To find out more about things to do in Cambridge, visit the Visit Cambridge website:
'We are very pleased to support 'The City Wakes' project which will provide people with mental health problems with an opportunity for involvement in an exciting and creative festival of music and arts. The project will challenge traditional stereotypes about mental illness, and complements our own work on tackling discrimination and promoting recovery and social inclusion.'
Karen Bell
Chief Executive
Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust
1 in 6 people will currently be experiencing problems with their mental health. That means that even if you haven't experienced a mental health problem yourself, you almost certainly know many people who have.
Buy your books from the Escape Artists bookshop and HALF the profit is donated to us - that's £2 on a typical £10 book. Our service is as good as Amazon's, but here your book buying helps support our charitable work. Under the price of each book you can see what contribution its purchase makes to Escape Artists.
We would like to thank Ants Council England for generously supporting the involvement of The Grasshopper's Green Herbarian Band in The City Wakes project. More...
Escape Artists and the Syd Barrett Fund are getting together to raise funds for new projects that support wellbeing through the arts. Find out more on The Syd Barrett Fund website...
Cambridge Happening on YouTube
Driven by the tumult caused by this very haeccity, quiddity or thisness, All at Once: the Happening is Happening Again at the Chapel Arts Centre, Lower Borough Walls, Bath BA1 1QR in the evening of Saturday May 23rd, 2009 as part of the Bath Fringe Festival. More details at http://bathhappening.wordpress.com/
From Counterculture to Cyberculture: Stewart Brand, the Whole Earth Network, and the Rise of Digital Utopianism by Fred Turner. A great read.
Photographs of The City Wakes events are now online at the Syd Barrett Trust website
Syd Barrett Mosaic Sold on Ebay - 17th Feb 09
Thanks to Rosemary Breen, Syd Barrett's sister, this wonderful mosaic by Syd Barrett is now being auctioned on Ebay (auction ends on February 17th at 4.20pm GMT) in order to raise funds for the Syd Barrett Trust.
STOP PRESS: The Mosaic met the reserve price has been sold. More news soon.
Syd-Barrett-Trust.org.uk - The Syd Barrett Trust, formerly represented on this website, now has its own dedicated web space. We are moving many parts of The City Wakes website to the Trust website; but this will take some time.
Syd Barrett Trust Shop and Auctions on eBay
New - February 5th, 2009
Limited edition (50), City Wakes posters signed by Mick Rock. More...
Info
If this is your first visit to this website, we recommend taking a quick look at the introduction to the project and the first press release.
Our thanks to Matt Johns at Brain Damage for an excellent summary of all The City Wakes events. Read the summary here.
The City Wakes concerts were professionally recorded on both video and through a sound desk. There's quite a bit of editing work that needs to be done, but videos will be on this website soon, as will downloadable versions of all the songs that were performed. Storm Studios are currently working on a new design for The City Wakes CD cover. The photoshoot for the design will take place on a Spanish beach before Christmas...
The highly successfulMind Over Matter exhibition will shortly be showing in Ely (Pink Floyd fans will know why an Exhibition in Ely is of special relevance).
Syd Barrett Honoured at Classic Rock Awards
The City Wakes on Czech TV
Interviews, in English, with David Gale, Stephen Pyle and other people who knew Syd Barrett in the 1960s
Vilayanur Ramachandran on Synesthesia
Neurologist V.S. Ramachandran looks deep into the brain’s most basic mechanisms and comes up with some fascinating insights into synesthesia: a mental condition that Syd Barrett is thought to have experienced and one that is especially prevalent amongst artists and poets.
People Paintings
The UFO, supporters of The Other Room, hosted a special "People Painting" during The City Wakes: a blank canvas available for visitors to "offer their love and creativity to Mr. Barrett". Everyone had the opportunity to express themselves. More...
T-Shirt Designs - Get Creative!
You can now create your own unique item of clothing by mixing Storm Studio designs with lettering of your choice. More...
Feedback
"On a rain-sodden night in Cambridge as we walked through the archway into the grounds of Trinity College light shone like beacons from the Chapel to our right. Through the windows of the buildings surrounding the quadrangle we could see and feel the history that has passed through this seat of learning over the centuries.
Another chapter was about to be written as Syd Barrett's music was soon to be performed.
This is probably the most beautiful setting that could have been chosen for the Gala performance - the acoustics were perfect, the audience sat and listened and the applause shook the rafters.
As the band entered through the main central walkway we could tell that this was to be a special night. Peter Wynne-Willson's psychedelic lighting effects filled the Chapel and the opening bars of Astronime Domine filled the air.
Simon Gunton's inspired arrangements breathed new life into Syd's songs with every member of the band giving 110% to make this a show to remember.
Has this historic place of worship ever had a rap singer performing Arnold Layne before? - most probably not. Members of the Chapel Choir gave a quite stunning and very moving rendition of "Dark Globe", the Grasshoppers Green Herbarian Band treated us to Brain Damamge and High Hopes - the latter dedicated to Richard Wright.
Highlights for me were See Emily Play and Dominoes.
As I mentioned in the Opening Night thread these were not note for note reproductions but completely new arrangements giving the songs a vibrancyand feel that was totally unique.
Before the final song (an encore of Astronime Domine) Rosemary gave a heartfelt speech thanking the performers and remarking how Syd would have been pleased with the arrangements of his songs.
Upon leaving the Chapel as we looked back we could see the lighting effects still visible through the stained glass windows bringing a glow to the very dark wet night outside.
Afterwards we adjourned to The Roof Top Restaurant at The Cambridge Arts Theatre for the after-show party attended by Rosemary, Ian and their families. Also there were Mick Rock and 3 of Syd's former girlfriends. We spent some time talking to Libby who confirmed (for you ladies) that Syd had Brown eyes with Green flecks.
There was an atmosphere of a job well done and Syd's presence seemed to move around the room.
It was good to meet Bea, Purplebumblebee,Sean Beaver, Dark Globe & Mrs DG, Lady Barrett and I caught a fleeting glimpse of GyroscopeSect after the show.
All in all a magical evening that will stay in the memory till I shuffle off this mortal coil.
Once again many thanks to Escape Artists and The City Wakes team for realising this production and on behalf of this Forum our sincere best wishes for your future projects."
Posted by Madcapsyd on the Syd Barrett Late Night Discussion Forum - 2nd November, 2008
"Just back from The City Wakes Syd Barrett tribute - it was a blinder.
Whatever you are doing this weekend or next weekend, cancel it. Fill the car with petrol, get a train ticket or hitch a ride to Cambridge. You won't regret it.
The City Wakes is a celebration of Syd Barrett's music and paintings.
There's an exhibition at the Ruskin Gallery of his art (some, I believe, on view for the first time), photos by Mick Rock and Anthony Stern, letters with doodles written to Jenny Spires.
An exhibition of Pink Floyd related photographs and album covers by Storm Thorgerson in the Grande Arcade shopping mall.
Music workshops, of which more at a later stage when my feet have hit the ground.
But the highlight for us was a reinterpretation of Syd Barrett's music. Maybe, like me, you won't even recognise most of the songs until the lyrics kick in but you are unlikely to hear anything so joyous and exhilarating in a long time. I don't want to spoil it for anyone who might be going, but must mention the medieval sounding Scarecrow with harp and was it an oboe?, a Spanish matador Maisy, the gospel tinged Jugband Blues which morphed into some sort of a rumba, the Byzantine/middle eastern See Emily Play and the extraordinary (and I mean out of this world) Arnold Layne. All performed by a dynamic and very talented orchestra of professional and amateur musicians. Light show provided by Peter Wynne Willson with some of the original lighting equipment from UFO and Roundhouse days.
And what a fine city Cambridge is... " Steve 26.10.08 (Photograph by Colin Turner)
Breathe - October 8th, 2008. The Centre at St Paul's
"If he’s not too busy in the middle of a cosmic reunion jam with Rick Wright you could do worse than let Syd Barrett know there’s a fantastic new single coming out very soon in his honour. Sonically, it’s nothing like his blend of off-kilter psychedelia, but the Trashcan Sinatras have created a luscious and bluesy 6 and a half minutes plus track that’s a worthy contendor for Single of the Year." Plain or Pan
Iggy
A previously unseen video of Syd Barrett's girlfriend Iggy, with its original soundtrack See Emily Play. Made by Anthony Stern, the video has never before been publicly available.
Storm Studios, designers of some of Pink Floyd's most famous album covers, including DarkSide of the Moon and The Division Bell, have created this thought provoking poster especially for The City Wakes tribute to Syd Barrett. Storm Thorgerson will be exhibiting Mind Over Matter: The Images of Pink Floyd at The Grand Arcade in Cambridge throughout The City Wakes. More...
The City Wakes poster, signed by Storm Thorgerson, is available from this website at £30. Unsigned posters are also available. More...
Mick Rock Remembers Syd Barrett
"Syd Barrett was a friend of mine. I hadn't seen him in 33 years when he died, but in my mind he remained my friend. He proved that he still also considered me a friend when he co-signed 320 copies of the original publication of ''Psychedelic Renegades' (the total addition was 950 copies; the other 630 were signed by me alone), a beautiful slipcased limited edition published by Genesis Publications in 2002.
photo copyright Mick Rock 1969, 2008 www.mickrock.com
This was his only public gesture since the 1971 interview I did with him for 'Rolling Stone' magazine. Of course, he only signed them 'Barrett'. 'Syd was a persona he had shaken off in the early Seventies. But he signed them. And in doing so gave his blessing to the book and the images within, which include the photos I made of him in his mother's garden the day of the interview, the last photos he ever posed for. He even took a few of me that day... Thank you, Syd...
Understandably, most people think of Syd as a dark, brooding, inarticulate Prince of Psychedelia gone haywire, but the strongest impression he left on me from the times we spent together, was of his laughter. He liked to laugh. Sometimes he laughed at a shared joke or insight. Sometimes he laughed for the hell of it. This madcap loved to laugh. I recently came across a brief silent 16mm film clip of Syd I shot in 1969. He's laughing for the entire clip. And check out some of the photos in my book. He had one of the best smiles I ever came across, full of fun and mischievousness. That's how I remember Syd. Shine on you crazy diamond.....You are not gone."
Mick Rock will be coming over to the UK from his home in New York especially for The City Wakes tribute to Syd Barrett. Mick will talking about his memories of Syd and signing copies of his book, Psychedelic Renegades, at Borders bookshop on Saturday November 1st. He will also be showing his celebrated photographs of Syd at the Ruskin Gallery from October 24th to November 2nd.
SANe, the Social Arts Network, exists to facilitate communication between people who are interested in the development of socially inclusive arts practice, services and productions. The network is managed by Escape Artists but it is open to everyone and is free to join.
