What's On - Introduction
The City Wakes’ unique programme has ten major features. Follow the links below to find out more:
The City Wakes is part of Cambridge University's inaugural Festival of Ideas
Concert Performances – The City Wakes
Centred on fresh interpretations of Syd’s songs – including Bike, See Emily Play, Jugband Blues, Dominoes and Arnold Layne – the title piece of The City Wakes opens the door into Syd’s world.
Directed by award-winning musician and composer Simon Gunton, The City Wakes features cutting-edge video art from celebrated choreographer and film artist Darren Johnston, stunning psychedelic lighting from Peter Wynne Willson, one of Pink Floyd’s original lighting designers, and a guest appearance by The Grasshopper’s Green Herbarian Band. The production’s set – based on early 1960s memorabilia – is a superb and fitting backdrop.
Meet The City Wakes’ award-winning artistic, production and support teams here.
The City Wakes stage production will take place on the 24th, 25th, 26th, 29th, 30th and 31st October 2008 at The Centre at St. Paul’s - a venue just a stone’s throw from where Syd was born. More...
Gala Night – The City Wakes
STOP PRESS: Booking for the Gala Performance of The City Wakes, in the fabulous setting of Trinity College Chapel, is now open. More...
Exhibition – The Other Room: Syd Barrett’s Art and Life
The Other Room features the most comprehensive collection of Syd’s paintings ever to be seen in public. The works, many of which have never previously been exhibited, are displayed alongside rare archival-quality prints from Syd’s photo-biographer Mick Rock and original pieces from Pink Floyd’s legendary designer Storm Thorgerson. The exhibition also features rare Syd-related memorabilia, including diaries, correspondence and furniture designs.
Film screenings, featuring newly edited footage shot in the 1960s, will take place in a mini-cinema adjacent to the exhibition space.
An extensive collection of pieces from early 1960s Cambridge, including posters, photographs and press cuttings, paint a vivid picture of the vibrant cultural scene. This cultural scene had a profound influence on Syd’s artistic sensibilities.
Syd Barrett’s Cambridge is curated by Stephen Pyle, one of Syd’s closest friends from his days at Cambridge School of Art (now part of Anglia Ruskin University).
Held in the Ruskin Gallery at Anglia Ruskin University, Syd Barrett’s Cambridge is open from 23rd October to 2nd November 2008. Entry is free.
To be kept up-to-date with announcements about the exhibition, please join The City Wakes mailing list. More...
Exhibition - Mind Over Matter: Images of Pink Floyd
Mind Over Matter celebrates the iconic designs of Storm Thorgerson. Including over sixty pieces of his work for Syd and Pink Floyd – not least the album covers now regarded as modern classics – the exhibition represents the first time Storm’s work has been shown in his hometown.
To be kept up-to-date with announcements about the exhibition, please join The City Wakes mailing list. More...
Guided Tours – Syd’s Cambridge
in association with
From Syd’s birth place, school and college, to venues he attended and played at, to locations featured in his songs, Cambridge boasts many places that are full of significance for Syd Barrett and Pink Floyd fans. The City Wakes’ guided tours allow enthusiasts, and those who are simply curious, to make the most of this treasure trail, whilst also exploring Cambridge’s beautiful city centre.
Led by professional city guides, and incorporating the anecdotes and memories of Syd’s friends, the tours take in key sites throughout the city.
The City Wakes’ guided tours will run daily from 22nd October – 1st November 2008. The tours are on foot and will last for approximately two hours.
To keep up-to-date with announcements about the tours, including ticketing information, please join The City Wakes mailing list. More...
Music Workshops
Explore Syd’s wonderfully unorthodox songs under the expert guidance of The City Wakes’/Escape Artists’ Musical Director, Simon Gunton. Electronic and conventional instruments and participants’ own bodies and voices will be used, allowing each workshop group to create its own interpretation of one of Syd’s classic tracks.
Simon Gunton (photograph by Christine Cellier)
No previous musical experience is necessary and all instruments are provided.
Workshops will run on 24th, 25th and 31st October 2008 at The Centre at St. Paul’s. Twenty places are available in each workshop. More...
Talks
in association with
Syd’s friends Storm Thorgerson, Mick Rock, David Gale, William Pryor, Andrew Rawlinson and Matthew Scurfield, give a series of talks and book signings at Borders in Cambridge City Centre. Talks from the authors of several well-regarded Syd biographies – including the new forthcoming Faber and Faber biography A Very Irregular Head by Rob Chapman – are also scheduled.
To keep up-to-date with all the latest developments, including dates and booking details, please join The City Wakes mailing list. More...
All at Once: the Happening
Some friends of Syd invite you to be part of, be the art of the All at Once Happening at the Centre at St Paul's at 7.30 on Tuesday, October 28th for the conversion of the bourgeoisie. Our digipoems, mangled music & old wave films will remix prolix newkicks. Our simultaneity, multineity & spontaneity will loop back to yesterday, improvise today but furrow tomorrow. We insist you keep your mobile phones on, your children badly behaved and your antennae tuned to the chance of beauty. It’s FREE to get in... Like life.
All at Once: the Happening will take place at The Centre at St Paul’s. More...
The Madcap by Malcolm Boyle
A play about Syd Barrett, Psychedelia and the 60s written and performed by Malcolm Boyle.
The Madcap is a multi-media journey into the psychedelic 60s underground as seen through the distorted mental lens of Syd Barrett - the legendary genius behind Pink Floyd. In this critically-acclaimed solo show, award-winning performer and musician Malcolm Boyle combines tragicomic performance, hallucinatory film and slide projections with his own 21st Century interpretations of Barrett's songs. More...
The Book – Syd: The City Wakes
Syd: The City Wakes is a new book of interviews and memorabilia, based on the memories and collections of Syd's friends and family. Focussing on Syd's early life and the explosive Cambridge cultural scene in which he was such a key figure, it includes interviews, photos, drawings and letters that have never before been seen in print.
To keep up to-date with announcements about the Syd: The City Wakes, including details of its launch event, please join The City Wakes mailing list.
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The University of Cambridge’s Festival of Ideas
In October 2008, The University of Cambridge will hold its first Festival of Ideas – a celebration of the arts, humanities and social sciences - in venues throughout the City of Cambridge. Escape Artists is delighted to have been asked to present The City Wakes at the Festival of Ideas. For more information about the Festival please see www.cambridgefestivalofideas.org
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