Syd Barrett - Clowns and Jugglers: the Songs of Syd Barrett [2LP]

Format: 2 x LP
Catalogue No.: SYDGZ101LP
Barcode: 5056083215515
Release Date: 09 Oct 2026
Genre: Psych/Garage Rock

Without Syd Barrett, there would have been no Pink Floyd. Their music never dates; it feels timeless. They were utterly unique, and people remain as fascinated by their origins today as when they first heard them. 

They sounded unlike anyone else when they started in the 60’s. They were not simply imitating Black American music, as so many British bands were then doing; this was something entirely new and exciting.  As Nick Kent once observed, Pink Floyd seemed to arrive fully formed from the very beginning, and much of that was due to Syd’s startling talent as both a songwriter and a musician experimenting with new sounds using what was, by today’s standards, primitive equipment.

Alongside The Beatles, Syd Barrett pushed the boundaries of instrumental innovation. While The Beatles were recording Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band down the hall at Abbey Road Studios, Pink Floyd were working on The Piper at the Gates of Dawn. Through avant-garde experiments with backwards guitar techniques and multi-track recording, Syd explored far beyond the limits of conventional popular music.

Syd’s forward-thinking techniques grew out of his grounding in art — he studied at Camberwell College of Arts — and his interest in jazz improvisation, before Pink Floyd. He was inspired by Keith Rowe and the free improvisation group AMM in London during 1965. Rowe radically transformed guitar playing by abandoning traditional tuning and laying the instrument flat on a tabletop, even rolling ball bearings across the frets. 

Syd developed his own equally unconventional approach, playing slide guitar with a Zippo lighter and wiring his instrument through two Binson Echorec units, using sound like a painter uses colour.  

It’s well documented that Syd went from Cambridge to outer space, but never returned. He’d gone beyond reach. The most soaring and poignant moments in Pink Floyd’s career after that have to do with reaching out to someone who has ‘gone beyond reach’. So in a way, Syd never left.

Everyone with any interest at all in contemporary British music seems to have an opinion about Syd Barrett, and what happened to him.  But no one really knows which is why the myths have endured and his work speaks to every new generation. 

Clowns and Jugglers is an official release, whilst could be called a “Tribute album”, the project co-ordinators are at lengths to say it is more a “celebration” than a tribute. Featuring many exclusive tracks from the likes of Kula Shaker, Soft Machine, Voyage 35, Robyn Hitchcock (featuring John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin fame), Henge and Tom Bowness to but name a few. That coupled with the last ever live performance of Pink Floyd themselves, all very fitting that they should end their live career where it started, not to mention a certain Mr David Bowie making an appearance – this Celebration of both Syd and his music is a must not only for Floyd fans – which there are alot, but music lovers in general. 

Side 1
1. Arnold Layne – Pink Floyd & Rick Wright (voca)l
2. Astronomy Domine – Nick Mason’s Saucerful of Secrets 
3. See Emily Play – All About Eve
4. Love You – Mystery Jets 
5. Chapter 24 – Violeta de Outono 
6. Two of a Kind – Dave Harris & Zeus B Held
 
Side 2
1. No Good Trying / Interstellar Overdrive – Kula Shaker
2. Apples & Oranges – Voyage 35
3. Gigolo Aunt – Robyn Hitchcock ft. John Paul Jones 
4. Lucifer Sam – Rosalie Cunningham
5. Golden Hair – Tim Bowness
6. Effervescing Elephant – Jim Sclavunos

Side 3
1. Rhamadan (edit) – S oft Machine
2. Long Gone Uncle – Acid and the Deadbeats 
3. Matilda Mother – Rhadika ft. Norman Blake & Future Pilot AKA 
4. Scream Thy Last Scream – Men on the Border 
5. Bike – Pünk Barrett

Side 4
1. Octopus (edit) – Diana Silveira x The Psychedelic Circus 
2. Baby Lemonade – Love with Johnny Echols 
3. Terrapin – Henge 
4. Late Night – Theo Travis &  RichKo (vocal) 
5. Arnold Layne – David Gilmour & David Bowie (vocal)