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EXPLAINED: Syd barrett - The Real Truth

The inside story behind the celebrations of Syd Barrett's 80th birthday. "Syd emerged from the womb fully formed. There was no lead-in period - it was bang!"

Twenty years after the former Pink Floyd frontman's death, an exhibition, gig and star-studded tribute album will celebrate Syd Barrett's legacy

Louder

“I expected everybody to be like, ‘Who are you to do this?’” Meet the Pink Floyd tribute band celebrating 50 years of Wish You Were Here by writing three new songs for the classic album

Floyd Nation has offered an alternate ending to the record’s “tragic” narrative. Guitarist Brendon McDonnell explains what compelled them to add to an iconic album – and why he isn’t trying to be David Gilmour

Guitar World

"A confident, certainty-filled album about an uncertain, unconfident world." Robyn Hitchcock's enigmatic The Confuser is the best album he's released this century

The Confuser is the twenty-fifth post-Soft Boys waxing fromalt. stalwart Robyn Hitchcock

Louder

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"Although Dylan showed me what I wanted to be, Syd Barrett showed me how I could be it. And I actually wound up sounding like John Lennon": cult rocker Robyn Hitchcock opens up about unique career

The former Soft Boys frontman spoke with comedian and writer Stewart Lee

MusicRadar

‘I was a self-centred, entitled little horror ... arguably I still am’: cult psych rocker Robyn Hitchcock talks to Stewart Lee

Armed with a new album inspired by ‘dead English blokes’, the revered musician discusses writing nasty songs about his neighbours and how he’s finally made it in Nashville aged 73

The Guardian - UK

Syd Barrett’s iconic Madcap floorboards to go on show on South Coast this July

The Piper venue near Hastings will feature a week-long programme of gigs and talks in July to commemorate the 20th anniversary of Syd Barrett's passing

Louder

New album to celebrate Syd Barrett’s 80th birthday

A new album is being launched to celebrate what would have been Syd Barrett’s 80th birthday.

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Syd Barrett 80th birthday celebrations include tribute concert in Cambridge and tribute album featuring Pink Floyd, David Gilmour and more...

A special tribute concert at the Cambridge Corn Exchange, where Syd Barrett played his last ever live show, will take place in October

Louder

“Music, art, death, time – they’re all part of the same thing. I can’t articulate it. I’m just some stoned goofball with a guitar”: How Gong became more Gong than ever with latest album Bright Spirit

The most stable line-up in the band’s six-decade history have completed their first trilogy, with new spiritual insight and an old but well-loved guitar style borrowed from Syd Barrett

Louder

“Greg Lake was a bit of a cabaret singer. Jon Anderson, whatever you think of his lyrics, bloody meant it”: The prog stars who influenced a comedy musician’s career – and made him become a milkman for a while

Graham Fellows, creator of Jilted John and John Shuttleworth, started out with ELP before finding Yes, Focus, The Enid and Pink Floyd (although he has no time for The Dark Side Of The Moon)

Louder

“I got three whacks with the cane for lying and skipping school. So I blame The Beatles for me being in the music business. I also blame them for getting a whacking!” Derek Shulman’s path to Gentle Giant

Singer and future A&R icon recalls what the Fab Four meant to him, why Hendrix made him break up his first big band, and the truck stop where he met Syd Barrett, Eric Clapton and others

Louder

“Roger was a bit resentful of the fact that whenever Eric Clapton got up and played a solo, the place would erupt”: Old colleague of Pink Floyd spills the beans on his relationship with band members

Tim Renwick was school friend of Syd and Roger Waters

MusicRadar

‘Harder work than almost any album we ever did’: Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Here turns 50

As the classic album hits 50, Nick Mason talks about the often difficult process of making it and how it has since fit into their larger catalogue

The Guardian - US

“A caustic David Gilmour guitar attack, with Roger Waters equally venomous in his lyrical delivery”: Pink Floyd’s 10 heaviest songs

They may be known for soundscapes and atmospheres, but when the moment took them, they cranked it up to 11 – sometimes reflecting the darkness and tension between the members

Louder

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Louder

"The music is perfectly in sync with the visuals!" Noel Fielding opens up on his love for Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here

Noel Fielding has created several paintings of Pink Floyd and Syd Barrett to help promote the upcoming reissue of Wish You Were Here

Louder

Pink Floyd share new stereo mix of Shine On You Crazy Diamond, presented for the first time as a single continuous piece of music

Pink Floyd will reissue their ninth studio album, Wish You Were Here, on various formats on December 12

Louder

“He’s full of warmth for those they befriended on their rise, and full of ire for those who crossed them”: Derek Shulman takes aim at Syd Barrett, the Beach Boys, the Eagles and others in his not-very-gentle memoir Giant Steps

Former Gentle Giant vocalist who became an A&R bigwig provides an refreshingly undiplomatic account of his career on stage and off it

Louder

“Bacchanalian, primal, subversive, translucent… like what might happen if Robert Fripp’s drink had been spiked with acid”: 10 great psychedelic songs that’ll shake any prog fan’s tree (but aren't by Pink Floyd)

Revolutionary music from Yes, John McLaughlin, Pretty Things, Tangerine Dream, Strawbs and more, including a song that was prog even before prog was prog

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Cinemablend

6 Iconic Albums I'd Love To See Get The Biopic Treatment Next

Like the albums, these biopics would be instant hits!

BANG Premier

Poem released in honour of Pink Floyd's seminal LP Wish You Were Here by Poet Laureate Simon Armitage

The new poem pays tribute to the "creativity" of late frontman Syd Barrett.

MusicRadar

“I remember sitting down with Roger and saying, ‘Roger, this is insane!’”: The strange lost album that Pink Floyd abandoned in 1975

Only two tracks have ever been heard from what could have been Pink Floyd's most divisive record

Louder

“There was a sense of humour. We were taken very seriously by the world at large, but there was always an edge of fun”: The grimness of Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Here may have been overstated

1975 album remains a fan favourite – and despite their struggle to make it, the band insist the spirit of love shines through the grief and anger amid the theme of absence and their feelings about Syd Barrett

MusicRadar

“It’s pretty rancid! That brain mulching sound they put on vocals makes me feel slightly sick”: The Divine Comedy’s Neil Hannon isn’t a fan of modern pop music

He recorded his new album Abbey Road, but says that "I don’t believe that Syd Barrett’s hand is on your shoulder or John Lennon is guiding your fingers across the piano"

The Guardian - UK

Dad’s part in Pink Floyd’s free-form mayhem on Jugband Blues

Brief letters: Salvation Army ensemble | Giving way | Cornish conundrum | Nuclear fast-track fears | Rejects UK

The Guardian - UK

And if your head explodes: Pink Floyd’s 20 best songs – ranked!

Fifty years after the release of Wish You Were Here, we count down the best of the band’s Syd Barrett years, their difficult recovery and later reunion

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