Today, January 6th, marks the 59th birthday of Pink Floyd founding member Roger Keith "Syd" Barrett. Born in Glisson Road, in Cambridge, back in 1946, Roger showed interest in music from a very early age. The story goes that it was at a jazz club in his home town that a drummer there - one Sid Barrett - gave the lad the nickname Syd, spelt differently to avoid confusion. The name stuck!

Syd stayed with Pink Floyd until early 1968, when David Gilmour joined the band to supplement their playing. It wasn't long before Syd was no longer part of the band (with his condition worsening day-by-day, some could argue he wasn't part of the band for some time prior to this), but undaunted, he started out on a solo career which revealed his fragile state to the world.

For those of you unaware, Brain Damage has a free download for you - a 21st anniversary edition of Malcolm Jones' fascinating book "The Making Of The Madcap Laughs". It is in PDF format, so if you cannot view it, please visit Adobe.com for their free viewer.

Our many happy returns to Roger on this special day.