UNSUNG:UNSAID - SYD & NICK IN ABSENTIA with ROB CHAPMAN

In the summer of 1974 Nick Drake and Syd Barrett made their final ill-fated ventures into a recording studio. There has never been any evidence that they ever met or that their paths crossed in any meaningful way. Until now.
In a parallel fictional universe it turns out that they did indeed have a series of encounters that year, firstly in the café snack bar in Kensington Market and subsequently in other central London locations. These meetings, tentative and fragmentary, yet full of shared understanding reveal much about the inner life of each man during that troubled late stage of their respective careers.
In Unsung : Unsaid we also learn about other previously undocumented aspects of their young lives. There’s Nick’s showcase Festival Hall concert in the summer of 1971 and Syd’s short-lived band with Steve Took, during 1972. A portfolio of Syd’s unrecorded songs which turned up at his music publishers in 1974 will reveal to the reader for the very first time an abundance of previously unseen lyrics. Similarly, a bootlegged copy of Nick’s unreleased fourth LP is faithfully and lovingly detailed by two of his most ardent admirers. You can read about the long-lost solo album that Syd was going to record in 1967 before the demo went missing, and about Nick’s aborted plan to record an album of cover versions, complete with a full run down of the tracks he chose and his reasons for choosing them. A rare audio letter has been unearthed in which Nick muses on his musical apprenticeship and his misgivings about the record industry. In another equally candid letter, written but never sent to Francoise Hardy he talks about his love of Paris, about Albert Camus and other philosophical matters.
Fifty years on from the tragic loss of Nick Drake writer Rob Chapman explores the intricacies of both men’s dreams and what they say about their troubled psyches. We learn in more animated detail than ever before about the realities (and acid induced unrealities) of Syd’s formative years in Cambridge and his coming of age in Swinging London. The Happenings. The art school apprenticeship. The light shows. The I Ching and the search for spiritual enlightenment. Syd’s residency at the Chelsea Cloisters hotel and his increasingly wayward daily derives around London. It’s all here.
Unsung : Unsaid gives momentum to stasis, substance to enigma and helps us understand more about what drove and derailed each man’s creativity. It is a philosophical meditation on absence, existential crisis and loss. But underpinning it all is those three (or is it four? Or more?) encounters in 1974. “This bedraggled Estragon and haunted Vladimir, so alike in their vacancy” captured shortly before they both drift into myths and fables. In a way it always has been about myths and fables but you’ll learn as much here about the actual Syd Barrett and Nick Drake as you will from any biographical account.

ROB CHAPMAN is a writer of non-fiction (syd barrett, psychedelia, pirate radio, two memoirs) and fiction. I used to be primarily a music writer and music journalist but I'm pretty much done with traditional music writing now.

Reviews of Rob Chapman's books:

Syd Barrett: A Very Irregular Head

The first definitive biography of Syd Barrett - the original creative force behind legendary rock group Pink Floyd

Chapman has unravelled the skeins of rumour, exaggeration and anecdote that have been wound so tightly around Barrett... Chapman is very good on the array of almost exclusively literary influences that made Barrett such a singular and definably English songwriter... A Very Irregular Head is a consistently illuminating, and often surprising, read... the best book yet about him. --Sean O'Hagan, Observer
Rob Chapman bravely hacks his way through the undergrowth of innuendo and speculation to give us the clearest insight yet into the rise and fall of one of rock s greatest enigmas. This being an authorised biography, Chapman was granted access to letters and archives, and has assiduously interviewed family and friends... Chapman s...critical analysis is generally inspired. His panorama of what he calls Barrett s found world, an unprecedented meeting of a whimsical English tradition and modernist techniques is impressively researched. --Mike Barnes, Wire Magazine
Rob Chapman s biography is by far the most diligent yet at disengaging reality from sensationalism. Barrett s early years, in particular, receive a forensic going over, with new insights from his sister Rosemary...and a fascinating evocation of the libertine environment of early-60s Cambridge...Detailed analysis of Barrett s literary and musical sources dominate the later narrative, exposing the singer s rich intellectual inner-life and gifts as a poet. --Pat Gilbert, Q Magazine

Psychedelia and Other Colours

A fantastic, exhaustive history of the genre: comprehensive but gripping, packed with eye-opening period detail and with a brilliant analysis of everything from Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band to the oeuvre of the Crocheted Doughnut Ring. -- Alexis Petridis ― Guardian
An exhaustive, idiosyncratic and very entertaining reappraisal of an often lazily documented period. -- Jim Irvin ― Mojo 4*
As an account of psychedelia's glorious highs and preposterous charms, Chapman's exhaustive exploration of this Arcadian age with take its rightful place as the standard text. -- Rob Young ― New Statesman
It's not so much that Rob Chapman . . . brings new insights to the table (though it does that too): it's more that it constitutes a whole other table in its own right. -- Oregano Rathbone ― Record Collector 4*
Rob will be talking abut his book and our playlist willl be devoted to the works of Syd and Nick.

Host or Publisher Walthamstow Rock 'n' Roll Book Club