The Madcap gets the last laugh. Syd Barrett's sister speaks...

[johnnie]

"My lovably ordinary brother Syd"

"The ‘crazy diamond’ founder of Pink Floyd was no acid casualty or recluse. He loved art and DIY, his sister Rosemary tells his biographer Tim Willis in her first interview for 30 years"

<snip>

"Rosemary is adamant that he neither suffered from mental illness nor received treatment for it at any time since they resumed regular contact 25 years ago. At first he did spend some time in a private “home for lost souls” — Greenwoods in Essex — but she says there was no formal therapy programme there. (“And besides, he didn’t mix, because he was very content to be basket weaving and making things.”) Later he agreed to some sessions with a psychiatrist at Fulbourn psychiatric hospital, Cambridge, but neither medication nor therapy was considered appropriate."

<snip>

“Roger worked in a variety of styles — though he admired no one after the impressionists — and you could say he came up with his own type of conceptual art. He would photograph a particular flower and paint a large canvas from the photograph. Then he would make a photographic record of the picture before destroying the canvas. In a way, that was very typical of his approach to life. Once something was over, it was over. He felt no need to revisit it.

“That’s why he avoided contact with journalists and fans. He simply couldn’t understand the interest in something that had happened so long ago and he wasn’t willing to interrupt his own musings for their sake. After a while he and I stopped discussing the times he was bothered. We both knew what we thought and we simply had nothing more to add. It became easiest to pretend those incidents never happened and just blank them out. "


http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2092-2271741,00.html



This is a pretty good article on Roger. I thought some of you might enjoy reading what his sister had to say instead of all the people who didn't know him (of late). I know Syd indulged a bit when he was younger, and his legend grew from that, but it is cool to read what she has to say about what he was like in the last 30 years.

[johnnie]

1. Night kick

Just in case anyone who cares missed it.

[asthmaticeog]

2. Excellent. Thanks for posting it.

[wildhorses]

3. would you post this in GD please?....some lost souls who have not

some lost souls who have not found their way to the lounge may be interested...thanks wh

[johnnie]

4. Done

:thumbsup:

[idgiehkt]

5. this squares with what a journalist that talked to him a couple of

years ago said.

He said that he'd tried to give Syd something (yes, he'd gone to Syd's house unannounced) and when he asked Syd if he wanted the gift Syd said 'it's got nothing to do with me'.