Interview with Twink, Syd Barrett's bandmate in Stars

from Opel #11, 5 December 1985

By Ivor Trueman

Ivor Trueman: After the Pink Fairies you next played in Stars. How did that all happen?

Twink: I was living in Cambridge, after I'd left the Pink Fairies I went back to London for a while & then moved to Cambridge. And while in Cambridge I met Jack Monck & some local musicians, though we didn't do anything serious.

Ivor Trueman: You hadn't known Jack Monck before then?

Twink: No. I met him through Jenny, Jenny Spires who was an ex-girlfriend of mine, and she was also an ex-girlfriend of Syd's. It was Jenny & Jack who brought Syd down to the Eddie Guitar Burns gig at Kings College Cellar. And Syd had a jam that night. And I think, I'm not sure if it's the next day, but within the next day or two Jenny & Jack came round to my house in Cambridge & we were talking & someone said "wouldn't it be great to get Syd playing again." It wasn't just me who said that, it was everyone. So Jenny said 'Oh I'll fix up a meeting with him, we'll go & see Syd & ask him if he wants to play with you & Jack.' So that's what we did. We went round to his house & I think his Mum answered the door & then Syd came to the door & Jenny said, 'This is Twink & Jack, they want to know if you want to form a band, just the three of you.' So he said 'yeh, alright, come in'. And that was that. We started rehearsing down in the basement of his house, that's how it started. I think I'm right.

Ivor Trueman: Did you do much rehearsal?

Twink: Not really, we did about two weeks & then we had this gig come up at the Corn Exchange.

Ivor Trueman: Who arranged those gigs?

Twink: A guy called Steve Brink. And I'm sure Steve's intentions were good but he was just as crazy as everybody else, y'know. If we'd had some sort of management direction then we wouldn't have done any gigs for six months or maybe a year or something, but we went straight into it. He came in & said 'I've got this gig with MC5, I'm going to put you top of the bill.' We said yes & he printed the tickets. This is very important to me actually, the tickets said "Stars-Twink's new band", and it looks as though, from that, that people think that I actually got the bands name on the ticket like that because I was more 'together' than Syd. But that's not true & I'd like it to go on record that it wasn't anything to do with me-it was the promoter trying to be overhelpful to me & I'd never seen the tickets before they came out or anything.

Ivor Trueman: I think the gigs attracted more attention than they should've done, as Syd hadn't been in the limelight for quite some time.

Twink: Yeh.

Ivor Trueman: But you did some gigs in Cambridge apart from the Corn Exchange.

Twink: Yeh well some of the gigs were great, some of them were really good but the Corn Exchange gigs were awful. The one that I remember best of all was the one that I enjoyed-the one in the Market Square in Cambridge, in the open air, that was great. And we did as few in the Dandelion Coffee Bar, I think we did two there & they were also good.

Ivor Trueman: That was all around the same time.

Twink: Yes, all around the same time, 'cos the band didn't stay together very long. Straight after that gig the bad press that we got, I think it was Roy Hollingworth-Melody Maker, he did a piece & he killed the band in fact, with that review. 'Cos Syd came round with it in his hand the next day, he saw it & says 'I don't want to play anymore'. So that was it. I mean I expected that, I thought that that was a possibility that something like that might happen, but it was a shame that it did.

Ivor Trueman: What about the recording of the earlier gigs?

Twink: Well I don't know where the tapes are.

Ivor Trueman: Which gigs were recorded?

Twink: I think all of them were.

Ivor Trueman: And the rehearsals?

Twink: Syd recorded the rehearsals.

Ivor Trueman: On a portable cassette?

Twink: As far as I remember, yes, just on a cassette. And the other one's were recorded on a really professional set up by a guy from America that was based in Cambridge. He was related in someway to Leonard Bernstein & his name's Victor but I can't remember anything else.

Ivor Trueman: Did you realise that the Eddie Guitar Burns gig was also recorded - a guy in Cambridge has a professional quality tape.

Twink: No, I did have once one of the Stars gigs, between me & Jolly, who was a friend I was working with at the time. He used to make badges. He had a tape but I don't know what happened to it. The tapes were good-they were all Syd's songs, Floyd material. I don't think we had any new stuff, but I can't remember.

Ivor Trueman: So Syd wasn't still writing anything at the time?

Twink: I can't remember. I know he was painting at the time, he was abeautiful artist, he did oil paintings, fantastic abstract paintings. Iguess most of those are still at his house, Jenny's got one of them.

Ivor Trueman: Are you still in touch with Jenny?

Twink: No. I don't know if Jack is. They were married but I think they'redivorced or separated now.

Ivor Trueman: Have you seen Syd recently?

Twink: No. Well yeh-I bumped into him a few years ago in Harrods. I was going down the escalator & he was going up. But I haven't seen him for a while.

Ivor Trueman: One of the guys writing a book on the Floyd has been to see him recently - Mike Watkinson. [Note, this is my mistake, Mike hasn't been to see Syd yet.]

Twink: Yeh, he's been in touch with me but we haven't got together yet.

Ivor Trueman: How long were the sets that STARS performed? The gig list for the Corn Exchange gig was supposed to have been: Octopus, Dark Globe, Gigolo Aunt, Baby Lemonade, Waving My Arms In The Air, Lucifer Sam and a couple of 12- bar blues

Twink: I can't remember exactly, how long the sets were but I think it was about 40-45 minutes. It's quite amazing actually, when you think about it, that he was keen at the time to do this and y'know he was really 'there'. He's a great guitarist & a great musician.

Ivor Trueman: Did Fred Frith ever play in the Stars line-up? We got a letter from him in New York saying that he played once on stage with Syd.

Twink: He didn't play in Stars but I don't know whether he did play with Syd, it might have even been the Eddie Guitar Burns gig.

Ivor Trueman: Was there somebody else there then?

Twink: I honestly can't remember. It could well have been that though.

Ivor Trueman: There's a rumour that Stars also did See Emily Play in rehearsal.

Twink: Yeh, I think that's right, but I'm not sure.

Ivor Trueman: What happened to the proposed gig at Essex University?

Twink: We tried to do that without Syd, because Syd had said that he didn't want to play anymore-but we had that booked so we all went down there with the intention of playing, I'd brought another couple of musicians in to cover for Syd. But in fact the promoter didn't want us to play 'cos Syd wasn't there-so it was a bit of a disaster.

Ivor Trueman: Were you still going to play Syd's material?

Twink: No. It was going to be other stuff. But it was the wrong thing to do we should've pulled out. But we decided to go down there and it didn't work out.

A Heavy, Friendly Tribute

Robyn Hitchcock and Heavy Friends
Games For May - Syd Barrett Tribute

May 26th 2007
Queen Elizabeth Hall, London UK

This is incredible! A great audience recording of Robyn Hitchcock and friends playing a tribute to Syd. Get it - enjoy it! (Click on the post title for the link!)

CD1

01 - Mathilda Mother
02 - Flaming
03 - The Scarecrow
04 - Jugband Blues
05 - See Emily Play
06 - Bike
07 - Arnold Layne
08 - Candy And A Currant Bun
09 - Pow R Toc H
10 - Interstellar Overdrive

CD2

01 - Terrapin
02 - Love You
03 - Late Night
04 - Long Gone
05 - If It's In You
06 - (Wouldn't You Miss Me) Dark Globe
07 - Dominoes
08 - Wined and Dined
09 - Reaction in G
10 - Astronomy Domine
11 - Lucifer Sam
12 - See Emily Play

Robyn Hitchcock - Guitar, Vocals
Kimberley Rew - Guitar
Paul Noble - Bass
Terry Edwards - Keyboards, Saxophone, Trumpet
Morris Windsor - Drums
Dan Woodgate - Drums
Graham Coxon - Guitar
Matthew Cullen - Guitar
Isobel Campbell - Cello

Have You Got It Yet?!?!

It's been a long wait, but it will definitely have been worth it.

Finally, Volumes I and II of Have You Got It Yet? (Mach 2.0) are ready for the world!

Another extraordinary fan-based effort, literally involving years of work, this set is dedicated to the memory of Syd Barrett and also to the memory of Bernard White, who founded the Syd Barrett Appreciation Society, published Terrapin, and was the first to locate most of the material featured in HYGIY.

HYGIY 2.0 Volume One

01 Lucy Leave (May/June? 1965) 02:55
02 King Bee (May/June? 1965) 03:06
03 Green Onions (17Dec67 "Tomorrow's World" BBC-TV) 01:58
04 Interstellar Overdrive (31Oct66 demo 1st gen) 15:07
05 Interview + Interstellar Overdrive (Dec66, CBC) 10:37
06 Matilda Mother (20Jan67, UFO) 02:52
07 Interstellar Overdrive (20Jan67, UFO no voiceover) 04:17
08 Let's Roll Another One (22Jan67 rehearsal) 01:58
09 Instrumental (22Jan67 rehearsal) 01:10
10 Arnold Layne (28Jan67 acetate) 02:38
11 Candy And A Currant Bun (28Jan67 acetate) 02:04
12 Instrumental (UFO, 24Feb67, prob "Interstellar") 04:35
13 Pow R. Toc H. (14May67 "Look Of The Week" BBC-TV) 01:02
14 Astronomy Domine (14May67 "Look Of The Week" BBC-TV) 03:59
15 See Emily Play (21May67 acetate, alt ending) 02:53
16 Emily jam at 16RPM (looped 5X) 00:42
17 Set The Controls (08Aug67 mono) 05:28

Length: 67:23

HYGIY 2.0 Volume Two

01 In The Beechwoods (19Oct67) 04:50
02 Vegetable Man (11Oct67, mixdown May68) 02:41
03 Vegetable Man alt instrumental (09-11Oct67, mixdown May68) 02:50
04 Untitled, take 7 (04Sep67 1st gen) 01:34
05 Remember A Day (12Oct67 mono) 04:24
06 Scream Thy Last Scream (07Aug67 Jenner 1974 mix) 04:41
07 Vegetable Man (11Oct67 Jenner 1974 mix) 02:31
08 Reaction In G (1967, b'cast 26Apr69 Beat Club, German TV 1stGen) 00:44
09 The Scarecrow (BBC 25Sep67 1stGen) 02:18
10 The Gnome (BBC 25Sep67 1stGen) 02:38
11 Matilda Mother (BBC 25Sep67 1stGen) 03:34
12 Flaming (BBC 25Sep67 master) 02:45
13 Set The Controls (BBC 25Sep67 master) 03:35
14 Reaction In G (BBC 25Sep67 master) 00:51
15 Scream Thy Last Scream (07Aug67 Jones 1987 mix) 04:42
16 Vegetable Man (11Oct67 Jones 87 mix, from "What Syd Wants") 02:39
17 Jugband Blues (24Oct67 mono) 03:00
18 Flaming (02Nov67 Tower mono 45) 02:47
19 Set The Controls (18Feb68 Belgian vid mix) 04:53
20 Vegetable Man (20Dec67 BBC 1stGen) 03:37
21 Scream Thy Last Scream (20Dec67 BBC 1stGen) 03:50
22 Jugband Blues (20Dec67 BBC 1stGen) 03:58
23 Pow R. Toc H. (20Dec67 BBC 1stGen) 04:38
24 Tomorrow's World instrumental (17Dec67) 01:45

Length: 75:47

Most tracks have been upgraded from HYGIY 1.0, and the few for which we couldn't find better sources were remastered--sometimes very slightly, often significantly. Noise reduction was hardly ever used. (With such good sources, EQ does a better job in most situations.) Everything originally in mono is now back to mono, which is most of the material.

It's pure mono too, identical in each channel. That means it will compress WAY down. (Lossless flac files of the mono tracks are only slighly larger on average than MP3s @ 320.) That means fast downloads and quick torrenting. These will stream through the starlit skies of the dark globe in no time at all.

A few comments from Steve at Laughing Madcaps

I've said it before but it bears repeating-- we do our best to be accurate with it, but it would be impossible to present these tracks in strict chronological order *and* wind up with a disc you could sit through happily from beginning to end. On CD1 there's a lot of "Interstellar Overdrive" because that was most likely to get recorded back then. On CD2 there would be two consecutive mixes of the lost "Scream/Veg" single, as well as the Beechwoods tape and BBC versions.

The Beechwoods tracks are all of a piece, sonically, so it made the most sense to keep them together. They open Vol 2, which is where they should have been all along--and would have been, had they not surfaced after the original Vol 2 was already out.

Oldtimers know it well, newer members may not be aware... but the Beechwoods tape surfaced because of HYGIY. One of our members had it, assumed it must be circulating, then when he got his discs he realized what he was sitting on. He sent it off to Kiloh and it premiered on HYGIY CD4.

Most of the challenge in programming these discs is in keeping multiple versions of the same tune away from each other as much as possible. So occasionally we have to make a quick detour a few months backwards or forwards. Hopefully these things make emotional sense even when the calendar says otherwise.

We lost a couple tracks when the deluxe "Piper" came out last fall, and others have been eliminated for other reasons.

For example--in the end, we pulled the short clip of "Reaction In G" with German voiceovers. It stuck out like a sore thumb on CD1. It broke the chronology as well as the mood and didn't really add anything. The fact is, we have the same track without the voiceovers, so it's superfluous. The German version will appear on the expanded "Esoterica" volume, where all the related, miscellaneous, fan-created and otherwise oddball tracks wind up.

Also, after an hour or so of comparison listening (with CD3 of the new "Piper") it turned out that the '68 Belgian vid mix of "Paint Box" is not that unique after all.

There are subtle differences here and there. The wav forms don't match up, and the EQ may be different. Even so, it seems like most of the differences between this and the in-print version have more to do with the sourcing than the master tape. Maybe it will turn up on the "misc" volume as well, if there's room.
(That one will be 2CDs when it happens.)

Of course, with that track gone we had to take another look at what was where on the disc and shuffle around a little more. In the end, I think we have two volumes that flow very nicely, tell the story pretty well, and sound great.

Some prefer to remain anonymous, some are no longer with us, and the list is pretty long--so at this time, I'd like to thank everyone who's involved themself in any way over the years. Kiloh and Pete in particular, easily a dozen other people, and ultimately everyone here...thank you, and enjoy.

STAY TUNED FOR FURTHER INFORMATION ABOUT WHERE/HOW/WHEN TO GET IT!

Concert Contract Signed by Syd

This contract was signed by Syd Barrett on January 11th, 1967, on behalf of the band, committing to a performance at Leicester College on February 10th. 1/11/67 is a historic date in the genesis of Pink Floyd, as they spent the day recording in a real, professional studio for the first time: Sound Techniques with Joe Boyd producing and John Wood on the board. Two block sessions that day from 8am-11:30am, break for lunch (perhaps when this contract was signed...? Judging by the prominent tea-spill stain on the bottom right corner of the document, it could very well have been signed over a jubilant meal, teatime turning tragic as Syd spills his tea onto his paperwork), before their return to work, finishing up by 1:30pm, and mixing it down to mono the following day.

Those sessions yielded two completed songs: "Interstellar Overdrive" and "Nick's Boogie". These tracks appear on the soundtrack of the Peter Whitehead film "Tonite Let's All Make Love in London", yet were not properly released in their entirety until September of 1991 when the reel of tape was discovered in Peter's garage, "covered in an inch of moss" he said, that amazingly did not affect the sound quality of what is now considered one of their most crucial time-pieces. Their legendary "live sound" unaltered by overdubs and post-production meddling, the closest a collector can get to a vision of their performances that captivated all who encountered them.

18 days after the pen hit this-here paper, Syd and Pink Floyd would return to Sound Techniques and Joe Boyd, where they would forever change the world with the recording of "Arnold Layne" and "Candy and a Current Bun" on January 29, 1967.

Pink Floyd had recorded twice before in 1966, the first session with Bob Close (Lucy Leave/I'm A King Bee resulting), and the second time amounted to not much more than someone's home studio. Sound Techniques was a monumental step up in technology and seasoned personnel behind the soundboard. It was February 1967 when all bookings were serviced by the Bryan Morrison Agency, and no band members were required to sign the contracts anymore, making this document considerably more interesting, as it was a very brief window of time when the band members themselves would sign booking contracts.

The Leicester College gig on February 10th did occur, though sadly no recording seems to have survived. 11 days later, Pink Floyd would enter Abbey Road Studios and record the first notes of "Mathilda Mother" for their eventual album "The Piper At The Gates of Dawn".

This document was signed at the best of times for Syd Barrett at the height of his powers, less than a month away from signing another time for EMI, and launching what became, as recently as 2007, worldwide poll winner for World's Best Rock Band: PINK FLOYD

(Many thanks to HearDude for the pictures and text)

Programme for the Syd Barrett tribute concert May 10 at London's Barbican Theatre

The full programme can be downloaded at Joe Boyd's website:

http://www.joeboyd.co.uk/

Piper Pictures

Memories of the Green's Playhouse Gig

I attended this with my good friend Angus McRuary, who had purchased Piper some months before. Took the bus in from the burbs. Syd was not on stage, they appeared as a trio, and played, to my 15 year old ears, quite well. But see this in context of the other bands, the Nice and The Move particularly, who also played very well. These were all hot bands that year, the Nice's America being a top ten hit and blowing me away with its six minutes of rock/jazz/classical /psychedelia. Roy Wood's (the Move) lead guitar, mostly through a wah-wah pedal, was especially impressive. Clapton had only just started using one that summer. And, of course, Jimi and the lads who blew everyone away. Mitchell wearing a bright red jump suit and playing like a man possessed. Too much excitement for one night really; we were much too young to appreciate what we had seen.

Gordon Phinn