29th March 2020
At the moment I am trying not to worry about the corona virus and trying to stay focused on music. With this in mind I have enjoyed watching Nick Mason's Saucerful of Secrets on youtube. I had listened to several recordings of some of the recent gigs over the last few weeks and it wasn't until yesterday that I suddenly realised that Gary Kemp was part of the band. I must admit I never thought that an ex member of Spandau Ballet would be performing some of Syd Barrett's songs in a band with Nick Mason.
This has reminded me of when I purchased the album Relics in the record department of what must have been John Menzies back in about 1980. I can't remember how I first heard about Syd Barrett, it may have been from a book, but I was intrigued by his story and I decided to listen to some of his recordings with Pink Floyd. I can still remember bumping into Stuart Gordon who I knew from school and when he saw what I had in my hand he called me a toad. I guess Pink Floyd wasn't considered to be very cool in the era of punk rock and new wave. I can clearly remember playing the record in my bedroom when I got home and the first song was Arnold Layne which I immediately loved. There were loads of great tracks, especially See Emily Play, Interstellar Overdrive and Bike. Then I purchased Piper at the Gates of Dawn and I thought that album was even better. Syd Barrett had a very short and tremendously creative period and then almost straight away seemed to disappear into thin air. It's a shame that it didn't last longer and it makes those albums seem especially wonderful and precious.
And having mentioned Stuart Gordon here is a link to his punk band Das Schnitz who played gigs in Torbay in 1978 and 1979