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The Latest Breaking News from Syd Barrett

Poem released in honour of Pink Floyd's seminal LP Wish You Were Here by Poet Laureate Simon Armitage

The new poem pays tribute to the "creativity" of late frontman Syd Barrett.

BANG Premier

“I remember sitting down with Roger and saying, ‘Roger, this is insane!’”: The strange lost album that Pink Floyd abandoned in 1975

Only two tracks have ever been heard from what could have been Pink Floyd's most divisive record

MusicRadar

“There was a sense of humour. We were taken very seriously by the world at large, but there was always an edge of fun”: The grimness of Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Here may have been overstated

1975 album remains a fan favourite – and despite their struggle to make it, the band insist the spirit of love shines through the grief and anger amid the theme of absence and their feelings about Syd Barrett

Louder

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“It’s pretty rancid! That brain mulching sound they put on vocals makes me feel slightly sick”: The Divine Comedy’s Neil Hannon isn’t a fan of modern pop music

He recorded his new album Abbey Road, but says that "I don’t believe that Syd Barrett’s hand is on your shoulder or John Lennon is guiding your fingers across the piano"

MusicRadar

Dad’s part in Pink Floyd’s free-form mayhem on Jugband Blues

Brief letters: Salvation Army ensemble | Giving way | Cornish conundrum | Nuclear fast-track fears | Rejects UK

The Guardian - UK

And if your head explodes: Pink Floyd’s 20 best songs – ranked!

Fifty years after the release of Wish You Were Here, we count down the best of the band’s Syd Barrett years, their difficult recovery and later reunion

The Guardian - UK

"I felt out of place. That group didn't have much musical merit and I thought it was crap": The oddball career of Kevin Ayers, quintessential English songwriter

Kevin Ayers co-founded Soft Machine, influenced Bowie, shared acid trips and girlfriends with Hendrix, and knew Syd Barrett better than most

Louder

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“It’s for the ‘big spliff’ crowd, who frankly get terrified by Dogs or The Wall”: The Pink Floyd songs that influenced final Pink Floyd album The Endless River

The biggest influence on The Endless River? Pink Floyd themselves. Here are the sounds from the band’s past that informed their 2014 release

Louder

“Nothing I do is ironic. Irony is the last refuge of the scoundrel”: When Julian Cope immersed himself in the prog-pop world of Syd Barrett, 13th Floor Elevators and Love

After leaving The Teardrop Explodes, he was on a mission – but on seeing him wearing nothing but a turtle shell on the cover of Fried, the world needed some convincing

Louder

“I had a terrible habit of playing bits of songs by other people”: The Pink Floyd classic that Roger Waters was worried David Gilmour had stolen from someone else

The story behind one of Pink Floyd’s most iconic songs

Louder

“We’d smoke a little dope then wander round Heathrow Airport at night. All these hums, knocks, and noises coming from behind locked doors – the whole airport was a musical instrument”: Penguin Cafe Orchestra’s prog credentials

Simon Jeffes described his musical pursuit of the precious irrational as “imaginary folklore.” His work intrigued Brian Eno and has lasted long beyond his lifetime. But was it prog?

Louder

“Did he expect to find us as we had been seven years earlier, ready to start to work with him again?”: The strange, sad day that Syd Barrett unexpectedly showed up in the studio when Pink Floyd were making Wish You Were Here

The making of Pink Floyd’s 1975 masterpiece was partly a tribute to their former frontman - but when Syd Barrett himself appeared at the studio, his former bandmates took a while to realise it was actually him

MusicRadar

New Pink Floyd book celebrates the band's career with unpublished interviews and Syd Barrett's letters of the time

Pink Floyd Shine On: Definitive Oral History by author Mark Blake, will be published in October

Louder

“I became a punk – I hid my Pink Floyd records and I now had an uneasy relationship with the music”: Siobhan Fahey’s lifelong passion for prog is only hinted at in Bananarama’s name

A Frank Zappa show bored her to sleep, but the Shakespeare’s Sister masterming has remained in love with Roxy Music, Hawkwind and Syd Barrett

Louder

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Louder

“Working with Nick Mason built my confidence. People recognised me as the guitarist I am”: How Gary Kemp came back from his post-pop wilderness to join the Pink Floyd family, and what Saucerful Of Secrets might do next

Ex Spandau Ballet member and movie star discusses being inspired by David Gilmour, Syd Barrett and Mick Ronson, the attitude-crushing mid-90s experience that derailed his career, and what drummer Mason is really like

Guitar World

“Iggy left the Stooges and had a career – ditto Lou Reed with the Velvet Underground or Morrissey with the Smiths. Where’s Biafra’s solo career?”: East Bay Ray explains why the Dead Kennedys’ chemistry hit its peak on Fresh Fruit... and why it fell apart

In the year 1980, the Dead Kennedys debut presented a new sound for punk. Here guitarist East Bay Ray tells us how they made Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables

Louder

“You can see we were stoned. Dave and I were completely out of our brains”: The epic story of Pink Floyd’s Live At Pompeii, the prog classic recorded next door to a volcano

Lights! Camera! Chaos! How Pink Floyd made their 1972 album Live At Pompeii

The Independent UK

Before bitterness engulfed them – this was Pink Floyd at their experimental zenith

PLAYBACK: The 1972 concert film ‘Live at Pompeii’ has been restored and remixed for cinemas and IMAX. Stevie Chick explores how it captured the band at their majestic peak of invention

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Evening Standard

Nick Mason says Pink Floyd were originally ‘not interested’ in Pompeii film

The drummer was speaking at a preview screening for a new version of the 1972 film.

Louder

“It came very close to where I wasn’t going to do the album; I didn’t feel that what we’d agreed was fair”: How Pink Floyd made The Division Bell

Pink Floyd explored the theme of communication on 1994 album The Division Bell – despite their infamous communication issues

Louder

“An album misinterpreted by lesser talents”: What do Syd Barrett, Kevin Ayers, Peter Hammill and Robert Fripp have to do with Britpop? See Blur’s Modern Life Is Rubbish for details

Okay, it’s not all-out prog – but the band’s second record contains the spirit of the genre, with its English eccentricities, non-linear approach to playing and rule-breaking flair

Louder

“Posh tossers singing about nothing because they had nothing to protest about… it was part of the job to destroy Genesis and Yes”: Punk pioneer Captain Sensible loved plenty of prog – but had to hide it

The Damned guitarist on spending years ripping off the genre he professed to hate, and the obscure tracks he’d play on Desert Island Discs – if they’d ever let him appear

Louder

“I had some criticisms of Dark Side Of The Moon. One or two of the vehicles carrying the ideas were not as strong as the ideas that they carried”: How David Gilmour attempted to lay the ghost of Pink Floyd to rest

In 2002, Pink Floyd were effectively over – and David Gilmour was focussing on being a solo artist

Louder

"He was the backbone of Soft Machine." Founding member and keyboard player Mike Ratledge dead at 81

Soft Machine's longest-serving member Mike Ratledge, who also worked with Syd Barrett and Kevin Ayers, has died after a short illness

Louder

“People would say, ‘He took a trip and now he’s weird.’ He wasn’t weird at all”: Mick Rock’s “surprisingly simple” friendship with Syd Barrett, and other psychedelic adventures

Often called ‘the man who shot the 70s,’ the photographer experienced unforgettable moments with Pink Floyd, Kevin Ayers, Arthur Brown, Genesis and more

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