LFAR reminder
IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT: ‘THE THING ABOUT SYD’
Don’t forget ‘The Thing About Syd’ on Saturday, BBC Radio 2 at 8PM (UK time). David is one of many interviewed for this new documentary about the Madcap genius.
You can listen online, with live streaming, or you can ‘Listen Again’ – a feature that allows you to repeat the programme as many times as you like for a period of seven days following the original broadcast.
To ‘Listen Again’, please see the purple/lilac box on the right of the Radio 2 homepage (where it says “Listen to your favourite shows anytime”) and click LISTEN. This will open the BBC Radio Player.
Fans in the United States can see David’s excellent ‘Live From Abbey Road’ performance on the Sundance Channel tonight.
If you miss tonight’s broadcast at 10PM E/P, there are plenty of repeats coming up. The Sundance Channel will be showing it again on Saturday (at 2AM), Sunday (at 9PM) and Tuesday (at 6PM).
I hope you enjoy it as much as Dick Parry (above) seemed to when he was at the recording.
The Sundance Channel is available via satellite and cable television.
If you spot the series in your local TV listings, do let us know when and where others can see it.
Here’s the latest from Phil. Our thanks to everybody who submitted a question for him.
Phil answered a good batch of questions, so please appreciate that he will not be answering any additional ones, no matter how good they are. I’m sorry if you missed out.
And please hold on to your questions for David. I’m not ready for them just yet, but look forward to seeing what you’ve come up with.
I’ll open the floodgates towards the end of next week, possibly the week after.
What were the stand-out moments from the ‘On an Island’ tour for you? (Victor)
So many. Playing the Royal Albert Hall with all those guests…
I noticed huge grins on your face both nights at Massey Hall as David did extended solo flights during a few numbers. If you recall at all, what was going through your mind at the time? (Buffalo Phil)
That he was giving it a bit of welly and enjoying himself.
I loved watching you perform because you have such a groovy “wiggle” when you play. Are you able to let go and enjoy the music or are you focused on the piece at hand – or are the two not mutually exclusive? (Nickster)
Steady on there, Nickster. The resident PR is reading the answers! It’s good to lose yourself in the music, provided that you don’t lose your place in the music.
Such awful news on TV this evening…
Just heard of torrential rains and flooding in London, Oxfordshire, Berkshire and South Wales, I think very much of you all and hope you have no major problems.
And just heard of a bus crash in French Alps, a bus carrying Polish pilgrims to Fatima or Lourdes, at least 26 people were killed . My deep thoughts to our Polish friends here, too.
Is there any justice in this world ? I sometimes wonder.
Michèle
Thanks Lorraine for your work:)
Good thing the rhino,let’s promote it,bravo Fed!
emi
The Thing About Syd
Part Seven
Nick Mason: Norman probably felt that he didn’t really communicate with Syd that well. But I think, at times, Syd took very kindly to some of Norman’s ideas. I mean, Norman was a very good musician in his own right and perfectly capable of, sort of, bringing in other sounds and other ideas.
Peter Jenner: The album was the existing songs that we had around, plus songs that he was writing as we were going along.
Richard Wright: Syd was a unique writer, as everyone knows. A lot of his songs didn’t actually get on to any albums, were very like fairytales, very whimsical. I mean, he was brilliant. He would come up with a song in ten minutes.
Peter Jenner: And he was very like that. ‘Chapter 24‘, he wrote with a book of The I Ching and he opened it up an there was chapter 24, you know, and taking lines out of the book.
Richard Wright: And the other thing about Syd was, when he wrote a song, he’d be writing to the rhythms of the words, rather than saying “I’ve got four beats to the bar,” but we had to work that out for him. He couldn’t work it out either, each time he did it, he changed it, so he would write rhythms to the words. Then his guitar would go with the rhythm of the words and the timing of the chord changes didn’t matter to him at all.
Mark Radcliffe: ‘Bike’ – a quirky Barrett song that would feature on the Pink Floyd debut album ’Piper At The Gates of Dawn’. The Floyd had become the musical darlings of the flowering counter culture. The group continued their residency at UFO, performed at happening night spots, like the London Round House, and headlied the all-night benefit event, The Fourteen Hour Technicolor Dream, at Alexandra Palace.
Nick Mason: For us, it was not a particularly great evening. By the time we got to The Technicolor Dream, we actually had done another show in Holland that same night, so we were not entirely on our very best, sharpest form – and Syd was by this time beginning to show signs of wear and tear.
To be continued…
The Thing About Syd
Part Eight
Richard Wright: By this time, Syd had lost it. He had definitely lost it in Holland and then I don’t think he even realised where he was.
Peter Jenner: And it was trying to find different ways of coping with what was clearly becoming a very difficult position for them, because it would be things like: Is he going to turn up to go to the gig? What songs is he going to sing?
Mark Radcliffe: Concerned by his erratic behaviour, Syd was moved from his Cromwell Road circle of friends and into a Richmond flat with Rick Wright.
Richard Wright: All of us loved Syd and were clearly all hoping that he would get better and all desperately trying as hard as possible to keep him in the band.
Mark Radcliffe: Word had reached the Barrett family in Cambridge. Sister Rosemary again:
Rosemary: It was accepted, in his world, to be involved in drugs, and therefore he withdrew much more from Cambridge and from the family because he knew we didn’t understand.
Mark Radcliffe: There were new pressures on Syd as Floyd’s EMI record label wanted a follow-up single to ‘Arnold Layne’.
Peter Jenner: Up to and including recording ‘See Emily Play’, I think he may have been different, but it was still… One was working with him in a way that was still reasonably coherent. I think it became – through that next summer, ‘67 – it became harder.
Mark Radcliffe: David Gilmour dropped by the ‘Emily Play’ sessions.
David: He had a very strange look on his face. When I got there, they were all working away and we did talk, but he did have this very strange starey-eyed look, which was not friendly. There was something troubling him. He didn‘t look like the same person. On that particular day, I saw a sign of what was going to come.
To be continued…
The concluding parts of ‘The Thing About Syd’ will be found in the next blog entry.
Does anybody want to take over and give Lorraine a rest?
Lorraine, many thanks for taking the time to transcribe this for us. You’re a gem.
You inspired me F’ed
By a combination of looking cute and extortion (threatening to be sick on our Persian rug), our tabby Harry has persuaded me to adopt a Bengal Tiger …
[Excellent! I don't think there is a more beautiful, majestic, fascinating animal, is there? It would be a crying shame if our grandchildren and great-grandchildren only saw pictures of tigers and spoke of them as we speak of dodos. So, who's next? I see that there is also a panda, an elephant, an orang-utan and a dolphin... It's just a few quid, after all. - Features Editor]
lorraine
you are the brightest star in the blog firmament …