The two Pink Floyd shows that signalled the end of Syd Barrett
There was a time when Syd Barrett was the most compelling frontman in London, bewitching audiences with his otherworldly music and fittingly striking stage presence. However, the capricious nature of his music would come to reflect the storm clouds brewing in his mind. By the end of 1967, it was clear that his mental health had deteriorated to such an extent that he could no longer continue as the leader of Pink Floyd.
While the story of Barrett is a highly mythologised one, with the late musician lionised as some form of a tragic genius, this rather one-dimensional and romanticised view overshadows just how alarming his mental health decline was. Although he is often used as an early casualty of heavy LSD use, the reality was much starker. His long-term friend David Gilmour, drafted into the band in 1967 to help them navigate the issues produced by Barrett’s rapidly declining condition, has been frank about the matter.
Gilmour, who witnessed his friend’s cerebral collapse first-hand, detests this trivial perspective on his mental health issues. He maintains that LSD wasn’t the cause but the catalyst and that the deterioration of his mental health would have happened regardless of his love of venturing deep into the mind’s eye. Dispelling the myth, he said Barrett was a “poor sad man who can’t deal with life or himself”.
There were many uncomfortable moments during Barrett’s decline that seriously alarmed the band and those close to him, with things taking a darker turn in late 1967 and early the following year. It was when the band were on tour in America that they realised that the writing was on the wall and that he was on his way out.
Alongside developing his notorious dead-eyed stare, Barrett’s erratic bouts would become so severe that when they were on tour in Los Angeles, he exclaimed, “Gee, it sure is nice to be in Las Vegas!”, pointing to his detachment from reality. However, two live shows in America confirmed that Barrett could not continue as he was.
The band arrived in America for their first tour there in October 1967. Their latest single at the time was the erratic ‘Apples and Oranges’, which would reflect Barrett’s cognitive tectonic shift as they played it on a string of promotional TV appearances and the sonics made for a fitting backdrop of this decline.
The first of these significant shows was on Pat Boone in Hollywood, where Barrett’s mute stare and abrupt answers alarmed many. Reportedly, when the band recorded their performance, the frontman, who seemingly didn’t want to be there, refused to lip-sync and stared blankly into the cameras as they rolled. This led to bassist Roger Waters miming in his place.
This was a sign of things to come, and the tour was eventually cut short after Barrett de-tuned his guitar and produced jarring, random sounds at the Fillmore West in San Francisco. Then, in Christmas 1967, when Pink Floyd’s future was hanging in the balance and their second album, A Saucerful of Secrets, was stuck in production hell, Gilmour was asked to join as the second guitarist to cover for Barrett. It didn’t matter, though; at this point, his on-stage behaviour had become too much to bear, and in January 1968, the band elected not to pick him up for a show. That was the whimpering end of Barrett’s time in Pink Floyd.
