From the Leftbank Pictures series ‘Electric Dreams’, this episode ‘Crazy Diamond’ was originally written around the Pink Floyd track (which itself was written about Syd Barrett). ‘Shine On You Crazy Diamond’ was prohibitive to clear and I offered the Director, Marc Munden, a series of alternative suggestions – one of which was a track by The Soft Boys whose singer was Robyn Hitchcock (a huge Syd Barrett fan). When Marc and writer Tony Grisoni arrived at Syd Barrett’s ‘Octopus’ as a track for the film, I suggested I cover it and get Robyn Hitchcock to sing…which we duly did. Knowing that Graham Coxon (ex of Blur) was a huge fan of Syd Barrett and Robyn Hitchcock, I approached him to play guitar…which he duly did.
Legendary producer John Leckie (Radiohead, Stone Roses, New Order, Muse) had produced Robyn Hitchcock and worked as a tape op. on a Syd Barrett session. He also produced what is acknowledged to be ‘the most psychedelic sounding records of all time’ by XTC spin-off  The Dukes of Stratosphear. I’d worked with John in the early noughties and asked if he’d like to mix the track…which he duly did.

Marc was delighted with the track and it features prominently throughout the episode which, because I created the recording, meant there were no rights issues in terms of duration of use.