PETE TOWNSHEND - SOBER TOWNSHEND NOT IMPRESSED BY BARRETT

SOBER TOWNSHEND NOT IMPRESSED BY BARRETT

PETE TOWNSHEND insists late PINK FLOYD frontman SYD BARRETT "wasn't very good" when heard without the influence of hallucinogenics. Barrett was the driving force behind Pink Floyd's debut 1967 album THE PIPER AT THE GATES OF DAWN but left the band in 1968 after suffering an LSD-induced breakdown. He died in July (06) from complications associated with diabetes. And Townshend was left disappointed when his acid trip wore off before he saw Pink Floyd perform in London in the mid-1960s. He says, "I had one of my very few acid trips and I walked all the way from Portobello Road to the Roundhouse - four miles - and by the time I got there the trip had worn off. "It was strange watching Syd Barrett stone-cold sober and realising, actually, that he wasn't very good. But it would have been brilliant if you were on acid."