{"id":783034,"date":"2026-09-26T08:22:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-26T08:22:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/783034\/"},"modified":"2026-09-26T08:22:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-26T08:22:10","slug":"how-cambridge-is-celebrating-pink-floyd-founder-syd-barrett","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/783034\/","title":{"rendered":"How Cambridge is celebrating Pink Floyd founder Syd Barrett"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The family of Syd Barrett<\/a> and organisers Neil Jones, Mark Wilkinson and Rob Ayling have announced a programme of official events to celebrate what would have been the much-missed musician and artist\u2019s 80th birthday and to raise money for mental health charities.<\/p>\n

Chief among these events will be a live tribute concert<\/a> at the Cambridge Corn Exchange on 10 October, which is also World Mental Health Day.<\/p>\n

\"RosemaryRosemary Breen. Picture: Keith Heppell<\/p>\n

The show is to be headlined by Britpop favourites Kula Shaker, with additional performances from Soft Machine, Men on the Border<\/a>, Diana Silveira & The Psychedelic Circus, Radhika, and P\u00fcnk Fl\u00f6yd, with some surprise guests still to be announced.<\/p>\n

One person who plans to attend the tribute concert at the Corn Exchange (the location of Syd\u2019s last gig in February 1972), along with 29 other members of the Barrett family, is his younger sister Rosemary Breen, who is keen to help keep her beloved brother\u2019s memory alive.<\/p>\n

Syd, a pioneering singer-songwriter and visual artist, who in later life became something of an enigma (at least to the wider world), was born on 6 January, 1946 in Cambridge.<\/p>\n

He sadly passed away on 7 July, 2006 at the age of 60 from pancreatic cancer.<\/p>\n

I met up with Rosemary at Cambridge\u2019s Quy Mill Hotel on a pleasant late summer\u2019s day last week.<\/p>\n

Warm, welcoming, politely spoken and very friendly, Rosemary is the youngest of the five Barrett children (three now remain \u2013 Rosemary, her brother Don and her sister Ruth), and the closest in age to Syd.<\/p>\n

She recalled growing up in Cambridge and life with her brother, before and after fame took hold.<\/p>\n

What would Syd, who was always known to the family as Roger, have made of all this fuss 20 years after his death and more than 50 years since he last performed in public?<\/p>\n

\u201cHe would have laughed!,\u201d says Rosemary. \u201cThe one thing he never ever understood was what you do if you\u2019re a celebrity.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe wasn\u2019t interested and he didn\u2019t care, and he just thought it was really hysterical that anybody thought anything like that about him.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe never ever could get his head round the point of celebrity. He was just having fun \u2013 as simple as that. And when it stopped being fun, he stopped doing it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe money was never considered. It\u2019s amazing but he just could never understand it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"SydSyd with Frisky the cat<\/p>\n

Rosemary notes that all the adulation, and the curiosity of fans to discover what had become of Syd, even after he\u2019d long since stepped away from the limelight, \u201cused to annoy him a bit, because people would come to the door\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd he ended up saying \u2018Syd doesn\u2019t live here\u2019 because that was easier \u2013 and actually it was true, and I think he knew it. So it was a bit annoying for him, but other than that he just tried to dismiss it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Interestingly, Rosemary reveals that it was \u201cmainly Italian boys\u201d who used to find out where Syd lived and then come and knock on the door, adding: \u201cItaly have got a real thing about him\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Looking ahead to the upcoming events, Rosemary says: \u201cIt\u2019s very exciting; the concert was sold out virtually overnight, which is amazing, something I can hardly believe.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe interest that there still is for Syd just never ceases to amaze me \u2013 it\u2019s incredible, really incredible.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe concert they\u2019ve had to start early, because so many bands wanted to come and perform, I gather, so it\u2019s going to be more like a festival.\u201d<\/p>\n

As well as the concert, there will be a major exhibition exploring Barrett\u2019s life, art and cultural impact which will run from Saturday, 3 October to Sunday, 11 October at Openspace \u2013 54a Cherry Hinton Road.<\/p>\n

The gallery will be hosting some of Barrett\u2019s original paintings and sketches, along with prints of larger works.<\/p>\n

The exhibition will also include work by contemporary artists, including his nephew Ian Barrett, Mark Wilkinson, Mikey Georgeson, James Wilkinson, Rob Martin, Spadge Hopkins, and Justin Wiggan.<\/p>\n

At 2pm on Friday, 9 October, there will be a talk there by Rob Chapman, author of Syd Barrett: A Very Irregular Head, widely considered to be the definitive biography of Syd Barrett.<\/p>\n

Then, at 5pm at the same venue, Roddy Bogawa, co-director of the 2023 documentary Have You Got It Yet? The Story of Syd Barrett and Pink Floyd, will be speaking\/showing a few outtakes of the film.<\/p>\n

This will be followed by a screening of the film at the Arts Picturehouse on St Andrew\u2019s Street at at 8.30pm. To book, go to picturehouses.com\/cinema\/arts-picturehouse-cambridge<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

To further highlight the ongoing fascination with, when it comes to popular culture at least, Cambridge\u2019s most famous son, a commemorative double vinyl and double CD album<\/a>, titled Clowns and Jugglers: The Songs of Syd Barrett, is to be released also on 9 October.<\/p>\n

The album features new recordings, previously unreleased material, and live performances celebrating Syd\u2019s enduring influence.<\/p>\n

Contributors include Kula Shaker, Martha Wainwright<\/a>, Mystery Jets, Rosalie Cunningham, David Gilmour, and Nick Mason\u2019s Saucerful of Secrets.<\/p>\n

The album\u2019s sleeve features one of Syd Barrett<\/a>\u2019s most iconic images and has been created by Mark Wilkinson, famous for his work with the likes of Iron Maiden, Marillion, and Judas Priest.<\/p>\n

\"‘Clowns\u2018Clowns and Jugglers: The Songs of Syd Barrett\u2019<\/p>\n

And if all that wasn\u2019t enough, Rosemary also informed me of a charity football match that is due to take place on the same day as the tribute concert.<\/p>\n

\u201cCambridge United are playing Blackpool that day [10 October] and all the proceeds are for mental health charities,\u201d she reveals.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe T-shirts are sort of relating to Syd, without being too obvious, and then the T-shirts one can buy.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the artworks that will be on display at Openspace, which is actually near where Syd used to live, Rosemary says: \u201cThey\u2019re mainly Syd\u2019s work, from the family, because when he died, the family all had a piece of his work.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo that\u2019s all going to get together and will be on show \u2013 plus my nephew\u2019s got some art there. And possibly other people as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reflecting on her and her brother\u2019s upbringing in Cambridge, Rosemary says: \u201cCambridge was very different; it was a free place \u2013 we just walked around\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I think about the parking, for example, when we first had cars, Syd and I, we just used to drive into Cambridge and park outside the various pubs that were right in the middle \u2013 where Marks & Spencer is now.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou just parked outside and went and had a drink and came out. It\u2019s such a different place 1790410930. It was very looked after by the university; it was the university that was the boss of Cambridge.\u201d<\/p>\n

What would Syd have made of how Cambridge has changed just in the 20 years since his passing?<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he would have thought it was exciting,\u201d replies Rosemary, \u201che was always up for a bit of excitement\u2026 and technology, he used to enjoy a bit of technology and building things.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the Science Park<\/a> and everything it involves would be really interesting [to him]. You can tell from his music that he liked to experiment.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe would experiment with sound, he would experiment with the sounds that electronics make, so I think he\u2019d have been really interested in what is happening now with that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"SydSyd Barrett and his sister Rosemary as children<\/p>\n

Rosemary notes that when it came to music, Syd was \u201creally a jazz lover, all the time \u2013 it was jazz that was his thing.<\/p>\n

\u201cGetting involved in the Pink Floyd and all that it was just because it was fun; it wasn\u2019t for any serious reason at all.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf he listened to music, it would be jazz, it would be the Dave Brubeck Quartet, all that sort of thing he would listen to endlessly, and that side of music.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rosemary says she realised that her brother had a real talent for art \u201cwhen he was about three\u201d, noting: \u201cHe drew sensibly; he was a very young child, but what he drew made sense.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was drawings that you understood, which is unusual for a child, and from then on it just progressed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rosemary worked as a nurse for many years and cared for Syd after he moved back to his home town from London for good in 1982, having famously walked the 50 miles back to Cambridge (\u201che had huge blisters on his feet!,\u201d she laughs).<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were always very close in our relationship,\u201d she says, \u201cand we had fun together. But it was mainly him doing daft things and me cheering him on!\u201d<\/p>\n

\"SydSyd Barrett tribute concert poster<\/p>\n

Syd founded Pink Floyd<\/a>, along with drummer Nick Mason, bass player\/vocalist Roger Waters and keyboard player\/vocalist Richard Wright, in 1965.<\/p>\n

As the band\u2019s primary songwriter and frontman, he was largely responsible for their whimsical, psychedelic and very English style \u2013 a deeply endearing style that can clearly be heard on their acclaimed debut album, 1967\u2019s The Piper at the Gates of Dawn.<\/p>\n

He also contributed to Pink Floyd<\/a>\u2019s second album, 1968\u2019s A Saucerful of Secrets, and released two solo albums: The Madcap Laughs<\/a> and Barrett (both 1970).<\/p>\n

On how she first came to realise that her brother was part of a rather successful musical group, Rosemary remembers: \u201cI was at St George\u2019s Hospital in Tooting and I was working on the children\u2019s ward.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I asked him \u2013 he was at art school, he was at Camberwell [College of Arts] \u2013 to come and paint all the glass walls.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a very old-fashioned hospital and there were lots and lots of glass partitions between the wards, little six-bedded wards for the children.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe came along and painted some wonderful pictures, and it was about then when he said to me that he\u2019d been playing with the other people.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course I knew them because they were Cambridge people \u2013 he told me then about it \u2013 and to him it was just something he\u2019d do on a Saturday night.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t anything more than that because they were all at college, so they didn\u2019t have that much time.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen some time later, he was on Top of the Pops. I was working and this patient had a television on and I saw him on Top of the Pops!<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t actually say anything \u2013 you didn\u2019t in those days. As a nurse you didn\u2019t speak out of turn \u2013 you were very strictly controlled.<\/p>\n

\u201cI suppose that was the beginning of seeing that he was doing something other than what he should be doing, which was being at Camberwell and working!\u201d<\/p>\n

\"RosemaryRosemary Breen. Picture: Keith Heppell<\/p>\n

Rosemary says she went \u201conce or twice\u201d to see the band, including once at the Roundhouse in London.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was working; in those days it was half a day off a week,\u201d she notes, \u201cso it wasn\u2019t as if I had much time.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe did keep in touch, obviously, but for the first year or so they were all over the world \u2013 they worked very hard.\u201d<\/p>\n

Much has been written about Syd\u2019s eventual departure from Pink Floyd in 1968, and about his drug use and subsequent struggles with his mental health.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was enjoying himself in the band, he really was \u2013 initially,\u201d explains Rosemary, \u201cbut he was exhausted, it was just too much.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were doing too much and I think they were all worn out, quite honestly, and if you\u2019re really tired and you\u2019re asked to do something, you think \u2018How am I going to get the energy to do it?\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd if you\u2019re young and drugs are available, you\u2019re going to use them, which is very sad.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rosemary admits that she noticed a marked change in Syd\u2019s behaviour.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was horrible,\u201d she says, her voice tinged with sadness. \u201cHe just sort of left his character \u2013 he left \u2018him\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

She adds that elements of who he was did come back \u201cbut increasingly they got less and less. He was very damaged.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was still him \u2013 and I still loved him as much as ever \u2013 but it was difficult to see him not happy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rosemary says there is \u201ca lot more awareness\u201d these days of issues surrounding mental health.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn fact it\u2019s really quite restricted, isn\u2019t it?,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s known what the drugs will do and how much to take and when and how.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s now all out there \u2013 what you should do and what you shouldn\u2019t do, which is so much better, if that\u2019s the way you\u2019re going to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rosemary concludes: \u201cThinking about him [Syd], he was such a huge, bright person, and he just disappeared.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I\u2019d love to think that young people might think about him, or what happened to him, and be very careful with what they\u2019re doing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just wish that youngsters would, if they learn about it, take it on board what happened to him and be very careful.\u201d<\/p>\n

I\u2019d read somewhere previously that Syd always used to love watching television and I wondered what sort of programmes he used to enjoy watching.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would probably be architecture,\u201d says Rosemary, \u201canything to do with old churches and things, he used to enjoy looking at and thinking about.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen he was in Cambridge we used to go out for drives and he would be keen on looking. Sometimes I think it was only because he wanted to get home and draw them\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cBut what he really loved was Saturday at 5 o\u2019clock; there was a jazz programme on the radio and he used to make sure he would get home for that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"SydSyd Barrett tribute concert poster<\/p>\n

The Syd Barrett Tribute Concert will take place at the Cambridge Corn Exchange on Saturday, 10 October. The event is sold out, but keep checking back at cornex.co.uk<\/a> as tickets may become available.<\/p>\n

Starting earlier in the month (on Saturday, 3 October) will be the exhibition featuring Syd\u2019s artworks at Openspace, 54a Cherry Hinton Road, which will run until Sunday, 11 October.<\/p>\n

For more information, go to bio.site\/CamOpen.space<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For more on Syd Barrett, visit sydbarrett.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The family of Syd Barrett and organisers Neil Jones, Mark Wilkinson and Rob Ayling have announced a programme…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":783035,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[10052,1190,23103,96,10730,128,2802,56,54,55,3520],"class_list":["post-783034","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-arts-and-entertainment","tag-cambridge","tag-eat-my-words","tag-entertainment","tag-events","tag-music","tag-nostalgia","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-whats-on-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/783034","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=783034"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/783034\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/783035"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=783034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=783034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=783034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}