Morrissey at PinkPop Festival

Morrissey and the lads give an hour-long performance at PinkPop.

Five reasons why Syd mattered

He founded Pink Floyd.

The first Pink Floyd record, The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn, is a psychedelic classic

Syd made two incredible solo albums, The Madcap Laughs and Barrett. Both Roger Waters and Dave Gilmour took turns producing him solo, and Richard Wright played on Barrett.

One of the best loved Floyd albums is basically a tribute to Barrett. Wish You Were Here featured "Have A Cigar," which detailed the band's first meeting with EMI back in '67, and "Shine On You Crazy Diamond," a heartfelt tribute to Barrett.

Influenced by Syd: This Mortal Coil, Marc Bolan, David Bowie, The Jesus And Mary Chain, The Cure, Johnny Marr , My Bloody Valentine's Kevin Shields, Primal Scream, The Libertines, The Beta Band, Julian Cope, Robyn Hitchcock, The Flaming Lips, R.E.M., Mercury Rev, Blur

Syd Barrett 1946 - 2006

A dozen great records

My Bloody Valentine - Isn't anything
Cocteau Twins - Blue Bell Knoll
Can - Tago Mago
Alexander Spence - Oar
Gene Clark - No other
Beach Boys Holland
David Byrne Brian Eno - My life in the bush of ghosts
Bonnie Prince Billy - I see a darkness
Boards of Canada - Music has the right to children
Spiritualized - Pure Phase
Pavement - Slanted and Enchanted
Van Morrison - Tupelo Honey

Razorlight, Muse - it's 1978 all over again

Close your eyes and listen. Has a loop in time opened up again? Has pop really eaten itself? Or have ideas started to run out? Muse are feted at the minute with glowing reviews for a piece of pomp rock that would have embarrassed Freddie and the boys. Let's be honest 78 was not a great year for Queen (Jazz - any takers???), but even they would have stopped short from the laboursome synth arpeggios employed on the new Muse record. Muse have been together for nine years, or so I read the other day. Nine years to get to this point, the sub Thom yelping, the Buckley riffs rifled, Baba O freakin Reilly??? Playing it loud mind you, it does make more sense. It could start to be fun and brash and lots of other things, but the neighbours will complain. So let's not.

Let's try something else, the other great record of 1978, sorry 2006. This is the new one by The Boomtown Razorlight. The one that goes, " In the morning, you know you won't remember a thing" - such a great couplet deserves to be used twice and indeed they do - in two separate songs!!!!! Around their debut album, Jonny Geldof drew comparisons between it and that of Bob Dylan's debut. The vibe seemed to be that this was a songwriting genius to match or even supersede that of Bob (maybe I read this wrongly???) However Dylan's debut aside ( Fixin to die, In my time of Dying), his second album was that one about Freewheelin blah blah blah. Razorlight are better to try and keep up with A tonic for the Troops era Rats or maybe aim for the Police circa Outlandos d'amour. Both of these records were released in, you guessed it, 1978! This time round though Razorlight look beyond their limited references. Now they have been listening to the first three U2 albums as well as the ones they half inched stuff from the last time. Bluster, bluster, bluster. Remember U2 only started with The Unforgettable Fire (the year they met Brian Eno), they didn't really exist before then. All that Red Rocks stuff was just a bad flag waving, pointy booted, mulleted dream.

So if 2006 is 1978, hurrah!! This means I can expect to hear The Man Machine, More songs about building and food, Another Music in a different kitchen and Inflammable Material - in a new updated style of course. It's all good. There is always Clap your hands say yeah, a new Dj kicks compilation from Kieran Hebden or if really hard pressed for something listenable, the new TV on the Radio album will sort you right out.