I know that childhood friend Dave Gilmour checked in on him every now and then to make sure his checks were delivered. There is a picture of him in Nicholas Schaffner's "A Saucerful of Secrets" taken in 1980 near his home. Apparently he painted during these later years; I can only hope that eventually these works, for better or worse, will be made available for public viewing. Syd was one of a kind, and he burned brightly in the music world for a very short time.
His influence will always be felt. Paul McCartney told them while they were recording "Piper..." coincidently with Beatles recording "Sgt Pepper..." down the hall at Abbey Road that Floyd was the way of the future...
The Roundhouse was THE PLACE to be in 1967 London. Floyd was the main act and virtually everyone who was anyone in the rock indutry went to these all night events. Ah to have seen the band strike up Astonomy Domine at the crack of dawn.
I think that what strikes me most when seeing Dave perform is that there is a little bit of Syd in him. After all, they were close childhood friends and Dave has always been a humble non-rock-god even though his musical skills will always be among the top of the rock heap.
That line in "High Hopes" that says "There was a ragged band that followed in our footsteps, running before time took our dreams away."
Yeah even twelve years ago Dave still remembered what Syd brought to the table.
One of Syd's last comments about where he was in terms of music were when he said briefly in a rare interview that his head was "full of dust and guitars."
