Pink Floyd, Syd Barrett: a tribute concert and album on the way

Twenty years after his death, and in the year he would have turned eighty, the city of Cambridge will pay tribute to Syd Barrett with a series of events dedicated to the founder of Pink Floyd. The main event will be a tribute concert scheduled for October 10 at the Cambridge Corn Exchange, the historic venue that also hosted Barrett's last public performance in 1972. The date also coincides with World Mental Health Day.
Several artists linked to the psychedelic and progressive scene will take the stage, including Kula Shaker, Soft Machine, Men On The Border, Diana Silveira & The Psychedelic Circus, Radhika and Pünk Floyd.
Neil Jones, one of the event's organisers, told the BBC: "Eighty years after his birth, Syd Barrett's influence remains as powerful as ever. His music, his creativity and his unique vision continue to inspire artists and audiences across generations."
The musician's sister, Rosemary Breen, also wanted to honour his artistic legacy: "Syd would have been thrilled and honoured to know that his music is still appreciated in Cambridge."

The celebrations will also include the release, on October 9, of a tribute album available on colored vinyl and CD, featuring new interpretations alongside previously unreleased material. Contributors include Kula Shaker, All About Eve, Mystery Jets, Rosalie Cunningham, David Gilmour and Nick Mason's Saucerful of Secrets.
From October 3 to 9, the Cambridge Openspace will also host an exhibition devoted to Barrett's artistic output, featuring paintings, original sketches and large-format reproductions of his work.
The whole project will also serve a charitable purpose: proceeds from the initiatives will go to organizations working in the field of mental health.
The concert will take place in Cambridge on October 10.

Syd Barrett was the original leader of Pink Floyd, as well as the guiding spirit behind the entire British psychedelic movement (and beyond). It's practically impossible to list all the bands that have drawn inspiration, in one way or another, from the lysergic visions of the "mad genius" of Cambridge. And yet, his two solo works (both released in 1970 on Harvest) were also the last flicker of flame from a defeated man, drawing ever closer to the end of his creative powers. Conceived amid a progressive state of depression, recklessly managed with massive doses of a powerful psychoactive drug like Mandrax, they would in a way mark the final split between Barrett's universe and the real world.
Barrett was the creative soul of the first, not-yet-billion-dollar incarnation of Floyd, the one that delighted in experimenting between acoustic ballads, whimsical nursery rhymes and instrumental suites.
A formula born with the debut LP "The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn", on which Barrett plunged into a remarkable journey into the mind, awash with drugs and hallucinations, and which then faded over time, starting with his departure from the band in 1968.

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