Roddy Bogawa Syd Barrett

The documentary film, “Have you got it yet? The Story of Syd Barrett and Pink Floyd”, which brings former Pink Floyd, Syd Barrett, to life from stories from friends and fellow musicians was shortlisted for the Music Film of the Year in MOJO magazine in 2023.

Directed by award-winning filmmaker Roddy Bogawa (Taken By Storm: The Art of Storm Thorgerson and Hipgnosis) and the late, acclaimed designer Storm Thorgerson (Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Paul McCartney, Black Sabbath). 

Featuring interviews with David Gilmour, Nick Mason and Roger Waters, original band managers Peter Jenner and Andrew King, as well as The Who’s Pete Townshend and Blur’s Graham Coxon among others.

“What the Floyd did, what Syd did, somehow at those few gigs they did in London is that they defined the whole of that moment in the ‘60s.”
– Pete Townshend (The Who)

“Syd Barrett’s music, both with Pink Floyd and as a solo artist, changed everything in pop culture.” – Thurston Moore (Sonic Youth)

“Riveting, poignant, tender, moving and tragic but ultimately inspiring.”
– John Squire (The Stone Roses)

 

 

Have You Seen It Yet?

The new Syd Barrett film Have You Got It Yet? The Story of Syd Barrett is showing in Light Cinemas around the UK on 30th October. 

Addlestone

Banbury

Bolton

Bradford

Cambridge

New Brighton

Redhill

Sheffield

Sittingbourne

Stockport

Thetford

Walsall

Wisbech

Directed by award-winning filmmaker Roddy Bogawa (Taken By Storm: The Art of Storm Thorgerson and Hipgnosis) and the late, acclaimed designer Storm Thorgerson (Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Paul McCartney, Black Sabbath).

Featuring interviews with David Gilmour, Nick Mason and Roger Waters, original band managers Peter Jenner and Andrew King, as well as The Who’s Pete Townshend and Blur’s Graham Coxon among others.

“What the Floyd did, what Syd did, somehow at those few gigs they did in London is that they defined the whole of that moment in the ‘60s.”
– Pete Townshend (The Who)

“Syd Barrett’s music, both with Pink Floyd and as a solo artist, changed everything in pop culture.” – Thurston Moore (Sonic Youth)

“Riveting, poignant, tender, moving and tragic but ultimately inspiring.”
– John Squire (The Stone Roses)

 

The tour of the film Have You Got It Yet? The Story of Syd Barrett continues. 

Directed by award-winning filmmaker Roddy Bogawa (Taken By Storm: The Art of Storm Thorgerson and Hipgnosis) and the late, acclaimed designer Storm Thorgerson (Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Paul McCartney, Black Sabbath).

Featuring interviews with David Gilmour, Nick Mason and Roger Waters, original band managers Peter Jenner and Andrew King, as well as The Who’s Pete Townshend and Blur’s Graham Coxon among others.

“What the Floyd did, what Syd did, somehow at those few gigs they did in London is that they defined the whole of that moment in the ‘60s.”
– Pete Townshend (The Who)

“Syd Barrett’s music, both with Pink Floyd and as a solo artist, changed everything in pop culture.” – Thurston Moore (Sonic Youth)

“Riveting, poignant, tender, moving and tragic but ultimately inspiring.”
– John Squire (The Stone Roses)

 

We are also delighted to announce the opportunity to meet filmmaker, Roddy Bogawa, and producer, Orian Williams, at the following film showings.

18 September:  Olympic Studios, London, UK

20 September:  Battersea (The Cinema In The Power Station), London, UK

21 September:  Picturehouse – Cambridge, UK

We are delighted to reveal the next new Official Lyrics Video of Syd’s song “She Took A Long Cool Look” is available now on YouTube. Please enjoy. We look forward to reading your comments.

Syd Barrett 1963

The Barrett family are thrilled to launch the next animated lyric video for Syd Barrett Official YouTube, “Love Song”.

Created by Swedish animator The Artist On The Border it is inspired by the love letters Syd wrote to his girlfriends Libby Gausden Chisman and Jenny Spires in the heady, magical late Sixties when Pink Floyd was setting out on the road to fame.

The Artist On The Border spoke about his film

“Love Song” takes us head first into to young Syd Barrett’s letters, prominently featured in Rocket 88s book “Barrett – the definitive visual companion”.

Though “Love Song” most likely was written in the early 1970s, the lyrics work as a handwritten poem, a letter to someone special. Syd would often illustrate his letters with small cartoons or seemingly random images. In this animated creation, I want you to dive into the whimsical, magical experience of just having received a handwritten Love letter from him. Signed “Love, Syd!”

We have shown the film to both Libby and Jenny, and they are both thrilled with it.

Libby Gausden Chisman said  ”I think it’s absolutely lovely xx

Jenny Spires said “Seeing these adorable little stick men and the band drawings Syd sent me come to life in this way is extraordinary.  Syd would have been completely fascinated by it …. just lovely to see… thank you.”

“Well, that’s the last we’ll ever hear of Pink Floyd.”

With his presence looming so large over the band, it’s not hard to believe the apocryphal quote that Pink Floyd was genuinely considered without a future upon the 1968 exit of co founder and primary songwriter Syd Barrett.

Barrett led the legendary band and helped steer the surrounding scene out of the limiting constraints of its blues-based R&B roots and full speed into the expanse of the lysergic late 1960’s. Yet his subsequent solo work, in the shadow of Floyd’s impending world-spanning omnipresence, exists as a quixotic, mythical output that’s equally confounding and delightful, earning a cult following of adventurous ears over the ensuing fifty years.

While Syd Barrett may not be the first nor the most successful to dive into the convergence of the psychedelic and folk realms, he is, without question, the quintessential archetype from which all others must be compared. His influence and reach cannot be overstated. Barrett’s over-exaggerated reputation for experimentation with hallucinogenic drugs tends to propagate the mystique behind his art, but do not mistake that for importance. The music speaks for itself. Syd Barrett’s body of work is of the highest caliber.

Individually out of print on LP for almost ten years and NEVER previously available together on vinyl, Third Man Records in conjunction with Sony Music Entertainment is humbled to present Syd Barrett’s solo albums – The Madcap Laughs, Barrett, and Opel – as the 57th installment of the Vault subscription series.

Originally released in January 1970, The Madcap Laughs serves as Barrett’s best-known and most fully-realized solo effort. Standout tracks like the debut single “Octopus” charm with whimsy and consciousness-expanding lyrical exploration. Recorded at Abbey Road Studios (then known as EMI Recording Studios) with production help from former Floyd bandmates David Gilmour and Roger Waters, the album surprisingly reached number 40 on the UK charts. The reissue is pressed lovingly on golden hair coloured vinyl.

Released in November of 1970, Barrett again enlisted former bandmates’ production guidance (Gilmour again in addition to Richard Wright) at Abbey Road Studios. Featuring surreal gems like “Baby Lemonade” and the explorative “Gigolo Aunt” the album compels with a softly focused hazy introspection. Here it is presented on baby lemonade coloured vinyl.

Consisting of outtakes and previously unreleased material from the 1968-1970 era, 1988’s Opel fills in the blanks of the two previous albums. Properly illuminating the full picture of Barrett’s studio work, where no two takes were ever the same, the significance of Opel is two-fold. First, as an early example of a record label reacting to an underground, cult following. At that time it was almost odd for an imprint to dig into the vault. But with Syd being held in such high regard and interest in his work unflagging, countless illicit bootlegs would be rendered obsolete by the depths dug on Opel. For these purposes it is offered on milky way opal colored vinyl.

All three LPs are pressed on 180-gram vinyl at Third Man Pressing in Detroit and will come housed in a newly-designed slipcase featuring a recursive portrait of Syd by New York Times bestselling author and illustrator Greg Ruth. Executed in one continuous line without lifting the pen, the image is hypnotizing, mesmerizing and easy to get lost in, just like Barrett’s music.

An added bonus to this collection is a 7-inch single by David Gilmour covering two Barrett compositions. “Dominoes” was recorded at Royal Festival Hall in January 2002 and plucks an undeniable playful jaunt, decidedly ebullient and fresh. The take on “Dark Globe” was recorded live, as a tribute, shortly after Syd’s death in 2006. Celebratory, heartfelt, joyous and sad all at once, the rendition here is sparse and unfiltered. If you can look past all the lore and history and mythos…it is simply an earnest tribute to a departed friend.

Order by midnight local time July 31st to guarantee yourself a copy of this essential collection

Only available at www.thirdmanrecords.com/vault

Vault Package 57

Syd Barrett

3xLP in slipcase

 

TRACKLIST:

The Madcap Laughs

  1. Terrapin
  2. No Good Trying
  3. Love You
  4. No Man’s Land
  5. Dark Globe
  6. Here I Go
  7. Octopus
  8. Golden Hair
  9. Long Gone
  10. She Took A Long Cold Look
  11. Feel
  12. If It’s In You
  13. Lat Night

 

Barrett

  1. Baby Lemonade
  2. Love Song
  3. Dominoes
  4. It Is Obvious
  5. Rats
  6. Maisie
  7. Gigolo Aunt
  8. Waving My Arms In The Air
  9. I Never Lied To You
  10. Wined And Dined
  11. Wolfpack
  12. Effervescing Elephant

Opel

  1. Opel
  2. Clowns And Jugglers
  3. Rats
  4. Golden Hair
  5. Dolly Rocker
  6. Word Song
  7. Wined And Dined
  8. Swan Lee (Silas Lang)
  9. Birdie Hop
  10. Let’s Split
  11. Lanky Pt. 1
  12. Wouldn’t You Miss Me (Dark Globe)
  13. Milky Way
  14. Golden Hair – Take 1

 

David Gilmour 7-inch single

“Dark Globe” b/w “Dominoes”

 

 

 

 

Opening In NY Theaters July 14th & LA Theaters July 21st

Additional Cities To Be Announced

Directed by award-winning filmmaker Roddy Bogawa (Taken By Storm: The Art of Storm Thorgerson and Hipgnosis) and the late, acclaimed designer Storm Thorgerson (Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Paul McCartney, Black Sabbath).

Featuring interviews with David Gilmour, Nick Mason and Roger Waters, original band managers Peter Jenner and Andrew King, as well as The Who’s Pete Townshend and Blur’s Graham Coxon among others.

“What the Floyd did, what Syd did, somehow at those few gigs they did in London is that they defined the whole of that moment in the ‘60s.”
– Pete Townshend (The Who)

“Syd Barrett’s music, both with Pink Floyd and as a solo artist, changed everything in pop culture.” – Thurston Moore (Sonic Youth)

“Riveting, poignant, tender, moving and tragic but ultimately inspiring.”
– John Squire (The Stone Roses)

Abramorama to distribute the film globally.

A new drama for BBC Radio 4, THE BALLAD OF SYD & MORGAN, starring Simon Russell Beale (pictured), Tyger Drew-Honey (pictured) and Madeleine Leslay is available on BBC Sounds

Dramatised by Roger James Elsgood from Haydn Middleton’s novel of the same name. The story features an imagined meeting that takes place between Syd Barrett and the English author of A Room with a View and A Passage to India, E M Forster, woven into a beautiful tale. The setting for this play is a place that both of these characters called home, Cambridge.  Sound design and post-production by Giovanni Sipiano, directed by Willi Richards and produced by Roger James Elsgood.

 

Syd Barrett 1963

Syd Barrett Music Limited and the Syd Barrett estate are launching a dedicated Syd Barrett YouTube channel

The channel is a natural extension of Syd Barrett’s existing online presence and will consist of artistic interpretations of his solo music, with accompanying music and lyrics. Together with the Swedish animator, Alex Teglbjaerg, known as The Artist on the Border, there will be new animated music videos released on an ongoing basis. It will initially focus on the solo songs which originally appeared on ”An Introduction to Syd Barrett” (2010).

“There isn’t all that much filmed Syd Barrett out there,” says Peter Barrett on behalf of the Barrett family, ”you’ve already seen most of the material and the few bits that pop up are quickly placed in the digital public domain. We want to take his quirky and poetic lyrics and translate them into images.”

Alex Teglbjaerg said of the project: “I try to take the listener into a Syd Barrett dream of sorts. Syd was a craftsman when it came to writing intriguing lyrics for his songs. Many times utilising cut-up techniques. That’s what I am attempting to do as well. I take what we take for granted, Syd in a room with painted floorboards and find a way to discover more. Not just zoom in, I try to immerse the viewer in that room by using collages and elements from multiple sources. But in the end, the focus is not on the visuals themselves.
It lies in Syd’s music and lyrics.”

The YouTube channel will launch with animated videos for

Terrapin”, “Dominoes” and “Dark Globe

with more to follow

Cult icon, enigma, recluse… the life of Syd Barrett, founding member of Pink Floyd, is full of unanswered questions. Until now.

Piecing together his comet-like rise to pop stardom, his creative and destructive impulses, breakdown, exit from the band and subsequent life alone, this feature length documentary is set against the social context of the explosive sixties. Directed by Storm Thorgerson (Hipgnosis) and award-winning director Roddy Bogawa, it features new interviews with Syd’s friends, lovers, family and band mates Roger Waters, David Gilmour, and Nick Mason.

Syd Barrett, founding member of world famous rock group Pink Floyd and its initial songwriter and leader, led a life full of unanswered questions. Was he a drug casualty of the sixties? Did he walk away from the pressures of the commercial music world? Did he suffer from an undiagnosed mental illness?

Pink Floyd were caught in the epicentre of the ‘underground’ explosion of the 60s as the psychedelic house band of the UFO club in London, with Syd Barrett its enigmatic figurehead, inspiring such musicians as David Bowie and Marc Bolan. Though he named the group, wrote the first two hit songs and was the lead vocalist and guitarist, Barrett was pushed out of the band by its members who were convinced he was having an LSD induced psychotic breakdown.

After leaving Pink Floyd, Barrett struggled to record two solo records but eventually dropped out of the music industry completely, living as a recluse for thirty years – while Pink Floyd went on to worldwide fame as one of the biggest selling bands of all time. Many Pink Floyd works examined themes of genius and madness.

The film includes iconic screen footage for SHINE ON YOU CRAZY DIAMOND, rarely seen excerpts of Syd backstage, never-before seen photographs and a soundtrack full of Floyd’s music, HAVE YOU GOT IT YET? will thrill fans and newcomers to Syd’s legend alike.

Produced by Mercury Studios, @believemedia and A Cat Called Rover, and directed by @roddybogawa and the late Storm Thorgerson, ‘Have You Got It Yet?’ will premiere at @everymankingscross in London on 27th April 2023 📽

Have You Got It Yet? The Story of Syd Barrett & Pink Floyd will premiere across Everyman Cinemas in the UK from Monday 15th May. For more information, please visit https://www.everymancinema.com/ and late June in the US & Canada