Nick Mason at York Barbican

Posted on by Opher

I went to see Nick Mason at the York Barbican last night. I was seated next to a real Punk Rock Queen called Jane! She loved it as much as me! Great show. All very different to the early shows at Middle Earth in 67/68. Back then there were no mobiles, no bag checks and metal detectors. You could go and chat to the band. We pranced around or stood and watched and had a great time. It was only about 15p to get in back in 67! Bit different now. That was an event; this was a show. Altogether different. Back in 1967 it was more a gathering of the clans – like-minded people with a real dream. How naïve we were. But what camaraderie and intense fun.

I was trying to remember when I last saw the Floyd playing live. The chronology is all over the place. It might have been the Fishmongers Arms in Tottenham, or Eel Pie Island with Blossom Toes. It could even have been the free Parliament Hill Fields free concert or Hyde Park. They were a great psychedelic underground band.

It was great to see the images of Syd. He was a genius. Those early songs were so incredibly unique. Nick’s band did a great job but it wasn’t the same. I did get to meet Syd once, in the corridor at Abbey Road Studio in about 1971. I was walking down the corridor with Roy Harper, towards the studio where Roy was recording. Syd was in there recording too. He loped towards us, recognised Roy and stopped to have a chat. I stood as Roy and Syd exchanged words. He still looked great then – a shock of long curly black hair and handsome face but the eyes had gone. They were indeed those black holes that I have seen a few other times with acid casualties. He seemed in good spirits though – lucid and friendly. He and Roy talked for a minute. He nodded to me and then loped off.

I never went to see the Floyd playing stadia. After seeing them in small clubs for free or next to nothing it didn’t seem right. Rock to me was the intimacy of a small club, a rocking band and being with mates. I’ve grown to enjoy stadia rock and wish I’d made the effort. It’s different but good.

I took a few photos of the gig on my phone. Nothing great but they do give an impression. The band were superb. Great to see Nick after all this time. Felt strange to see a huge image of Syd staring out at us as his songs were played. They are timeless, exciting. I was knocked out by the Syd number where they’d isolated a Syd vocal and played along to it. I’d never heard that track!!

A great evening – a bit different to 1967. Times move on.

Today’s Music to keep me IIiIINnnnssssSAAAAANNnnnEeee – Pink Floyd – Piper At The Gates Of Dawn

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That first album, brimming with creativity, the Syd Barrett masterpiece.

Stars frighten me.

Nobody had ever sounded like this.

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=youtube+Pink+Floyd+Piper+at+the+gates+of+dawn&view=detail&mid=5702795FB0FF76933A2E5702795FB0FF76933A2E&FORM=VIRE

Only in Dreams

Posted on by Opher

Only in Dreams

It’s only in the memories

                That we live.

Only in the thoughts of friends

                The dreams of lovers

                                And in images and words.

Life is a brief poem

                That rhymes

                                With the rhythm

                                                Of sun, stars

                                And the green hills of Earth.

Life is a poem

                Of endless hope

On a short journey

                With only one ending.

Opher 3.1.2023

I started off thinking about Syd Barrett. I’m reading this great book about him. I saw him play and met him once. He meant a lot.

Now he’s dead.

He only lives in our memories, his music and the words and images we have of him.

That made me think about myself and all of us.

This life spent on a planet hurtling through space. What a journey.

All we’ll have to show….

Today’s Music to keep me IiiiINnnnnnSssssaaaaaAnNnnNeee – Pink Floyd – Interstellar Overdrive

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Originality, improvisation, experimentation, psychedelia, – sheer genius!!

Today’s Music to keep me Insssssaaaannnneee – Syd Barrett.

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A true madcap. There is something so compelling about his music.

Today’s Music to keep me SsSSsAAaaaNNnnnNEeeEEe in Isolation – Syd Barrett – Syd Barrett

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The second and last Syd Barrett album (if you discount the odds and sods that made up Opel). There is something other-worldly about Syd. His music is unique and gets right into your head. I imagine him like a little elf. He was magical. I love this album.

Today’s Music to keep me SSSsSSaAAaaaNnnNNEEee in Isolation – Syd Barrett

Posted on by Opher

There is something special about Syd – nobody sounds similar. Some of his songs are so simple yet not easy. I find them compelling.

Syd Barrett “Barrett” – Full Album – YouTube

Radio Show Psychedelic Sixties – Just got back from the recording studio!

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537 Essential Rock Albums cover

I’ve just returned from recording our second radio show. Mike is a great friend of mine. He used to be the Roadie with Free, Bad Company and Robin Trower. We’ve been messing about doing some Radio shows on Rock Music. We’ve got seventy roughly planned out. Our first show was Merseybeat and this second one is Sixties Psychedelia.

We’ve been doing these as 1 hour Radio Shows. So far nobody wants to put them out but we’re enjoying making them.

What do you think we should do next?

Rock ‘n’ Roll?

Electric Blues of the 1950s?

West Coast Acid Rock?

Punk?

I’ll get this converted to an MP3 and put it out on the blog as soon as I can. I’m going to listen to it now!

Pink Floyd – Shine on you Crazy Diamond – a song for Syd Barrett.

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syd_barrett_in_the_acid_sea-detail

Syd was the driving force behind Psychedelia. His fantastic lyrics and musical concepts created a new genre. There was nothing like it. Many people tried to copy but they lacked Syd’s imagination and touch. He was an incredibly imaginative person.

Syd is the highest profile Acid casualty. I don’t know if it was the acid or an inherent mental illness. Perhaps the acid precipitated what was already lurking? Perhaps the genius was tied up with the mental illness? Who knows.

All I know is that when I met Syd he was gone. His eyes were those black holes. His speech was slow and labouring. Too much acid had certainly done him no good. Or was it too much dope?

I’ve seen the same thing with two of my friends. One committed suicide at the age of twenty one and the other has recurrent problems following a bad acid experience at Glastonbury.

This song was written as a tribute to Syd’s genius. Pink Floyd are a formidable band; one of the best. They were different without Syd but still brilliant. Syd gave them the kick-start and impetus. He’s gone but not forgotten. He never did shine again. What a great shame.

Pink Floyd – Shine On You Crazy Diamond lyrics

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 on the cross fire of childhood and stardom,
Blown on the steel breeze.
Come on you target for faraway laughter, come on you stranger,
You legend, you martyr, and shine!

You reached for the secret too soon, you cried for the moon.
Shine on you crazy diamond.
Treatened by shadows at night, and exposed in the light.
Shine on you crazy diamond.
Well you wore out your welcome with random precision,
Rode on the steel breeze.
Come on you raver, you seer of visions, come on you painter,
You piper, you prisoner, and shine!

Nobody knows where you are, how near or how far.
Shine on you crazy diamond.
Pile on many more layers and I’ll be joining you there.
Shine on you crazy diamond.
And we’ll bask in the shadow of yesterday’s triumph,
And sail on the steel breeze.
Come on you boy child, you winner and loser,
Come on you miner for truth and delusion, and shine!

Syd Barrett – Opher’s World pays tribute to a genius.

Posted on by Opher

Syd-Barrett
Syd Barrett was the creative force behind the nascent Pink Floyd. After only one album and a handful of singles he became the most high profile Acid casualty in Rock history and suffered what was ostensibly a complete breakdown that lead to him being ousted from the band.
If that had been the full extent of his career it would have been sufficient to assure him a place in the lexicon of Rock as the principle exponent of the psychedelic phenomenon. But it wasn’t over yet.
Syd was nursed to a partial recovery and coaxed back into the studio by Gilmour and Wright. The ideas were still there and he went on to record two more extraordinary albums (the dregs making up a third) full of the fantastical imagery and characters that he had deployed so well in the early Floyd songs.
These albums were not so complex and lavishly produced as the first Floyd album but they were just as adventurous and innovative. Syd had not lost it.
The problem was that Syd was still delicate. I met him at the time he was recording in Abbey Road studio. I was there with Roy Harper and we bumped into him in a corridor. He was quiet timid and shy and what I remember most is those eyes. They were big, shiny and black. It was like looking into a void. Floyd got it spot on in ‘Shine on you crazy diamond’.
The albums were brilliant and they even tried to get Syd back on the road to promote them. He had an adoring fan base who were with him all the way but he simply could not cope. At his one attempt he fumbled through a couple of songs and walked off. That was it.
Syd went on to become a reclusive hermit, living with his mother, painting and whiling away the time. He never recorded again and probably never wrote any more songs.
Syd was as amazing character as the people he created in his songs. He left us with a number of psychedelic classics in his inimitable fantasy style that sounded so simple yet nobody has proved able to replicate.
There is only one Syd Barrett.