THE SYD BARRETT STORY

I've always been a fan from the Pink Floyd fan from the 1973-1979 ("Dark side .. - "The wall") until a friend (a Sixties freak) introduced my to the songs "Arnold Lane" and "See Emily play") from the very early Pink Floyd. From that moment on I began to appreciate the genius from Syd Barrett: his unique guitarplay (some say that he influenced David Gilmour his slide guitar play by using a lighter!), his funny, weird and peculiar lyrics and his mesmerizing stage performance. During the story on this DVD you can witness the rise and fall from Syd Barrett with lots of captivating and even emotional stories, told by the band members and people around Syd. For me this story has an extra dimension because Syd Barrett has been diagnosed as suffering from a schizophrenic process. In my work as a psychiatric nurse I learn people with schizophrenia to deal with their disease and that is often a very hard and painfull process, also for the people around schizophrenics. I try to imagine what a terrible world it must have been for Syd Barrett when he became famous but also suffered more and more from schizophrenia (thinking paranoid, suffering from voices and hallucinations), this was getting worse because of his acid-abuse. In those days he was not treated with good medication so eventually he lost contact with the reality and even turned into an almost 'catatonic state' (without moving and talking) on stage, horrible! If you listen to a post-Pink Floyd Syd Barrett song like "Jugband blues" you can notice the mental desintegration but other Syd Barrett solo are wonderful, very emotional pieces. Unfortunately due to his mental disease (schizophrenia but also a heavy depression because of the lost of almost everything), he was never able to become a new John Lennon or Ray Davies as many foretold. And Roger Waters (who had to deal with the fact that he had to send away oeen of his best friends) once said: "Without Syd there would not have been Pink Floyd but with Syd we couldn't continue Pink Floyd". That's what this excellent, sometimes very moving DVD is about!!