Filed under: Music
Adam Ant 80’s pop icon was featured on Radio 4’s On the ropes series on 29 March. Ant (born Stuart Leslie Goddard) talked about his bipolar disorder.
Filed under: Music
The date for the 2011 Musical Brain conference The Musical Brain: is music different from the other arts? has been announced – 7 October 2011. The Musical Brain website
Booking opens on May 4th.
Details about last years conference Robert Schumann The Man, the Mind, the Music in his 200th anniversary year can be found here
Syd Barrett was a founding member and original lead singer of the progressive rock band Pink Floyd. He left the group in 1968 amid speculation of mental illness in the context of heavy drug use. When he died in 2006 he had not appeared or spoken in public since the mid-nineteen seventies.
There are many accounts of Barrett’s bizarre behaviour before his withdrawal from public life, although these were often related by people who were themselves intoxicated at the time. At one stage R. D. Laing was reportedly approached for advice; on hearing a tape of a Barrett conversation, Laing declared him “incurable”. After leaving the band one of Barrett’s final meetings with the remaining members of Pink Floyd was when he appeared at a recording session in 1975. By coincidence the band were recording a song about him. He had put on much weight and had shaved his hair and eyebrows and at first he was not recognized.
Whether or not Barrett suffered from an enduring mental disorder is in question. Barrett’s sister Rosemary when speaking to Barrett’s biographer was adamant that Barrett had not received treatment for mental illness during the previous 25 years and did not have a mental disorder.
There is an exhibition of Barrett’s artwork and letters at the Idea Generation gallery from 18 March until 10 April.
Syd Barrett: the definitive visual companion