, man,

saying that to stop you taking acid,
stop you eating live kittens."

(LOWING)

According to the accounts
that I've read,

everybody was on acid
in my parents' back garden.

This is not true.

I think the only person there
who was on acid - maybe two people -

were Paul Charrier and Sunny Syd.

I believe there was a water fight.

The bathroom window on the top floor
banged open...

and there were shouts of joy

and we saw water
coming out of the window,

Paul Charrier wielding the rose
of the shower, spraying Syd

and they were just mucking about
like six-year-olds.

People were sort of hanging around
in the garden.

Syd went into the kitchen
of the house,

found a box of matches,
an orange and a plum

and sat down and looked at them.

Most of the time, what I remember

is Syd sitting quietly in the back
garden of David Gale's house,

holding and examining these objects.

RAWLINSON: At that time, everybody
was dropping acid in London.

STORM: But not everybody's
dropping acid like he was!

But he wasn't the only one

and there was a lot of discussion
about how to take it.

Is there a big difference
between 50 milligrams a day

or 100 or 250?

How many times a day?
Once, twice or three times?

Is there a real difference
between 250 milligrams

and 500 milligrams?

Acid was the drug
of the time:

it's self-realisation,

speaking to God
through acid,

it's the danger of opening doors

before you've spent 30 years
in solitude

and preparing your soul
and your spirit ready

for the big meeting with Big G.

That was one of the problems
with acid.

It whooshed you right through
that 30 years of preparation,

opened the door and bang!

There you are, at the centre
of the celestial universe.

Deal with it, my son!

Two hours before, you were eating
fish and chips down the corner!

Yaaaa!
# (GUITAR STRUMS)

# SYD BARRETT: Two Of A Kind

# Open your eyes
and don't be blind

He really did feel

that the
psychedelic revolution

was flowing right through his body.

He did feel he was almost possessed
against his will.

You know that story:

"If you can remember the '60s,
you weren't there."

It was the destruction

of the rational,
predictable material world.

(MAN SCREAMING)

So-called "reality"
was only one of many.

# PINK FLOYD: Nick's Boogie

# (HAUNTING PERCUSSION RHYTHM)

# (PSYCHEDELIC GUITAR EFFECTS)

(INDISTINCT CHANTING)

'1966 is the year
the doors come off the hinges.

Fuelled by experimentation
with mind-expanding drugs

flowing through the counterculture,

the seismic upheaval
of postwar British society

spreads from politics and art

to fashion and music.'

You know,
everybody was taking lots of drugs

and people liked these long things
that you could really get into,

which really strung you out

and took you very slowly through
various climactic trajectories.

# LOVE: My Little Red Book

We all liked Love's
album, which was
really good.

I was just saying to
him, "I really love
that song

which goes..."
# (MIMICS SONG)

Little Red Book,
or something like that.

I can't sing in tune
to save my life. Syd said,

"Oh, you mean like this?"
And he played it,

and that's what became
Interstellar Overdrive.

It was that riff

as sort of...mangled by me

and then reinterpreted by Syd.

# PINK FLOYD: Interstellar Overdrive

# (FAST-PACED BASS RHYTHM)

# (ELECTRIC-GUITAR RIFF)

# (FAST-PACED BASS RHYTHM)

The big thing in those days
was Friday night

at the UFO Club.

Not only did you
have Pink Floyd,

you had The Soft Machine

and The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown.
(AS ARTHUR BROWN) # Fire! #

# (HUMS TUNE)

Pete would have been supplying

psychedelic apparatus...

projection apparatus to
the increasingly gigging Pink Floyd.

STORM: Were you
as excited by this
as were the audience?

Oh, I don't know about the audience.
I never gave them a thought.

STORM: I remember being
in the audience, thinking...

this was probably
the centre of the universe.

Yes, it was, indeed.

# PINK FLOYD: Interstellar Overdrive

The only time I've ever deliberately
missed a gig with The Who

was I heard that Pink Floyd
were doing a concert

and didn't tell the band,
so the band went

and I went to
the UFO Club with Eric

and took some
acid and...

danced like
a hippie. (LAUGHS)

# (PSYCHEDELIC KEYBOARD SOLO)

TOWNSHEND: The band come out
with this interesting rig,

which was...

two Binson Echorec units.

They were considered to be
an echo box from the era of...

# (MIMICS TWANGY GUITAR)

Nobody used them, you know?

Certainly Jimi Hendrix
did not use an echo box

and neither did I

and neither did...Eric Clapton,
you know, or Jimmy Page.

Nobody used them, but Syd had
not just one but two.

He came out.
He had a shock of black hair,

black makeup on his eyes

and the clothes that he were wearing
were proper psychedelic outfits

and he was beautiful!

He plays a chord
and it just goes, "Jang!"

And then nothing happens, so he
pushes some buttons on this machine.

Plays another chord, "Jang!"
Nothing happens.

Pushes another couple of buttons on
the machine and suddenly it goes...

# (MIMICS ECHOING GUITAR EFFECT)

TOWNSHEND:
Wah-wah-wah-wah-wah-wah-wah...

# (REVERBERATING GUITAR ECHO)

..you know,
as analogue echo degrades.

Pushes another button
on the other machine

and it goes into what we call in the
music business "syncopated echo".

It goes, "Pow-pow-pow-pow,
pa-pa-pa-pa, pow, pa-pa-pa-pa, pow!

Pa-pa-pa-pa, pow,
pa-pa-pa-pa, pow!"

And Nick Mason starts to play

and then Roger Waters starts to play

and it just turns into this...
what can only be described

as spectacular psychedelic
heavy metal!

# (SPACEY, FAST-PACED IMPROVISATIONS)

(DISTORTED, REVERBERATING ECHOES)

# (CLIMACTIC SWIRLING MELODIES)

# (PSYCHEDELIC KEYBOARD SOLO
AND CHIRPING SOUND EFFECTS)

# (HYPNOTIC DRUM RHYTHM)

CHAPMAN: Something suddenly kicks
in. I don't think it's even gradual.

# (HAUNTING BASSLINE)
Yes, you can say it's LSD.

Yes, you can say it's the Echoplex,
it's the light shows...

There's all these interesting
environmental things going on

in and around the music,
but really, it's Syd.

The way the act's developed
in the last six months

has been influenced rather a lot

by the fact we've played
in ballrooms.

I think concerts have given us
a chance to realise

that maybe the music we play isn't
directed at dancing, necessarily,

like normal pop groups.

# PINK FLOYD: Astronomy Domine

(RAPID BEEPING)

# Lime and limpid green
A second scene

# A fight between the blue
you once knew

# Floating down the sound resounds

# Around the icy waters
underground

Syd defined...

the whole of that moment
in the '60s -

the colour, the vivacity of it,

the psychedelic freedom...

Without Syd,

something might have
happened, eventually.

You couldn't overemphasise
his importance,

because he was the creative genius.

# Woo

# (RAPID INSTRUMENTATION)

(SILENCE)

# (PSYCHEDELIC KEYBOARD CHORDS)

# Blinding signs flap

# Flicker, flicker, flicker, blam

# Pow, pow!

JENNER: I remember sitting with him

while he was looking
into the stars book

and getting Astronomy Domine,
which I had to read in the studio,

which he just took out of a book,
and I love that.

# (ETHEREAL VOCALS)
WHITEHEAD: They were so totally
and unbelievably original.

You could say that the various
technologies were available,

like Hammond organs,
this, that and the other,

which gave them the opportunity
of mixing popular music

with metaphysical ideas
and science-fiction ideas.

The Floyd were never doing
19th Nervous Breakdown

or I Can't Get No Satisfaction.

# The icy

# Waters underground #

Why has it all got to be
so terribly loud?

For me, frankly, it's too loud.
I just can't bear it.

I happen to have grown up
in the string quartet,

which is a bit softer.

If one gets immune
to this kind of sound,

one may find it difficult to
appreciate softer types of sound.

Syd - yes, no?

I don't think that's so.
No?

I mean, everybody listens.

We don't need it very loud
to be able to hear it

and with some of it,
it is very quiet, in fact.

Do you, in your turn, feel
aggressive towards your audiences?

WATERS: No, not at all.In spite
of all the loudness, you don't?

No, not at all.
There's -Sorry?

There's not many young people
who sort of cause...

..who dislike it, particularly.
No shock treatment intended?

No, certainly not.

# PINK FLOYD: The Scarecrow
(Rustic-style percussion intro)

# The black and green scarecrow

# As everyone knows

# Stood with a bird on his hat

# And straw everywhere

# He didn't care

# He stood in a field

# Where barley grows...

When Syd Barrett
started writing for Pink Floyd,

he seemed to give it
this very English voice,

which was unusual at the time. The
Kinks were doing that, I guess, too.

# His head did no thinking

# His arms didn't move

He had a big attachment
to more intellectual realms,

to the whole Hilaire Belloc thing
and to Lewis Carroll.

He has a strange
bridge between...

..Edwardian musical,

Vaudeville

and his own particular brand
of English psychedelia.

When you heard that music,
it was in colour.

Everything else
was in black and white.

# (UPBEAT MELODY ON ORGAN
AND PERCUSSION)

WHITEHEAD: He's the Lake Poets.

He's an English Romantic
of the 19th century.

He was not London 1966.

STORM: But he was London 1966.
He happened to be,

but that was a cloak he wore.

# The black-and-green scarecrow

# Is sadder than me

# But now he's resigned... #

In his lyrics,
there's many animal references:

there's a mouse called Gerald,
there's the elephant,

there's fairies,
scarecrows, cats...

It's a world

that I was always fascinated with.

MAN: In his songs,
we have a painterly vision.

He evokes very strongly

references to sun,
to shining,

to sea,
to sparkles,
to water...

All these things
run through his songs

like a perpetual continuous thread.

Syd is a nature poet.

I heard, at one point,
that his whole diet

consisted of hash
and poetry.

I think
I tried to do that

at some point in
my 20s. (LAUGHS)

He's the original punk-rock icon

in what punk rock meant to me,

which was sort of breaking all
the rules and having fun with it

and the spirit of play.

# Stained, glaucous, glycerine

# Gold, goat... #

To look good,
to be able to play guitar,

to invent good melodies

and also to produce lyrics that...

..made you think.

It's a very powerful set of tools
to have at your disposal.

Syd had all this

churning around in his mind,

like the rest of us did,

but he makes connections
that are so unexpected and strange

that no-one else in the world

could have made those connections.

Even early songs like Bike,
for instance.

He'd written about a bike,

which, of course, is not a subject
that most lyricists write about.

They write about "lurve"
or death or illness or loss.

(BICYCLE BELL RINGS)
"I've got a bike,

you can ride it if you like."

"It's got a basket,
a bell that rings

and things that make it look good."

"I'd give it to you if I could,
but I borrowed it."

I mean, where does this come from?

Every verse is like that, I think!

# PINK FLOYD: Bike

# (SYD BARRETT SINGS)

# You're the kind of girl... #

I suppose, things like Bike was more
of a structured thing happening,

but sonically, towards the end,

I'd never really
heard anything like that:

an oversaturation
of sounds, clocks...
(CLOCKS CHIME)

..and then this kind
of repetitive...

(FRANTIC HONKING)
..sound

that sounded like a goose
attacking you, you know?

STORM: Like a what?
Like a goose attacking,

going into attack mode.
Quite disturbing.

(AGGRESSIVE HONKING AND SQUAWKING)

The way LSD works, we now know, is,

it stimulates receptors in the brain

called serotonin receptors,

but a particular subtype
of serotonin receptor

called the 5-HT
or serotonin 2A receptor.

(WATER DRIPPING)

Psychedelic drugs like LSD
all work on those receptors

and what they do is to interrupt

the traditional way
in which the brain is organised.

Everything we do is orchestrated

in a very reflexive, habitual way.

LSD, by turning on those receptors,
disrupts that...

..so what then happens is
that your brain,

rather than doing
what it's been told to do by habit,

starts to do its own thing.

If you have regular conversations
with God or the angels

and they're saying nice things to
you, telling you how great you are,

you don't want to lose that.

On the other hand,
if you're tormented by devils

or other persecutors,

you may, nevertheless, feel
that you're important enough

for the Devil
to take an interest in you

and that might give you enough kudos

to continue to carry on
with this situation

without telling other people.

MAN: There's a lot of interest
in the balance

between right brain and left brain.
In very simplistic terms,

the right brain is the more
creative, whole-picture side.

The left brain is the more focused,
analytical, etc, side.

There's a little saying that
"the problems in psychology

are when the right brain's
got nothing left

and the left brain's
got nothing right,"

and there is a lot
of interesting discussion

about the link between creativity
and mental illness.

Carl Jung, the psychologist,
had this great insight

where he talked about,
from his studies of breakdown,

mental illness,

he called it a "failed initiation".

What he meant by that,

which I think is a really
interesting thing to say,

was that, often, a breakdown
is an attempt at a breakthrough.

It's an attempt to come into
a new form of consciousness

and it's either premature

or, in some way, it falters.

SYD BARRETT: # A movement
is accomplished in six stages #

STORM: I remember
one particular interlude

where we went to see the Master

- that's Charan Singh Ji
the something or other -

which was a guru that we were
all thinking of following

in the heady days of psychedelia.

A few people there and then

said they wanted
to become "initiated".

I don't like the word, but anyway.

Syd had asked for initiation

and the Master
had said it's too early.

STORM:
Did you know why he said that?

Well, quite a lot of commitment
in Sant Mat,

which is vegetarianism

and abstaining
from mind-altering substances.

STORM: Is it possible
that the rejection affected Syd?

LESMOIR-GORDON:
Rejection affects us all...

..and I think Charan Singh...

I don't know how deep his insights
were - I think he had a lot,

but maybe he could see
what was going to happen to Syd.

STORM: When you broke up,
did you do it or did he do it?

It was me, I'm afraid.He was
a great lover, a good boyfriend

and you got rid of him?
(GIGGLES) Yeah.

Explain this to me, Jennifer Spires.

In the early days,
he was lovely

cos he was very calm,
he was an artist...

I got on the train

at Cambridge at one end

and Syd got on the train
at the other end. (CHUCKLES)

That's how we started living
at No.2 Earlham Street.

The whole clan went from there

to 101 Cromwell Road.

(GASPS IN MOCK HORROR)
101 Cromwell Road! (CHUCKLES)

A den of iniquity, if ever
there was.Extraordinary place!

They'd just puff away
at these enormous joints

and get completely
out of their heads.

I feel woozy
even thinking about it.

Then, you see, Syd and the Pink
Floyd were really beginning then

and things were taking off.

So I think then, he was
just losing the plot slightly.

I remember we had a cat
called Rover.

Well, that was Syd, wasn't it?
(BOTH LAUGH)

# PINK FLOYD: Improvised Instrumental
(from Tomorrow's World)

# (MELLOW PSYCHEDELIC JAMMING)

'The Pink Floyd sound
was a perfect match

for the spontaneous underground

and its multimedia events.

With Barrett's songwriting output
flourishing,

the Pink Floyd were on their way.'

# (TRACK CONTINUES)

# PINK FLOYD: Flaming

(WHOOSHING)

# Alone in the clouds all blue

# Lying on an eiderdown

# Yippee
You can't see me #

'Gigging a punishing
four or five nights a week,

the group is approached
by Peter Jenner and Andrew King,

who, promising to buy the band
some new equipment,

become their managers.

King and Jenner scheme
to get the band a record contract

by recording a few demo tracks
with American producer Joe Boyd,

who also runs the legendary UFO Club

with John "Hoppy" Hopkins.

The plan works

and Pink Floyd sign to EMI Records
in February 1967.

The very next day, they begin
recording their debut album,

The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn,

with Norman Smith at Abbey Road.

In the studio next door,

The Beatles are making
their landmark LP - Sergeant Pepper.

There were a few casual songs
he'd written early,

but the one which I'd call
the first real,

"showing where we were going" song

was Arnold Layne.

# Arnold Layne
Arnold Layne is released as a single

on the 10th of March.

# Had a strange hobby

# Collecting clothes

# Moonshine washing line

KING: Syd worked very hard
at Arnold Layne.

He told me it had taken him

a couple of months
to write the lyric,

to get it just the way he wanted it.
STORM: Really?
It wasn't spontaneous?No.

# Hung a tall...

KING: This idea that Syd
rolled out of bed at lunchtime,

took some acid
and wrote a couple of genius songs

is just absolute crap.

# See-through baby blue

There's no such thing as easy art,
Storm, is there?

Otherwise we'd all be doing it!

# La-a-a-ayne

# Arnold Layne, don't do it again #

'Despite being banned
by Radio London for obscenity,

Arnold Layne reaches No.20
in the Singles Chart,

with the album Piper At The Gates
Of Dawn reaching No.6.

ROCK:
He was spectacular at the beginning.

From that Christmas
through to the summer

when they released Arnold Lanye

and then The Piper,

Syd, and of course Hendrix,
were kind of

the two big psychedelic stars.

# PINK FLOYD:
Take Up Thy Stethoscope And Walk

# (PUNCHY PERCUSSION)

ROGER WATERS: # Doctor, doctor
# I'm in bed

# Doctor, doctor
# Achin' head

# Doctor, doctor
# Gold is lead

'In May 1967, Pink Floyd mounts
a multimedia psychedelic concert,

Games For May,
at the Queen Elizabeth Hall.

Barrett has written a new song
for the event,

whose title, also Games For May,

changes to become the era-defining
See Emily Play.

# (PSYCHEDELIC ELECTRIC GUITAR)

# Used spoon #

He started innovating his music with
a Zippo lighter on his Stratocaster,

sliding it up and down,

and in gigs, suddenly,
he was using this Zippo lighter

to create
these incredibly eerie sounds.

# PINK FLOYD: See Emily Play
(Instrumental break)

# (DYNAMIC DRUMBEAT,
SWIRLING KEYBOARDS)

# Emily tries but misunderstands

# Ah-ooh

# She's often inclined to borrow

# Somebody's dreams till tomorrow

# There is no other day

'See Emily Play becomes
the second Pink Floyd hit single,

earning the group
several crucial appearances

on the primetime BBC music show
Top Of The Pops in July.

# Free games for May

# See-e-e-e Emily play

(DISTORTED SOUND)

# (WHIMSICAL, TINNY MELODY)

# (PERCUSSION RESUMES)

# Soon after dark

# Emily cries

# Ah-ooh

# Gazing through trees in sorrow

# Hardly a sound till tomorrow

# There is no other day

# Let's try it another way

# You'll lose your mind... #

When See Emily Play went to No.5,
got into the Top Ten...

STORM: I remember it well.
Yeah, I was really excited

and I'm wearing
all these stupid clothes!

Yeah, but it was exciting,
for God's sake.

It was very exciting,

but I remember erm...

Syd in the dressing room

sitting there
and he looked a bit glum

and I went, "What's up?"
He looked at me and he said,

"John Lennon
doesn't have to do this."

Even when things were going
as well as they could,

the band actually was stressful.

I remember
we were in Trafalgar Square.

We'd been in Green Park and then...

it was time to go
to Top Of The Pops.

Syd said,
"I don't really fancy it."

I said, "Well, yeah,
but it's a bit of a big deal."

There was the famous three weeks

that we did See Emily Play
on Top Of The Pops.

The first week was fine.
Syd looks really good.

He's sitting cross-legged
on a great big Indian cushion.

The second week, he arrived late

looking very shambolic indeed.

Third week,
we couldn't find him anywhere.

I opened the door
and Syd was there

looking totally
freaked out.

His feet were bare

and he said, "Hi, can I come in?"
I said, "Of course you can,"

and...he didn't say anything.

Then there was a bang on the door

and somebody was, like,
(FURIOUS) "Is Syd in there?"

Whoever this person was came in

and just literally grabbed him
and dragged him out!

# PINK FLOYD: Nick's Boogie

# (DISTORTED GUITAR)

# (SWIRLING SAXOPHONE AND DRUMS)

I think Syd Barrett was interested
in this total freedom,

almost like a sort of erm...
a jazz, really.

A kind of "divertimenti".

I suppose, trying to structure
or rein in this kind of energy

might have been fairly difficult
for him.

# (PSYCHEDELIC JAMMING)

NICK MASON: There'd been
a lot of weird stuff on stage,

with Syd de-tuning guitars

and just turning it
into a sort of mind-numbing sound.

We were committed
to being a pop group

and Syd was absolutely
on the way to being,

"No, I don't actually
want to be a pop star."

# (DISTORTED GUITAR)

'The relentless gigging
and demands of stardom

are taking their toll
on Barrett's psyche.'

(MUSIC FADES OUT)

(INHALES AND EXHALES)

I was living in France in '67

and I came back to England.

I went to see them recording

and something
had changed quite radically.

He had lost his spark and his bounce

and that was a very odd and erm...
uncomfortable moment.

The three songs
I think are really important:

Jugband Blues, Scream Thy Last
Scream and Vegetable Man.

Now, Vegetable Man he wrote
in my room. He sat in a corner

and he just wrote those lyrics down.

# Where are you? #

It was scary.
You had this skinny guy

who's just crying his heart out,

"That's why I am vegetable man."

You go, "Oh God.

Is that what you really think?

Is that how you feel
about yourself now?"

KING: It was all that classic
music-business bollocks:

"Come on, Syd,
where's the next single?"

He was a sensitive chap,
he wasn't hard-boiled.

He didn't like all that pressure...

..and he had
a hell of a lot of pressure.

# PINK FLOYD: Scream Thy Last Scream

# Scream thy last scream

# Old woman with a casket

# Blam, blam, your pointers

# Point your pointers

# Waddle with apples
to crunchy Mrs Stores #

JENNER: It's like...if you look
at Van Gogh's later pictures,

you get the same thing.

You can see the manifestation
of the turmoil in his brain,

and all those things.

I think, in the same way,

you can see the confusion and
the...everything within Syd's brain.

'Both Vegetable Man
and Scream Thy Last Scream

are deemed uncommercial
by the record company

and Jugband Blues is held over
for the next Pink Floyd album.

Apples And Oranges,

a song written by Syd about his
girlfriend Lindsay Korner shopping,

is finally chosen by EMI
as Pink Floyd's third single.

It's released in November
and is a flop.'

MALE INTERVIEWER: Did you ever
see him perform with Pink Floyd?

Mm, yeah, I did - once.

I went to the Roundhouse,
but it wasn't any fun.

It wasn't. He didn't look
as if he was enjoying it

and so it wasn't anything
I did again.

STORM: Do you agree in any way
about the family's view

which is, they blame rock'n'roll
for Syd's decline?

I think that's not
an unreasonable position.

I don't think he would have liked
NOT to have done it.

He got into it,

he was very happy doing it.
It was good fun.

It was sad to see him go downhill.

You could see by his eyes.

You know, he would just...

he would be looking sort of...

He just wouldn't look at you -

he'd be looking into space.

# PINK FLOYD: Shine On
You Crazy Diamond (Pts. 1-5)

(HISS OF PLANE ENGINE)

'With hopes of breaking America

and despite concerns about Syd,

the band set off
for a mini tour of the US.'

(INDISTINCT IN-FLIGHT ANNOUNCEMENT)

# (WISTFUL TRACK CONTINUES)

You're there with Syd
who was just an artist

who wrote songs
and was having a good time

and liked listening to music,

playing in a band and,
"Wow, isn't this groovy," you know,

able to go and buy a new shirt and,
you know, have your hair frizzed

and do all these things
that you could do.

STORM: Buy some new boots.Buy some
new boots. Yeah - all that stuff.

I mean, "Gosh, got some money
coming," and, "Oh wow."

Then people started asking him
the meaning of life.

(REEL WHIRS)

He was, as it were,
the pinup boy of the revolution.

KING: That was probably
very strange, going to America,

cos, "Wow, I'm in America now.

You know, I'm doing the Fillmore!
Wow!

And these guys give me
this nice acid. Whay!

(SPACED-OUT VOICE) Oh, wow!"

You know...

# SYD BARRETT: Lanky, Pt.1

# (AVANT-GARDE, PSYCHEDELIC
PERCUSSION AND CHIMES)

STORM: Are you telling me
that you and Syd got picked up

by a couple of Californian blondes?

WYNNE-WILSON: Exactly that -
with those straight eyebrows, yes.

Everybody would dream about this.

STORM: And this happened to you?
It happened to Syd and I,

but we were young kids from England,
you know,

where this sort of thing
was fucking...(BOTH LAUGH)

There was lots of dope
and lots of everything

and Syd was very happy...

until we returned.

I think... Well, then,
it would be the gig in Los Angeles,

which was probably
the worst gig of all.

These gentlemen you're about to meet

are on their first visit
to the US.

They've only been here less
than a week, as a matter of fact.

Would you greet them warmly, please.
The Pink Floyd!

(APPLAUSE)
# Apples And Oranges (Intro)

KING: Rick lip-synched it.
STORM: Because?

Because Syd wouldn't sing.

Couldn't sing, wouldn't sing.

Just stood there.

It was a tricky tour.

Syd, did you write this?
Yeah.

I noticed on the album you wrote
most of the songs, is that true?

Yeah, that's right.

We did a TV show in LA. He walked
out of the studio and disappeared.

STORM: For a reason?
KING: No.

Let me wish you gentlemen
all very good luck.

I hope you enjoy your stay,
get some sleep

and get something
other than cheeseburgers
during your stay. Thank you.

Nick, nice to see you.

When Syd became unreliable,

I think we really almost hated him,

because we were so dependent on him.

By the time Andrew came back
from America,

it was definitely a problem.

STORM: OK,
one of the more contentious rumours

is the idea
that he might have been given acid

every morning in his coffee.
Did Rick say something?

He said that...
he reckoned that Syd's downfall

came about by his hangers-on

and then, people who are writing
books or doing interviews,

they sort of think, "Who were his
friends at that time?" "So-and-so."

STORM: Jock and Sue in this case,
right?Yeah.

Apparently,
we're living in Richmond,

we used to get up every morning,

we all sit
round the breakfast table.

We would then spike Syd (!)

It's absolute fucking bollocks!

STORM: Maybe that's also
a quality of rumours.

It's quite good
if your hero is flawed

because of somebody else's actions -
Yes!- rather than their own.

Better for him to be spiked than
to have him gone to them and said,

"Oh, can I have some acid now?"

# It is 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

# And I never knew
the moon could be so big

# And I never knew
the moon could be so blue

# And I'm grateful
that you threw away my old shoes

# And brought me here instead

# Dressed in red

# PINK FLOYD: Jugband Blues
(Instrumental break)

# And I'm wondering

# Who could be writing this song

JENNER: In a way, it would have
been much easier for all of us

if Syd said, "I'm really fucked up.
I'm really sorry.

I can't cope any more.
Can you help me?"

So we were always trying to help him

without him giving any indication

that he had
any desire or need for help.

I took Syd to Ronnie Laing's and
he refused to get out of the car.

Not that I'm convinced Laing
would've been able to do

a huge amount for him.

As psychiatrists and
psychotherapists who er...

profess to be
able to...

be of some service
to people

in distressed states of mind,

we cannot expect to be of any help

beyond pulling people
back to this side,

into this er...socially reinforced,

totalitarian, egalitarian,

quantitative, dequantified,

de-experientialised dead world...

where there's no fun or joy

or any genuine celebration
of anything,

because all that is life

and science is...is studying death.

(HYPNOTICALLY)
# And the sea isn't green

# And I love the Queen

# And what exactly is a dream?

# And what exactly is a joke? #

RAWLINSON: You could argue that
some forms of so-called madness

are strong moves to retain freedom.

You could also argue,

at a certain level,

he could see
that the success of the Floyd

was reducing his freedom.

He was playing us this song
in a rehearsal

and the song was called
Have You Got It Yet?

And basically, the song would alter

so that the chorus was,
"No, no, no."

(CHUCKLES) Syd would alter
the rhythmic pattern,

or do whatever was necessary

to ensure that no, they hadn't
got it yet, or no, we hadn't.

STORM: Or couldn't.
Or couldn't get it...

and might never have got it.

(CLANG, THEN CREAKING)

'Stories are legion

about Syd's alarming behaviour
on stage during this period:

playing one note for an entire show,

or slowly de-tuning his strings
until they fell limp on the guitar.

Live bootleg recordings, however,

capture
several inspired performances.

Nevertheless, on a small package tour

with Jimi Hendrix,
The Move and a few other bands,

Barrett would sometimes
need to be replaced

by David O'List from The Nice.

As far back as 1965,

Syd himself had written
to Libby Gausden

suggesting his old friend
David Gilmour should join the group,

referring to him as "Fred".

What became known as "the Fred plan"
was now put into effect.

# (EERIE, ATONAL TINKLING)

Looking back on it, I can see

that they all played a distinct part

in the success of Pink Floyd.

You had Roger, who had sort of
this massive determination,

Rick's musical sophistication

and you've got Nick's showmanship.

# PINK FLOYD: Interstellar Overdrive

'For several shows,

the band performs as a five-piece

in the hopes of keeping Syd around.'

MASON: We'd already tried
three or four gigs as a five-piece.

It was a very uncomfortable feeling,

but I think we were absolutely
geared to this idea.

It wasn't a matter
of trying Dave out.

I think we absolutely loved the idea
of having him in the band.

# (ENERGETIC ELECTRIC-GUITAR RIFF)

(TEMPO DECELERATES)

STORM: Do you recall what happened
on what I call "The Day"?

MASON: I can't remember
where Syd was living at the time.

We were all aboard -
Were you on your way to a gig?

Yeah, we were absolutely
on the way to the gig.

Everyone else had been picked up,

so we were on the way
to pick Syd up...

(INHALES SHARPLY) ..and someone
said, "Shall we bother?"

More or less...
and there was this sort of moment

and we went, "Do you know what?
Let's...let's not."

'Syd's last gig with Pink Floyd

was on 20th January 1968
at Hastings Pier.'

# PINK FLOYD:
Interstellar Overdrive

STORM: Do you think
it's understandable, then,

that they had to move on, as it
were?That's the way it works.

It's animal husbandry.

STORM: I'm amazed
that they managed to recover

from losing their main
creative drive, you know.

WYNNE-WILSON:
It's not amazing they recovered.

They became the pop group

that they always desired to be.

Once David Gilmour's in there, it's
the beginning of something else.

It's the beginning
of the Pink Floyd

that became very successful later on
with Meddle,

Dark Side Of The Moon
and Wish You Were Here.

STORM: When the Floyd broke up,

you and Peter, as Blackhill,
as I understand,

elected to continue with Syd.

We made a particularly astute
commercial decision.(BOTH LAUGH)

# (ACOUSTIC GUITAR INTRO)
SYD: That's two verses.

Sorry, I'll do it again.

# SYD BARRETT: It Is Obvious

# It is obvious

# May I say oh baby

# (GENTLE STRUMMING)

# That it is found on another plane

(WIND HOWLS)

# But I can creep into cupboards

# Sleep in the hall

# Your stars, my stars

# Are simple cot bars #

Syd came to live with us
at Egerton Court,

which is a flat that we had in
the centre of London, in South Ken.

KORNER: I went there and
you were there, Po was there...

Nigel and Jenny - they had
the smart room at the front.

STORM: But how was Syd doing
those days? Do you remember?

He was unpredictable then.

He was very unpredictable.

I don't think anybody in the flat
realised

just how bad Syd had become.

He began locking himself in his room
for several days with Lindsay.

There were rows,
all sorts of things going on.

I had the small room
adjacent to the large room

in which he and Lindsay lived.

I could hear him tickling her,
which sounded harmless enough,

and then she'd scream at him
to stop tickling and he wouldn't.

I can't remember what happened,
but he pushed me over
and jumped on me.

That's when I called out
and you came in.

Syd decided that, presumably, the
relationship was not as it should be

and seemed to be attacking her
with a mandolin.

Then the next day
you took me home to Cambridge.

Don't you remember?Yeah.
But was this the end of you and Syd?

Oh, yes - that was it.

Syd's apparent malaise,
shall we say,

didn't appear initially.

I thought he was charming
and good company.

This was his very room.

Dave Gilmour, he lived in Richmond
Mansions, one street away.

We could see from our kitchen
into his kitchen.

# (GUITAR RIFF)

'Syd goes back

into Abbey Road studios

to begin recording some demos.

With the support
of Peter Jenner, Malcolm Jones,

David Gilmour and Roger Waters,

these sessions, though difficult,

would result in his first
solo album - The Madcap Laughs.'

# SYD BARRETT: Baby Lemonade

In the first lot of sessions,

you couldn't get an honest answer
to an honest question.

You know, "Shall we do that again?"
No reply.

You know, "I think that was really
good. Can we try that again?"

No reply.

"Well, do you want to go
and play a bit more?"

Then he would go out and maybe play
a bit more, or maybe not.

(# ELECTRIC GUITAR STRUMS)

SYD: Is it on?
# (GUITAR AND DRUMS PLAY)

There'd been a considerable amount
of time and money gone into it

and EMI had decided
to, more or less, pull the plug.

Roger and I asked them
if we could finish it off

and they gave us something
like three days.

We stuck him in the studio

and recorded everything and anything

that we could get him to do.

# Please, please

# Baby Lemonade #

The end result is a pretty fair
portrait of him at the time

and I think his writing
probably was better

than the writing on Piper
At The Gates Of Dawn.STORM: Yeah.

"Oh, where are you now pussy willow
who smiled on this leaf?"

You know, you go,
"What the fuck is that about?"

# Oh, where are you now

# Pussy willow
that smiled on this leaf?

# When I was alone

# You promised the stone
from your heart

WATERS: He's still making
these extraordinary connections

with the deepest feelings of,

"Can I or can I not make contact
with other human beings?"

Which is the stuff of all our lives.

Storm and I had a company
called Hipgnosis...

..and we were asked
to do the album cover.

Storm went to photograph Syd
with Mick Rock.

# SYD BARRETT: Octopus

# Trip to heave and ho

# Up down, to and fro #

He had a flat in which he'd painted
the floorboards blue and red,

I think for the photo session,

which is pretty amazing.

What was interesting about
the floor - there was this rubble,

because he'd painted over
the cigarette butts

and various bits of debris.

STORM:
I took a photo of Syd crouched

a bit like an animal, really.

ROCK: I took a ton of them, too.

It wasn't just Storm.

And Iggy the Eskimo, who was
never really his girlfriend,

cos these were hippie times.

I think she lingered
for a couple of weeks.

STORM: On the back cover

was the picture of a naked woman

who was an Eskimo,

but liked, whether Syd was there
or not, to walk around naked,

so Syd went, "This is Iggy.

Why don't you put her
in the picture?" I said, "Fine."

# SYD BARRETT: Octopus
(Instrumental break)

'The Madcap Laughs is released

on EMI's new progressive imprint,
Harvest, in January 1970.

It reaches No.40 in the UK charts,

successful enough for EMI
to finance the recording

of Syd's second solo album - Barrett.

# SYD BARRETT: Gigolo Aunt

# Grooving around in a trench coat

# With the satin on trail

There was more time,

so we could relax a little bit more

and try and do things
slightly differently.

We lived
around the corner
from each other,

"we" being myself
and Willie Wilson.

He and I shared
a flat in Chelsea.

Syd lived around the corner.

We'd try and get him
to play along with the band,

but he'd never do it the same twice,

so usually it meant we'd cut
a backing track without him

and then get him to put
some stuff on it afterwards.

Rick came along
and helped a bit on that one.

All I ever saw
was Dave wanting to get

the best out of Syd
he could possibly get,

which was not easy.

We just followed him
wherever he went.

Sometimes, it just kept falling down
and falling over itself

and sometimes it got interesting.

# SYD BARRETT: Love You

# Honey, love you
Honey, little honey

# Funny sunny morning

# Love you more funny

# Love in the skyline baby

# I scream 'scuse me

# I've seen you looking good
the other evening #

He wrote some pretty unusual
chord sequences

and found some unusual melodies
to sit on the top of it

and wrote...fascinating lyrics!

# It's no good trying
to place your hand

# Where I can't see

# Because I understand

# That you're different from me #

# (JANGLY GUITAR)

Even though some,
around that Wetherby Mansions time,

are very moody,

there's quite a lot of them
he's laughing in.

# Rocking backwards

# And you're rocking towards

# The red-and-yellow mane
of a stallion... #

'Released in November, "Barrett"
would be Syd's final studio album.

It fails to chart.'

# SYD BARRETT: No Good Trying
(Instrumental break)

STORM: Can you
recall when you
first met Syd?

He came running up
looking like
a rock star

with his velvet jeans on
and his velvet jacket

and his Chelsea
boots on...

He looked and I thought,
"Ooh, wow, it's Syd Barrett""

He had a spare room.

I wasn't sure at that stage

whether it was,
"Come and live with ME," or...

STORM: "Would you like a room?"
.."I've got a room."

"Give us some money."
Yeah, "Give us some money."

He was pretty strange.

He'd just open the door
and come in the room

and that would be it.

I thought it was kind of great
to have a boyfriend like that

rather than a bloke
working in Barclays Bank.

# I really love you

# And I mean you

# The star above you #

In support of the Madcap Laughs
and Barrett albums,

Syd records a session for influential
Radio 1 DJ John Peel...

..and on the 6th June 1970,

he plays a gig
- his first for two years -

at the Olympia Exhibition Hall,

with David Gilmour on bass guitar
and Jerry Shirley on drums.

After just a few songs, however,

Syd abruptly walks off stage.

He decided at one stage

that he no longer wanted
to be a pop star.

He went out and bought canvases

and tons of pots of paint
and brushes

and he locked himself in that room
and painted day and night,

and every time
I was allowed to see a canvas,

the next time I saw it,

it would either be destroyed

or he'd painted all over it.

Try and keep up with Duggie -

"him next door".

He never used his name. It was
"him next door" or "that painter".

You've got two aspects of his
personality, though, haven't you?

You've got Roger and Syd.

Syd was the musician.

Roger was maybe a would-be artist,

but Roger never found his way.

He put a layer of hessian
over the curtains,

so he had this darkened room
that he lived in.

People would stand outside his door

knocking on his door, going, "Syd,
let me in" - for hours, sometimes.

I moved back to Cambridge

and Duggie had called me and said,

"You know, this is getting crazy.
He's...he's..."

I don't know what he was doing,
but... (SIGHS)

..he'd been in his room
for days and nights

and hadn't come out.

I contacted Syd and I said,
"Why don't you come to Cambridge?"

And somehow or other, it was just
like we were back together again,

so I moved in.

STORM: What, into Hills Road?
Into Hills Road.

Into the cellar?
Into the cellar, with Syd.

It was all dark and
it was originally a coal cellar.

It had all his bits and pieces
from his childhood there -

his drawings,
his paintings and his guitar...

..and it was all very normal!

Mrs Barrett would come rushing out
and say,

"Oh, hello, dear! Hello, dear.

What about a cup of tea?
Rog, would you like a cup of tea?"

We became engaged.

Mum organised
this big Sunday lunch.

This is the time when Syd
threw a bowl of tomato soup over me.

It was a normal Sunday lunch

and Syd just went, "Whoops!"

Then he stood up from the table,
laughed,

disappeared...and came down

and he'd cut all his hair off.

I'd gone back to my parents.

The next day, a letter arrived

saying that the engagement
was officially off.

"Yours sincerely, RK Barrett."

I got another letter from him
two days later saying,

"Dear Gala,
I think we should get married.

Ignore the letter I sent you
yesterday. Lots of love, Syd."

We went up to London
and bought another engagement ring!

STORM: So there's always two -
two rings, two parts of Syd.

Two rings and two letters.

'Syd's relationship with Gala Pinion
would end

when he became convinced
she was having an affair

with a colleague
in the local department store.

Gala would be the last
of Barrett's girlfriends.'

# SYD BARRETT: Clowns & Jugglers

He became more reclusive
when he returned to London

and he was living
in Chelsea Cloisters.

'Sightings of Syd
become less frequent,

with just the odd lurid story
in the papers

and occasional visits
to the local pub

or to the office
of his music publishers.'

When we were still at NEMS,
which was early '70s,

and he started coming
to those offices,

that's when
we realised

he actually had
no money, or
very little money.

We talked about it
and he said

he didn't know where his money
and his royalties were,

so we said, "That's easy. We'll
write to Essex, we'll write to EMI,

we'll write to PRS and
find out where your royalties are."

I used the phrase very loosely,
"Poor Syd",

and, of course,
Bryan being a money man,

he went, "Poor Syd?

He made £2.5 million last year."

I said, "God, where do you keep
all your guitars? You've got loads."

He said, "Oh,
I've got another flat for them."

He said,
"John Lennon's got lots of guitars."

# SYD BARRETT: The Gnome

# I want to tell you a story

# 'Bout a little man

# If I can #

'With royalties from Pink Floyd sales

and David Bowie's cover of See Emily
Play on his Pin Ups album,

Syd would move back and forth
between London

and the small back bedroom
in his mother's house in Cambridge

for the next 12 years or so.

While in Cambridge, Jenny Spires
introduces Barrett to her husband,

bass player Jack Monck

and drummer Twink
from The Pink Fairies.

After several impromptu jam sessions,

the trio form the group Stars

and play a handful of gigs locally.'

ANNOUNCER: "We'd like to bring
Syd Barrett up to the band stand.

Would you come on? How about a hand
for Syd Barrett, huh?"

(APPLAUSE)

'All appears to be going well,

but following a disastrous gig
with MC5

and a negative review in
Melody Maker, Syd leaves the group.

He will never play in public again.'

# PINK FLOYD: Speak to Me
(Intro)

(HEARBEAT / COINS CLINK/ TILL RINGS)

MAN: Very hard to explain
why you are mad.

'A year later, Pink Floyd release
Dark Side Of The Moon

and hit the top
of the US Billboard album charts.

It remains one of the best-selling
records of all time.'

(MAN LAUGHS MANIACALLY)
(RAPID CLATTERING)

'As Pink Floyd's success and fame
grows,

Peter Jenner persuades Syd
to return to Abbey Road.

After three days in the studio
producing just a handful of riffs,

the sessions are abandoned.'

# PINK FLOYD: Shine On
You Crazy Diamond (Pts. 6-9)

'In 1975,

Pink Floyd records
their ninth studio album,

the concept record
Wish You Were Here,

again reaching No.1
on the Billboard charts.

Written as a tribute to Syd,

Shine On You Crazy Diamond,

a 25-minute-long track
made up of nine parts,

bookends the album.

# (ATMOSPHERIC ELECTRIC GUITAR)

The last personal abiding memory
I have of Syd

was at Abbey Road,

when he turned up, remarkably,

at the recording of
Shine On You Crazy Diamond...

but I didn't realise it was him.

I was sitting
in my usual place

in the control room
in Studio 3.

I heard the door go,
looked round

and there was
this chap in the back
of the room

who was slightly portly,

with a shaven head
and a raincoat on, and...

..I just assumed he was something
to do with the studio.

You would occasionally
get odd people popping in.

I had been doing something
in the studio -

I don't know what,
but I'd been in the studio,

so I came into the control room

to find the band all looking
a little bit sort of weird.

It took a little while
and I don't recall

whether it was Roger or David
who realised that it was Syd.

I was waiting for someone
to either say, "This is so-and-so,"

or for someone to say, "Security
are coming any minute now,"

for someone who'd come in
off the street.

# (ELECTRIC-GUITAR SOLO)

Dave looked at me and he said,
"Do you know who that is?"

I went, "No,"

and he said, "It's Syd."

# Shine On You Crazy Diamond
(Pts. 6-9)

STORM: He hadn't been seen
for six years.

He asked if he could help.

Syd came in and sat down

and David and Roger
started talking to him...

..and I then took this opportunity
to snap a couple of photos

with a camera
that I'd only had a couple of days

as a present from the band
after we'd done Knebworth.

It turns out I was using
a slow-speed outdoor film,

so pictures indoors
are a little bit grainy.

Roger had
Brian Humphries the engineer

play him the end of Shine On,

which features the melody line
of See Emily Play,

and Roger asked him afterwards
if he recognised it

and Syd...just said no.

Very blank: "No."

Syd did pick up the Martin,

the D-35 guitar
in the control room there.

I don't think he played
anything in particular.

STORM: Then what happened?

Nothing. (CHUCKLES) We carried on
working, as far as I remember,

but probably
a little bit shellshocked.

STORM: Rick was terribly upset
and Roger cried.

Often people forget that,
although Syd was a huge talent,

this is a talent
that was all too soon lost to us,

and that the band...

..had loved him.

# PINK FLOYD: Shine On You
Crazy Diamond (Pts. 6-9)
(Instrumental break)

WATERS: (RECITES)
Remember when you were young,

you shone like the sun.

Shine on, you crazy diamond.

Now there's a look in your eyes...

like black holes in the sky.

Shine on, you crazy diamond.

You were caught in the crossfire...

..of childhood and stardom,

blown on the steel breeze.

Come on, you stranger,

you legend, you martyr and shine!

# (ORCHESTRATION SWELLS /
EMOTIVE GUITAR SOLO)

(MUSIC FADING OUT)

# SYD BARRETT: Golden Hair
(Acoustic-guitar intro)

(FOOTSTEPS)

(BIRDSONG)

(LOWING)

# Lean out your window

# Golden hair

# I heard you singing

# In the midnight air

# My book is closed

# I read no more #

'In spite of his now cult status

in the eyes of a new generation
of fans and musicians,

in 1978, Barrett sells the rights
to his solo albums

to the record company.

By 1981,

he's facing bankruptcy proceedings.

In 1982, Syd walks the 50 miles
from London back to Cambridge,

returning home for the last time.'

(MAN SCREAMING)

Ya-a-a-a-a!

BREEN:
He had enormous blisters on his feet

and he was just lying
on the sofa with his feet up,

trying to get these blisters mended.

He just wanted to get home
and he hadn't got any money.

You see, you've got to remember

that he never did
a day's work in his life,

getting a salary or a wage packet.

He never had that,

so he never actually grew up
to be responsible,

because he never needed to.

I suppose all of us, if we didn't
need to, we wouldn't do it.

It's more fun being a child.

(BIRDSONG)

And we used to go out in the car,

go to areas
where he could photograph

for a painting,

so we spent a lot of time at
Grantchester, which is just nearby.

MAN: He went back to Cambridge

and his art very much reflects that.

You could say
it's a return to landscape.
STORM: What happened to the work?

He wasn't keen
on keeping his works.

It's not that he didn't care
for them afterwards,

because he did take photos of them,

but he did tend to destroy work.

STORM: Syd made things

and then seemed to destroy them,
or so we're told,

and I'm wondering what that means.

STERN: Maybe he didn't like
too much clutter.

It's called Syd's Feng Shui (!)
(STORM LAUGHS)

# SYD BARRETT: Maisie
(Bluesy instrumental)

BREEN: He needed a lot of support.

He was distressed.

For 25 years or so,
he was my responsibility.

I cared for him.

He'd come on his bike

and he'd got a canvas shopping bag

- very much an old person's thing -
and I said to him,

"Do you know who I am?" And he said,
"Yes, I do. It's Libby, isn't it?"

I said, "Yes, it is,"
and we talked for a little while.

STORM: But that's a strange question
to ask: "Do you know who I am?"

I know who you are -
you don't have to ask me.

I did have to ask him.
He looked different.

He totally moved on
and didn't like that person,

and didn't like that world

and didn't want
to be reminded of it.

When people came to the door,
he'd say,

"Well,
Syd doesn't live here any more,"

you know - because he didn't.

He wasn't Syd any more.

# His luminous grin
put her in a spin #

I think it most unlikely
that you can reinvent yourself,

that you can become
an ordinary bloke

who goes down the pub
and plays darts

when you've been a rock star,

when you've been in the hit parade
and then you're not.

STORM: Do you think people like
to embroider and romance things?

This is perfect for rumours:

a magnetic person

who'd had so much impact

and the band went on being
more and more successful

and where was Syd?

Perfect for rumours!

I know the Daily
Mail, on a quiet
celebrity period,

would rediscover him
every three years (!)

STORM: Ah, the Daily Mail!
"The mad genius of Pink Floyd" (!)

(BOTH CHUCKLE)

STORM: I have a feeling that,

underneath a lot of this,
is a sadness.

KORNER:
Yes, but you don't know, you see?

What was he thinking

on his bicycle in Cambridge,
you know, on his own?

We can talk about it forever,
but won't know.

(BIRDSONG)

(BICYCLE BELL RINGS)

# SYD BARRETT: Birdie Hop
(Gentle strumming intro)

# Birdie hop, he do

# He hop along

# A lonely bird upon

# A window there, hee, hee

# There he blow

# A windy snow

# He knew the snow

# I know the snow

# A hoppy bird #

RAWLINSON: It's not for us to say
how people should be.

Of course, it would have been great

if he'd gone on to produce stuff all
his life, but he didn't. And why?

You could say
he was in a weather system,

something bigger than him,

that...turned him over,

and it was sunny
for the first two weeks

and then it rained for six years.

# PINK FLOYD: Wish You Were Here
(Melancholic guitar intro)

There was a tragedy being played
out - partly self-induced...

..and, in the end,
it's a tragic tale

and tragic tales resonate with us

in a different way,
and perhaps more acutely,

than tales of triumph.

Out in Idaho,
they know who Pink Floyd are.

They probably don't know
Syd Barrett.

He's the old singer

in the band that I love,
which is Pink Floyd.

The band we know Floyd to be now

wouldn't be here without Syd,

but it doesn't really bear
much resemblance

to the band that Syd was in.

BIXLER-ZAVALA:
What would it have sounded like,

if he had stayed in the band?

I would hope
that he would be able to see

what a beautiful thing
it ended up being.

He did things for their own sake

and he depended heavily
on his own childhood memories,

which, I think,
that's also a good lesson to us all,

to go back inside yourselves
and see what you can find.

COXON: Now I don't understand
how boring music can be,

when at one point somebody
was trying to put so much

into four minutes' worth
of listening

and erm...the ear was entertained.

I hope, really, that young people
think twice, because...

look what can happen.

It'd be nice to think
that people could learn a bit.

There are some people who must
have a...a weakness of some sort

that is like a switch
waiting to be turned,

and that switch will go and
they'll never quite come back.

STORM: I think it's really hard
to not feel something.

Well, we probably did
about as much as we could

and we were all very young,

but I have a regret or two.
In what form?

That I never went to see him,
you know.

His family kind of discouraged it.

Yeah, maybe we should have.
I regret that I never went up

to his house in Cambridge
and knocked on -In the '80s?

'80s, '90s, 2000s...

I didn't go, either.None of us did,
but I think, in retrospect...

both Syd and I
might have gained something

out of one or two people
popping around to his house

for a cup of tea.

There's this bloke who changed
the lives of everyone around him...

STORM: Yeah, I think...
..and it...it's a terrible story.

Sorry?It's a terrible story!
It's a terrible story, Storm.

I'm not surprised -It's a sad
story.It's a very, very sad story.

STORM: Is it a sad story, I wonder?

Oh, I don't think so, Storm, no.

Sorry?
I don't think so.

I hope not.

I suppose it's cos I partly feel
he was unfulfilled,

but that's just my projection,
rather than what he felt.Yeah.

Well, all right, it's sad...
it's sad in this way:

we thought we were moving in this
wonderful direction to utopia.

We were fully engaged
in the hip dream,

and it WAS a dream.

We had spiritual heights
in our sights,

and Syd, too.

(ROAR OF TRAFFIC)

MALE INTERVIEWER:
Do you have anything to tell me?

(ROAR OF TRAFFIC CONTINUES)

SYD: Yeah.

OK, Syd.
Um, I can't. I sort of...

I can't really say.

# PINK FLOYD: Pow R Toc H

# Pu-pum, pu-tch-tch

# Pu-pum, pu-tch-tch

# Pu-pum, pu-tch-tch

# Pu-pum, pu-tch-tch

# Pu-pum, pu-tch-tch
(ELECTRONIC SQUAWK)

# Pu-pum, pu-tch-tch
(ELECTRONIC CHIRP)

# Pu-pum, pu-tch-tch
(ELECTRONIC SQUAWK)

# Pu-pum, pu-tch-tch
(ELECTRONIC CHIRP)

# Woo, woo!
(SCREAMS AND ULULATES)

# Woo, woo, woo, woo!

# (PSYCHEDELIC RHYTHM)

# (CYMBALS CRASH)

(RHYTHMIC ELECTRONIC ANIMAL SOUNDS)

STORM: If you were, hypothetically,

to write a letter to Syd...
JENNY SPIRES: Writing to him now?

Yeah...
Oh, it would take me ages, I think.

I would say that he was a good man.

"You were a good man

and...it's terribly sad
what happened to you.

Sorry about all the rubbish
that gets written about you

and silly stories that get told."

"I'm glad that you managed
to get away

from all that madness
that was going on in London

around your life

and I hope that you were happy."

# (TRACK CONTINUES)

I'd say, "Syd, come back,"
because he became Roger

and I don't think
Roger was any happier.

ROCK: A lot of people think
my career started with David Bowie

and I have to say,
well, of course,

really, the beginning was Syd
Barrett...so thank you, Syd.

FIELDING:
I always go back, revisit his work,

and it's always as good,
as I get older

and my understanding grows.

For me, he's like
the perfect artist,

so I'd love to...
I'd like to give him a hug.

# (PSYCHEDELIC JAMMING)

Do you know, it's very interesting
that you bring up memory,

and clearly this whole story

that you're trying to tell about Syd

depends upon the memories
of...of people of our age.

STORM: Slippery memories,
aren't they?Yeah. Well...

we all know that we make up
memories to suit our egos.

Thank you very much.
No.That was great.

It was nice to be led gently back.

# Wish You Were Here
(Electric-guitar intro)

(CHEERING)
It's actually...quite emotional

standing up here
with these three guys

after all these years.

Standing to be counted
with the rest of you.

Anyway, we're doing this

for everyone
who's not here,

and particularly,
of course, for Syd.

# (WISTFUL MELODY)

# (EMOTIVE SOLO)

# So

# So you think
you can tell

# Heaven from Hell?

# Blue skies from pain?

# Can you tell
a green field

# From a cold
steel rail?

# A smile from a veil?

# Do you think
you can tell?

# And did they get you
to trade

# Your heroes
for ghosts?

# Hot ashes for trees?

# And hot air
for a cool breeze?

# Cold comfort
for change?

# And did you exchange

# A walk-on part in the war

# For a lead role in a cage? #

ENGINEER: Syd, are you ready?
SYD: Yeah.Off you go.

# This is a story

# About a girl that I knew

# She didn't like my songs

# And that made me feel blue

# She said,
"A big band is far better than you"

# She don't rock 'n' roll

# She don't like it

# She don't do the stroll

# Well, she don't do it right

# Well, everything's wrong

# And my patience was gone

# When I woke one morning

# And remembered this song

# O-oh-oh

# Kinda catchy

# I hope
that she will talk to me now

# And even allow me

# To hold her hand

# And forget that old band

# I strolled around to her pad

# Her light was off

# And that's ba-a-ad

# Her sister said

# That my girl was gone

# "But come inside, boy

# And play, play, play me a song!"

# I said "Yeah! Here I go" #

# SYD BARRETT: A Long Cool Look

# She took a long cool look at me

# And smiled and
gazed all over my arm

# She loves to see me
get down to ground

# She hasn't time
just to be with me

# Her face between
all she means to be

# To be extreme
just to be extreme

# A broken pier on the wavy sea

# She wonders why
for she wants to see

# But I got up and I stomped around

# And hid the piece where the trees
touch the ground... #

(MUSIC FADES)

(CLEARS THROAT) I'll do it from
the top, right? I'll start again.

AccessibleCustomerService@sky.uk