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Don't mind the title of this article as that is a load of bollocky clickbait, but today...

The Holy Church of Iggy the Inuit celebrates its 10th birthday!

Would you believe that the Holy Church of Iggy the Inuit actually started as a joke? And that this happened 10 years ago? On the 8th of August, 2008?

A New Religion

It all started with a fun thread, titled: Possibility of new religion, on the Late Night Syd Barrett Discussion Room. On the 4th of December 2007 Stanislav, an international Syd Barrett prankster whose Dadaist Photoshop creations even fooled the official Syd Barrett website (and who still manages to confuse Barrett fans today!), uttered the possibility of a Syd Barrett based religion. Dani proposed to name it Barrett's Temple, Felix asked who would be the holy virgin and Kim Kastekniv suggested it could be none other than Iggy.

The thread meandered on, not always in good taste, until Felix Atagong, yes - him again, came up with the Congregation Of Saint Iggy, adding a picture of Iggy the Eskimo, blessed by heavenly rays. (That Felix-made picture however, already had been posted on the 29th of August 2007 on a 'Syd and women'-thread and may be much older, perhaps even dating from Astral Piper days.)

It was more a joke than anything else, an early attempt that lead to nothing. A couple of months later, on the 21st of March 2008 DollyRocker (not to be confused with Dolly Rocker) recognised Iggy the Eskimo in a 1967 Rank Organisation Look At Life documentary called IN Gear (Late Night forum link: Iggy Shopping in Shops?). It lead to another Atagong comment (with the same picture):

That's it. I'm starting the Church of Iggy! Nice find btw...

But as procrastinating is a pricey synonym for Atagong nothing happened, again... but somewhere in a dark corner of Felix's mind a minuscule seed was growing into a tiny plant.

The City Wakes

Meanwhile some people in Cambridge wanted to celebrate Syd Barrett in a festival that was called The City Wakes. It was announced in July 2008, asking Barrett fans to step in and join their knowledge, and a semi-official subforum was opened at Late Night, that was pretty huge in those days and would even grow more popular thanks to the festival. (The City Wakes forum is still on the web, and as such, the only 'official' trace it ever happened. Much kudos to Eternal Isolation for keeping it alive!)

The City Wakes is a series of arts events that together make up the first ever official tribute to Syd Barrett.

The festival was authorised by the Barrett family and organised by Escape Artists who tried to swindle the family out of Syd's heritage as much as possible. Potty mouths also rumoured that the two top dog Syd Barrett photographers, obviously we won't cite their names for privacy reasons, filled their pockets with their 'charitable' contributions.

But of course, nobody was aware of this by then and fans were more than happy to be able to attend the festival, that would be held in October – November 2008. The festival promised a Barrett art exhibition 'The Other Room', concert performances, guided tours, music workshops, a 1960s-style happening, a Storm Thorgerson exhibition, lectures and 'talks' with members of the Cambridge mafia and Pink Floyd biographers, etc..., etc...

The motives for the start of The Holy Church of Iggy the Inuit on the 8th of August 2008 have been lost in the mist of time and as such the Reverend needs to reconstruct his train of thought, but it is certain that the announcement of The City Wakes festival was an important trigger.

Another Syd blog

Since the dawn of the internet several Syd Barrett related fan-sites existed, but many simply disappeared or merely prolonged their existence in a vegetative state. (A bit like the official Syd Barrett website now, we might add. Announced with much pride, pomp and circumstance in January 2016 and doing absolutely nothing ever since, not even correcting the mistakes that crept in at launch.)

So a new Syd Barrett blog wouldn't be that bad, Felix Atagong thought.

But why Iggy?

There had always been a recurring interest for Iggy the Eskimo at Late Night and, before that, on the Astral Piper forum. For those who are too young to remember, Astral Piper was a Syd Barrett fan made website and forum, run by an enthusiast webmaster who was apparently less enthusiast when it came to money matters. The forum closed down in 2007 when the internal quibbling between 'astralpiper1' and some unfortunate members became too distracting to go on. The website, however, was salvaged from destruction and a copy lives further on at the Atagong domain: ASTRAL PIPER Redux 2013.

On those fora, Sydiots discussed Iggy's 'history' and her disappearance since ages and some new (although very scarce) information had been unearthed with the IN Gear movie. As such there was already some kind of a small fan-base present.

The only problem, so thought Felix Atagong during a sleepless night, was that the scarce Iggy evidence was shattered all over the internet. “Wouldn't it be nice to assemble all information at one place for aeons to come?”

This question became even more pertinent when Anthony Stern hit the scene.

Stern and Stubborn

LSD-pioneer Anthony Stern had been a part of the Cambridge set in the mid-sixties, with beat poets, aspiring musicians and artists meeting at the local coffee-bar El Patio. Ant and his pal Syd had a mutual art exhibition, in the summer of 1964, above the Lion and Lamb pub in Milton. Just like Peter Whitehead and Storm Thorgerson he was an aspiring photographer and would-be movie maker. Around 1967 he and Syd discussed co-writing and -producing a movie 'The Rose Tinted Monocle' but the project unfortunately never materialised. (A Barrett-less version was later torpedoed by Pink Floyd manager Steve O'Rourke.)

However, Anthony Stern did make a few Floyd-related movies and one of those, using the Floyd's hit-single 'See Emily Play', was the legendary 'Iggy Eskimo Girl', a relic that had been hidden for four decades. That movie and a set of unseen Iggy 'triptych' pictures would be a part of The Other Room exhibition. On the 25th of July 2008 a teaser was published on YouTube and it is even more of a miracle that this is still online a decade later: Syd Barrett - Iggy.

From Eskimo to Inuit

Surely there was enough material now (and more would certainly surface in the near future) for an Iggy the Eskimo blog. It must have been at that point that Felix Atagong's mind went into overdrive and less than two weeks later the first post at The Holy Church of Iggy the Inuit was published. That first post, titled: Iggy, was literally copied from a (now untraceable) Acid Mandala forum post at The Syd Barrett Archives, and turned out well, all things considered.

But why Iggy the Inuit?

Not out of political correctness, a newspeak term that has as much impact on the Reverend than a fart in a wind tunnel, but as an ironic nod, perhaps inspired by Metal Mickey's comment on Late Night nearly a year before:

Not to get all PC on you folks but, 'eskimo' is apparently not a very nice term and not commonly used anymore...the correct tribal/nation name is Inuit or Innu...so there! (Metal Mickey Posted: Sat Aug 18, 2007 7:01 am.)

It was clear from the beginning that The Holy Church of Iggy the Inuit would not take Syd Barrett, nor Pink Floyd idolatry too seriously. Fun fact: the decision to call it a Church was directly inspired by a humoristic Star Trek page that listened (and still listens to) the name: The First Church of Shatnerology.

It was now time to boldly go where no Eskimo (or Inuit) had gone before.

(End of part One. Part two: Bang A Gong (10 Years of Holy Church of Iggy the Inuit))

The Church wishes to thank all of those who started rolling the ball 10 years ago. Unfortunately, many of them have already left the scene. : Alien Brain, Astral Piper, Sean Beaver, Bell That Rings, Mark Blake, Charley, Dani, Dark Globe, Bea Day, Dolly Rocker, DollyRocker, Ebronte, Eternal Isolation, Gnome, Juliian Indica (aka Julian Palacios), Kim Kastekniv, Little Minute Gong, Madcap Syd, Metal Mickey, Music Bailey, Mystic Shining, Psych 62, Silks (नियत), Stanislav, Stars Can Frighten, Syd Barrett's Mandolin, Anthony Stern, The Syd Barrett Sound... (Sorry to those we have forgotten to mention.)

♥ Libby ♥ Iggy ♥

Links:
The City Wakes forum @ Late Night.
Syd Barrett festival "The City Wakes", Cambridge Oct-November 2008 @ Brain Damage.
City Wakes - Official Tribute to Syd Barrett Info @ Neptune Pink Floyd.

This is Part Two of our 10-years anniversary post. To read the first part, head over here: 10 Mind-blowing facts you didn't know about the Holy Church of Iggy the Inuit.

The Holy Church of Iggy the Inuit celebrates its 10th birthday!

Ten years ago the Holy Church of Iggy the Inuit started with a (big) bang, not coincidentally surfing on the waves that were created by the Cambridge City Wakes festival, later continuing on its own momentum. On the 8th day of the 8th month of the 8th year a first article was posted.

A couple of days later it's birth was also announced on the Late Night forum, the then leading Syd Barrett community:

OK, the old habitants of this forum must have seen it coming and the forthcoming Iggy the Eskimo movie triggered it a bit.

The Holy Church of Iggy the Inuit

The first post is just a try-out (to check parameters etc...).
The second Bend It! is what I would like to achieve, a picture of Iggy and a lot of information about the who's, where's and abouts...

Let me know what you think of it...
BTW, all information is welcome... (and errorzzz)...
(I hope that the subdomain fully works: https://atagong.com/iggy)

Here is how the first header looked like, created in Xara 3D. (The 'vintage' old-school look was done deliberately.)

In the first year of its existence the Church published 37 articles (for those who love statistics that is 17% of all Church articles in its first decade). Those from August 2008 presented and analysed some of the Iggy material that was already available:

Iggy's presence at the 1966 'Bend' dance contest (Bend It!);
her cameo in the recently discovered IN Gear documentary (IN Gear) and (obviously)
her picture on The Madcap Laughs sleeve (Stormy Pictures).

The Orchid

After a hint from Mark Blake, author of the Pink Floyd biography Pigs Might Fly, that Iggy used to go dancing around Purley and Caterham, the Church contacted (local) newspaper The Croydon Guardian, that had written a few articles about the dancehall The Orchid. Journalist Kirsty Walley took the bait, she interviewed Anthony Stern and Jeff Dexter and officially started Iggymania with her article: So, where did she go to, our lovely? (en passant making free publicity for The City Wakes and The Holy Church of Iggy the Inuit).

It gave the Holy Church a certain authority it didn't want in the first place, but it can't be denied that the search for Iggy was taken pretty seriously by some people (not in the least the Reverend who also started to believe in it).

The Other Room

In that very first trimester we obviously reported about The City Wakes festival, especially when it was Iggy-related. The Trashcan Sinatras commemorated Syd and Iggy in their song Oranges And Apples and several articles commented on The Other Room exhibition where Anthony Stern's Iggy triptychs were exposed for the very first time: Anthony Stern Photoshoot.

As far as we know, The Other Room catalogue is still the only official printed publication where some of Anthony Stern's Iggy pictures have been published.

Storm and Rock in the Woods, featuring a mysterious brunette

When the City Wakes festival ended the Reverend thought that the rest of the season would be more at leisure, and that we would have to fill our blog with book reviews and the odd obituary (poor Rick died in September). But Iggymania had taken its momentum. The snowball started to roll...

We were informed that Iggy could be found on another Floydian document, a Syd Barrett Home Movies compilation that had been shown once (and only once) before a 1990 Pink Floyd charity concert at Knebworth. The Church (with - again - a lot of help from Late Night members) could identify most people in the so-called Lost In The Woods movie with the exception of 'a mysterious brunette' who was seen walking with Syd and Iggy (Love in the Woods (Pt. 1) & (Pt. 2)).

A decade later she still has not been identified.

JenS

Thanks to Julian Palacios, author of two Syd Barrett biographies and the administrator of a (now deleted) Syd Barrett highbrow 'research' forum, the Church was contacted, in January 2009, by the person who introduced Iggy to Syd Barrett four decades before.

This resulted in a few articles that brought forward some new and interesting findings, promoting the theory that The Madcap Laughs record sleeve picture had been taken in the spring of 1969 and not in autumn, as other witnesses used to declare in Pink Floyd and Barrett biographies. (See: When Syd met Iggy - Pt. 1 - Pt. 2 - Pt. 3 - Pt. 4.)

It gave the Church the reputation of being contrarious, but now, ten years later, this theory seems to be generally accepted. That you read it at the Church first, is thanks to JenS, our witness who wanted to remain anonymous, despite the fact that every level 2 Syd anorak knows who (s)he is.

Pink Pontiac

It would not be the only time the Church had to confront witnesses, who were high on the Floydian pecking order, with a 'false memory syndrome'.

One of the weirder ones is Mick Rock's theory that Syd Barrett had a pink convertible parked before his door, while the few coloured photographs actually show it was 'midnight' blue. A pink car would also turn light-grey on the various Madcap Laughs BW pictures, but they invariably show a very dark-grey, almost black, coach.

Also Duggie Fields, who must have passed the car parked in front of his apartment for months, remembers it as pink and has even painted the car in that colour, for the artwork that accompanied the Their Mortal Remains exhibition (2017).

Of course the Pontiac Parisienne, with license plate VYP74, was later turned into pink for its role in the movie Entertaining Mr. Sloane. This movie, however, was shot after Syd Barrett seemingly gave it away to a bystander, although some witnesses still pretend the contrary after all these years. Others pretend it was a 'chameleon' car that originally was pink, then painted blue, then painted pink again. You can't win them all.

Update 20181223: Iain Owen Moor (Emo), friend of the Floyd and the London underground remembers the car, when it was still owned by Mickey Finn.

Thought it was black. I went in it a few times in 68 (?) with Sue Worth, Mickey's then girlfriend. The car seems to have had a life of its own like The Yellow Rolls-Royce.

Words of Hope

In May of the Church's first season, however, the Reverend already fell into a dip, because of... a lack of Iggy. Luckily there was Dan5482 who gave the Church a thumb's up, adding:

Despite all that collective amnesia I think that Iggy can still be found. There are journalists, detectives... who have found more difficult "targets".

However, an intense and widespread interest for her is a necessary condition. Your Church is a source of hope in this sense. It lets many people know that once such a mysterious woman existed.

His words unknowingly predicted the future, but that is a story we will keep for August next year, if at least the orange buffoon hasn't pushed the Armageddon button by then.

The Church wishes to thank all of those who started rolling the ball 10 years ago. Unfortunately, many of them have left the scene. : Alien Brain, Astral Piper, Sean Beaver, Bell That Rings, Mark Blake, Charley, Dan5482, Dani, Dark Globe, Bea Day, Dolly Rocker, Ebronte, Eternal Isolation, Gnome, Juliian Indica, Kim Kastekniv, Little Minute Gong, Madcap Syd, Metal Mickey, Iain Owen Moor, Music Bailey, Mystic Shining, Psych 62, Silks (नियत), Stanislav, Jenny Spires, Stars Can Frighten, Syd Barrett's Mandolin, Anthony Stern, The Syd Barrett Sound... (Sorry to those we have forgotten to mention.)

♥ Libby ♥ Iggy ♥

Last year we celebrated the first decade of the Holy Church of Iggy the Inuit that officially started on the 8 August of 2008. You can reread that story in two parts at:
10 Mind-blowing facts you didn't know about the Holy Church of Iggy the Inuit and
Bang A Gong (10 Years of Holy Church of Iggy the Inuit) 

We ended the first season on a low note because it seemed that the entire Iggy story had been told in a handful of articles. It seemed that she had disappeared and that she would not be found back.

How wrong we were, but we were not the only ones. Duggie Fields (to Mark Blake):

I have no idea who Iggy was or even what her real name was. (…)
I saw her not long after Syd left the flat and she was looking more like a Sloane Ranger.
I heard she’d become involved with one of the voguish religious cults at the time.

(As a matter of fact, this was not that far from the truth, but of course we didn’t know that in 2009. For a while Iggy was signaled in Scientology circles, one of those incredible stories we might tell you one day.)

Here is an overview of the Holy Church of Iggy the Inuit’s tumultuous second season (August 2009 -July 2010).

Fille de l’espace

We celebrated our first birthday with the publication of a brilliant poem written by Dr. Denis Combet, professor at Brandon University, Manitoba, Canada, who specialises in French literature of the 17th and 18th centuries, but he has also written lyrics for the pretty awesome stoner rock band Rescue Rangers. In 2006 – 2007 he published a Syd Barrett inspired multimedia project under the title Guitars and Dust Dancing (that is unfortunately no longer online, but archive.org has a partially saved backup: Guitars and Dust Dancing).

The Church could exclusively issue the French version of the poem ‘De Quétesh à Bastet’, dedicated to Iggy the Eskimo, and would later publish Crystal Blue Postcards, a digital booklet with (mostly) new poems, dedicated to Syd and Iggy. It can still be found here:

Iggy was moved to tears when she found out that someone in Canada had written a poem for her and she kept on repeating that on our weekly phone-calls. Thanks Denis!

Original article (2009): Catwoman 

Cromwellian Shenanigans

The Iggy story, so we thought, was a dead end street or at least a slow lane. In absence of our subject of adoration we started a series about the legendary Cromwellian club, bar and casino. We also looked deeper into The Bend dance craze, a clever marketing scheme started to twist a Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich single into a genre.

You don’t have to believe us but we think these are still the best articles about this nightclub on the web, with several interviews from people who were there.
The complete Cromwellian & The Bend series (running from 2008 till 2015): The Cromwellian 

The Madcap’s Mojo

2010 started with a bang. Rock magazine Mojo had a Madcap Laughs 40 years anniversary special, annex tribute CD, and it was undoubtedly clear that some writers had found inspiration at the Church, but without mentioning where they had found the information. (It needs to be said that our secret informant in those days, Mark Blake, who also wrote for the special, was not amongst those.)

We ended our review of the Mojo special with the prophetic words:

Ig’s story as published in Mojo may be the butterfly effect that will cause the storm at the other side of the world.
So perhaps, thanks to Mojo, the Church will be one day able to fulfil its quest.

Original articles (2009):
(I've got my) Mojo (working...) 
Goofer Dust [(I've got my) Mojo (working)... Part 2] 
The Mojo March 2010 special can be consulted here: The Madcap Laughs.

Iggy!

On the fifth of February 2010 Mark Blake informed us that Iggy was alive and well and living in a small village in Southern England. The Church were the first to publish this news on this entire planet. World Exclusive: Ig has been found! 

Initially Iggy wanted to anonymously live her life in her little village in South-England, but her cover was blown by The Croydon Guardian. (Here was another journalist suffering from amnesia. She didn’t find it necessary to give a nod to the Church, although it was us who had informed her about Iggy.)

Iggy's first interview (with our comments): Little old lady from London-by-the-Sea 

Gretta & Rusty

Timing couldn’t have been better. Iggy was found just when we were going to publish an interview with Gretta Barclay, who – with her friend Rusty Burnhill – was a regular visitor at Wetherby Mansions in 1969.

A decade later this is still Margaretta’s one and only interview in the Barrett-sphere.

We also tracked down Rusty Burnhill, living in a small town in Northern Germany and sent him a polite letter where we asked if we could ask him some questions. To our amazement he called us a few months later, started swearing and shouting, threatened to call the police and smashed down the phone. Needless to say that we didn’t pursue our plans to have him interviewed.

The Gretta Barclay interview:
Gretta Speaks 
Gretta Speaks (Pt. 2) 

Floorboards

Iggy had been located (by a few journalists) but wasn’t communicating to the outer world (yet). A decision we obviously accepted. The Church has never been into trophy hunting.

The Holy Church had already published the intriguing theory that the painted floorboards at Syd’s flat didn’t date from autumn 1969, but from spring 1969. This was contradicting all witness reports and all biographies and obviously it was clear evidence that the Holy Church was lead by a raving lunatic.

But our anonymous witness JenS had said so, Gretta Barclay and Iggy confirmed it and more ‘proof’ for this was found by Barrett enthusiast Dark Globe, a member of the Late Night Syd Barrett forum and one of the people helping the Church with valid information.

Rob Chapman didn’t update this information in his Syd Barrett biography, but Julian Palacios did, just before the printing deadline, making him one of the believers. What was a wacky theory at first, laughed at by several people, has now become the gospel.

Original article (2010): The Case of the Painted Floorboards 

Rob Chapman

Our review of Rob Chapman’s Syd Barrett biography A Very Irregular Head was quite polemic (and made us persona non grata in top level Barrett circles). We did conclude it was one of the better biographies around but there was of course the Octopus – Clowns & Jugglers controversy.

Rather than stirring up a dying fire and prejudicing you we suggest you read the review first and we’ll talk about it afterwards.

Original article (2010): The Big Barrett Conspiracy Theory 

Meic Stevens 2010

An intriguing anecdote was told to us by Gretta Barclay. One that also couldn’t be found in any biography. Syd Barrett and his Welsh counterpart Meic Stevens, who also suffered from a few psychological drawbacks, met each other at different occasions.

Prydwyn read Steven’s autobiograpy (in Welsh) and translated the relevant bits into English for generations to come. One pretty exiting bit is that the two musicians were filmed by a BBC camera-team, but apparently the movie has been destroyed, unless it still is hiding in a BBC archive somewhere.

Original articles (2010):
Meic meets Syd 
Syd meets... a lot of people 

Meic Stevens 2019

2019 sees Meic Stevens gigging again in Britain (although he immediately started with some controversial statements). Men On The Border singer Göran Nyström published an excellent follow-up to our Solva Blues article just a few days ago, with a few new discoveries. Or how an article from a decade ago inspires people today to further investigate in all matters Syd.

Summer of 69 (Facebook-links)

Part 1: Moon Landing
Part 2: Kevin Whitney & Formentera
Part 3: Isle of Wight
Part 4: Syd & Meic Stevens
Part 5: Geraint Jarman and his song about Barrett
Part 6 (final): Syd's studio vérité session

See ya next year!

The Church wishes to thank all of those who helped us 10 years ago. Unfortunately, many of them have already left the scene. : Anonymous, Banjer and Sax, Margaretta Barclay, Paul Belbin, Mark Blake, Rusty Burnhill, Constance Cartmill, Rob Chapman, Denis Combet, Duggie Fields, Dark Globe, Rod Harrod, JenS, Pascal Mascheroni, Kerry McQueeney, David Moore, Julian Palacios, Paro नियत, Prydwyn, Douggie Reece, Lynn Annette Ripley (Twinkle), Brian Roote, Beate S., Jenny Spires, Allison Star, Jean Vouillon, Kirsty Whalley, Vicky Wickham and the Dutch Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich fan community (not online any more)… (Sorry to those we have forgotten to mention.)
♥ Libby ♥ Iggy ♥

The church started as a jokey blog in August 2008, but we had to get serious when, only a year later, Iggy was found back, thanks to Mark Blake, from Pigs Might Fly fame. She lived in a village in West-Sussex, 52 miles from central London in the north and 14 miles from the south coast, with a population of approximately 5,000.

Those and other stories you can read in the overview of the first two seasons of The Holy Church of Iggy the Inuit, a name that Iggy thoroughly hated, by the way.

10 Mind-blowing facts you didn't know about the Holy Church of Iggy the Inuit 
Bang A Gong (10 Years of Holy Church of Iggy the Inuit) 
10 years ago - season 2 (2009-2010) 

The Third Season

In season three the Church had acquired some maturity and because Iggymania hit us hard there were over 30 articles that year. Here is what happened a decade ago, a condensed overview of our third season, in a reader’s digest way.

Metallic Spheres

Somewhere in the early nineties, the Reverend got aware of the band The Orb, basically because some lazy journalists had baptised them the Pink Floyd of ambient house. It has been a love/hate relationship ever since because The Orb used to spit out songs and or remixes by the bucket-load, often from uneven quality. (Check their 2020 sixteenth or seventeenth studio album Abolition of the Royal Familia, that is really good.)

In August of 2010, the official David Gilmour blog (that no longer exists) finally confirmed the rumours that a Floydian Orb partnership was going to take place. You can find all juicy (and wacky) details in two articles but those aren’t amongst the Reverend’s bests.

Metallic Spheres
The Relic Samples 

Introduction

For those fans who might think, what does The Orb has to do with Pink Floyd, Syd Barrett or Iggy the Eskimo, there was news about Syd Barrett compilation number 6 that saw the light of day in October 2010. An Introduction To Syd Barrett was the first compilation combining solo and Pink Floyd songs on one single album.

Before you say ‘what the fuck’ this compilation did have some extra bits and pieces for the Syd Barrett anoraky collector. Four songs had been remixed, plus one partially re-recorded, by David Gilmour and for the first time in history, the 20 minutes version of Rhamadan was offered as a downloadable extra track (for a limited period only).

Gravy Train To Cambridge

Dark Globe

About a year and a half after Rob Chapman’s An Irregular Head Julian Palacios’ retaliated with Dark Globe, a complete re-write of his previous Barrett and early Pink Floyd biography Lost In The Woods.

Somewhat hermetic and not always the easiest prose to read it still is the Syd Barrett authoritative biography around, giving credit where credit is due, a department where Chapman lacked somewhat. Palacios is the kind of biographer who will give you the brand of the coffee machine that was used in a bar in Cambridge where Syd used to have an espresso and who is a bit cross he couldn’t trace back its actual serial number. We have you warned.

Mojo

The Mojo edition of February 2011 (#207) put on its cover that Iggy the Eskimo had been found and surprised us with a (small) article. Mark Blake promised us a more in-depth article later on while Iggy was learning how to type the right syllables on her portable phone, leaving a bunch of quasi undecipherable messages at the Mojo website (for the first time published here, see underneath).

Meanwhile, the Reverend and Iggy tried to connect, de tâtonnement en tâtonnement as the French so beautifully say, figuring out what the future should bring if there was a mutual future, to begin with.

The Strange Tale of Iggy the Eskimo was Mark Blake’s full article that appeared as a Mojo Exclusive on its website. Unfortunately, it was deleted a couple of years later. It is not even sure any more if it is still around on Mark Blake’s own website, but a copy has been saved for eternity at the Holy Church.

Obviously, the Church had quite a few articles about Iggy's reappearance in season three:

Iggy’s second interview in 40 years 
Iggy The Eskimo Phones Home 
Iggy The Eskimo Phones Home (2) 
EXCLUSIVE: The Strange Tale Of Iggy The Eskimo 
Mojo Exclusive: The Strange Tale Of Iggy The Eskimo 
The Strange Tale Of Iggy The Eskimo Pt. 2 
Reaction time 
Give birth to a smile... 
The Mighty Queen 

False Claims

In January 2011 somebody who appeared to be close to the Barrett epicentre tried to sell a handwritten poem by Syd Barrett. Only, the handwriting was not Syd’s, but by Barrett collector Bernard White, who had published the poem in the fanzine Terrapin. When the Church tried to investigate we were warned not to dig too deep, for reasons still unknown, a decade later.

Anno 2020 there is a Syd Barrett lyrics book in the making. Perhaps it will finally clear the fog around ‘A Rooftop Song In A Thunderstorm Row Missing The Point’.

Fakes come in all sizes and colours. A Pink Floyd acetate containing Scream Thy Last Scream and Vegetable Man was analysed by the Yeeshkul community and proven to be a forgery. It's value dropped from ten thousand dollars to about zero. Beware for the (many) fake records and autographed items out there, people!

Bonhams Sells Fake Barrett Poem 
Scream Thy False Scream 
EMI blackmails Pink Floyd fans! 

¡Entrevista!

Fake as well, was an interview with the proprietor and mentor behind the Holy Church of Iggy the Inuit, the famous and agile Reverend Felix Atagong. Originally issued – in Spanish! - on the fantastico Solo En Las Nubes Barrett blog, it gave away all its dirty secrets. Ay caramba! The English version appeared some while later at the Church. It truly is an article of epic proportions.

Felix Atagong: an honest man 

Idea Generation

Iggy’s first public appearance in about half a century took place at the Idea Generation exposition on the 17th of March 2011. A lot of people were invited and Iggy was pleasantly surprised that she was asked, by about everyone (minus one), for autographs and pictures.

That she was the star of the evening not only surprised her. Unfortunately, it also led to a jealous outbreak from someone whom we will call X. That person had always been high on the Syd Barrett pecking order and was afraid to lose that spot. Iggy and X would be frenemies for the rest of their lives, en passant adding the Reverend to the war zone who was hit by friendly (and less friendly) fire.

Iggy at the Exhibition 
Barrett: come on you painter! 

The Cromwellian

In our third season, we also continued our Cromwellian nightclub series with articles about professional wrestlers Paul Lincoln, Bob 'Anthony' Archer, Judo Al Hayes and Rebel Ray Hunter who co-owned The Crom and other clubs in the sixties.

Dr Death and other assorted figures... 
RIP Paul Lincoln 
The Wrestling Beatle 
Cromwellian blog launched! 

2020

Meanwhile, David Gilmour and Roger Waters are fighting an online battle to get the most attention of the fans, by releasing home recordings of Barrett, Floyd and solo songs. Nick Mason (with his Saucerful band) is – obviously – still the coolest guy around.

See you next year, sistren and brethren!

Many thanks to all collaborators who helped us a decade ago and who are still helping us today. RIP to those who are no longer around.: Adenairways, Amy-Louise, Anne, Bob Archer, Emily Archer, Russell Beecher, Paul Belbin, Mark Blake, Libby Gausden Chisman, Dallasman, Dan, Dan5482, Dancas, Denis Combet, Dominae & Ela & Violetta (Little Queenies), Paul Drummond, The Embassy of God, Emmapeelfan, Felixstrange, Babylemonade Flowers, Gianna, Dark Globe, Griselda, Rich Hall, Hallucalation, Rod Harrod, JenS, Jimmie James, Mark Jones, Kieren, Krackers, Lynxolita, Natasha M, Mojo, MOB, Moonwall, Motoriksymphonia, Natashaa', Giuliano Navarro, Neonknight, Göran Nyström, Julian Palacios, Alain Pire, PoC (Party of Clowns), Antonio Jesús Reyes, DollyRocker, Dolly Rocker, Jenny Spires, Vince666, Vintage Groupies, Brian Wernham, Wrestling Heritage, X, Xpkfloyd, Zag, Zoe and all the beautiful people at Late Night and Yeeshkul.
♥ Iggy ♥ Libby ♥

As I get older, one day closer to death to quote the great bard, I see all my old chums and chumnettes getting less and less active on social media, which is a pity but also a bit understandable. At a certain age, you start to understand that life with a spouse, children and grandchildren is getting more important than a Facebook click.

It is nice that Syd Barrett still means something to youngsters and that the online communities keep on gaining young members, gradually replacing the old farts. New faces mean new ideas, new insights and new theories and that can only be encouraged. But that doesn’t want to say that the crusty old dinosaurs who have been roaming through Pink Floyd land for decades no longer have valid things to say.

I know the impatience of the young. I once was young myself although some people will seriously doubt that. But it is not because you discovered this sensational Pink Floyd singer a month ago that you have magically turned into a madcap/mad cat specialist.

Syd Sánchez

At the left, you can see one of the more famous Syd Barrett fakes. Actually, I don’t like the term fake. It is not fake, it is an example of meticulously crafted appropriation art. My good friend Stanislav, a digital artist, crafted these during a long and cold Siberian winter. They were published on his ironic blog ‘Far further than you could possibly imagine’ or on the once leading Syd Barrett forum ‘Late Night’. Not a single soul on there claimed these were real but they did trigger some heated discussions.

Unfortunately, the pictures started to lead their own life on the internet when they appeared on popular image sharing platforms like Tumblr, Pinterest and Instagram. Nowadays it is nearly impossible to find the original picture from Mexican featherweight boxer Salvador Sánchez Narváez that inspired Stanislav to create his mashup. Over the years the copy has cannibalised the original. The same happens with all the digitally colourised Pink Floyd pictures that flood the net. They are already replacing the original black and whites and in a couple of years, fans will believe these are originals.

The impertinence of the young was shown in May 2021 when a cover of Have A Cigar was published on Facebook. A nice elderly gentleman, going by the name of Roy Harper, reacted that he had sung the original on the Wish You Were Here album. It didn’t take long before some self-proclaimed Pink Floyd specialist accused him of spreading fake news. That’s why it matters that some old-fashioned sources of information still exist, to keep the idiots away.

So whether it interests anybody or not, let’s get this overview of what happened ten years ago, on this ridiculous example of a blog, started.

2011-2012 - Selfinterview

The Holy Church’s fourth season started with a guest article from the Spanish Syd Barrett blog Solo En Las Nubes.

Webmaster Antonio Jesús managed to interview Warren Dosanjh for his Autoentrevista series and the Holy Church got the honour to publish the interview for the Anglo-Saxon world: Warren Dosanjh, Syd Barrett's first manager.

It’s no shame if you don’t know who Warren Dosanjh is, as we enter proto-Floyd territory here. See? That’s why it’s good there are still some old people around, remembering things.

Other interviews we nicked from Antonio’s blog that fourth (and fifth) season were:
Lee Wood, the man who knows everything
Duggie Fields, much more than a room-mate (who sadly passed away in 2021)
Antonio Jesús Reyes, a new career in a new town
Wondering and Dreaming (a self-interview with Ewgeni Reingold)
John Cavanagh, so much to do, so little time
Jose Ángel González, Spanishgrass & more
Men On The Border, Syd Swedish version

Money

Pink Floyd, believe it or not, is a great band, perhaps the greatest band in the world. The Pink Floyd company, however, is lead by a bunch of greedy bastards who give the record industry a bad name. If Pink Floyd (the band) could create a car it would be – on paper – the best car ever. If Pink Floyd (the company) could build it wheels would be falling off while driving at 120 km/h on the motorway.

2011 was the year some Immersion sets saw the light of day. These were deluxe box sets of the big three: Dark Side Of The Moon, Wish You Were Here and The Wall. Soon horror stories were published on several music forums. The disks were not protected in the box and arrived scratched. Blu-ray disks were unplayable and Pink Floyd (the company) was very reluctant to replace those.

Unfortunately, this wasn’t a one time issue. Also, The Early Years (2016) and The Later Years (2019) have had these problems. A decade later people are still complaining on Steve Hoffman’s Music Corner that bit rot has invaded the disks they paid a small fortune for. That’s why The Church decided to take the piss out of Floyd in several satirical articles: Fuck all that, Pink Floyd Ltd. 

Floorboard Wars

On the most active (and knowledgeable) Syd Barrett forums (i.c. Late Night) and groups (i.c. Birdie Hop) there has always been some bickering about some minor details. One of these recurring discussions are the colours Syd and Iggy painted the floorboards in, in anticipation of the Storm Thorgerson and Mick Rock photoshoot, for The Madcap Laughs album. (That photoshoot in itself has created several threads about who took what, with Mick Rock recently suggesting he did it all by himself.)

In January 2012 I found it a good idea to assemble different testimonies about the floorboard colours in Syd’s (and Duggie’s) apartment, taken from recent interviews (some by myself) or quotes from magazine articles and books. A majority of the witnesses put the colours as orange (5 votes) and blue (3 votes), but also red (2 votes), purple, turquoise and green were mentioned: The Case of the Painted Floorboards (v 2.012).

What had to be a tongue in cheek article turned into something of a godzillanesque monster.

Jenny Spires and Iggy Rose had a big fight, fuelling their mutual hate for each other that would go on for ages. Unfortunately, the Holy Church, which had an excellent relationship with both of them, was the subject of some collateral damage. Tired of the constant pettifoggeries I left the Birdie Hop community where I had been one of the founding fathers.

Spanishgrass

The floorboard fiasco was one thing, Spanishgrass another.

A Mexican fan of the Holy Church asked me if I had ever heard of the Spanishgrass urban legend. During Syd Barrett’s lost weekend, which lasted for several decades, he allegedly visited a monastery in Spain, stayed there for several months and recorded some songs on a cheap portable cassette deck.

While this hoax did the rounds in the Spanish speaking hemisphere east and west from the Atlantic ocean it was virtually unknown in English speaking regions. At least I had never heard of it. In the first article (from a series that would take two years to complete) I searched for the origins of the hoax, with the help of Antonio Jesús of Solo En Las Nubes: Spanishgrass or Syd Barrett's lost Spanish record.

But there will be probably more on that next year, if we are still around.

Emily Plays

On French Bastille Day of 2012, The Church went into another investigation, this time about the very first Pink Floyd cover versions that have been put on record. I dug into the foggy history of sound-alike recordings that could be found on budget records from the sixties and seventies, recorded by anonymous artists and often released under different names.

The 1967-ish covers of See Emily Play are no exception. They exist in different versions, in different mixes and have been issued under different band names. The full (but still incomplete) story at:The Rape of Emily (three different ones).

See you next year!

The Holy Church has always been helped by a lot of people. Here is a list of those who participated to one of our articles of the fourth season, voluntarily or not: 2braindamage, Anton, Antonio Jesús Reyes, Babylemonade Flowers, Blah F. Blah, Bloco do Pink Floyd, Camilo Franco, Charlas Bronson, Chris Jones, Cicodelico, Clowns & Jugglers, Colleen Hart, Denis Combet, Duggie Fields, Ebronte, Eleonora Siatoni, Eric Burdon, Ewgeni Reingold, Freqazoidiac, Göran Nyström, Greeneyedbetsy, Helen Smith, Iggy Rose, I Spy In Cambridge, Jancy, Jenell Kesler, Jenni Fiire, Jenny Spires, JenS, Joe Perry, John Gordon, Julian Palacios, KenB, Kiloh Smith, Late Night, Lee Wood, Libby Gausden, Listener Klip, Little Turtle, Lord Drainlid, Margaretta Barclay, Mark Blake, Mark Jones, Mate, Matt, Michael Brown, Neptune Pink Floyd, Nina, Nipote, No Man's Land, Pascal Mascheroni, Rescue Rangers, Peter Gilmour, PF Chopper, Phil Etheridge, Ramjur, Rockin' Bee, Ron Mann, Simone Saibene, Streetmouse, Viv Brans, Warren Dosanjh and all those that we have forgotten!
♥ Iggy ♥ Libby ♥

The Holy Church of Iggy the Inuit was created on the eighth of August 2008 and is one of the very few Syd Barrett fansites around that are still alive.

More than a fansite that simply repeats what Gilmour and Mason dictate the Holy Church tries to have a critical look at all things Floyd. We can understand that Mr Waters and Mr Mason have got their shows to do. We can understand that Mr Gilmour has got his chickens to attend to. But the Pink Floyd company should hire professionals to take care of their catalogue and not the nincompoops who put the wrong sound on the wrong video and who bake Blu-rays that turn into bitrot after six months.

Instead of listening to the fans, the Pink Floyd management likes to keep things secret and as such, they make mistake after mistake. One example is the BBC tapes Floyd put on The Early Years set. Despite pleas from top collectors who have first or second-generation tapes of these concerts, Pink Floyd decided to issue low-quality copies instead. These are even missing (parts of) songs. Either the Pink Floyd archivists are completely useless or nobody cares as long as the fans open their wallets.

There is an excellent book by Ian Preston and Phil Salathé called Pink Floyd BBC Radio 1967-1971. Unfortunately, it is lying on top of my unread Pink Floyd books and I fear it will stay there forever. So don't expect a review soon.

But enough complaining, 10 years ago we started the Church's fifth season and here is an overview of what happened then.

Pocahontas

August 1967 had the Windsor Jazz & Blues festival but to attract more people they added some ‘Pop and Ballads’ acts as well. Pink Floyd was put on the list, but as Syd Barrett was officially overtired they skipped the gig.

The magazine ‘Music Maker’ had an article about the ‘Flower Power’ that invaded the festival and published a picture of none other than Iggy The Eskimo. The article showed the unbelievable teamwork from Iggy fans all over the world.

The picture was found by PhiPhi Chavana from Hong Kong. A copy was sent to Belgium from Sydney (Australia). Brooke Steytler from the USA restored the picture in its original glory. Since then the picture has been published by fans all over the world and has become truly iconic.

Article: Iggy - a new look in festivals 

Spanishgrass

Something slightly less iconic is the Spanishgrass Syd Barrett myth. To cut a long story short, in 1984 a Spanish underground magazine published a satirical article about Syd Barrett having a contemplative stay in a Spanish monastery. It was 'confirmed' that Barrett recorded some acoustic songs on a portable cassette player, issued on a very limited vinyl bootleg. Nothing of this was true, but the rumour persisted in Spanish-speaking countries on both sides of the Atlantic ocean.

Spanish Barrett anorak Antonio Jesus dug deeper and traced back the original author of the article, interviewing him. The Church was invited to publish the interview for the English-speaking world. That is exactly what we did.

Articles :
Spanishgrass, one year later 
Jose Ángel González, Spanishgrass & more 
Spanishgrass, the hoax revealed... 

Birdie Hop

June 2013 had the first Birdie Hop meeting in Cambridge, that unfortunately couldn't be attended by the Reverend. A lot of beautiful people were there to meet and greet people who did know Syd Barrett. Jenny Spires was there, Libby Gausden, Viv Brans, Warren Dosanjh, Peter Gilmour, Vic Singh and the unforgettable Mick Brown, who sadly passed away in 2022.

Article: Birdie Hop: wasn't it the most amazing meeting? 

The Church wishes to thank: Alexander P. HB, Amy Funstar, Antonio Jesús, Babylemonade Aleph, Bill's Blah Blah Blah, Birdie Hop, Bob Archer, Brett Wilson, Brooke Steytler, Christopher Farmer, Dark Globe, Denis Combet, Dylan Mills, Euryale, Eva Wijkniet, Jimpress, John Cavanagh, Jose Ángel González, Kirsty Whalley, Libby Gausden, Lori Haines, M. Soledad Fernandez Arana, Mark Blake, MAY, Pascal Mascheroni, PhiPhi Chavana, Psych, Rescue Rangers, Retro68special, Rich Hall, Rod Harris, Sharmanka Kinetic Gallery, Simon Hendy, Solo en las Nubes, Stanislav, Tim Greenhall, Vic Sing and all the beautiful people we have forgotten.
♥ Libby ♥ Iggy ♥