Not quite sure why I did it, but in recent days I've been watching the four guys who made up Pink Floyd, Rogers Waters, Dave Gilmour, Rick Wright and Nick Mason, talking about the missing fifth, the tragic Syd Barrett, in a sequence of four individual interviews. I suppose the watching followed from my enjoyment of the interview I caught with Roger Waters on the BBC's Hardtalk which made me heavily revise the impression I'd formed (on no real basis at all) of the band's bassist, chief lyricist and, arguably, main composer. Basically I came away impressed at what a decent guy he appeared to be, someone who seemed to have kept growing over time.
Anyway, watching him talk about Syd Barrett in an earlier interview did nothing to change my mind. And now I extend my opinion to all the guys in the band. They struck me as remarkably nice blokes, especially considering the sort of hothouse they'd lived through, both during the Syd period and the years following - indeed, all their professional lives. To manage to hold together long enough to produce the work they did was quite something when you think, or I think, of just how dopey one could be in one's youth.
It was also refreshing to see people actually trying to think on camera and stumble through genuine answers.
But all very sad about Syd himself. He haunts every word, even when they're not talking directly about him. Not a nice bloke, in the end anyway. Something more.
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