>We’re just two lost souls swimming in the fishbowl, year after year – Pink Floyd

Ah, what an interesting weekend. I woke up this morning on the couch at The Eiffel tower looking like Frankenstein’s bride (liquid eyeliner in retrospect, was not the greatest idea) and feeling unbelievably narrr, but a trip with Inggs to Kauai in Stellies put things into perspective. The drive back to Cape Town was an extra long one. Oh web tangled webs we weave. Indeed.

So the BBC Knowledge channel have been screening this awesome show called Seven Ages of Rock (in seven parts naturally) and I’ve kinda watched the whole series slightly half-arsed, catching the last four episodes and then the first three, but no matter, it was an amazing series. However naturally, being a BBC production, they left out a large chunk of American rock history, only paralleling certain American bands with English ones. For example, they paralleled R.E.M with Nirvana (detailing how campus rock/grunge grew out of the underground student movement and then infiltrated the commercial genre) The Velvet Underground with David Bowie (who came back to Britain after his encounter with The Underground a changed man and went on to become a star) and The Ramones with The Sex Pistols and The Clash (who were essentially the most influential punk band after The Sex Pistols were broken by their move to America – you can debate this with me and BBC if you like).

So what am I getting at here? Well, truth be told, I have never been a Pink Floyd fan. Naturally there are the classics like ‘Wish You Were Here’, ‘Money’, ‘Another Brick in the Wall’ – but I’ve never really given Floyd a chance. That all changed yesterday. After Seven Ages of Rock basically dedicated an entire 45mins of an hour program to Floyd, I now have a newfound appreciation for these musical legends.

Syd Barrett, the original lead singer of Pink Floyd was a genius. Musically. Lyrically. The guy had it going on. Unfortunately, as the band gained popularity and they moved into a more commercial mainstream, Barrett couldn’t hack it and started going slowly insane. Some reckon this was because of his excessive drug use, others reckon it was because he was a schizophrenic with a serious case of bipolar disorder (Inggs. Stop laughing). No matter, the man eventually retreated into self-induced seclusion and spent the rest of his days in isolation until he died in 2006. Heavy stuff. Most of Floyd’s work after Barrett left were all tributes to him with the underlying theme of ‘Dark Side of the Moon’ being insanity.

Perhaps it makes a difference knowing the back-story to a band like this. I always find it more interesting. Also, I am now broke having bought three Pink Floyd albums. Great.