Waters, Gilmour and Mason to Appear in New Syd Barrett Documentary
Mercury Studios has completed work on a documentary about Pink Floyd co-founder Syd Barrett.
Titled Have You Got It Yet? after an unreleased Barrett song, the film was started by longtime Floyd collaborator Storm Thorgerson, and taken over by Roddy Bogawa after Thorgerson’s death in 2013.
It explores Barrett’s contributions to the band he named, his dismissal in 1968 as his mental health issues spiralled out of control, his brief solo career and his retirement, during which he spent the last 30 years of his life focusing on painting. He died in 2006. The movie includes new interviews with Barrett’s surviving bandmates David Gilmour, Roger Waters and Nick Mason, while producers secured the rights to 50 Floyd and Barrett songs for use in the soundtrack.
“Syd Barrett was more than just the co-founder of Pink Floyd,” Mercury told Deadline in a statement. “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.
“Poignantly, some of Pink Floyd’s biggest worldwide hit records – Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here and The Wall – examine themes of madness and stardom, including ‘Shine On You Crazy Diamond’ and ‘Wish You Were Here,’ written as tributes to Barrett.”
Bogawa said: “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-‘60s and their idealism, ambitions, hopes and dreams during such an amazing cultural moment.”
Producer Orian Williams added that the most difficult challenge they’d encountered was interpreting Barrett’s “process of harmony and how unexpected sonic synergy and visual discord, both seemingly random, was planned and well thought out.” He hailed Bogawa for his success in offering “a glimpse into how Barrett funneled the genius, madness and experimentation into Pink Floyd, the vessel in which all things came to life but also took Syd away.”
A release date for Have You Got It Yet? has not been announced.