small world. my mates mum used to work at the home where syd barrett was kept!

He wasn't 'kept' in a home...He went back to Cambridge and lived with his mum.

well she used to do the cleaning for them

Well there is a DVD named "The Pink Floyd and Syd Barret story".It is very interesting and if i remember right Barret has a room at Cambridge were he used to live in 1965-70 i think.Then he made three albums "The madcap laughs", "Barret" and "Opel" then he was lost (many rumours at this period) and at early 80'(maybe and earlier) he went at his farm at Cambridge to live with his family..

I have at uploaded in the photo album two pictures,one with the cover of the DVD and one photo with his family at the farm in 1981. 

http://www.chess.com/photos/view.html?id=235205

http://www.chess.com/photos/view_album/aristeidis9/pink-floyd?page=3

I agree that PF is the best ever. While I wasn't exposed to their music as a child, my Mom liked The Eagles, Fleetwood Mac, Bob Seger, music along that genre, it wasn't until the last couple of years that I've really got into Pink Floyd. I missed an oppurtunity to see them back in '94 at Texas Stadium. I just wasn't into them then. I was listening to Guns n Roses, Metallica and Tesla back then. And that was after my hair band infatuation of the 80's. Motley Crue, Ratt, Poison and Cinderella. It was the 80's, what can I say ? But since then, my taste in music has matured to where I enjoy Radiohead, Nine Inch Nails, I still love The Eagles. Man those guys can harmonize ! And I'm STILL WAITING for Axl's "Chinese Democracy". When, or if that will ever come out. But yes, Pink Floyd. Music that gets me to reflect on life, think, and want to be a better person. There is an Australian tribute band that tours every year, The Australian Pink Floyd Show. If one has never seen Pink Floyd live, such as myself, one would never know the difference. I highly recommend seeing them live ! Go to their website.

This may be a bit of an unpopular comment... but... although I listened to Pink Floyd religiously as a teen, completely absorbed in 'Dark side of the moon' 'The Wall' and 'Wish you were here' ...'Interstella overdrive'...was it? and 'Bike'??  I can still appreciate that some of their songs were Classic and paved the way for hundreds of bands to follow (Elbow' springs to mind as a contemporary example)

Songs such as 'Mother' 'One of my turns...' 'On thin ice..' will always have a place in my soul ...BUT... when compared to the sheer volume of fantastic songs that bands such as Led Zeppelin, and Radiohead have produced... with none of the hype that surrounded Barret's demise...I do think that they may well have been ever so slightly pretentious and over-rated :op