Nick Mason: Pink Floyd failed Syd Barrett

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Nick Mason admits Pink Floyd didn't know how to deal with Syd Barrett's mental health.

The iconic rock band's drummer has opened up about how the group responded to their late singer's struggles before he was kicked out when David Gilmour joined the lineup.

Speaking to Rolling Stone magazine about their 1967 song 'Bike', he said: "The lyrics to this are so very Syd, astonishingly clever. It's fun, but there's a depth of sadness to them.

"When I listen to it now, I realise how young and immature we were and how hopeless we were at coming to grips with Syd's breakdown."

Syd worked with the legendary group on their debut album 'The Piper at the Gates of Dawn' and its influential follow-up 'A Saucerful of Secrets'.

The star - whose time with the band ended in 1968 - battled mental health issues and heavy drug use, but he would go on to release two solo albums before retiring from music in 1972.

He later died of pancreatic cancer in 2006.

Following his sad death, Gilmour described the singer and lyricist as a "madcap genius" while praising his incredible body of work

He said at the time: "We are very sad to say that Roger Keith Barrett - Syd - has passed away.

"Do find time to play some of Syd's songs and to remember him as the madcap genius who made us all smile with his wonderfully eccentric songs about bikes, gnomes and scarecrows. His career was painfully short, yet he touched more people than he could ever know."