MERCURY STUDIOS ANNOUNCES NEW DOCUMENTARY
ON THE ICONIC CULT FIGURE SYD BARRETT OF PINK FLOYD
Ahead of the 50th Anniversary of ‘ The Dark Side of the Moon’ (1973)
LONDON (October 14, 2022) – Mercury Studios announces the completion of the feature length documentary HAVE YOU GOT IT YET? THE STORY OF SYD BARRETT AND PINK FLOYD, along with producers Believe Media and A Cat Called Rover. The film was directed by award-winning filmmaker Roddy Bogawa and late famed graphic designer Storm Thorgerson.
Syd Barrett, one of the founding members of Pink Floyd gave the group their moniker by combining the names of two obscure blues players – Pink Anderson and Floyd Council – and wrote their first two charting singles but was quietly pushed out of the group who were convinced he had suffered an LSD induced psychotic breakdown, replaced by his childhood friend David Gilmour. Subsequently releasing two solo LPs that garnered minor attention though considered by many contemporary musicians as uniquely haunting and poetic, Barrett dropped out of music returning home to Cambridge for the last thirty years of his life and his first love of painting. Poignantly, some of Pink Floyd’s biggest worldwide hit records – THE DARK SIDE OF THE MOON, WISH YOU WERE HERE and THE WALL examine themes of madness and stardom including SHINE ON YOU CRAZY DIAMOND, written as a tribute to Barrett.
Directed by Roddy Bogawa (TAKEN BY STORM: THE ART OF STORM THORGERSON AND HIPGNOSIS, I WAS BORN, BUT…,SOME DIVINE WIND) and Storm Thorgerson who as part of the design group Hipgnosis in the sixties and seventies was responsible for hundreds of record covers for Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Paul McCartney, Black Sabbath and many others, the film was completed by Bogawa with StormStudios photographer Rupert Truman and producer Julius Beltrame after Storm’s untimely death in 2013. Producer Orian Williams (CONTROL, ENGLAND IS MINE, CREATION STORIES) joined the project while still in production.
All new intimate interviews feature David Gilmour, Nick Mason and Roger Waters as well as sister Rosemary Breen, original Pink Floyd managers Peter Jenner and Andrew King, musicians Pete Townshend (THE WHO), Graham Coxon (BLUR), Andrew VanWyngarden (MGMT), playwright Tom Stoppard, photographer Mick Rock, comedian Noel Fielding and others. Actor Jason Isaacs (HARRY POTTER, BLACK HAWK DOWN, THE PATRIOT) narrates the film. The film’s soundtrack includes over fifty Pink Floyd and Syd Barrett music tracks and the film mix is in Dolby 5.1 stereo.
Executive Producers include Luke Thornton and Liz Silver for Believe Media, Paul Loasby, and Geoff Kempin and Alice Webb for Mercury Studios.
Mercury Studios CEO Alice Webb said, “To shine a light on the inspiration behind one of the most iconic and influential rock bands of our time is why we love telling these stories. Syd Barrett was more than just the co-founder of Pink Floyd. He was the creative fuel, who became a pop culture icon, and left everyone wondering where he went as his presence lived on in the music that came after.”
Williams commented “The most difficult part in telling Syd Barrett’s story was interpreting his process of harmony and how unexpected sonic synergy and visual discord, both seemingly random, was planned and well thought out. Roddy gives us a glimpse into how Barrett funnelled the genius, madness and experimentation into Pink Floyd, the vessel in which all things came to life but also took Syd away.”
Bogawa adds “It’s the tragic story of Brian Wilson and Kurt Cobain and many others in music and art whose explosive creative drives often rest on fragile exuberant energy that gets pressure cooked from their success. The film is not only a portrait of one of the most iconic cult figures in music through the lens and memories of his bandmates, lovers, friends, and musicians but also a look back at a group of friends growing up in the mid-sixties and their idealism, ambitions, hopes and dreams during such an amazing cultural moment.”
Isaacs is represented by Alex Lewis from Another Tongue.
Sales contact:
Will White (Will.White@mercurystudios.co), Mercury Studios
+44 20 3932 6531
ABOUT MERCURY STUDIOS
Mercury Studios is a full-service production studio originating, producing, selling, distributing, and investing in scripted, unscripted, and live content. Editorially independent, Mercury Studios is powered by Universal Music Group and represents the world’s leading catalogue of music-related content.
Current projects include If These Walls Could Sing, the untold story of the world-famous Abbey Road Studios, directed by celebrated British photographer and filmmaker Mary McCartney for Disney+; Contact High: A Visual History of Hip-Hop, a feature documentary from Oscar-winning director/producer Joseph Patel (Summer of Soul), adapted from Vikki Tobak’s best-selling book; “My Life as a Rolling Stone,” a four-part docuseries of intimate portraits of Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Ronnie Wood and Charlie Watts; Shania Twain: Not Just a Girl, a career documentary about the superstar that is available on Netflix; and Mars, a short film based on an original universe and characters created by Yungblud, starring Yasmin Finney, set to world premiere at the London Film Festival next month.
Mercury Studios’ Miles Davis: Birth of The Cool was recently honored with two Emmys for Outstanding Arts and Culture Documentary and Outstanding Sound. ZZ Top: That Little Ol’ Band from Texas also received a 2021 Grammy Award nomination for Best Music Film. The feature documentaries are part of the Mercury Studios library, consisting of nearly 2,000 hours of programming.
