Stuart and Syd.

Maconie's Freak Show last Sunday was a bit of a classic. Topical, with The Madcap Laughs the featured album, it was packed with a range of freakish tunes that shaded on the more tuneful side of the show.  Saddened by the attacks in the Middle East, and with Villa Park in crisis, Maconie's show was a pick-me-up.  The show even included Bjorn and Benny of Abba's first ever tune. Was pretty good and surprising. It was for a 1968 Swedish blue movie.

Much has been written about Syd Barrett since his passing from cancer. I've always known of him and adore Bike, but I never bought his two LPs nor the 90s collection 'Opal'. It's a shame. His are delightfully loose, lyrically fragile, hazy songs. 

Guitars, voice and drum not in step. Deliberately one step behind, or beyond...

Here's a clip on Syd from an English news program last week:

Below is a purported-to-be home video from 1969 with a Barrett soundtrack, in praise of wasting time playing dominos

My favourite Pink Floyd track was written by the engine that propelled Gilmour et al to mega stardom. Hard to believe that someone who mentally collapsed wrote all their early material. I discovered it via Pin Ups courtesy of my Bowie obsessed sister's record collection.

God, that was great. What a tune!

I read that Barrett painted in later years - wonder whether any will be shown in public? 

There seems to be a lot of secrecy about Syd. People loved him and protected him. One of his relative's regularly posted on Julian Cope's headheritage.com site, and received enormous messages of love and goodwill last week.  I saw a video of Syd in 1998 that was filmed by a stalker when he looked far removed from his pomp and glory.  Sad to view it but what would expect ay his late age. 

If you are still here, have a look at this Times article which tells it how it is: how Pink Floyd became boring, safe dullards who made music for the bland after Syd went. 

It's not all doom and gloom

Lampard couldn't perform as he did for CFC, and Rooney was unfairly sent off. 

There are several reasons why England failed to beat Portugal and the two foremost ones are bad luck and poor refereeing. There's no point in blaming the 10 men who kept Portugal at bay for over 90 minutes. 

If anyone is to blame, then it is the Svengali setup. Those days will soon pass. So, let's look to the future. There will be no Beckham or Neville in South Africa. Let's look at Walcott et al, and the many youngsters who will come through in the next few years. The European Championship is coming up in 2 years too. Perhaps that could be Beckham and Owen's glorious swan song. 

We should have the same defense; we need a few reliable strikers. 

The pic is of Olly Chenh - who will be ready to represent England in about 2022: a potential superstar in the making!