This winter marks the 50th anniversary of the release of Pink Floyd’s last Syd Barrett-penned single and the effective end of his career with the band. With the penetrating countenance of an icon in waiting, Barrett briefly shone brightly before abruptly disappearing from the scene, having become the most famous acid casualty of the 1960s

His subsequent elusiveness foreshadowed the band’s perennial absence. Rarely interviewed until the enmity between David Gilmour and Roger Waters boiled over in the mid-1980s, and putting the focus on spectacular visuals, rather than themselves, on stage, the band have had the most underdeveloped personality cult of any stars of the period of classic rock.

Yet Barrett remains ever-present as a peerless legend, a genius innovator at a time when music was advancing at breakneck speed…

The New European, 7 December 2017, pp. 31-34.

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