Psychedelic Renegades: With Photographs of Syd Barrett by Mick Rock

When he passed permanently into the next dimension in 2006, Syd Barrett s life had developed into something far more significant than he could ever have imagined. The man who turned his back on probable fame, fortune and the entire rock music scene over thirty years ago had become an involuntary legend. Was he a genius or just a madman? The definitive answer to this question will never be known. But Psychedelic Renegades goes a long way towards unraveling the enigma that was Syd s personality. Mick Rock s extraordinary images and frank text expose a man with enormous natural charisma, whose moods could be dark and brooding as well as buoyant with madcap laughter. Mick shared a friendship with Syd that began in the acid haze of the sixties and endured until the early seventies when Syd locked himself away. This superbly produced book covers the period 1969-71, and features the photo session in and around Syd's London flat that produced the cover for his first solo album, The Madcap Laughs; it also features images Mick shot for the now famous Rolling Stone interview in 1971, which became the last photos Syd ever posed for.