GOODBYE SYD

I grew up with Roger Barrett aka Syd. And now he's gone. From the age of 11 years I spent time with Syd almost every day. We learned to play guitar together we learned to draw and paint and we experienced all that teenage life in Cambridge was to offer.

Syd and I had endless guitar jam sessions at Cambridge Tech which was also home to Cambridge College of Art which we both attended. After two years there, Syd moved to London to pursue fine arts at Camberwell and I remained in Cambridge for a further three years to graduate. I co-created the infamous 'Jokers Wild' with Dave Gilmour, Clive Welham, Tony Sainty, Dave Altham, Willie Wilson and others.

It is many many years since I have seen Syd. I believe the last time was at a flat in South Kensington, London (which had been used as a movie location). By then he and I had changed. We still clicked but only when his mind was able to be 'present'.

I awoke this morning with 'See Emily Play' on the radio. It jettisoned me back over 40 years and I've not stopped thinking about those teenage years all day. I've had 'Interstellar Overdrive' and 'Arnold Layne' running through my head whilst swimming in psychedelic images from those early lightshows we used to create in my flat near the College (projected at night out of the door, across the road onto the white house opposite). I wonder if they ever knew what it was lighting up their bedroom curtains in the middle of the night. We knew ... it was the beginning of a genius and his tortured life to come.

Shine On Syd ...

'Johnny' Gordon
www.MagicWorks.co.uk

Great photos here (I may have even taken one of these)
http://members.aol.com/pgrsel/barrett/index.htm

http://www.sydbarrett.it/

Syd's Wikipedia entry
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syd_Barrett

What Syd Barrett means to me
http://arts.guardian.co.uk/features/story/0,,1818256,00.html

RIP PINK FLOYD'S SYD BARRETT:
SHINE ON YOU CRAZY DIAMOND
http://blogs.mercurynews.com/aei/2006/07/rip_syd_barrett.html