Syd Barrett and British Psychedelia is an intimate snapshot of the years 1966-7, when the underground's house band, Pink Floyd, were cast blinking into the light of mainstream success. Nurtured in the progressive Cambridge scene and the bohemian hangouts of the Notting Hill Free School and UFO club, Pink Floyd pioneered a distinctly British mix of Victoriana, LSD-inflected mysticism, the avant-garde and pop. And at their heart was the gifted and complex songwriter, singer and guitarist Syd Barrett, who personified the psychedelic revolution in both its exoticism and its tragic impermanence.

Syd Barrett was an English composer and purveyor of some of the most intriguing music ever written. Famous before his twentieth birthday, Barrett led the charge of psychedelia onstage at London's famed UFO club. With a Fender Telecaster and a primitive Binson echo unit, Barrett liberated the guitar from being, in critic Simon Reynolds' words, 'a riff machine, and turned it into a texture and timbre generator.' His inspired celestial flights of improvisation, and his more structured and whimsical short songs indicated a mind of unusual inventiveness. Chief in Barrett's mind was a Zen-like insistence on spontaneity; each performance had to be unique, and Barrett strived to push his music farther and farther out into the zone of complete abstraction. This in-depth analysis of Pink Floyd founding member Syd Barrett's life and work is the product of years of extensive research. Lost in the Woods traces Syd's swift evolution from precocious young art student to acid-fuelled psychedelic rock star, and examines the myriad musical and literary influences that he utilised in composing his hypnotic, groundbreaking songs. A never-forgotten casualty of the excesses, innovations, and idealism of the 1960s, Syd Barrett is one of the most heavily mythologized men in rock, and Lost in the Woods offers a rare portrayal of a unique spirit in freefall.

When he passed permanently into the next dimension in 2006, Syd Barretts life had developed into something far more significant than he could ever have imagined. The man who turned his back on probable fame, fortune and the entire rock music scene over thirty years ago had become an involuntary legend. Was he a genius or just a madman? The definitive answer to this question will never be known. But Psychedelic Renegades goes a long way towards unraveling the enigma that was Syds personality. Mick Rocks extraordinary images and frank text expose a man with enormous natural charisma, whose moods could be dark and brooding as well as buoyant with madcap laughter. This superbly produced book covers the period 1969-71, and features the photo session in and around Syd's London flat that produced the cover for his first solo album, The Madcap Laughs; it also features images Mick shot for the now famous Rolling Stone interview in 1971, which became the last photos Syd ever posed for.

“I don't think I'm easy to talk about. I've got a very irregular head. And I'm not anything that you think I am anyway.”—Syd Barrett’s last interview, Rolling Stone, 1971 Roger Keith “Syd” Barrett (1946–2006) was, by all accounts, the very definition of a golden boy. Blessed with good looks and a natural aptitude for painting and music, he was a charismatic, elfin child beloved by all, who fast became a teenage leader in Cambridge, England, where a burgeoning bohemian scene was flourishing in the early 1960s. Along with three friends and collaborators—Roger Waters, Richard Wright, and Nick Mason—he formed what would soon become Pink Floyd, and rock ’n’ roll was never the same. Starting as a typical British cover band aping approximations of American rhythm ’n’ blues, they soon pioneered an entirely new sound, and British psychedelic rock was born. With early, trippy, Barrett-penned pop hits such as “Arnold Layne” (about a clothesline-thieving cross-dresser) and “See Emily Play” (written specifically for the epochal “Games For May” concert), Pink Floyd, with Syd Barrett as their main creative visionary, captured the zeitgeist of “Swinging” London in all its Technicolor glory. But there was a dark side to all this new-found freedom. Barrett, like so many around him, began ingesting large quantities of a revolutionary new drug, LSD, and his already-fragile mental state—coupled with a personality inherently unsuited to the life of a pop star—began to unravel. The once bright-eyed lad was quickly replaced, seemingly overnight, by a glowering, sinister, dead-eyed shadow of his former self, given to erratic, highly eccentric, reclusive, and sometimes violent behavior. Inevitably sacked from the band, Barrett retreated from London to his mother’s house in Cambridge, where he would remain until his death, only rarely seen or heard, further fueling the mystery. In the meantime, Pink Floyd emerged from the underground to become one of the biggest international rock bands of all time, releasing multi-platinum albums, many that dealt thematically with the loss of their friend Syd Barrett: The Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here, and The Wall are all, on many levels, about him. In A Very Irregular Head, journalist Rob Chapman lifts the veil of secrecy that has surrounded the legend of Syd Barrett for nearly four decades, drawing on exclusive access to family, friends, archives, journals, letters, and artwork to create the definitive portrait of a brilliant and tragic artist. Besides capturing all the promise of Barrett’s youthful years, Chapman challenges the oft-held notion that Barrett was a hopelessly lost recluse in his later years, and creates a portrait of a true British eccentric who is rightfully placed within a rich literary lineage that stretches through Kenneth Graham, Hilaire Belloc, Edward Lear, Lewis Carroll, John Lennon, David Bowie, and on up to the pioneers of Britpop. A tragic, affectionate, and compelling portrait of a singular artist, A Very Irregular Head will stand as the authoritative word on this very English genius for years to come.

Beautiful, charismatic, prodigiously talented, Syd Barrett in 1966 invented the British psychedelic scene - founding Pink Floyd, writing and singing on the band's first album - before collapsing into madness two years later.

In Psychedelia and Other Colours, acclaimed author Rob Chapman explores in crystalline detail the history, precedents and cultural impact of LSD, from the earliest experiments in painting with light and immersive environments to the thriving avant-garde scene that existed in San Francisco even before the Grateful Dead and the Fillmore Auditorium. In the UK, he documents an entirely different history, and one that has never been told before. It has its roots in fairy tales and fairgrounds, the music hall and the dead of Flanders fields, in the Festival of Britain and that peculiarly British strand of surrealism that culminated in the Magical Mystery Tour. Sitars and Sergeant Pepper, surfadelica and the Soft Machine, light shows and love-ins - the mind-expanding effects of acid were to redefine popular culture as we know it. Psychedelia and Other Colours documents these utopian reverberations - and the dark side of their moon - in a perfect portrait.

Featuring 56 songs and a foreword by Pink Floyd's first manager, Peter Jenner, and an introduction by Rob Chapman (author of Syd Barrett: A Very Irregular Head), this beautifully illustrated and official book compiles Syd's extraordinary lyrics together for the very first time.

A revealing investigation into the life of a reclusive cult genius. Syd Barrett was Pink Floyd's founder, singer, guitarist and principal composer, who left the group in 1968 amidst tales of acid-induced madness. Barrett's brief flash of erratic brilliance is now the stuff of rock legend, and his post-Floyd recordings have become cult classics. Revised in 2006, this book draws on years on research to relate the story of an epic rock tragedy.

In celebration of the 45th anniversary of The Dark Side of the Moon, Bill Kopp explores the ingenuity with which Pink Floyd rebranded itself following the 1968 departure of Syd Barrett. Not only did the band survive Barrett’s departure, but it went on to release landmark albums that continue to influence generations of musicians and fans. Reinventing Pink Floyd follows the path taken by the remaining band members to establish a musical identity, develop a songwriting style, and create a new template for the manner in which albums are made and even enjoyed by listeners. As veteran music journalist Bill Kopp illustrates, that path was filled with failed experiments, creative blind alleys, one-off musical excursions, abortive collaborations, general restlessness, and—most importantly—a dedicated search for a distinctive musical personality. This exciting guide to the works of 1968 through 1973 highlights key innovations and musical breakthroughs of lasting influence. Kopp places Pink Floyd in its historical, cultural, and musical contexts while celebrating the test of fire that took the band from the brink of demise to enduring superstardom.

Celebrate of the history and significance of both the Fender Telecaster and Stratocaster for the company’s 75th anniversary in this combined edition of Dave Hunter's two best-selling books! The Fender Telecaster, created in Les Fender’s Fullerton, California, workshop and introduced in 1950, is a working-class hero and the ultimate blue-collar guitar. It wasn’t meant to be elegant, pretty, or sophisticated. Designed to be a utilitarian musical instrument, it has lived up to that destiny. In the hands of players from Muddy Waters to James Burton, Bruce Springsteen to Joe Strummer, the Telecaster has made the music of working people—country, blues, punk, rock ’n’ roll, and even jazz. Fender’s Stratocaster is arguably the number-one instrument icon of the guitar world. When introduced in 1954, its offset space-age lines, contoured body, and three-pickup configuration set the music world on its ear—it was truly unlike any guitar that had come before. In the hands of the world’s most beloved players, such as Buddy Holly, Eric Clapton, Ike Turner, and, yes, Jimi Hendrix, the Stratocaster has since become a popular instrument of choice among rock, blues, jazz, and country players and, not coincidentally, is also one of the most copied electric guitars of all time. In this authoritatively written, painstakingly curated, and gloriously presented combined edition to celebrate Fender’s 75th anniversary, author Dave Hunter covers both of the guitar’s histories from concept, design, and model launch through its numerous variations and right up to the present. The story is richly illustrated with archival images, musicians in action, studio shots, memorabilia, and profiles of over 50 Tele and Strat slingers through the ages. With its unprecedented level of detail and stunning visuals, Fender Telecaster and Stratocaster is the only book tribute worthy of the world’s two greatest guitars.