Magazine collection

I was flicking through my magazines the other day and thought they'd make an interesting thing to share as I've been collecting them for years! I didn't even realise how many I had until I piled them all up like this. I usually keep some in a magazine rack, some stacked up behind the magazine rack, some on the book shelf and some underneath the bookshelf, so they're usually all over the place! Some of these date back as far as 2001. I don't collect every magazine with Pink Floyd in it, just ones that catch my eye or have a significant article.


These are some of my oldest copies, the Uncut issues are from 2001 and the Classic Rock magazine from 2002. I wish there was a way I could share more of these magazines other than just the covers, I thought of scanning them in for Tumblr but I don't want to risk ruining the spines.


Mojo - October 2011; Classic Rock - October 2005; Mojo - November 2001


I mostly prefer issues with Syd in them ♥ They're occasionally full of the journalist's speculation, but they're more objective than a lot of the books published about him and I like that they usually include bits with people who actually knew him, as well as the other members of Pink Floyd themselves.


Getting into some of my more recent ones, the Uncut magazine was from last summer I think? The Shindig and Prog were from 2016. I'm posting them in the wrong order, but this Shindig included part 2 of a massive article about Syd, I really recommend getting both issues if you don't have them already.


Music Milestones I got a few years ago but I'm pretty sure it's still sold in WH Smith, it's more like a mook and goes through the bands history album by album. I think I got all three of these magazines in 2016 too, the issue of Prog was to mark the 10th anniversary of Syd's passing.


These were all from 2017, I could barely keep up that year as so many magazines were being released full of their early year stuff as the box set hadn't long been released and Their Mortal Remains was opening. The Mojo '60s was a Pink Floyd special, and the Shindig was Part 1 of the Syd article I mentioned earlier.


Inside the Mojo '60s


This Mojo is from March 2010, and the Pink Floyd guide is another mook, Uncut release a lot of these of various bands. I've had this one a long time, I'm not sure when it was released but I really recommend seeking out a copy! It's full of articles from various different publications throughout the time since the band started, I love reading stuff like this and seeing what they were saying about the band then compared to what we know now. I guess the Drum Heroes is kind of a cheat, although I consider it part of my collection. It's a mook by Rhythm magazine, as you can probably guess all about drummers! It's got a good interview with Nick in it.



This box was sold at WH Smith, I think they sell these kind of things on a lot of various topics. I've also seen an actual book in HMV with this exact same cover, so I don't know if it's the same thing in a slightly different format. Planet Rock was my most recent buy last week, it's got a little article in it with Nick about his Soucerful of Secrets project. And the Mojo magazine was from July 2016 to mark 10 years since Syd's passing.


And these are the final three, and the ones that always make me so sad to look at! They're all from 2006, and were the tribute issues to Syd after he died :( I took a photo from each:

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.

Floating down, the sound resounds

Today is 50 years to the day that my favourite album of all time was released. August 5th, 1967. It still sounds fresh - I'd like to say as fresh as it would of sounded when released, but it was unlike anything that had ever been released before it so that's impossible. It's an album that gets overlooked a lot - even by Pink Floyd themselves. Nothing was released for it's 50th anniversary, no special edition, not even a previous edition repackaged for the occasion. Nothing. I'm bitter about that - when you consider how many editions of Dark Side of the Moon and The Wall have been released. Those albums would never have been made without Piper at the Gates of Dawn. Pink Floyd as we know it would never have existed without Syd Barrett. They'd never have been signed to EMI without him. So many people don't even know who he was, beyond the "crazy diamond" written about on Wish You Were Here. He was so much more than that. He wrote the majority of Piper at the Gates of Dawn, Pink Floyd struggled to find their feet with their sound after he left. They wrote a few songs that tried to imitate and capture Syd's whimsical essence, but never could. That's Syd's talent. He could take child like themes and play on words, yet there's an unexpected deepness to it. The songs on this album have supported me through some of the darkest times. It transports me to another world, a world where I am understood.

Pink Floyd recorded this album to sound like their live performances that were garnering so much attention. They'd record during the day, and then play a live set at The UFO Club or The Roundhouse in the evening. I can only imagine how fabulous those live sets were.

Syd

I'm not generally one for drawing attention to a person's death. It's something I prefer to notice on my own and allow to pass, preferring to celebrate them on their birthday as death is something that affects me deeply (I will even purposefully avoid Tumblr on such days so I don't have to be reminded). But 10 years felt worth commemorating. I still remember when I found out all of those years ago. I'd only discovered Pink Floyd and Syd's solo work little less than a year before he died, and although he'd been publicly inactive for decades it naturally still hit me hard. It felt particularly unfair that he should die the day before my birthday, what a downer! He's always remained a living part of me though no matter how much time passes, and always will.




I took a recent uni project as an opportunity to finish off this drawing of Syd that I began last year. You may remember it was fully completed except for his shirt as I had wanted to post it by a specific date and ran out of time, plus I was honestly dreading drawing all of that patterning. I've drawn fairly detailed clothing before and it always takes an age, and it's an aspect I always approach with caution as it can really make or break a drawing. I had originally planned to leave his shirt plain like I'd shown in my previous post, hoping it would look minimal and keep the focus on his face, but it just never looked right to me so I knew I had to complete it to feel happy with the portrait. It definitely looks much better now, it looks finished.

Syd was… you know, physically beautiful, witty, funny. The way he talked, the way he walked. I don’t want to make this sound like a love song, but he was much loved by pretty much everyone around him. - David Gilmour