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Don't mind the title of this article as that is a load of bollocky
clickbait, but today...
Holy Church Wordcloud. Artwork: Dolly Rocker. Concept: Felix Atagong.
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.)
Iggy the Eskimo, blessed by heavenly rays.
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 posters. Picture: Dark Globe, 2008.
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.
The City Wakes by Storm Thorgerson.
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.
The City Wakes (header).
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 Barrett exposition, 1964.
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.
Iggy Eskimo Girl stills.
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.
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.)
Holy Church Wordcloud. Artwork: Dolly Rocker. Concept: Felix Atagong.
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.)
First Church header (2008).
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).
For those who love statistics. Holy Church blogposts of the first decade.
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).
So, So, So, where did she go to, our lovely? by Kirsty Whalley. Croydon
Guardian, September 17, 2008.
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.
Anthony Stern - Iggy triptych, taken from The Other Room catalogue. A
mysterious brunette.
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.
Daffodils and a paintcan.
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.
Pontiac Parisienne (Blue).
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.
Syd Barrett and (pink) Pontiac Parisienne by Duggie Fields.
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.)
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).
Iggy in Space by Felix Atagong (2009).
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:
Crystal Blue Postcards, exclusively hosted at the Holy Church of Iggy the
Inuit.
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!
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
Mojo March 2010 Cover.
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.
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.)
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 ♥
Holy Church Wordcloud (2018). Artwork: Dolly Rocker. Concept: Felix
Atagong.
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.
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 (cover: Simon Ghahary).
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.
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).
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 207.
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:
Some of Iggy's comments on the Mojo website. (She had never used a
smartphone before.) Terrapin
9.
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!
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 fantasticoSolo
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.
Ian Barrett, Iggy Rose and Captain Sensible (picture: Captain Sensible).
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.
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.
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 ♥
Holy Church Wordcloud (2018). Artwork: Dolly Rocker. Concept: Felix
Atagong.
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.
Salvador Sánchez Narváez, original by Gary Williams.
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.
Solo en las Nubes. Warren
Dosanjh.
2011-2012 - Selfinterview
The Holy Church’s fourth season started with a guest article from the
Spanish Syd Barrett blog Solo
En Las Nubes.
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.
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.
Still Life with stereo, tape recorder and pot of paint.
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.
Pink Floyd Flamingo. Concept: Felix Atagong.
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.
Groovy Hits for Dancing, the Okey Pokey Band & singers. Groovy Hits for
Dancing, the Okey Pokey Band & Singers.
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 ♥
Holy Church Wordcloud (2018). Artwork: Dolly Rocker. Concept: Felix
Atagong.
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.
Iggy @ Windsor.
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.
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.
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.
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 ♥
Holy Church Wordcloud (2018). Artwork: Dolly Rocker. Concept: Felix
Atagong.
The fifth season overview of The Holy Church of Iggy the Inuit, that we
published last
year, wasn’t a great deal, and we duly apologise for that. But this
blog post, listing the highlights of season six, starting in August
2013, is packed with remarkable entries. Some years are betters than
others, we guess. So let’s start immediately. What did the Church do 10
years ago?
Rich Hall.
Rich Hall
For our fifth anniversary, we had a wild party with a soundtrack that
was specially created for this celebration, sort of.
Multi-instrumentalist Rich Hall recorded the album Birdie Hop and the
Sydiots, and it’s still an interesting record a decade later.
Did Roger Keith Barrett send a Canadian fan a handwritten
message, somewhere in 2003? It might be true, or not, depending on your
point of view. Probably no one longer remembers this, especially not the
truckloads of new Syd Barrett fans who have surfaced in the last years.
That’s why the Church still exists, to archive these awkward little bits
and pieces that otherwise would disappear in the fog of time.
Article (that also has a bit about the legendary Radharani Krishna, if
someone remembers her): Making
it clear...
Picture: Baron Wolman, 11 November 1967.
Jean-Marie Deschamps
A question that pop-ups from time to time is, who is standing behind the
boys, at the Sausalito Casa Madrona hotel? The Holy Church of
Iggy the Inuit already answered this question a decade ago. No need to
thank us, just another world exclusive from the Church.
Does anyone remember how Pink Floyd bragged in 1988 that they were, and
we quote David Gilmour, ‘the first rock band to be played in space’?
This was not the case as astronaut Al
Worden had taken some mixtapes with him on the Apollo 15 mission
(1971) containing The Beatles, George Harrison, Simon & Garfunkel and
The Moody Blues.
Perhaps Pink Floyd was the first ‘rock band’ to be played on a Russian
space vehicle? Not true either, as cosmonaut Aleksandr
Pavlovich Aleksandrov took a CD player and two small boxes to the
MIR Space Station in July 1987. The first (and perhaps only) CD played
on it was Space Opera by French composer Didier
Marouani from a band, appropriately named, spAce.
It is in the ambient synth-pop genre, so not really ‘rock’, but we
wanted to tell the story anyway.
When the batteries gave up, the MIR sound system was tossed outside and
if it didn’t enter the Earth’s atmosphere and burn up, it is still
floating somewhere in outer space.
Andrew Rawlinson.
Andrew Rawlinson
Fart Enjoy is a handmade arty-farty booklet, created by Syd
Barrett, in March or April 1966. It was believed it dated from 1964 or
1965 until the Holy Church looked into the matter. We also identified
the ‘anonymous’ pin-up, glued on page 13 and a testimony of Barrett’s
juvenile misogynous humour. It’s hard being a Barrett investigator.
In November 2013 Rich Hall, then a Birdie Hop administrator, got in
contact with Peter Jenner and wanted to know if Syd Barrett fans
could ask him some questions. A message was put on two Facebook groups
and in less than a week over one hundred different questions were
harvested. Jenner was 'struck by the quantity' and kindly asked to slim
it down a bit. About a dozen questions were withheld and Felix Atagong,
another Birdie Hop administrator, interviewed Peter.
Several in-group earthquakes and tsunamis happened after that, but the
interview still stands on its own.
If the Peter Jenner interview was season six’s number one highlight, the
next topic surely was number two. 2014 saw the release of a 1972 live
album of the short-lived Last Minute Put Together Boogie Band.
Nothing extraordinary, you might say, but tracks 5 to 7 have a special
guest star jamming. His name: Syd Barrett.
The album stayed in copyright purgatory for a decade. The master tape
was confiscated, in real Men In Black style, by suits belonging to the
Pink Floyd management or their record company. Fansites and official
pages pretend it has never existed and so does the official Syd Barrett
website. Reason enough for the Holy Church to investigate with a 5 part
series, including interviews with Carlton Sandercock (from Easy Action
record company), Mohammed Abdullah John ‘Twink’ Alder and Fred Frith.
So far for our overview of what happened a decade ago at the Church.
Keep on rolling!
The Church is a one-man project that relies a lot on the wisdom of
others. For the sixth season, we had help from the following people,
websites and organisations, and perhaps we have even forgotten a few.
Anonymous, A Fleeting Glimpse, Al Baker, Alexander P. Hoffmann, Allen
Lancer, Andre Borgdorff, Andrew Charles Potts, Anita Buckett, Anni
Paisley, Anthony Stern, Antonio Jesus, b_squared, Baron Wolman,
Beechwoods, Birdie Hop, Bruno Barbato Jacobovitz, Cambridge News, Casa
Madrona Hotel & Spa, Cathy Peek Collier, Cheesecake Joe Perry, Chris
Farmer, Clay Jordan, Col Turner, Cyberspace, Demamo, the Deschamps
family, Didier Marouani, Dion Johnson, Easy Action, Ebronte, Ewgeni
Reingold, FraKcman (Mark Graham), Fred Frith, Gary Lucas, Gaz Hunter,
Gian Palacios-Świątkowski, Giulio Bonfissuto, Göran Nyström,
Hallucalation, HYGIY, Ian Barrett, James Vandervest, Jane Harris, Jenny
Spires, Jim Gillespie, Joanne 'Charley' Milne, Jon Felix, Jonathan
Charles, Keith Jordan, Kiloh Smith, Late Night, Laughing Madcaps, Lisa
Newman, Mark Blake, Mark Sturdy, Matthew Horsley, Memo Hernandez,
Michael Ramshaw, Michael Rawding, Mick Brown, Mike Baess, Mike Kemp,
Mohammed Abdullah John 'Twink' Alder, Mr. Pinky, MvB, Neptune Pink
Floyd, Orgone Accumulator, Paul Newlove, Paul Piper, Peter 'Felix'
Jansens, Phil Etheridge, Psych62, Radharani Krishna, Raymond John
Nebbitt, Rich Hall, Richard Mason Né Withnell, Rick Barnes, Saygeddylee,
Spaceward Studios, Stanislav V. Grigorev, Stefan Mühle, Steve Czapla,
Steve Francombe, Supervehicle, Syd Wonder, Sydzappa, Tim Doyle, USA
National Register off Historic Places, Vintage Erotica Forum, Viper,
Warren Dosanjh, Wolfpack, Yeeshkul, Younglight, Yves Leclerc... ♥
Iggy ♥ Libby ♥