Crazy Diamond
ARTS & ARTS & CULTURE CULTURE Remembering for process, not product, whose privacy CAMBRIDGE’S was largely respected by Cambridge while alive. “Painting was key to his well-being. His decorating for every wall at home was a different colour, not just rooms – the walls themselves. He was an artist Crazy first, a musician second. It’s a shame he became sidetracked by music, in a way,” Rosemary says. Cambridge was a place that he loved, Diamond many of his early Pink Floyd tunes Edition arts columnist Ruthie Collins featuring haunting beauty spots such as The Beechwoods and the Gog Magog looks at the life of Cambridge’s most Hills. Years later, willow-fringed Cambridge famous musical son, Pink Floyd still has a timeless, naïve innocence, with a creative scene shaped by intellectuals, frontman Syd Barrett musicians, eccentrics and artists reaching for the stars, but many creating art because of something innate to their souls. Syd Barret is, to many, as Cambridge Live’s operations director Neil Jones says, “Cambridge’s most famous musical son”, leaving many fans wondering why it’s taken such a long time for Cambridge to recognise Syd so publicly. “I’m glad that it Barrett’s influence can be seen across took so long. I wouldn’t have allowed it any pop culture – from David Bowie to Blur, other way. He wouldn’t have wanted it,” his stand-out style winning admiration says Rosemary. “He just didn’t understand from the likes of Mary Quant and Mick why people were so interested. He only did Jagger. Neil Jones comments: “We hope it all for fun.” that visitors to the Corn Exchange enjoy “He loved painting nature, pastorals, the the commemorative artwork and we’re English countryside,” says Rosemary.
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