Syd Audio Map

(NICKMASON) Audio: In 2005, Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason said he hadn't spoken to Syd Barrett in over 20 years. OC:...left alone. :19

"I'm probably the furthest away from Syd actually. In terms of, I wasn't a childhood friend of his, I'm not from Cambridge, never produced his records -- I'm a little more removed. But the word has always been that he gets distressed when people try to remind him about the old days, and he's better left alone."

(NICKMASON2) Audio: Nick Mason and David Gilmour on Syd Barrett turning up in the studio when Pink Floyd was recording "Shine on You Crazy Diamond," which is about Barrett. OC:...fat and bald. :15

NM: "Well it's slightly grim in a way because yes he turned up. I for one certainly didn't recognize him."
DG: "He was there. A guy was just wandering around the studio for like two or three hours and no one actually recognized him at all. He was big and fat and bald."

(ROGER) Audio: Roger Waters on Syd Barrett coming up with the name Pink Floyd. OC:...all changed. :23

"Well Syd suggested it. In fact we were called The Pink Floyd Sound for sometime and then it got reduced to Pink Floyd. As is well documented it's two halves of the names of two sidemen on a blues anthology album who were called Floyd Council and Pink Anderson. Our repertoire consisted almost entirely of blues and rhythm and blues. And then Syd started to write songs and that's when it all changed."

(ROGER2) Audio: Roger Waters remembers plotting out a rock band with Syd Barrett in the late '50s. OC:...Pink Floyd. :32

"I remember sitting on a train with Syd going up to London once to go to a rock and roll show and we sat with a paper and a pencil and drew out the way we would be on stage and drew out the equipment. It wasn't until two or three years after that, I'd been in London for a year at architecture school and Syd came up to study fine arts and painting, and it wasn't until then that the group really came together. I think when we started we were called The Screaming Abdabs and then we changed the name to The Tea Set and it was after The Tea Set that we changed the name to Pink Floyd."

(RICHARD) Audio: Pink Floyd keyboardist Rick Wright on Syd Barrett. OC:...to Syd. :12

"It was a tragedy what happened to Syd, because you know he was brilliant and he was a wonderful person. And I think underlining a lot of the Floyd writing, right from that time, has been because of our awareness of what happened to Syd."