Audiences can get their first glimpse of the previously announced Syd Barrett documentary Have You Got It Yet? with the film’s first trailer. The movie is the first feature-length film made about the late Pink Floyd founder with the cooperation of surviving band members Roger Waters, David Gilmour, and Nick Mason.
The documentary takes a properly thorough view of the small flashpoint in history when Syd Barrett existed publicly. Co-founding Pink Floyd in London in 1965 alongside Waters, Barrett fronted the band and wrote most of the material on its 1967 debut The Piper at the Gates of Dawn. When the band’s sophomore followup, A Saucerful of Secrets, arrived a year later, it contained only one song by the guitarist, whose mental wellbeing had worsened to the point that Pink Floyd brought in Gilmour as his replacement.
After being ousted from Pink Floyd, Barrett struggled through recording two solo albums, both released in 1970, The Madcap Laughs and Barrett. Though the two albums have achieved cult status in the decades since, the barren, simplified recordings made little impression in 1970 against the psychedelic backdrop Barrett had helped foster in the preceding decade. Shortly thereafter, Barrett receded from public view and lived a solitary life for the next 30 years until his death in 2006.
As Pink Floyd went on to become one of the best-selling bands of all time, Barrett’s mythic status only grew—aided by the band’s epic tribute to their lost leader “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” from 1975’s Wish You Were Here. In his absence, Barrett left behind him tomes of unanswered questions. Was this just another drug casualty of the ’60s or were there underlying mental health issues? Did Barrett escape the oppressive weight of artistic commercialism or was he crushed by it? With input from Barrett’s bandmates, family, friends, and lovers, Have You Got It Yet? The Story of Syd Barrett and Pink Floyd seeks to attempt to answer some of those questions that have lingered for decades.
Have You Got It Yet? The Story of Syd Barrett and Pink Floyd (Trailer)
The film’s title comes from a song Barrett brought in to his final practice with Pink Floyd. According to Waters, Barrett presented a seemingly simplistic composition, though the band experienced difficulty trying to learn it. Before long, the bandmates realized that they were unable to learn the song because Barrett continuously changed the song pattern, playing a slightly altered configuration back to them each time and ending it by singing, “Have you got it yet?” Waters called it “a real act of mad genius.”
In addition to Waters, Gilmour, and Mason, the film also includes testimonials from musicians Barrett inspired including The Who’s Pete Townshend, Blur’s Graham Coxon, MGMT’s Andrew VanWyngarden, and more. Other talking heads include former Pink Floyd managers Peter Jenner and Andrew King, playwright Tom Stoppard, and Barrett’s sister Rosemary Breen. Have You Got It Yet? was directed by Roddy Bogawa and late Hipgnosis co-founder Storm Thorgerson, who designed album covers for Wish You Were Here, Animals, The Dark Side of the Moon, and many more.
The documentary will premiere in London on April 27th at Everyman King’s Cross, with a wider U.K. release set for May 15th. Abramorama will distribute the film in the U.S. and Canada and plans for a June release date. Visit the film’s website for screening information.