Sally Clifford - Telegraph & Argus

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Bradford remembers: 50th anniversary since Pink Floyd played a gig in the city

1st July 2017

By Sally Clifford

THIS month is the 50th anniversary since Pink Floyd played their gig in Bradford.

An article, written by my former colleague, Jim Greenhalf, refers to 1967 being the year "a Syd Barrett-inspired Pink Floyd brought their burgeoning band of illuminated progressive rock to the University of Bradford."

Interestingly, many readers, particularly Floyd fans, will recall Syd's eye-catching image staring out from the side of Bradford's Impressions Gallery in 2011 as part of Ways of Looking - a photography festival held in Bradford city centre.

Created by the acclaimed-artist, Douglas Gordon, the 'self portrait of you and me (blue skies)' is a burnt image of one of the founders and frontman of the legendary Pink Floyd mounted on a mirror and re-photographed against blue skies.

An essay, written by Alan Dunn, who attended art school with Douglas, describes how the artist explored how close he could get to his idols before they burst into flames.

Alan describes how, two hours after the Pink Floyd gig in Bradford on June 22 1967, 'a slightly lost-looking Syd Barrett wanders down Great Horton Street with the new song 'Set the controls for the heart of the Sun' still pumping through his head. He stops to stare at the street sign, Godwin Street, God wins. Good win. God wins treat. God is the son. God is the sun. The son is God.'

Alan, who was born on August 4 1967, the day Pink Floyd's debut album 'Pipers at the Gates of Dawn' was released, writes: "He looks up to see the Gaumont Cinema. The Stones played there, he thinks, along with Eddie Cochrane, Jimi Hendrix, Bo Diddley, Bill Haley, Count Basie, Helen Shapiro, Tom Jones, Cilla Black, The Everley Brothers and the Beatles. The twenty-one year old Barrett puts down the plastic duck from the Floyd stage he realises he is still carrying and trails his hand along the cold wet stones of the 1930's building.'

Douglas' image of Syd, the hang-dog expression, collar turned up against the late night winds, slumping back against the cinema's wall and staring vacantly at the huge glass windows opposite reflect him as he burns out.

Based in Liverpool, Alan lectures part-time in Fine Art and MA Art & Design at Leeds Beckett University.

He explains how the project came about when, in 2011, he was invited by the then Leeds Met Gallery curator, Moira Innes, to propose some projects for the 2011 "Ways of looking" Photography Festival. The Floyd project was one of a few he was involved in.

"I went to art school with Douglas, who went on to win the Turner Prize for his video work, and I was interested in all the bands that played Bradford during the 1960s.

"The theme of the Festival was 'evidence' so together we conjured up this semi-factual Syd Barrett project," Alan explains.

Born in Glasgow in 1966, Douglas Gordon studied at Glasgow School of Art, Scotland, from 1984 to 1988 and at Slade School of Fine Art, London from 1988 to 1990. Among his many solo exhibitions, his work as appeared at the ARC Musee d'Art Moderne de la ville de Paris, France (2000).

Douglas currently lives and works in Berlin, Glasgow and New York.

Photo supplied courtesy of Douglas Gordon and Alan Dunn.