“Roger was a bit resentful of the fact that whenever Eric Clapton got up and played a solo, the place would erupt”: Old colleague of Pink Floyd spills the beans on his relationship with band members

An old colleague of Pink Floyd’s has been talking about his involvement with the band and three of its members.

He’s Tim Renwick, who attended the same Cambridge school as Syd Barrett and Roger Waters, has also played live on Waters' solo tours and was there right at the very end, on stage at Hyde Park in 2005 at the band’s final live performance.

In between, the guitarist carved out a more than half-decent career for himself, playing with Al Stewart and Sutherland Brothers and Quiver in the 1970s as well as session work with Elton John, David Bowie, and Eric Clapton.

Anyway, in an interview with Guitar Player, Renwick has spoken about his experiences with all three leaders of Floyd. “Roger was always quiet when I first knew him, but by the time I actually got to play in his band, he was a bit difficult,” he reveals.

“He was very determined to rule everything. He had a problem passing out responsibility to people. He had to sort of do everything for himself, which made him an uncomfortable figure to work with really.”

Renwick played with Waters on the Pros And Cons Of Hitchhiking tour in the mid 80s, which also featured Eric Clapton on guitar. “Roger was a bit resentful of the fact that whenever Eric Clapton got up and played a solo, the place would erupt. People would get their lighters out and there would be a tremendous outpouring of applause.

“And that annoyed Roger quite a lot because, rightly or wrongly, he felt that the audience weren't actually listening to the songs. They were just watching out for what Eric was doing.”

Later, the guitarist played with the post-Waters version of Floyd. “When I worked with David (Gilmour), he was much more casual. He'd just let people get into the swing of things without leaning on them too heavily. So, you could express yourself a bit more around him, which was more fun, obviously. So that was the difference between them. David was a far more relaxed person to work with and brought the best out of people.”

Renwick’s memories of Syd Barrett chime with other accounts we’ve heard down the years. “I first saw them when they were starting out, and Syd Barrett was very much the leader of the band. I got to know him a bit, and he was really lovely, a very wide-eyed and quite amusing young chap.”

“(Later on) Syd was living in a house with a bunch of people that were doing quite a large amount of psychedelic drugs, so he was completely going off his tree. I saw him later in London and hardly recognized him. He was just completely different and very difficult to communicate with. He would answer questions about four minutes after you'd asked them and all completely out of sync.”

Renwick is also full of praise for Gilmour personally. “There's not really that much spoken about him and his philanthropy - for example, his work with Kate Bush and how very helpful he was to her.

"He actually fronted the money, paid for the arrangements to be done and all kinds of stuff. He obviously could see that she had a fantastic amount of talent.”