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“He was definitely there, and it was weird”: Syd Barrett’s 1975 visit to Pink Floyd‘s studio

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In summer 1975, Pink Floyd were struggling with ninth album Wish You Were Here . With Roger Waters intent on moving onto a new path, and David Gilmour and Rick Wright content with the road they were already on, the group found it a challenge to agree on a direction.

Into this turmoil, a strange-looking overweight man with shaved head and eyebrows appeared among the band members at their Abbey Road studio on June 5, 1975. It took them some time to realise it was the former tousle-topped Bohemian Syd Barrett – the former leader they’d felt force to abandon five years earlier.

At the time of the line-up change, Barrett’s psychedelic genius had become overshadowed, apparently, by a combination of psychedelic drugs and his mental condition. Unable to work with him any longer, the band had made the decision to move on – and in doing so, set a course to become the world’s leading prog band.

Nick Mason recalled the event, as reported by Prog , speculating on what Barrett hoped to achieve. “It’s very easy to draw parallels with Peter Pan returning to find the house still there and the people changed,” the drummer said. “Did he expect to find us as we had been seven years earlier, ready to start to work with him again?

“Everyone’s story is fractionally different. Whether he came once, or twice, what he said, all the rest of it. All I can say is that he was definitely there, and it was weird.”

In some accounts, Barrett arrived while Floyd were mixing Shine On You Crazy Diamond – the subject of which was Barrett himself. Waters is said to have been reduced to tears after realising the stranger’s identity. It’s reported that, on being asked what he thought of the music, Barrett said simply: “Sounds a bit old.”

Session vocalist Venetta Fields was there. “They never told me about Syd – I read everything I know about him,” she recalled. “Nobody really recognised him. I didn’t know who he was. They spoke to him for a while, and we got on with the session.”

She added: “I could see the impact he had on them that day. They were shocked to see him there, and really shocked at the way he looked and acted.”

A few years later, Barrett returned to the anonymity of his mother’s home in Cambridge, where he studiously avoided the limelight. He never stopped creating, though – he kept composing songs, enjoyed painting and wrote a book about the history of art. He died in 2006, aged 60, from cancer.

His sister Rosemary later insisted that , while he’d spent a short time in a “private home for lost souls” and had seen a psychiatrist, he wasn’t on medication or therapy. While he avoided media attention, she said, he was actively involved in the lives of his nieces and nephews, and was known to chat with the staff of shops he frequented.

He could have given a fantastic amount… if he had stayed right he could have beaten Ray Davies at his own game

“He avoided contact with journalists and fans,” Rosemary reported. “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.”

Prog observed: “Syd would paint large canvasses, photograph them and then destroy them. He didn’t like to be reminded of the past; he went round to his sister’s to watch a BBC TV documentary about him and the Pink Floyd, but left, complaining that it was ‘too loud.’”

Gilmour once described Barrett as “one of the great rock’n’roll tragedies,” adding: “He was one of the most talented people and could have given a fantastic amount. He really could write songs, and if he had stayed right, could have beaten Ray Davies at his own game.”

The guitarist later admitted: “We probably did about as much as we could have – although we were all very young. But I have a regret or two. I never went to see him, even though his family kind of discouraged it.

“I regret that I never went up to his house and knocked on the door. I think both Syd and I might have gained something out of one or two people popping round to his house for a cup of tea.”

We like to think that a neighbour was giving Syd the secret knock and whispering, ‘It’s okay, they’ve buggered off back to London’

Prog ’s Tommy Udo recounted a 2006 trip to Cambridge , with the intention of meeting Barrett at home. Knocking the door produced no results; nor did pushing a note under the entrance. Udo and his companion gave up after waiting outside until after midnight.

“We like to think that a neighbour was giving Syd the secret knock and whispering, ‘It’s okay, they’ve buggered off back to London.’ Syd would then emerge from his refuge, make a cup of tea, pick up his guitar and then sing one of the many songs that he’d written but never recorded – songs that he alone would ever hear.”

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When Syd Barrett Visited a Pink Floyd Recording Session

Syd Barrett 's tortured spirit was already hovering over Pink Floyd 's ninth studio album, even before he unexpectedly crashed the sessions for Wish You Were Here on June 5, 1975.

Both the emotive title track and shimmering, psychedelic epic "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" were inspired by Barrett, the band's former frontman, with chief writer Roger Waters meditating on themes of isolation and inward escape. So, when the long-absent musician – portly, with distant gaze, shaved head and eyebrows – randomly arrived during a mixing session for "Diamond," the coincidence reduced the band to a mixture of shock and depression.

It's not as if Barrett, Floyd's co-founder and the driving creative force behind their debut LP, 1967's  The Piper at the Gates of Dawn , left the band on good terms. His mental instability, erratic stage behavior and addiction to LSD made him a liability, and guitarist-singer David Gilmour was brought in as a replacement.

Barrett made minimal contributions to 1968's  A Saucerful of Secrets , but his warped mysticism ultimately vanished: He released two studio albums – 1970's  The Madcap Laughs  and  Barrett , both co-produced by Gilmour and featuring Waters and keyboardist Richard Wright , respectively – but Barrett rarely worked after that point, eventually retreating from the spotlight.

Listen Pink Floyd Perform 'Shine On You Crazy Diamond'

His fortunes seemed to be changing in 1974, when Barrett made some formative – though ultimately fruitless – recordings at Abbey Road. When he crashed the same studio during Pink Floyd's session less than a year later, however, he was bloated and mentally foggy – a sad shell of the psychedelic visionary whose warped vision guided the band to early stardom.

Pink Floyd were confused by his presence, assuming he had to be a crew member. But when Gilmour eventually identified their former bandmate, Waters broke down in tears. That June day also happened to be Gilmour's wedding day, so Barrett wandered into the guitarist's wedding reception at EMI. He left without telling anyone, disappearing as strangely as he'd arrived. The experience had a profound impact on the band, particularly Waters, who even incorporated a lyrical reference to the early Barrett-penned single "See Emily Play" on Wish You Were Here .

"I'm very sad about Syd, [though] I wasn't for years," Waters said in 1975 . "For years, I suppose he was a threat because of all that bollocks written about him and us. Of course, he was very important and the band would never have fucking started without him, because he was writing all the material. It couldn't have happened without him, but on the other hand, it couldn't have gone on with him. He may or may not be important in rock 'n' roll anthology terms, but he's certainly not nearly as important as people say in terms of Pink Floyd. So, I think I was threatened by him."

Gilmour, who co-wrote the music to both the title track and "Shine On," has trouble separating these classic songs from his memories of the former Floyd icon. "Although 'Shine On You Crazy Diamond' is specifically about Syd and 'Wish You Were Here' has a broader remit," Gilmour said in the 2012 documentary  Pink Floyd: The Story of Wish You Were Here,  "I can't sing it without thinking about Syd."

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The Story Of Syd Barrett Visiting Pink Floyd’s Recording Session

via nowheregirl/YouTube

A Heartbreaking Visit

By the time Pink Floyd started working on their ninth studio album “Wish You Were Here,” former leader and frontman Syd Barrett had already left the band for over six years because of his mental health problems. Even so, they haven’t forgotten him and this LP served as their tribute to Barrett especially with the song “Shine On You Crazy Diamond”.

In one particular session on June 5, 1975 at Abbey Road Studios on the eve when they were supposed to depart from England to kick off their second US tour, they were in the process of completing the final mixes on “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” when they noticed an overweight man with a shaved head and eyebrows carrying a plastic bag. Even though they played together for years, the band members didn’t recognize Barrett. Some of them thought he was an EMI staff or crew.

According to Richard Wright, “I remember going in, and Roger was already in the studio working. I came in and sat next to Roger. After 10 minutes he said to me: ‘Do you know who that guy is?’ I said: ‘I have no idea. I assumed it was a friend of yours.’ And suddenly I realised it was Syd.”

Back then, Barrett was just 29 years old but he looked more like a middle-aged man. He was a shadow of his former self. They talked with him but he was barely making any sense. He attended Gilmour’s wedding reception at the EMI canteen but left without so much as saying goodbye.

It was the last time they saw him.

Waters, who reportedly couldn’t hold back his tears after seeing Barrett, said: “I’m very sad about Syd. I wasn’t for years. For years, I suppose he was a threat because of all that bollocks written about him and us. Of course he was very important, and the band would never have fucking started without him, but on the other hand it couldn’t have gone on with him. He may or may not be important in rock’n’roll anthology terms, but he’s certainly not nearly as important in terms of Pink Floyd. Shine On is not really about Syd, he’s just a symbol for the extremes of absence some people have to indulge in because it’s the only way they can cope with how fucking sad it is – modern life – is to withdraw completely.”

Barrett’s sudden appearance unsettled the band and it had such a huge impact on them. David Gilmour admitted on the Pink Floyd: The Story of Wish You Were Here documentary, “Although ‘Shine On You Crazy Diamond’ is specifically about Syd and ‘Wish You Were Here’ has a broader remit, I can’t sing it without thinking about Syd.”

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The Story Behind Pink Floyd’s Bookending Opus to Syd Barrett: “Shine On You Crazy Diamond”

by Tina Benitez-Eves May 13, 2023, 8:57 am

On June 5, 1975, Pink Floyd was near the end of recording their 1975 album Wish You Were Here at Abbey Road Studios in London, and had a special guest. Unannounced, the band’s co-founder, former singer, songwriter, and guitarist Syd Barrett, who had been fairly reclusive for several years following his departure from the band in 1968, visited the studio just as they were working on the final mix of a song they had written for and about him.

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Bookending  Wish You Were Here , “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” is a nine-part tribute to Barrett, written by David Gilmour , Rogers Waters , and Richard Wright.

“‘Shine on You Crazy Diamond’ is just completely about Syd,” said Waters in a 2022 interview.

In 1968, Barrett was dismissed from the band following the release of their first record,  Piper at the Gates of Dawn , because of his mental deterioration, presumably brought on by his drug use.

Up until his studio visit, Barrett had cut off contact with the band and was removed from the music industry completely. His head shaven and slightly overweight, Barrett was nearly unrecognizable to his former bandmates, including his childhood friend Waters, who was moved to tears upon realizing it was him. (Aside from Waters seeing Barrett at Harrods in London several years later, his Abbey Road visit was the last time the members of Pink Floyd ever saw Barrett, who died in 2006 at the age of 60.)

“Syd went crazy in 1967,” said Waters. “By ’69, we weren’t seeing him anymore. He’d disappeared completely.” He continued, “It was a huge loss. And I did love him.”

Through their sentimental and plaintive oeuvre, “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” was a letter to Barrett and his light, innocence, delusions, and legacy within the band.

Following the instrumentals filling Parts I-III , by Part IV , Waters comes in Remember when you were young, you shone , before a resounding refrain of Shine on you crazy diamond with Gilmour.

Remember when you were young, you shone like the sun Shine on you crazy diamond Now there’s a look in your eyes, like black holes in the sky Shine on you crazy diamond You were caught in the crossfire of childhood and stardom, blown on the steel breeze Come on you target for faraway laughter, come on you stranger, you legend, you martyr, and shine

And the song continues in this pattern with Waters singing the verses and chorus, along with the refrain by Gilmour and other verses with Wright.

By Parts VI-IX, the story continues and closes in its Parts VIII and IX instrumentals.

Waters and Wright: Nobody knows where you are / How near or how far Waters and Gilmour: Shine on you crazy diamond Waters and Wright: Pile on many more layers / And I’ll be joining you there Waters and Gilmour: Shine on you crazy diamond

Waters: And we’ll bask in the shadow of yesterday’s triumph, and sail on the steel breeze Come on, you boy child, you winner and loser Come on, you miner for truth and delusion, and shine!

Photo by Chris Walter/WireImage

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The real Syd Barrett – by the people who knew him

Ten years on from his death, the magic and mystery of Syd Barrett as the architect of Pink Floyd endures – and a larger canvas emerges of a confident, multi-talented originator...

Using the broadest brush strokes, Pink Floyd became the UK’s first major psychedelic band thanks to their visionary leader Syd Barrett, then the world’s biggest prog rock band after they cut him loose in early 1968. But, like the tragic spaceman in 2001: A Space Odyssey , Barrett had been cut adrift to float in his private inner world until he died, leaving one of rock’s most mysteriously evocative legends.

Devastated by the LSD consumption indulged by many with joyful abandon but which proved excessive to his own constitution, Syd was an artistic genius, gifted in so many mays he couldn’t separate one from another in his beleaguered, swirling brain. By the time he chose his first love of painting over music, it was too late.

Growing up in Cambridge’s rich cultural history with like-minded artists and future collaborators such as Storm Thorgerson, Roger Waters and David Gilmour, Syd was an ebullient teenager, inspired by jazz, R&B, the Rolling Stones and The Goon Show. While the city’s panoramic skies or idyllic hills inspired his painting, Syd also relished the fact that Romantic poet Byron was a Cambridge legend. David Bowie once called Syd “a poet in a rock band”, and songs like Chapter 24 and The Scarecrow encapsulated his lyrical world of child-like wonder derived from classic literature.

“He was able to access a time we all wanted to go back to: the magic garden and innocence,” says Jenny Fabian, who danced to the Floyd at UFO, met Syd in his later twilight zone phase and described him in her seminal novel Groupie . “You felt there was somebody there who understood innocence but couldn’t be innocent in the world, because you can’t,” she says now. “He told us that’s where we wanted to be.”

In December 1964, 18-year-old Syd met 15-year-old Jenny Spires at Cambridge’s Union Cellar. Jenny has tried to keep her privacy and stayed away from books she dismisses as “lop-sided”, TV docs and interviews; until now. “He came up and introduced himself,” she recalls. “Unbeknown to me he had sketched a picture of me standing at the bar. He said, ‘Hi I’m Roger, I’ve got my own band, we’ve just done some recording and are changing our name to Pink Floyd’.”

Jenny became Syd’s girlfriend (and “Jennifer Gentle” in Lucifer Sam ). “We listened to blues, Dylan, the Kinks and Animals. People always say he was into The Beatles but he was more into the Stones. We listened to some jazz; Charlie Parker and Miles Davis, and things like Dave Van Ronk, Jesse Fuller and Bo Diddley. His musical tastes were very eclectic.” She remembers Syd as “very together, always confident, always with some project on the go, some painting or song idea. Syd would always be writing songs in a notebook, which he’d tell me were written for or about me, like Bike. He was very loving and wrote me letters all the time. His main thing was always painting. He’d write and tell me what paintings he was doing. He played at my 16th birthday party in summer 1965.”

One of Syd’s letters recounted how the band had sacked singer Chris Dennis and he was taking over vocals. “When they all got their grant money, he wrote to say they’d been in the West End and bought £235 worth of gear. ‘Imagine my voice through all this money!’ He didn’t think he could sing. He was happy playing rhythm guitar. Then he wrote and said Bob Klose’s parents had said he had to leave the band because he wasn’t doing enough college work, so Syd took over lead guitar too.”

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Pioneering British poet Michael Horovitz, who co-organised 1965’s landmark Wholly Communion event at the Royal Albert Hall, and was part of the committee which started the Notting Hill Carnival, recalls encountering the earliest Pink Floyd. “This band of youngsters would play at our weekly gigs. They gradually got better. They seemed to grow up at All Saints Hall and were great to dance to. They liked seeing the audience dancing, and they would improvise a lot. Syd’s early songs (starts singing) ‘I’m alone, on my own, I get stoned’ were plaintive. They seemed an interesting variation on old blues, highly original.”

Syd started approaching his guitar like a canvas, as displayed on Interstellar Overdrive , one of the live improvisations the Floyd played as house band at UFO, the London counterculture’s seminal Tottenham Court Road space disco. “Syd could really improvise,” says poet Pete Brown (who would soon write lyrics for Cream). “He had a real imagination and could instinctively come up with lots of ideas. The Floyd rhythm section was kind of stodgy but they could get in a groove. It’s what Syd did on top that really counted. Whenever he was in control then it was happening.”

Jenny Fabian was there too; “I thought they were incredible. Interstellar Overdrive seemed like Ravel’s Bolero in reverse. That regular beat meant that we could all flounce around in our kaftans. Of course Syd was very attractive! The doomed poet. There were not that many people but it suddenly felt like something was happening that you were gonna be part of. It was like an awakening. I have to say the acid did help. That’s why the people who watched them became possessive and they became our underground group. Syd’s lyrics could be cosmic or like fairyland; a weird mixture which was exactly what 1967 was all about. He captured the times.”

Syd was inspired by London free music ensemble AMM and their guitarist Keith Rowe. The two bands played Spontaneous Underground events at the Marquee between January and March 1966, and at UFO from December 1966. Syd would watch Rowe from the side of the stage, copying his techniques of rolling ball bearings along the strings and visiting the studio when Floyd manager Peter Jenner co-produced AMM’s first album, AMMMusic , released on Elektra in 1967. The first 30 seconds of Floyd’s Flaming are supposed to imitate AMM, its title derived from their Later During A Flaming Riviera Sunset .

Filmmaker Peter Whitehead, who made the Wholly Communion movie, met Syd in Cambridge in the early 60s when he was on a painting course and the Floyd rehearsed at the house where he was staying. After Jenny Spires moved to the Earlham Street house in Covent Garden where Syd was living, she met Whitehead at King’s Road boutique Granny Takes A Trip , where she was modelling. She suggested Syd’s band would be perfect for the film he was making called Tonite Let’s All Make Love In London . A visit to UFO persuaded him to use Interstellar Overdrive . Whitehead’s footage of the band’s first time in a proper studio has graced every Floyd documentary since.

When it came time to record, Syd reached into his notebook of lyrics, mainly written during a bout of fevered activity in 1966. Spires remembers an excited Syd calling her that Christmas, bursting to play her a new song called Arnold Layne . She was stunned.

“You always hear it was an anecdotal thing about this guy nicking underwear,” says Spires. “That’s part of it but, it was also a protest song about decriminalising homosexuality.”

The song influenced Pete Brown to change his singing style. “It was a tremendous breakthrough when Syd wrote things like Arnold Layne and See Emily Play . I suddenly saw that I didn’t have to be transatlantic. I could explore Britain’s strangeness as well as being driven by the blues. Arnold Layne encapsulates the whole British thing of eccentricity and perversion. It’s one of the great songs for me. When Syd had his brain he used it incredibly well.”

Next, See Emily Play appeared as the perfect marriage of Floyd’s psych sound and Barrett’s lyrical genius. It has been assumed that it was inspired by politician’s daughter Emily Young, but Jenny Spires says this was not the case; “Syd loved the name Emily, quite unusual then, and used to say, ‘If I ever have a daughter I want to call her Emily’. ‘Emily’ was Syd’s Alice.”

Around this time, those close to Syd noticed a change, illustrated by his refusal to appear on Top Of The Pops . “When I saw him at the Technicolor Dream at Alexandra Palace he looked vacant,” says Spires. “He had glandular fever for a second time in 1965. He was still quite worn out when they signed with EMI and had to go up and down the country doing gigs. It was exhausting for them all but, not only did Syd have to play, he had to write songs and be the frontman, too. He basically didn’t want to be a pop star. After the American tour, he was finished. I saw him when he got back from the States and he had to go on the Hendrix tour. He looked terrible.”

Floyd famously elected not to pick him up one day, and already had Gilmour in the band. While Floyd commenced their rise to fame, Syd faltered through his last solo flight, leaving two albums before retiring. To his credit, Gilmour, who made sure Syd got his royalties, helmed The Madcap Laughs and Barrett. “Syd was really thrilled he was going to record,” recalls Spires. “He didn’t write any more but knew he had books of songs he hadn’t used. People seem to think he wrote songs then, but he didn’t – he already had them. I know because I’d heard most of them. People say they can chart his state of mind through his songs at this time, but you can’t because most of the songs were already written.”

“For me he was very gentle, very innocent, but having a terrible struggle,” recalls Jenny Fabian of the day she visited him at the Wetherby Mansions flat where The Madcap Laughs cover was shot. “He was so far removed it was like he wasn’t there. He was outside himself, which is what happens when you’re on acid. You’re on the ceiling looking down on yourself.”

In 1972, when Syd said he would like to play again, he started jamming with Spires’ then-husband Jack Monck and drummer friend Twink. “They only intended to do some low-key shows and played a local coffee bar a couple of times as Stars, before playing a brilliant outdoor gig at the Market Square in Cambridge. Then they supported the MC5 and Hawkwind at the Corn Exchange, but Syd couldn’t really face those large crowds. It seemed to throw him back to somewhere he didn’t want to be, so he just walked away from it.”

In 1979, Syd returned to Cambridge for good. “Occasionally I’d bump into him in Sainsbury’s or in town, or see him in B&Q buying wood,” says Spires. “He’d actually reached a stage where he was quite content with what he was doing in his life. He’d always say he was painting, because he was a painter. I think he saw the music as a kind of blip on his life. He had created all those songs, then Floyd had gone off and done an extension of what he was doing that he wasn’t interested in.”

Before Storm Thorgerson died in 2013, Spires had been working with him on a film about Syd, which is being edited, provisionally titled Have You Got It Yet? .

“Pink Floyd became the most famous band in the world after they dumped Syd,” says Storm’s friend and colleague Helen Donlon. “They were very ambitious but, because of their guilt, dragged him around like a ghost. Wish You Were Here was one album hugely inspired by Syd. Aubrey Powell who, with Storm, designed its cover, told me the album is really all about absence, Syd’s absence, and that’s what makes it so powerful. But the irony is that when they were recording the track on the album Roger specifically wrote for Syd, Shine On You Crazy Diamond , Barrett, as we all know, turned up at the studio, allegedly unrecognised by the band at first. But in a sense, Syd never really left. Whereas when Brian Jones left the Stones, they erased him then moved on, Syd became a spectral fifth member of the Floyd. He’s also become the most famous poster boy for the counterculture because he was so intelligent, inspiring and inspired but also doomed. He is the Icarus of the 1960s and his fall was leapt upon by the moral majority, ‘drugs are bad!’, etc, so he also became a poster boy for the wrong reasons.”

“Poor Syd,” concludes Jenny Fabian. “He might have been able to retreat and go on creating, but I don’t think the creativity was still there. We don’t know what destroyed that, whether it was the drugs or that something was stopping him creating because he didn’t want to join the circus.”

“He could see what he was doing musically in an artistic way because he came from an arts background,” says Pete Brown, who recalls talking with Gilmour once about him writing some lyrics for Floyd. “That’s why he had such a problem with the commercial side of the music business. Had he gone on a different route, he could have ended up being John McLaughlin. He wrote some great songs that had a huge influence on all sorts of different people. It was his writing and performance that made Pink Floyd successful in the first place. If he hadn’t been the cornerstone of the band in those early days, people would never have looked at them.”

Many thanks to Jenny Spires and Helen Donlon for their invaluable input. The Syd Barrett book is available from Essential Works. See www.barrettbook.com .

Kris Needs is a British journalist and author, known for writings on music from the 1970s onwards. Previously secretary of the Mott The Hoople fan club, he became editor of ZigZag in 1977 and has written biographies of stars including Primal Scream, Joe Strummer and Keith Richards. He's also written for MOJO, Record Collector, Classic Rock, Prog, Electronic Sound, Vive Le Rock and Shindig!

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Legendary Pink Floyd Mythology Finally Confirmed in New Documentary

A new documentary about Pink Floyd founder Syd Barrett sheds new light on a legendary moment from the band's history, and one of their biggest hits.

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Pink Floyd is best known as the band whose Dark Side of the Moon broke all records as the longest charting album in rock music history. Dozens of their songs are classic rock staples, the feature length film of their rock opera The Wall is a cult classic, and their sound is as instantly recognizable as their enigmatic back story. Have You Got It Yet? The Story of Syd Barrett and Pink Floyd is co-directed by Roddy Bogawa, the filmmaker behind Taken by Storm: The Art of Storm Thorgerson and Hipgnosis , and Storm Thorgerson, a Pink Floyd intimate who started the graphic arts team which illustrated the band’s most iconic album covers. But the band’s founder and guiding light, Syd Barrett, dimmed in the glare of the spotlight, leaving the group after their second album, long before they achieved the stratospheric success their later work would bring. The feature length documentary attempts to polish the rougher spots. During the filming, Bogawa uncovered a true gem.

Barrett’s unannounced June 5, 1975, visit to Abbey Road Studios during the “Shine on You Crazy Diamond” recording session remains a large part of the Pink Floyd mythology. The band was on the tail end of recording their ninth studio album Wish You Were Here , working on the final mix of the song they’d written to the musician history has deemed broken by psychedelic excess. The coincidence seems improbable, but all in a day’s work for Pink Floyd. There is, however, photographic evidence which subverts much of the accepted narrative. It can only be seen in Have You Got It Yet? .

“We’ve got some images of Syd that no one’s ever seen, in the film, from that ‘Shine on’ session,” Bogawa tells Den of Geek . “There’s only been one or two images that have been around.” The exclusive photos found in the film are a stark contrast to the two which leaked from the session.

Available images which capture the band’s founder along with Roger Waters, Dave Gilmour, Richard Wright, and Nick Mason appear to show the spent shell of a former genius. Barrett’s head and eyebrows are shaved, and he put on weight. “That’s the one that’s always been reproduced. I didn’t use it in the film because I think he’s playacting,” Bogawa says. “He’s sticking his stomach out, turning to emphasize it. When I look at that, I think he’s doing it to be funny. One of the things that comes up a lot is that he was more aware of everything around him [than is written].”

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Bogawa wanted to debunk and confirm the many misconceptions surrounding Pink Floyd. Some myths persist because audiences are guided by what they hope to be true, others are the perceptions forced on Syd by people who knew fragments of a larger story. The extent of Barrett’s mental breakdown is as open to interpretation as the lyrics of his songs.

“It’s a big question,” Bogawa admits. “One key was a catalog of the things sold from his house when Syd died. He had artist easels and tables where he hammered on extensions to make them taller. One of the stories repeated in every book and film is some neighbor saying ‘I would hear him banging his head on the wall in the middle of night and screaming like a dog.’ When I saw the pictures from his house, I thought ‘hang on, he was building stuff.’”

The singer, songwriter, and guitarist was also a naturally gifted painter known by his given name Roger Barrett. He returned to the visual arts after the combination of mind-expanding chemicals mixed badly with the demands of growing fame. The accepted narrative is Syd was a recluse living in a dingy apartment in Chelsea, West London, for years after Gilmour moved from second guitarist to the group’s lone guitarist in 1968. Barrett may have quit Pink Floyd, but hadn’t truly abandoned his musical career, and the other members of the band pushed him to keep up a pop artist’s pace in his experimental solo work.

“When I look at the timeline, the fact that he did Madcap Laughs and Barrett in the same year, how compressed the amount of music that happened, it’s astonishing,” Bogawa says. “He made two full LPs in the same year. There’s not a lot of bands that do that.”

Released on March 1, 1973, Dark Side of the Moon landed Pink Floyd in a new stratosphere. While looking for direction to a follow-up, the musicians revived an earlier conceptual project using unconventional instruments for an album to be called “Household Objects.” Beginning in December 1973, the band assembled at Abbey Road Studios only to retain one usable audio snippet after eight weeks of sessions: a sustained note produced by gliding a finger over the edge of a wine glass. It is the first sound we hear on “Shine on You Crazy Diamond.” Waters ditched work on “Raving and Drooling” and “You Gotta Be Crazy,” and suggested the song open and close the album. He would write new material to fill the empty spaces left by the ever-present absence of Barrett.

In 1974, the former-cult band went back on the road as headliners. Pink Floyd premiered an early version of “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” live in June 1974. The song has never been released as a single, but can easily be mistaken as their biggest hit. It is recognizable and representative of the group as a whole. Broken up into nine parts over 26 minutes, “Shine on You Crazy Diamond” bookends and propels Wish You Were Here .

The “seer of visions, raver, painter, piper, and prisoner” imagery captures the band’s collective recollection of the former bandmate. “It’s still very strong, this moment of sadness for them that they hadn’t seen their friend for so long,” Bogawa explains. “That was my idea to have Roger[Waters] recite the lyrics to ‘Shine On’ in the film. I was a little bit scared to ask him that, but he was great.”

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Written by Gilmour, Waters, and Wright, “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” is an epic. The overture is cinematic, the instantly recognizable four-note guitar figure is a moving camera. The chord progression digs into blues roots for aural storytelling. Barrett was the group leader who fused little-known blues artists Pink Anderson and Floyd “Dipper Boy” Council into a band name, and led the unit into a prog-rock psychedelic sonic boom. Gilmour’s guitar captures ascending aspirations, while Waters’ descending bassline mourns unfulfilled promises. The progressions’ fourths and sixths transcend genres as much as Wright’s Minimoog and string synthesizers bend time. His closing solo floats over a passing wave of Pink Floyd’s 1967 single “See Emily Play.”

The nod to the early hit may have dissolved into the background whirl of reel-to-reel rewind when Barrett shuffled into Abbey Road studios. The band was assembled in the EMI control booth, putting the final touches on the final mix of the song they’d written about him.

“That is a key emotional touchstone moment for all of them,” Bogawa says. “I can’t imagine doing the song about your long-lost friend, and he just pops in. Roger says a lot of the details rely on memories which could be false memories. Storm told me Syd said ‘can I put some guitar down on the track?’ I didn’t want to put stuff in the movie that couldn’t be confirmed. There’s so much hearsay around it.”

Legends loom large, and Syd did initially go unrecognized. Waters admittedly openly wept when Barrett left. “Certainly, they were all emotionally affected by that,” Bogawa says. “They were shocked for sure.”

But do the Polaroid snapshots crystallize a cultural drug casualty or a mosaic of an artist’s playful self-deprecating humor? We don’t see “black holes in the sky” when looking in Syd’s eyes. We glimpse the composer of the song “Bike,” a curious and eager visitor to a room full of musical tunes. The image is exclusive to Bogawa’s film, but he borrowed it.

“Phil Taylor, who’s David Gilmour’s guitar tech, was the Pink Floyd tour manager at the time,” Bogawa says. “He had been given a camera by the band, and was just learning how to use it. He had all these pictures he had taken that no one had seen. It took a lot of phone calls and emails with Phil. He was very generous in the end. He said, ‘Roddy, this is the one. I’ve been sitting on these images since 1975 thinking I might do something with them.’ He gave us four or five pictures. I made a promise I wouldn’t use all of them. He’s got a few more.”

Eyewitnesses may have mixed memories of the return of the guitar experimentalist to the prodigal pop rock mecca, “But the fact that he showed up while they were doing that song, it’s just unbelievably uncanny,” Bogawa says. “It’s amazing. He’s there listening to the playback of that. And, like you said, it’s a mythology.”

Universal Music Group’s content studio Mercury Studios will release Have You Got It Yet? The Story Of Syd Barrett And Pink Floyd in theaters on July 14 in New York and in LA on July 21. It will be distributed globally by Abramorama.

Tony Sokol | @tsokol

Culture Editor Tony Sokol is a writer, playwright and musician. He contributed to Altvariety, Chiseler, Smashpipe, and other magazines. He is the TV Editor at Entertainment…

New Documentary on the Iconic Cult Figure Syd Barrett of Pink Floyd Announced

14th Oct 2022

MERCURY STUDIOS ANNOUNCES NEW DOCUMENTARY

ON THE ICONIC CULT FIGURE SYD BARRETT OF PINK FLOYD

Ahead of the 50th Anniversary of ‘ The Dark Side of the Moon’ (1973)

LONDON (October 14, 2022) – Mercury Studios announces the completion of the feature length documentary HAVE YOU GOT IT YET? THE STORY OF SYD BARRETT AND PINK FLOYD, along with producers Believe Media and A Cat Called Rover. The film was directed by award-winning filmmaker Roddy Bogawa and late famed graphic designer Storm Thorgerson.

Syd Barrett, one of the founding members of Pink Floyd gave the group their moniker by combining the names of two obscure blues players – Pink Anderson and Floyd Council – and wrote their first two charting singles but was quietly pushed out of the group who were convinced he had suffered an LSD induced psychotic breakdown, replaced by his childhood friend David Gilmour. Subsequently releasing two solo LPs that garnered minor attention though considered by many contemporary musicians as uniquely haunting and poetic, Barrett dropped out of music returning home to Cambridge for the last thirty years of his life and his first love of painting. Poignantly, some of Pink Floyd’s biggest worldwide hit records - THE DARK SIDE OF THE MOON, WISH YOU WERE HERE and THE WALL examine themes of madness and stardom including SHINE ON YOU CRAZY DIAMOND, written as a tribute to Barrett.

Directed by Roddy Bogawa (TAKEN BY STORM: THE ART OF STORM THORGERSON AND HIPGNOSIS, I WAS BORN, BUT…,SOME DIVINE WIND) and Storm Thorgerson who as part of the design group Hipgnosis in the sixties and seventies was responsible for hundreds of record covers for Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Paul McCartney, Black Sabbath and many others, the film was completed by Bogawa with StormStudios photographer Rupert Truman and producer Julius Beltrame after Storm’s untimely death in 2013. Producer Orian Williams (CONTROL, ENGLAND IS MINE, CREATION STORIES) joined the project while still in production.

All new intimate interviews feature David Gilmour, Nick Mason and Roger Waters as well as sister Rosemary Breen, original Pink Floyd managers Peter Jenner and Andrew King, musicians Pete Townshend (THE WHO), Graham Coxon (BLUR), Andrew VanWyngarden (MGMT), playwright Tom Stoppard, photographer Mick Rock, comedian Noel Fielding and others. Actor Jason Isaacs (HARRY POTTER, BLACK HAWK DOWN, THE PATRIOT) narrates the film. The film’s soundtrack includes over fifty Pink Floyd and Syd Barrett music tracks and the film mix is in Dolby 5.1 stereo.

Executive Producers include Luke Thornton and Liz Silver for Believe Media, Paul Loasby, and Geoff Kempin and Alice Webb for Mercury Studios.

Mercury Studios CEO Alice Webb said, “To shine a light on the inspiration behind one of the most iconic and influential rock bands of our time is why we love telling these stories. Syd Barrett was more than just the co-founder of Pink Floyd. He was the creative fuel, who became a pop culture icon, and left everyone wondering where he went as his presence lived on in the music that came after.”

Williams commented “The most difficult part in telling Syd Barrett’s story was interpreting his process of harmony and how unexpected sonic synergy and visual discord, both seemingly random, was planned and well thought out. Roddy gives us a glimpse into how Barrett funnelled the genius, madness and experimentation into Pink Floyd, the vessel in which all things came to life but also took Syd away.”

Bogawa adds “It’s the tragic story of Brian Wilson and Kurt Cobain and many others in music and art whose explosive creative drives often rest on fragile exuberant energy that gets pressure cooked from their success. The film is not only a portrait of one of the most iconic cult figures in music through the lens and memories of his bandmates, lovers, friends, and musicians but also a look back at a group of friends growing up in the mid-sixties and their idealism, ambitions, hopes and dreams during such an amazing cultural moment.”

Isaacs is represented by Alex Lewis from Another Tongue.

Sales contact:  

Will White ( [email protected] ), Mercury Studios

+44 20 3932 6531

ABOUT MERCURY STUDIOS

Mercury Studios is a full-service production studio originating, producing, selling, distributing, and investing in scripted, unscripted, and live content. Editorially independent, Mercury Studios is powered by Universal Music Group and represents the world’s leading catalogue of music-related content.

Current projects include  If These Walls Could Sing , the untold story of the world-famous Abbey Road Studios, directed by celebrated British photographer and filmmaker Mary McCartney for Disney+;  Contact High: A Visual History of Hip-Hop , a feature documentary from Oscar-winning director/producer Joseph Patel ( Summer of Soul ), adapted from Vikki Tobak’s best-selling book; “My Life as a Rolling Stone,” a four-part docuseries of intimate portraits of Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Ronnie Wood and Charlie Watts; Shania Twain: Not Just a Girl,  a career documentary about the superstar that is available on Netflix; and Mars , a short film based on an original universe and characters created by Yungblud, starring Yasmin Finney, set to world premiere at the London Film Festival next month.

Mercury Studios’  Miles Davis: Birth of The Cool  was recently honored with two Emmys for Outstanding Arts and Culture Documentary and Outstanding Sound.  ZZ Top: That Little Ol' Band from Texas  also received a 2021 Grammy Award nomination for Best Music Film. The feature documentaries are part of the Mercury Studios library, consisting of nearly 2,000 hours of programming.

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“HAVE YOU GOT IT YET?” THE STORY OF SYD BARRETT AND PINK FLOYD

7 Night Run at Hot Docs Cinema in Toronto between August 19 and September 7

~Dates currently available in Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia with additional dates to be  added ~

Mercury Studios has partnered with Hot Docs and the Pink Floyd Exhibition at the Better Living Center in Exhibition Place in Toronto for a discounted admission to both the film and the exhibition.

“What the Floyd did, what Syd did, somehow at those few gigs they did in London is that they defined the whole of that moment in the ‘60s.”

- Pete Townshend (The Who)

“Syd Barrett's music, both with Pink Floyd and as a solo artist, changed everything in pop culture.” - Thurston Moore (Sonic Youth)

“Riveting, poignant, tender, moving and tragic but ultimately inspiring.”

- John Squire (The Stone Roses)

18 AUGUST 2023 (TORONTO, ON) — Directed by award-winning filmmaker Roddy Bogawa ( Taken By Storm: The Art of Storm Thorgerson and Hipgnosis ) and the late, acclaimed designer Storm Thorgerson (Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Paul McCartney, Black Sabbath)

Featuring interviews with David Gilmour, Nick Mason and Roger Waters, original band managers Peter Jenner and Andrew King , as well as The Who’s Pete Townshend and Blur’s Graham Coxon among others

Abramorama to distribute the film globally.

FIRST LOOK CLIP

Produced by Mercury Studios, Believe Media, and A Cat Called Rover

Produced by Orian Williams, Rupert Truman and Roddy Bogawa

Executive Produced by Alice Webb, Geoff Kempin, Paul Loasby, Liz Silver and Luke Thornton

Narrated by Jason Isaacs ( Harry Potter, The Patriot )

Syd and Pink Floyd crystallized a cultural moment where anything seemed possible but where that freedom could come with a cost. Was Syd just another drug casualty? Did he suffer from an undiagnosed mental condition? Or did he dislike the attention and fame as the fun turned to work? While there are no clear answers, there is the feeling by all those around Syd that something went terribly wrong. Have You Got it Yet? is a chronicle and a mosaic of Barrett’s creative and destructive impulses, his captivating presence and absence - a portrait of the complex puzzle that was his life.

RT: 94 minutes

CONFIRMED THEATRES AND DATES

Calgary, AB, Canada

Globe Cinema

17th & 31st August

Edmonton, AB, Canada

Metro Movies 12

27th October & 1st November

Hamilton, ON, Canada

Playhouse Cinema

4th & 11th August

Ottawa, ON, Canada

ByTowne Cinema

23rd & 24th August=

St Catherines, ON, Canada

The Film House

13th & 22nd August

Toronto, ON, Canada

Hot Docs Cinema

19th, 25th, 28th, 29th & 31st August

3rd & 7th September

Vancouver BC. Canada

Rio Theatre

8 and 18 September

Waterloo, ON, Canada

Princess Cinemas

5th & 12th August

MORE THEATRES TO BE ADDED, VISIT THE WEBSITE FOR UPDATES

  https://www.sydbarrettfilm.com/theatres/  

#SydBarrett #HaveYouGotItYet #PinkFloyd

ABOUT MERCURY STUDIOS

Mercury Studios is a full-service production studio originating, producing, selling, distributing, and investing in scripted, unscripted, and live content. Editorially independent, Mercury Studios is powered by Universal Music Group and represents the world’s leading catalogue of music-related content. Current and recent projects include If These Walls Could Sing , the untold story of the world-famous Abbey Road Studios, directed by celebrated British photographer and filmmaker Mary McCartney for Disney+; “My Life as a Rolling Stone,” a four-part docuseries of intimate portraits of Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Ronnie Wood and Charlie Watts for the BBC and Epix, Shania Twain: Not Just a Girl , a career documentary about the superstar that is available on Netflix; and “Mars,” a short film based on an original universe and characters created by Yungblud, starring Yasmin Finney, that premiered at the London Film Festival and screens later this summer at the Tribeca Film Festival. The 2023 slate includes “This Town,” a six-part series for the BBC from writer, creator and executive producer Steven Knight; Mixtape , a feature documentary from Omar Acosta, and Contact High:  A Visual History of Hip-Hop , a feature documentary from Oscar-winning director/producer Joseph Patel (Summer of Soul), adapted from Vikki Tobak’s best-selling book. In the podcast space, Mercury will present “The Greatest Day: The Epic Story Behind Hip-Hops Most Iconic Photograph,” which debuts on Audible June 15; last year, the studio collaborated with Audible on “Crush Hour:  A Musical,” a holiday series starring Ellie Goulding and Douglas Booth. Mercury Studios’ Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool was honored with two Emmys in 2020 for Outstanding Arts and Culture Documentary and Outstanding Sound. ZZ Top: That Little Ol' Band from Texas also received a 2021 Grammy Award nomination for Best Music Film. Both feature documentaries are part of the Mercury Studios library, consisting of over 5,000 hours of programming

ABOUT BELIEVE

Believe Media is a production company devoted to visual innovation, artistic originality and nurturing young talent with a vision and voice. With offices in Los Angeles, New York, and London, Believe maintains strong alliances with a global network of clients. We offer vast experience and adaptive strategies to diverse projects for the world’s most esteemed brands, agencies, record labels and iconic musical artists. Our directors’ influence in visual storytelling, fashion, automotive and music has been celebrated at such awards as the Cannes Lions, the Clios, the ADDYs, SXSW and the MTV awards.

ABOUT CAT CALLED ROVER

A CAT CALLED ROVER was founded in 2014 by StormStudios photographer Rupert Truman, Producer Julius Beltrame and Director Roddy Bogawa to complete HAVE YOU GOT IT YET? after the untimely passing of co-Director Storm Thorgerson. Taking its name from one of Syd Barrett’s cats, the production company’s first feature length work is HAVE YOU GOT IT YET? THE STORY OF SYD BARRETT AND PINK FLOYD.

ABOUT ABRAMORAMA

Abramorama is the preeminent global distribution, marketing, and rights management partner feature films and episodic programming, with a special focus on music and social impact documentaries.  An innovator in focused, niche film distribution, direct-to-consumer engagement, and live, event and digital cinema, Abramorama provides expertise and results to filmmakers and content owners worldwide.  In its 25+ years of operation, Abramorama has been the trusted film partner to many of the most respected global brands in entertainment: The Beatles, Stevie Nicks, Neil Young, Laurie Anderson, Jimi Hendrix, Pearl Jam, Metallica, Green Day, Melanie Martinez, National Geographic, Discovery, AARP, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, HBO, Showtime, Hulu, Universal Music Group, Atlantic Records, Warner Music, Sony, Concord Music Group, and many, many others. Through a powerful global network of cinemas, digital media outlets, and affinity marketing partners, Abramorama strategically implements a unified distribution and audience activation plan for each title. Abramorama is expert at maximizing reach, engagement, marketing spends, and the ROI for content created for target audiences.

For more info visit: www.abramorama.com

Syd Barrett Film

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“Have You Got It Yet? The Story of Syd Barrett And Pink Floyd” Sets Theatrical Release

MERCURY STUDIOS DEBUTS TRAILER FOR

“HAVE YOU GOT IT YET?” THE STORY OF SYD BARRETT AND PINK FLOYD

SETS THEATRICAL RELEASE IN UK 15 MAY IN EVERYMAN CINEMAS AND LATE JUNE VIA ABRAMORAMA FOR THE USA AND CANADA

produced by Mercury studios, Believe Media and A Cat Called Rover

Watch the official trailer HERE

Key art from the film HERE

www.sydbarrettfilm.com

#SydBarrett #HaveYouGotItYet #PinkFloyd

Vertical trailer on  Mercury Studios Instagram

Social media tool kit HERE

LONDON, 26 April 2023 – Mercury Studios, Universal Music Group’s innovative and multi-faceted content studio, today announced the theatrical release of Have You Got It Yet?, a compelling story of one of the UK music’s most influential figures, Syd Barrett of Pink Floyd fame.

Directed by award-winning filmmaker Roddy Bogawa and the late, acclaimed album cover designer Storm Thorgerson (Led Zeppelin, Paul McCartney, and Black Sabbath), the feature length documentary lifts the lid on the relationship between Pink Floyd – the visionaries behind prog rock and British psychedelic music – and founding member Syd Barrett, who left the group before they met stardom.

It was Syd who gave the group their moniker by combining the names of two obscure blues players – Pink Anderson and Floyd Council. Intimate interviews with band members David Gilmour, Nick Mason, and Roger Waters uncover Barrett’s ongoing impact on the group.

Narrated by actor Jason Isaacs, the film also features original band managers Peter Jenner and Andrew King, as well as The Who’s Pete Townshend and Blur’s Graham Coxon.

Director Roddy Bogawa, the filmmaker behind Taken by Storm: The Art of Storm Thorgerson and Hipgnosis, said, “Would anyone care about the story of Syd Barrett if Pink Floyd hadn’t become one of the biggest bands of all time? Would Pink Floyd have existed without Syd? I miss Storm probably in the same way as many of those in our film miss Syd, a friend who they dearly loved and shared fond memories and adventures – Syd just happened to become one of the most famous cult icons in music.”

Syd and Pink Floyd crystallized a cultural moment where anything seemed possible but where that freedom could come with a cost. Was Syd just another drug casualty? Did he suffer from an undiagnosed mental condition? Or did he dislike the attention and fame as the fun turned to work? While there are no clear answers which might be the case, there is the feeling by all those around Syd that something went terribly wrong. Have You Got it Yet? is a chronicle and a mosaic of Barrett’s creative and destructive impulses, his captivating presence and absence – a portrait of the complex puzzle that was his life”.

Photographer and A Cat Called Rover founding partner, Rupert Truman, says, “During Syd’s lifetime, Storm and the Floyd were fiercely protective of him. Storm would refuse all interviews about him and tell me nothing of Syd’s life. After Syd’s death, Storm in discussion with Roddy Bogawa and Dan Abbott felt that he should make the film, having known Syd since school days, with Roddy directing. Storm knew everyone in Syd’s personal and professional life well and the film would be a kaleidoscope of impressions, a more accurate picture of Syd made from the sum of its varied parts.”

Mercury Studios CEO and Have You Got It Yet? Executive Producer, Alice Webb, added, “Working on this project with Roddy has been a real honour. At Mercury we’re driven by our passion for, and purpose of, storytelling. And, when we get to share the moments, emotions and characters behind music that has soundtracked memories and milestones of fans all around the world, we know we have something special. That’s what this whole project has been to us, special.”

Producer Orian Williams (CONTROL, England is Mine) commented, “The music of Pink Floyd bears witness to Syd Barrett’s exceptional talent and inner turmoil. Their unconventional approach and ground-breaking sound expanded the horizons of music. Friends, family, bandmates and admirers shed light on all aspects of Syd’s enigmatic life in our film.”

Produced by Mercury Studios, Believe Media, and A Cat Called Rover, Have You Got It Yet? will premiere at Everyman King’s Cross in London on 27 April 2023.

Click   www.sydbarrettfilm.com to view the official trailer and theatrical release details.

NOTES TO EDITORS:

Have You Got It Yet? will be distributed in the United Kingdom by Everyman and distributed by Abramorama in North America and other countries.

ABOUT MERCURY STUDIOS

Mercury Studios is a full-service production studio originating, producing, selling, distributing, and investing in scripted, unscripted, and live content. Editorially independent, Mercury Studios is powered by Universal Music Group and represents the world’s leading catalogue of music-related content.

Current and recent projects include If These Walls Could Sing, the untold story of the world-famous Abbey Road Studios, directed by celebrated British photographer and filmmaker Mary McCartney for Disney+; This Town, a six-part series for the BBC from writer, creator and executive producer Steven Knight; Contact High: A Visual History of Hip-Hop, a feature documentary from Oscar-winning director/producer Joseph Patel (Summer of Soul), adapted from Vikki Tobak’s best-selling book; “My Life as a Rolling Stone,” a four-part docuseries of intimate portraits of Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Ronnie Wood and Charlie Watts; Shania Twain: Not Just a Girl, a career documentary about the superstar that is available on Netflix; and Mars, a short film based on an original universe and characters created by Yungblud, starring Yasmin Finney, that premiered at the London Film Festival.

Mercury Studios’ Miles Davis: Birth of The Cool was recently honoured with two Emmys for Outstanding Arts and Culture Documentary and Outstanding Sound. ZZ Top: That Little Ol’ Band from Texas also received a 2021 Grammy Award nomination for Best Music Film. The feature documentaries are part of the Mercury Studios library, consisting of over 5,000 hours of programming.

ABOUT BELIEVE

Believe Media is a production company devoted to visual innovation, artistic originality and nurturing young talent with a vision and voice. With offices in Los Angeles, New York, and London, Believe maintains strong alliances with a global network of clients. We offer vast experience and adaptive strategies to diverse projects for the world’s most esteemed brands, agencies, record labels and iconic musical artists. Our directors’ influence in visual storytelling, fashion, automotive and music has been celebrated at such awards as the Cannes Lions, the Clios, the ADDYs, SXSW and the MTV awards.

ABOUT CAT CALLED ROVER

A Cat Called Rover was founded in 2014 by StormStudios photographer Rupert Truman, Producer Julius Beltrame and Director Roddy Bogawa to complete Have You Got it Yet? after the untimely passing of co-Director Storm Thorgerson. Taking its name from one of Syd Barrett’s cats, the production company’s first feature length work is Have You Got it Yet? The Story of Syd Barrett and Pink Floyd.

ABOUT EVERYMAN CINEMA

Everyman is redefining cinema. There are currently 38 Everyman cinemas across the UK. Created to deliver a warm and friendly atmosphere, each venue has a unique interior with plush velvet sofas and armchairs for ultimate comfort. Every screen also presents state of the art technology for high quality viewings of a variety of blockbuster films, documentaries and live screenings.

ABOUT ABRAMORAMA

Abramorama is the preeminent global distribution, marketing, and rights management partner feature films and episodic programming, with a special focus on music and social impact documentaries. An innovator in focused, niche film distribution, direct-to-consumer engagement, and live, event and digital cinema, Abramorama provides expertise and results to filmmakers and content owners worldwide. In its 25+ years of operation, Abramorama has been the trusted film partner to many of the most respected global brands in entertainment: The Beatles, Stevie Nicks, Neil Young, Laurie Anderson, Jimi Hendrix, Pearl Jam, Metallica, Green Day, Melanie Martinez, National Geographic, Discovery, AARP, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, HBO, Showtime, Hulu, Universal Music Group, Atlantic Records, Warner Music, Sony, Concord Music Group, and many, many others. Through a powerful global network of cinemas, digital media outlets, and affinity marketing partners, Abramorama strategically implements a unified distribution and audience activation plan for each title. Abramorama is expert at maximizing reach, engagement, marketing spends, and the ROI for content created for target audiences.

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