Syd

'Crazy Diamond' would of been the obvious title for this post, but I kind of hate how Syd gets referred to by this honestly, it's really reductive. But it is the name of this box set I won on eBay a few weeks ago. I already own the EP, but as I don't really collect CDs I never really bothered with this. But I saw it going for cheap on eBay and couldn't resist!

This set was released in 1993, and features all of Syd's albums: The Madcap Laughs, Barrett, and Opel which is a rarities and outtakes collection originally released in the late '80s. It also comes with a little booklet of information about Syd and the songs on the albums, I haven't had a chance to read it yet so I'll have to see if it's any good but I can't imagine it'd be that bad on an official release.

I imagine this would be awesome for anyone new to Syd's solo work as it's all right there for you. And a nice set to have for a collector like myself for sure! I have it next to my other CD box sets, I've amassed quite a collection for someone who doesn't really like CDs much! It's kind of tempting me to start collecting them properly.

Record Store Day

I've never taken part in Record Store Day before today, it generally doesn't hold any interest for me. I visit record stores regularly regardless of which day it is, and I generally find the releases to be overpriced and full of gimmicks. I've learnt that the record stores themselves do earn a lot of money from this day which helps them to stay afloat, many couldn't survive without it and I respect it for that aspect. But I think a lot of the meaning behind the day is lost when it's a race against eBay resellers to see who can get to the record store first, it's not a record store day when you have to arrive before it opens and most of the good stuff is gone an hour after opening, you know? Plus I don't hold a very high opinion of repressings, it's digital music pressed onto an analogue format, just get an original which is often cheaper and will sound so much better.

Saying that, Pink Floyd got me to participate this year! As soon as I heard they were releasing a special limited edition set of Piper At The Gates of Dawn, I knew I wanted it. Although I own an original mono pressing of this album, I don't play it very often at all as I worry about wear and also I'm a bit of a klutz and am scared of dropping the needle on it or something. I know, I know, what's the point in owning it if you're not going to listen to it, right? But it means so much to me and I saved so hard for it that I'd be so upset if anything happened.



So I'm pleased to own a mono copy I can play as regularly as I like now, and the collector in me needed it anyway for it's special sleeve! I've just listened to it, and it sounds sublime, as good as the original for sure. Definitely a good alternative if you can't afford the crazy prices the first pressing sells for!

I knew I'd have to partake in the full RSD experience if I wanted this album, and it took some work. I got up to queue at 5.30am and I had to drive several towns over to get to a record store that was taking part in the day. It was worth it though, and despite everything I can see why people get addicted and go every year. There's a great atmosphere, and although you're queuing for hours it goes by much quicker than that. And it's a wonderful feeling to finally get your hands on what you wanted so much! I also got the three records Tom Waits released for the Orphans set, something I probably wouldn't of bought had I not been there in person to buy them and I'm so glad I have them! I've wanted the Orphans boxset since it was released but it usually goes for upwards of £500 which is completely out of reach to me. I know it's not Pink Floyd related, but it just highlights that I'd of missed out had I not attended!

I also filmed a vlog of the experience, I'm going to be editing it tonight so I'll be sure to link to it when it's uploaded!

Shelf Tour Part 1

I went home from uni over Easter and one of my favourite things about going back is how many vintage things that are so freely available, it's a bit scarce where I am now. One thing I picked up was this cassette holder which I was really excited about as I thought it would hold all of my Pink Floyd tapes really nicely and I could include them in my little Pink Floyd display shelf.




These are all of the tapes I own, a good mixture of Pink Floyd and the members solo stuff. There's not a lot, but it's something I only collect quite casually as and when I see them for a good deal. About a year ago I saw Roger's three albums (Pros and Cons/Radio KAOS/Amused to Death) for sale as a little bundle and I didn't get them as I didn't have any change and they were gone when I went back, I'm still gutted about that! I like collecting tapes as they remind me of my childhood as they were all I played when I was young. They were cheaper than CDs so I could buy more of them with my pocket money, I was permanently attached to my Walkman and preferred that it didn't skip like a Discman was prone to do, and I loved making mix tapes and recording songs from the radio. I don't play my tapes much now, but I love having them for the nostalgia.



I thought I'd give you a little tour of the shelf while I was at it! I have two, I'll save the other one for a separate post. I used to have all of my Floyd stuff dotted around, but was inspired to put it all together in a display and I really love how it looks and it's my favourite part of my room now.



A lot of stuff in this image is from the V&A gift shop when I went to Their Mortal Remains. The square Piper cover is a pin, and I don't like to put my keyring on my keys as they tend to get bashed about a lot and damaged.

These are all of my Pink Floyd books, except for A Very Irregular Head which is on my Kindle. A lot of books are poorly researched or filled with the authors own opinions and assumptions rather than facts (especially regarding Syd) so I'm always a little distrustful of buying them, if you've got any recommendations for good ones I'm all ears! The only one on my wishlist currently is Psychedelic Renegades.



These are my postcards which are tucked in next to my books, I originally got them to put in my journal but I'm scared of 'ruining' them! They're mostly from Their Mortal Remains (I think I bought just about every postcard they sold, including a few duplicates as I went a few times and didn't remember which ones I had) The Gerald Scarfe ones are from when I went to see his exhibition at the House of Illustration, I know he's not Pink Floyd and technically shouldn't be here but they introduced me to his work and made him one of my favourite illustrators so it's relevant to me.



The two tour programmes I own currently, they're both originals. They're really nice inside, The Division Bell one in particular.




This one includes a really good trivia test, you can click the image to make it bigger if you want to take it and test yourself!



The Wall programme is a really nice mixture of live images alongside Scarfe's illustrations and artwork.




The white thing you can see to the left filling in that gap of the shelf unit is my vintage scarf which you can see in all it's glory below. It doesn't look very 'on display' from these angles, but you can see the full design from the other side so it's one of the first things you see as you walk into the room.




And that's my whole shelf! I'll be sure to share the second one soon!

Roger, Nick, and upcoming adventures

A few days ago my ticket arrived for one of the Roger Waters shows I'm going to over summer! I'm going to London and Birmingham, and it's the two days before my birthday so it felt like the perfect way to celebrate. I'm not sure why my ticket arrived so early, they don't usually get delivered until a week before but I did get it presale for attending BST Hyde Park last year when I saw The Killers so perhaps that's why. It was actually a really miserable experience last year and led to my first and only ever panic attack, I swore I'd never go back but I have to for Roger! I upgraded my ticket so hopefully I'll have a less claustrophobic time, plus the crowd will probably be a bit older.



These two dates will be my first time seeing Roger live despite being a fan for well over a decade. The draw back of being the only person in my circle (including family!) into older music is that it leaves me with no one to attend things with. I always thought one day I'd meet someone with the same interests as me, but when David Bowie died it was a sharp reminder that these people aren't immortal and waiting around until I met someone to go with was wasting time. Last year I began going to shows alone and I've never looked back! I'm never going to allow myself to miss out on things I want to do ever again.

I am however disappointed that I'm going to have to miss out on seeing Nick Mason performing next month! It was announced today and I was so gutted seeing the dates as I could literally go any other time. Nick is (along with Syd) my favourite band member, and the early years is my favourite period so I'm sure you can imagine how disappointed I am to have to miss this! I really hope demand pushes him to add an extra date or two.

The secret is now revealed... Nick Mason's Saucerful Of Secrets will be playing early Pink Floyd at four intimate live shows across London, next month. The tickets go on sale from 10am today at https://t.co/aP1uA85fbV - #PinkFloyd #NickMasonDrums #SaucerfulOfSecrets pic.twitter.com/5KxXl6ILN6

— Nick Mason (@nickmasondrums) April 17, 2018

I do have a good reason to be missing it though; I'm off to Italy! I'm going to see Their Mortal Remains before it closes in Rome, I'm really excited as I saw it three times in London so it will be interesting to see any changes. I know they've added some things that are specific to the bands history with Italy. I almost didn't get to make it as I had to rearrange my trip to the end of May when I'd originally planned for the middle of the month, and I forgot the exhibition would of ended by then! The very last day of the exhibition is on my first day in Italy, so I've reconfigured my trip. I've changed my flight so I now go to Rome in the early hours of the morning, then I can stash my bags at Roma Termini while I spend the day at the MACRO. Then I'll catch the train to Naples to check into my hotel that night and begin my trip as originally intended. I'm mostly going to Naples so that I can visit Pompeii. There's so much Floyd history in Italy and I'm really looking forward to exploring it all. Also my dad is Italian and he died a long time ago now so I want to get to experience and understand his culture better. Now if only I can wrap my brain around the language basics before I go!

Record Collection

Vinyl has always been one of my favourite things to collect. It's not anything that I grew up around as by the time I came along in the '90s my parents had long since traded in all of their records for CDs. I became fascinated by vinyl when I was a teenager and first began listening to old music. Initially I liked it just as merchandise, but then I got a record player and realised how much warmer it sounded to the digital music I was used to and I was instantly hooked, and began collecting it seriously and learning about different pressings and editions and such.

A big draw to vinyl for me is this is how the bands I listen to intended their music to be listened to. It's another reason I don't like modern remastered vinyl: Pink Floyd themselves mixed and recorded these albums for vinyl. Everything else is taken from those original tapes, so I want to hear it how Pink Floyd intended it to be heard and listened to. I also enjoy how tactile the format is, you can't put a record on and forget it in the background like you would playing iTunes - you have to flip the disc after every few tracks so you're always listening to it. I also enjoy simply having a physical music collection and seeing it grow and interacting with it by looking at the sleeves, cleaning it, etc. In todays digital world where so much is streamed, physically owning the things that mean the most to you makes it that much more special.



Because of this, my Pink Floyd vinyl collection is one of the things that means the most to me. It's taken me years to build it to this point as I'm picky and prefer to save up for good quality original pressings as I play them a lot so want them to sound their best. I have a YouTube channel (I kind of always torn between making it an art channel or a music channel so I include both) and one of my most requested videos is sharing my Pink Floyd vinyl collection. I have a couple of gaps, but I enjoying hunting for stuff in record shops as much as I enjoy owning it so I'm in no hurry and I don't think collections are ever truly finished as there's so many unofficial and foreign variations out there. I had a lot of fun putting this video together, so I hope that you enjoy it!

We don't need no thought control

Since I first started seriously collecting Pink Floyd merchandise something that I always wanted most was The Wall figures. They were released in 2003 in two series, and fetch large amounts on the secondhand market so for a long time they were just a pipe dream. But this year all of my luck seems to have fallen into place and in the space of two months I've gotten the two figures out of the entire collection that I really wanted!



I'm in the habit of making vague searches on eBay quite frequently for Pink Floyd merchandise, and that's how I came across both of these items. The first was the School Master, he's always the first character people think of from The Wall and I really love his design. He was quite cheap on a Buy It Now, so I didn't hesitate and it arrived early February. It was cheap on account of the box being slightly grubby, which I do care about but I'd rather save the money to be honest as the figure itself is just fine and that's what really matters.

Once the School Master arrived I started thinking which one I hoped for next, not really expecting to get it. The Marching Hammers was top of the list as it's the logo for the whole album and movie, and last week I happened to see it on an eBay auction and I won!



It arrived yesterday and I couldn't be happier. Sometimes plastic figures can look really tacky, but these are so well made that even people who aren't Floyd fans have admired their quality. The Marching Hammers in particular look like actual polished metal, and despite being so gangly the School Master is really sturdy. I had originally planned to keep the Marching Hammers in the box, but I could see it had already been removed at some point and you don't get the full effect of it behind the plastic packaging. I'm not at home at the moment so can't see what they look like alongside each other with the backings interlocked, I'll update with a photo as soon as I'm back!

Speak To Me

I've wanted a space purely to discuss Pink Floyd for the longest time. I have an Instagram account just for my collection, and I mostly post about Pink Floyd on Tumblr (and I also run an account dedicated solely to Nick), but neither offer much opportunity to go into any depth as it's all image based. Pink Floyd are my favourite band and I'm incredibly passionate about them, but I don't get much chance to wax enthusiastic in my day to day and so I have a lot of feelings to share and get out there! In the past I've tried to incorporate it into my other blog, but I feel like I have to dial myself down so as not to come across as obsessed as I actually am and bore the uninterested, but I'm rather tired of that. In the words of one of my favourite authors, "maybe my passion is nothing special, but at least it's mine."

I want to use this blog as an outlet to share my thoughts and feelings about my favourite band, share the new additions to my collection, the things I already own, and the adventures my love for this band takes me on. All posts before this one have been copied over from my main blog for posterity's sake. Last year in particular was very Floyd filled in general and left me with a very full heart and so it's important to me to include those journals and memories.



I've been a fan of Pink Floyd for over 15 years. I discovered them as a teenager through David Bowie's album Pin Ups which includes a cover of See Emily Play. It was my favourite track on the album and as I knew it was an LP of covers I sought out the original and it all snowballed from there. The Syd era has always been my favourite, and Syd himself means a great deal to me (Nick is also a favourite, he's such a sweetie). My favourite albums are Piper At The Gates of Dawn and Animals.

I love the 1960s in general, and as well as Pink Floyd merchandise I also collect vinyl, vintage clothing and homeware which I blog about here. I'm also an illustrator, and naturally frequently draw Pink Floyd.