Roger Keith "Syd" Barrett (6 January 1946 – 7 July 2006) was an English singer, guitarist and songwriter who co-founded the rock band Pink Floyd in 1965.

Pink Floyd recorded several tributes and homages to him, including the 1975 song suite "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" and parts of the 1979 rock opera The Wall.

"[15] At one point at Morley Memorial Junior School, Barrett was taught by the mother of his future Pink Floyd bandmate Roger Waters.

[7][14][24] At one point, Waters organised a gig, a CND benefit at Friends Meeting House on 11 March 1962,[7] but shortly afterwards Geoff Mott joined the Boston Crabs, and the Mottoes broke up.

[nb 1] In 1965, Barrett had his first LSD trip in the garden of his friend Dave Gale,[43][44] with Ian Moore and the future Pink Floyd cover artist Storm Thorgerson.

[13] Once described as joyful, friendly, and extroverted, he became increasingly depressed, withdrawn, and began experiencing hallucinations, disorganised speech, memory lapses, intense mood swings and periods of catatonia.

[62] Record producer Joe Boyd encountered Barrett and the rest of the Floyd at the UFO Club in mid-1967, which he described in his memoir: "I had exchanged pleasantries with the first three when Syd emerged from the crush.

[69] Before a performance in late 1967, Barrett reportedly crushed Mandrax tranquilliser tablets and a tube of Brylcreem into his hair, which melted down his face under the heat of the stage lighting,[70] making him look like "a guttered candle".

[72] During Pink Floyd's UK tour with Jimi Hendrix in November, the guitarist David O'List of the Nice, who were fifth on the bill,[73] substituted for Barrett on several occasions when he was unable to perform or failed to appear.

"[75][76][77][78] As Barrett had written the bulk of the band's material, the plan was to retain him as a non-touring member, as the Beach Boys had done with Brian Wilson, but this proved impractical.

[94] During this time, Barrett also played guitar on the sessions for the Soft Machine founder Kevin Ayers' debut LP Joy of a Toy,[95] although his performance on "Religious Experience", later titled "Singing a Song in the Morning", was not released until the album was reissued in 2003.

[94][96] At one point, Barrett told his flatmate that he was going for an afternoon drive, but followed Pink Floyd to Ibiza; according to legend, he skipped check-ins and customs, ran onto the runway and attempted to flag down a jet.

One of his friends, J. Ryan Eaves, the bass player for the short-lived but influential Manchester band York's Ensemble, spotted him on a beach wearing dirty clothes and with a carrier bag full of money.

[106] Regarding "Two of a Kind", David Gilmour stated that Wright wrote the song but an increasingly confused Barrett insisted it was his own composition (and wanted to include it on The Madcap Laughs).

[110] In February 1972, after a few guest spots in Cambridge with ex-Pink Fairies member Twink on drums and Jack Monck on bass using the name The Last Minute Put Together Boogie Band (backing visiting blues musician Eddie "Guitar" Burns and also featuring Henry Cow guitarist Fred Frith), the trio formed a short-lived band called Stars.

[125] According to the biographer and journalist Tim Willis, Barrett, who had reverted to using his birth name Roger, continued to live in his late mother's semi-detached home, and returned to painting, creating large abstract canvases.

[124] A tribute concert, "Madcap's Last Laugh",[137] was held at the Barbican Centre, London, on 10 May 2007 with Barrett's bandmates and Robyn Hitchcock, Captain Sensible, Damon Albarn, Chrissie Hynde and Kevin Ayers.

[clarification needed] A series of events called The City Wakes was held in Cambridge in October 2008 to celebrate Barrett's life, art, and music.

[150] In 1993 EMI issued another release, Crazy Diamond, a boxed set of all three albums, each with further out-takes from his solo sessions that illustrated Barrett's inability or refusal to play a song the same way twice.

In 2012, engineer Andy Jackson said he had found "a huge box of assorted tapes", in Mason's possession, containing versions of R&B songs that (the Barrett-era) Pink Floyd played in their early years.

[165] One of Barrett's trademarks was playing his guitar through an old echo box while sliding a Zippo lighter up and down the fret-board to create the mysterious, otherworldly sounds that became associated with the group.

Paul McCartney, Pete Townshend,[173] Blur,[174][175][176] Kevin Ayers,[177] Gong,[177] Marc Bolan,[175][178] Tangerine Dream,[179] Genesis P-Orridge,[180][181] Julian Cope,[182] Pere Ubu,[183] Jeff Mangum,[184] The Olivia Tremor Control,[185] The Flaming Lips,[186] Animal Collective,[187] John Maus,[188] Paul Weller, Roger Miller, East Bay Ray, Cedric Bixler-Zavala,[189] and David Bowie[175][178] were inspired by Barrett; Jimmy Page, Brian Eno,[190] Sex Pistols,[191] and The Damned[117][192] all expressed interest in working with him at some point during the 1970s.

[193] The track "Grass", from XTC's album Skylarking was influenced when Andy Partridge let fellow band member Colin Moulding borrow his Barrett records.

According to critic John Harris: To understand his place in modern music you probably have to first go back to punk rock and its misguided attempt to kick aside what remained of the psychedelic 1960s.

Given that the Clash and Sex Pistols had made brutal social commentary obligatory, there seemed little room for any of the creative exotica that had defined the Love Decade—until, slowly but surely, singing about dead-end lives and dole queues began to pall, and at least some of the previous generation were rehabilitated.

Barrett was the best example: having crashed out of Pink Floyd before the advent of indulgent "progressive" rock, and succumbed to a fate that appealed to the punk generation's nihilism, he underwent a revival.

[194] Barrett's decline had a profound effect on Waters' songwriting, and the theme of mental illness permeated the later Pink Floyd albums The Dark Side of the Moon (1973), Wish You Were Here (1975) and The Wall (1979).

[nb 7] In 2008, The Trash Can Sinatras released a single in tribute to the life and work of Syd Barrett called "Oranges and Apples", from their 2009 album In the Music.

[204] In The X-Files season nine episode, "Lord of the Flies" (2001), a powerful mutant, Dylan Lokensgard (Hank Harris), has several posters of Syd Barrett on his bedroom wall, and listens to "It's No Good Trying" and "Terrapin" from The Madcap Laughs.

[9] According to Thorgerson, "On one occasion, I had to pull him [Barrett] off [his girlfriend] Lindsay because he was beating her over the head with a mandolin";[224] Powell recalled this event as well, although Corner later denied this happened.