Syd Barrett was probably not really an acid casualty!
Peter Jenner (Floyd’s first manager): “Syd’s behaviour was avant-garde and I thought avant-garde was good. Of course in hindsight, we should have taken a break, but none of us knew what we were doing and we had an album out.”
Nick Mason (Floyd’s drummer): “We wanted to be pop stars and Syd didn’t.”
David Gilmour (Floyd’s guitarist): “I heard Piper At The Gates Of Dawn and was sick with jealousy.”
Nick Mason: “Other bands seemed so professional.”
Bob Ezrin (Collaborator on The Wall): “Roger Waters was fun to write with. He was just difficult to live with.”
David Gilmour: “(Atom Heart Mother was)… possibly our lowest point artistically.”
Rick Wright (Floyd’s keyboards): “Rock bands live or die by whether there anyone who can write. You don’t rock the boat.”
Roger Waters (Floyd’s bassist): “David played that descending guitar part in ‘Dogs’, which is very important, great in fact. But apart from that…”
Nick Mason: “Roger’s great mistake… was to underestimate David’s determination and resolve.”
David Gilmour: “If we could get away without talking to the press, we would.”
Mark Blake – New Modern – £25
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Senator Burton K Wheeler put the question best: If the war in Europe was America’s war, why was she not fighting it? It was the vital question of its day. Should America join the European war or not?
No Man’s Land is already littered with books on the Great War, and there will be many more hurled into the fray, but not many of them will be as original as this thoughtful and engaging treatment by the historian 
