Legendary ‘lost’ psychedelic genius Syd Barrett was born Roger Keith Barrett in Cambridge in 1946. He learned to play guitar at the age of 14 and formed his first band in 1965. While attending art college in London, he joined the embryonic Pink Floyd. Floyd began by playing blues and rhythm and blues covers, but soon developed the improvisational ...
(Songwriter, b. 1941) Strong was a Motown staff writer whose own 1960 hit ‘Money’ helped fund the label’s early expansion. His compositions with Norman Whitfield included ‘I Heard It Through The Grapevine’, and led Motown’s forays into more socially aware territory with hits like Edwin Starr’s ‘War’ and many of The Temptations’ psychedelic soul outings. Strong won a 1972 Grammy ...
Back in 1966, who would have thought that 43 years later Pink Floyd would be known around the world as one of the most musically, artistically and commercially successful bands in the world ? Roger ‘Syd’ Barrett (1946–2006), Roger Waters (b. 1943), Nick Mason (b. 1944) and Richard Wright (1943–2008) were an underground band whose experimental un-tethering of songs ...
Origins Of The Band Nick Mason first played drums in school band The Hotrods, ‘retiring’ when he went to study architecture in London at Regent Street Polytechnic. He was soon back in service with guitar-playing fellow student Roger Waters in Sigma 6 and a revolving line-up featuring a fellow former architecture-turned-music-student Richard Wright (if venues had a piano). By 1964/65 ...
January First Gig, London The Pink Floyd Sound made their London debut at the Countdown Club in late 1965 and were paid £15 for their trouble. Their first London gig in 1966 took place at the Goings On Club on 9 January 1966. Like hundreds of other semi-professional bands around the country, Syd Barrett (guitar/vocals), Roger Waters (bass/vocals), Nick ...
January–February Early Recording Sessions Working for the London arm of Elektra Records, Joe Boyd had already produced artists like The Incredible String Band. Peter Jenner and Andrew King had given him a rough Pink Floyd demo with a view to securing a deal. Although Elektra boss Jac Holzman did not go for the Floyd, Boyd, as musical director ...
January David Gilmour Joins With Barrett’s unreliability profoundly affecting the band’s ability to make money by fulfilling live obligations, his old friend Dave Gilmour was drafted in as a backup guitarist. His previous bands Joker’s Wild, Flowers and Bullitt, had failed to make an impression and he was delighted, albeit with natural reservations over Barrett’s feelings. In ...
As the first superstar instrumentalist to emerge from the modern Nashville recording scene, Chet Atkins (1924–2001) was a living legend for most of his life, but the Nashville-based guitarist was also a producer, engineer, label executive and A&R man without peer. Chester Burton ‘Chet’ Atkins was born on in June 1924 in Luttrell, Tennessee. He started ...
As the guitarist in Pink Floyd, David Gilmour’s place in the pantheon of guitar heroes is guaranteed. But it’s not simply his playing on albums like The Dark Side Of The Moon that has assured his status. His meticulous attention to the sound and tone of his guitar in the studio and in concert has earned the universal admiration of ...
Back in June 2003 I had the rare pleasure of interviewing Nick Mason face-to-face for what proved to be an abortive feature for the Financial Times. The interview was conducted at his Ten Tenths offices in Kings Cross, London, and as I waited to be ushered into his presence, I took time to admire one of his original ...
One of the defining albums of the 1970s, Dark Side Of The Moon (1973) established Pink Floyd as the biggest progressive rock band of the decade. They have remained massively popular and their influence continues to be felt in rock and ambient music. The band were formed in London in 1965 by singer/guitarist Syd Barrett (born Roger Keith Barrett, ...
‘To boldly go where no band has gone before...’ could have been the motto of the progressive rock bands. Taking rock music to places it had never been in terms of harmony and structure. They tend to favour long songs with lengthy instrumentals, guitar and keyboards being the foremost instruments, with an emphasis on instrumental dexterity and virtuosity. ...
Several musical movements are associated either directly or indirectly with a specific recreational drug or drugs; psychedelic rock went a step further, and was practically borne out of LSD or acid, as well as other hallucinogens including peyote, mescaline and even marijuana. Much psychedelic rock attempts to recreate the mind expanding and awareness-enlarging sensations of an acid trip ...
If Pink Floyd had disbanded in the wake of Syd Barrett’s mental unravelling, they would be remembered today alongside Tomorrow and July as cult bands thrown up by the psychedelic era, releasing one fantastic album and a clutch of singles before fading from the light. With Dave Gilmour on guitar, however, A Saucerful Of Secrets revealed a ...
The last album of new Pink Floyd material was released in 1994, but the subsequent years were to highlight the band’s legendary status. Although Waters, Gilmour, Mason and Wright would throw out solo albums and Gilmour and Waters would tour occasionally, the sheer power and size of the Floyd musical glacier would continually move forward to add ...
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David Bowie
Fantastic new, unofficial biography covers
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