Whilst reading about the Miles boxset at Amazon on the thread that Fitter posted, I scrolled down and something caught my eye from a list of their forum titles.
It's a Syd Barrett related story- entitled 'Syd's Toenails'.
Posted up on October 23rd.
I've pasted the whole story up as the link may become redundant after a while.
Hope Jellyfysh doesn't mind this going up here, it could well be a bogus story though, or some 'facts' not quite right as it were, so hopefully all the more reason to draw attention to it.
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http://www.amazon.co.uk/tag/music/forum/ref=cm_cd_dp_rt_tft_tp?_encoding=UTF8&cdForum=FxKJPF2WTXANLI&cdThread=TxN4YOONGVYSGA
Mrs Edith Cottermole says:
The late Mr Cottermole was a skilled chiropodist and one day he got a telephone call from someone called Rog Barrett. Rog was having trouble with his bunions and toenails and could Mr Cottermole come at once.
In those days I used to accompany Mr Cottermole on his visits for I was a trained foot-gripper which meant holding the client's foot in a vice-like grip while Mr Cottermole performed the chiropody.
The door was opened by a completely naked man. He had a bald head, shaven eyebrows and the widest grin I have ever seen. He beckoned us in with a gesture of the hand.
We got started on Rog's feet. I held the foot in the technical position as shown in the manual, while Mr Cottermole did the business.
Rog had let his toenails get really really long and Mr Cottermole got a fair sweat on as he clipped away. While Mr Cottermole was engaged in clipping Rog's nails, I happened to see a book lying on the sofa. It was a biography of Pink Floyd. Rog caught me looking at it and said did I know that he had given the band its name. He tapped the side of his nose and explained that everyone thought that Pink Floyd was named after two blues muscians when in actual fact he had got the name from The Pink Panther and Floyd Patterson, the boxer. Lying next to the book was a stringless guitar and Rog chuckled and said that he had been trying to get a tune out of it for years - but with no success.
Mr Cottermole then twigged on that he was operating on the feet of the great Syd Barrett. He told Rog/Syd that he hadn't recognised him without all that hair and Rog explained that from the age of eight he had been totally bald and had worn a succession of wigs, the latest he had binned a few months ago as it kept lifting in the wind while riding his bike.
He told us the reason the group had replaced him with David Gilmour was because Dave had a full set of Brook-Bond's Psychedelic Architects of Great Britain and Ireland cards. Rog said that Dave had wormed his way into the band because he had loads of spares to give away.
Rog then told us that he wasn't bitter or anything about being turfed out of the group because he now had his art and woodworking hobbies to occupy him. He showed us a lavatory brush he had made from a road-kill hedgehog.
Just as we were about to leave, Rog presented Mr Cottermole with a box of the toenails - one or two of them signed.
I've been asked many times by Syd Barrett fans for a signed toenail but have always had to say no.
You see, it was the express wish of Mr Cottermole that when he died that the Barrett toenails be buried with him.
This I did - but sometimes when I think about it - it would have been nice to have kept one and have it framed and hung on the wall as a souvenir of that memorable day.
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