From: Mark Jones To: madcapslaughing at yahoogroups.com Date: Monday, July 17, 2006, 12:35:30 AM Subject: [ML] Going to Syd's house ======================================================================= A couple of years ago I went to Cambridge for the day and for wont of curiosity I went to Roger Barrett's house. I just wanted to see where he lived. I didn't knock or disturb him and it was a VERY odd feeling I had come over me knowing that the man who USED to be Syd Barrett now spent his time living in the house I was parked across the road from (for all of 10 minutes though). It's a tad sad of me but I looked at the path and thought 'That's where he walks' and saw the newsagent just across the main road and thought 'That's where he probably gets his papers from". I'm by no means obsessed, my other music 'hero' is John Lennon and there was no way I could check out where he lived cos A) He's dead and B) He lived in New York. Of course I secretely hoped that for the shot time I was there I would maybe see him but I didn't. I had no wish to turn myself into one of the infamous 'door stoppers' but fantasised about just thanking him for all the great music he made, just being able to shake his hand. Seeing the picture of his house with some flowers placed outside after his death I know I definitely had got the right house. When I went Roger Barrett had a little gold Christmas tree in his front window and I noticed that one of the top windows had been boarded up. Seeing the photo of his house after his death I noticed too that since I had been there he'd had new windows installed. I knew though that when I drove off, NOT having seen him, that I would regret it when he finally passed away........ Please don't hassle me with 'you shouldn't have gone' messages. I KNOW I shouldn't have really but I WAS there, and so was Roger. Now he's not and I'm glad I went. The thing I probably WILL get hassle about is that after hearing that Roger had watched the Ominbus documentary and had, according to reports, enjoyed it, I sent Roger Barrett copies of 1 to 4 of HYGIY? I know they probably just went in the bin but at least I know he would have have seen the CDs and was aware of what had been done. I also wrote a letter (*) thanking him for all the joy he'd given us from the music he'd made when he was a musician and sent nothing but LOVE from his fans, all of us on MadcapsLaughing. It's taken me a week to put a Syd Barrett album on after hearing of his death. The world seems slightly duller knowing that the man who was Syd is no longer living and breathing the same air as us, RIP Mark Jones (*) Page 1, Page 2

back ...