Syd’s Bikes Fetch Over £10,000

The auction catalog didn’t say if either of the hand-painted bikes up for sale was the one Syd Barrett wrote about on Pink Floyd‘s Piper At The Gates of Dawn, but even if it didn’t have “a bell that rings and things to make it look good,” it didn’t stop an English memorabilia dealer from paying more than £10,000 for them.

The snag here would be that the song goes on to say, “I’d give it to you if I could, but I borrowed it,” which could well cause problems with the rightful owner.

The bike and a variety of oddball curios raised £121,000 at a November 29th auction house in Barrett’s hometown of Cambridge.

The money will go to help fund a bursary for local arts students.

Fans and memorabilia buyers from all over the world paid hundreds of pounds for the possessions of the madcap former Pink Floyd frontman, including £400 for a kitchen chair, painted a light pink by Barrett himself, £340 for a plywood chest of drawers, each drawer with different handles, £600 for a pair of curtains, in a nursery fabric with brightly colored dancing animals and £800 for Barrett’s artificial Christmas tree.

Buyers competed over the Internet and by telephone for such items as a homemade table with red painted legs and pink top. It fetched £420.

A homemade bread bin used for storing clothes pegs went for £1,400.

There were also more personal possessions, like the notebook Barrett used for jottings on subjects ranging from cathedrals to the weather, interspersed with cut-out pictures and postcards.

One lot, consisting of two A5 spiral-bound notebooks, was bought by Theresa Northrop, a technical writer who had traveled from Ohio for the event.

She paid £1,300 for the two books, one of which, titled “Garden,” contained just one page of notes. The second, labeled “Art,” contained nine pages of notes. Barrett, a shy recluse who died aged 60 on July 7th, left Floyd in 1968 over rows about his excessive drug intake.

He had a solo career that lasted about four years and then, in 1972, disappeared without a trace. It’s since turned out that he was living at home with his mother.

— John Gammon