THE PINK FLOYD & SYD BARRETT STORY

First of all, the documentary has been made in 2001 by BBC; it has been published on DVD in 2003, but you can find a re-issue from 2004, under the same name but with a different cover. That reissue is listed here as "The Syd Barrett story" entry in SYD BARRETT's section.

The documentary is divided into 8 chapters, from his beginning in Cambridge and forming of PINK FLOYD to the end of his musical career. The consistency if the documentary is not on the same level all the time, while the early, floydian years are interesting, the commentary of his solo career is somewhat boring. At the end documentary is getting more interesting again, even touchy (Syd's last meeting with the band).

After I watched the DVD, I felt somewhat disappointed. OK, nobody expects the mystery and the real cause of Syd's madness to be revealed, but I get an impression that something is missing here.

First of all, it's music. There is almost no music on the DVD, just the short excerpts or, in the best case, the songs in background. We have an opportunity to hear ultra-rare track "Vegetable Man", refused by EMI because it was too raw. Why just an short excerpt?

On the other hand, there are three short acoustic performances of Syd's songs by Hitchkock and Coxon. Graham Coxon's "Love You" is to be avoided.

The members of the band were interviewed, and some rellevant and not-so-relevant people, but palette of questioned people should've been wider, really.

Syd Barrett's death just 3 years after the publishing of this DVD marks a label for this issue too: this documentary won't stand up on the test of time, because it's missing the final chapter. But it is full of gaps anyway.

There are good parts in the documentary - for example, the story how Syd left PINK FLOYD, told by Gilmour (he's rechristened Gilmore in one of the tracks), and the part describing the last meeting of Syd with the band (while they were recording the album that will be hommage to Syd), where nobody from the band actually recognized him.

As for the bonus tracks, Gilmour's comment on "Wish You Were Here" is interesting, two performances of Syd's material by Robin Hitchkock are bearable, and that's about it.

This DVD is a must for the fans of PINK FLOYD and Syd Barrett...until something better hits the market.

I'm rating it with three stars, and I'm being too generous here.