Syd Barrett, one of the original members of legendary rock group Pink Floyd, has died at the age of 60 from complications arising from diabetes. He was born Roger Barrett in Cambridge and met future bandmates Roger Waters and David Gilmour at school there. The guitarist was invited to join Pink Floyd by Waters in 1965 but left three years later after only one album with his mental state affected by drugs. "He died very peacefully a couple of days ago," said the band's spokeswoman. "There will be a private family funeral." undisputed leader Barrett took up a place at London's Camberwell School Of Art in the 1960s, alternating his studies with a spell in an aspiring R&B act, the Hollering Blues. He renamed Waters' group the Pink Floyd Sound, from an album featuring Georgia blues musicians Pink Anderson and Floyd Council. | "Syd was the guiding light of the early band line-up and leaves a legacy which continues to inspire..." | | Statement from Pink Floyd |
Having dropped their now-superfluous suffix, Pink Floyd became a linchpin of London's nascent "underground" scene, playing at clubs such as UFO in Tottenham Court Road. Barrett emerged as their principal songwriter and undisputed leader, composing their early hit singles, Arnold Layne and See Emily Play (both 1967), as well as the bulk of their debut album, The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn. But his drug intake soon began to affect his place in the band. Often he would be seen standing on stage with his guitar dangling from his neck, staring into the crowd. "mental breakdown" At one stage he was unhappy about appearing on Top of the Pops and walked out of a session recording in July 1967 after "freaking out". "That really was the first sign of his complete mental breakdown," producer Richard Buskin wrote later.
 | | The original Floyd line-up in 1967 |
"He never did come back into the studio any more after that, meaning that I had a hell of a hard time with the recordings". He did turn up again, ironically on the day the other band members were recording a tribute to him, Shine On You Crazy Diamond. Just as Pink Floyd were about to achieve worldwide success, he retreated from public life to return to Cambridge. Members of the band felt his breakdown might have happened even if he had not used drugs but felt that along with the pressures of fame, the substances he took probably acted as a catalyst. After he finally drifted out of the music scene, his whereabouts were unknown for two decades, until he turned out to be living with his mother. | 
