Follow the moment Barrett was kicked out of Pink Floyd, from the narrative of him going from groundbreaking musician to iconic rocker and manic, unstable star.
Syd Barrett, founding member of world famous rock group Pink Floyd and its initial songwriter and leader, led a life full of unanswered questions. Was he a drug casualty of the sixties? Did he walk away from the pressures of the commercial music world? Did he suffer from an undiagnosed mental illness?
Pink Floyd were caught in the epicenter of the 'underground' explosion of the 60s as the psychedelic house band of the UFO club in London, with Syd Barrett its enigmatic figurehead, inspiring such musicians as David Bowie and Marc Bolan. Though he named the group, wrote the first two hit songs and was the lead vocalist and guitarist, Barrett was pushed out of the band by its members who were convinced he was having an LSD induced psychotic breakdown. After leaving the group, Barrett struggled to record two solo records but eventually dropped out of the music industry completely, living as a recluse for thirty years - while Pink Floyd went on to worldwide fame as one of the biggest selling bands of all time. Ironically, much of Pink Floyd's most noted work (DARK SIDE OF THE MOON, WISH YOU WERE HERE, THE WALL) examined themes of genius and madness certainly mourning their long lost friend. HAVE YOU GOT IT YET? THE STORY OF SYD BARRETT AND PINK FLOYD provides an intimate examination of the mysteries and myths surrounding Barrett's puzzling disappearance with rare unseen material, new interviews of the surviving Pink Floyd members, childhood friends, ex-girlfriends, and contemporary musicians. The film is at once a chronicle and a mosaic, an investigation of fame and its personal cost while also exploring the larger social context of the 60s, its hopes and failures, and a compelling story that involves us all in discovery and how one chooses a path in life, measured by the outside world or one's own inner voice.
