Pink Floyd
Encyclopedia
Pink Floyd were an English rock band that achieved worldwide success with their progressive
and psychedelic rock
music. Their work is marked by the use of philosophical lyrics, sonic experimentation
, innovative album art, and elaborate live shows
. Pink Floyd are one of the most commercially successful and influential rock music groups of all time. They have sold over 200 million albums worldwide, including 74.5 million certified units in the United States. The band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
in 1996. Since then they have continued to enjoy worldwide fame.
The band originally consisted of students Roger Waters
, Nick Mason
, Richard Wright
, and Syd Barrett
. Founded in 1965, the band first became popular playing in London's underground music scene in the late 1960s. Under Barrett's leadership they released two charting singles, "Arnold Layne
" and "See Emily Play
", and a successful début album, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn
(1967). Guitarist and vocalist David Gilmour
joined Pink Floyd as its fifth member in December 1967, several months prior to Barrett's departure from the group due to his deteriorating mental health. Following the loss of their principal songwriter, Pink Floyd bassist and vocalist Roger Waters became the band's lyricist and conceptual leader, with Gilmour assuming lead guitar, taking on most of the band's music composition, and sharing lead vocals. With this line-up Pink Floyd achieved worldwide critical and commercial success with their concept albums
The Dark Side of the Moon
, Wish You Were Here, Animals and The Wall
.
Wright left the group in 1979, and Waters in 1985, but Gilmour and Mason (subsequently rejoined by Wright) continued to record and tour. Waters resorted to legal means to try to keep them from performing as Pink Floyd, but the dispute was resolved with an out-of-court settlement which allowed Gilmour and Mason to continue, and which also released Waters from his contractual obligations to the band. Two further albums followed, A Momentary Lapse of Reason
and The Division Bell
. Following almost two decades of acrimony the band reunited in 2005 for a single performance, at the charity concert Live 8
. Wright died in 2008. Surviving members Waters, Gilmour and Mason reunited for one of Roger Waters' The Wall Tour shows on 12 May 2011 at the O2 Arena
in London; Gilmour performed "Comfortably Numb" along with Waters and "Outside the Wall" with Mason and Waters.
in London. The pair first played together in a group formed by Keith Noble and Clive Metcalfe
together with Noble's sister Sheilagh. They were later joined by fellow student Richard Wright, becoming a sextet named Sigma 6, the first band to feature Waters on "rudimentary" lead guitar, Wright on rhythm guitar, and Mason on drums. Wright's girlfriend was a regular guest artist. The band initially performed during private functions, rehearsing in a tearoom in the basement of Regent Street Polytechnic. They covered songs by The Searchers
and material written by fellow student Ken Chapman, who became their manager and songwriter.
In September 1963, Waters and Mason moved into a flat at 39 Stanhope Gardens, near Crouch End
, London, owned by Mike Leonard, a part-time tutor at the Regent Street Polytechnic and Hornsey College of Art
. Leonard was a designer of light machines (perforated discs spun by electric motors to cast patterns of lights on the walls) and for a time played keyboard with them using the front room of his flat for rehearsals. Mason later moved out of the flat, while accomplished guitar player Bob Klose
moved in. Sigma 6 went through a number of short-lived names, including The Meggadeaths, The (Screaming) Abdabs, Leonard's Lodgers, and The Spectrum Five before settling on The Tea Set. While Metcalfe and Noble left to form their own band, Klose and Waters were joined at Stanhope Gardens by Syd Barrett in 1964. Then aged 17, Barrett had arrived in London in the autumn of 1963 to study at the Camberwell College of Art. Waters and Barrett were childhood friends; the bassist had often visited Barrett as he played guitar at his mother's house. In his book Mason said this about Barrett, "In a period when everyone was being cool in a very adolescent, self-conscious way, Syd was unfashionably outgoing; my enduring memory of our first encounter is the fact that he bothered to come up and introduce himself to me."
After The Tea Set lost Noble and Metcalfe's vocal abilities, Klose introduced the band to Chris Dennis, a technician with the Royal Air Force
. It was during Dennis's tenure that the band was first referred to as "The Pink Floyd Sound", created by Barrett on the spur of the moment when he discovered that another band, also named The Tea Set, were to perform at one of their gigs. (The name is derived from the given names of two blues
musicians whose Piedmont blues
records Barrett had in his collection, Pink Anderson
and Floyd Council
). At around the same time Dennis was posted to Bahrain
, thrusting Barrett into the spotlight as front-man.
They first performed in a recording studio in December 1964, minus the presence of Wright who was taking a break from his studies. Through one of his friends, who let them use some "down time" for free, they managed to secure recording time at a studio in West Hampstead. This four-song session became The Tea Set's first demo tape and included: the R&B classic "I'm A King Bee"; two Syd Barrett originals, "Butterfly" and "Lucy Leave"; and "Double O Bo", a group-composition which—according to Mason—was "Bo Diddley meets the 007 theme."
The Pink Floyd Sound became the resident band at the Countdown Club, near Kensington High Street
in London, where from late night until early morning they played three sets of 90 minutes. According to Mason, this period "... was the beginning of a realisation that songs could be extended with lengthy solos." An audition for ITV
's Ready Steady Go!
soon followed (they were invited by the programme's producers to return the following week), as did another club, and two rock contests. After pressure from his father, and advice from his college tutors, Bob Klose quit Pink Floyd in 1966 and Barrett took over on lead guitar. Playing mostly rhythm and blues
songs they began to receive paid bookings, including one for a performance at the Marquee Club
in March 1966 where they were watched by Peter Jenner
. A lecturer at the London School of Economics
, Jenner was impressed by the acoustic effects Barrett and Wright created and, with his business partner and friend Andrew King
, became their manager. The pair had little experience of the music industry and used inherited money to set up Blackhill Enterprises
, purchasing new instruments and equipment for the band including a Selmer
PA system. Under their guidance the band became part of London's underground music
scene, playing at venues including All Saints Hall and The Marquee. While performing at the Countdown Club the band had experimented with long instrumental excursions and they began to expand upon these with rudimentary but visually powerful light shows, projected by coloured slides and domestic lights. To celebrate the launch of the London Free School
's magazine International Times
, they performed in front of a 2,000-strong crowd at the opening of The Roundhouse
, attended by celebrities including Alexander Trocchi
, Paul McCartney
, and Marianne Faithfull
. Jenner and King's diverse array of social connections helped gain the band important coverage in The Financial Times and The Sunday Times
.
Their relationship with Blackhill Enterprises was strengthened when they became full partners, each holding an "unprecedented" one-sixth share, and by October 1966 their set included more of their own material. They performed at venues such as the Commonwealth Institute, but were not universally popular; following a performance at a Catholic youth club the owner refused to pay, a stance which the magistrate agreed with, claiming that the band's performance "wasn't music", this was not the only occasion on which they encountered such opinions. They were better received at the UFO Club
in London though, Barrett's performances were reportedly exuberant, "... leaping around and the madness, and the kind of improvisation he was doing ... he was inspired. He would constantly manage to get past his limitations and into areas that were very, very interesting. Which none of the others could do." The audience was receptive to the music they played, often high on various drugs although the band remained drug-free — "We were out of it, not on acid, but out of the loop, stuck in the dressing room at UFO."
and what would later be called space rock
, and began to attract the attention of the music industry. While in negotiations with record companies Joe Boyd
and booking agent Bryan Morrison arranged for, and funded, the recording of several songs at Sound Techniques in West Hampstead
, including "Arnold Layne
" and a version of "Interstellar Overdrive
", and for the production of a short music film for "Arnold Layne" in Sussex. Despite early interest from Polydor the band signed with Electric and Musical Industries
, with a £5,000 advance. Boyd was not included in the deal.
"Arnold Layne" became Pink Floyd's (the definite article seems to have been dropped from the band's name at some point in 1967) first single, released on 11 March 1967. Its references to cross-dressing
saw it banned by several radio stations, but some creative manipulation at the shops which supplied sales figures to the music industry meant that it peaked in the UK charts at number 20.
On 29 April 1967 they headlined a famous all-night event called The 14 Hour Technicolour Dream at the Alexandra Palace
, London, to raise funds for the counter-cultural newspaper International Times
. Other artists included Yoko Ono
and John Lennon
. They played "Astronomy Domine
", "Arnold Layne", "Interstellar Overdrive", "Nick's Boogie", and other material from what was to become their debut album, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn
. Serendipitously, the band appeared just as the sun was beginning to rise at around five o'clock in the morning.
All four members of the band had by then abandoned their studies or jobs, they upgraded their ageing Bedford
van to a Ford Transit
, using it to travel to over 200 gigs in 1967 (a tenfold increase on the previous year). They were joined by road manager Peter Wynne Willson, with whom Barrett had previously shared a flat. Willson updated the band's lighting rig, with some innovative ideas including the use of polarisers, mirrors, and stretched condom
s. "See Emily Play
" was the group's second single and it was released on 16 June. It was premièred at the Queen Elizabeth Hall
in London in May that year, where the band also used a device called an Azimuth co-ordinator
. They performed on the BBC's Look of the Week, where an erudite and engaging Waters and Barrett faced rigorous questioning from Hans Keller
. The single fared slightly better than "Arnold Layne" and after two weeks was at number 17 in the charts. They were invited to appear on the BBC's Top Of The Pops
, which was immensely popular but which controversially required artists to simply mime their singing and playing. They returned after the single climbed to number six, but a scheduled third appearance was cancelled when Barrett refused to perform.
It was about this time the rest of the band first noticed changes in Barrett's behaviour. By early 1967 he was regularly using LSD and, at an earlier show in the Netherlands, Mason observed him to be "completely distanced from everything going on, whether simply tripping or suffering from a more organic neural disturbance I still have no idea."
and EMI producer Norman Smith. They were obliged to record their first album at EMI's Abbey Road Studios
in London. There they experimented with musique concrète
and were at one point invited to watch The Beatles
record "Lovely Rita
". In his 2005 autobiography Mason recalled that the sessions were relatively trouble-free, Smith disagreed stating that Barrett was unresponsive to his suggestions and constructive criticism. The Piper at the Gates of Dawn
was released in August 1967 and Pink Floyd continued to draw huge crowds at the UFO Club, but Barrett's deterioration was by then giving them serious concern. The rest of the band initially hoped that his erratic behaviour would be a passing phase but some, including Jenner and June Child, were more realistic:
To their consternation the band were forced to cancel their appearance at the prestigious National Jazz and Blues Festival
, informing the music press that Barrett was suffering from nervous exhaustion. Jenner and Waters arranged for Barrett to see a psychiatrist, which he did not attend, and a stay in Formentera
, with Sam Hutt
, a doctor well-established in the underground music scene, led to no visible improvement. A few dates in September were followed by the band's first tour of the United States. Blackhill's late application for work permits forced the band to cancel several dates and Barrett's condition grew steadily worse. He detuned his guitar during a performance at the Winterland Ballroom
, causing the strings to come off and during a recording for The Pat Boone Show
he confounded the director by miming the song perfectly during the rehearsal, then standing motionless during the take. King quickly curtailed the band's US visit, sending them home on the next flight.
Shortly after their return from the US the band supported Jimi Hendrix
's tour of England but Barrett's depression worsened the longer the tour continued, his absence on one occasion forced the band to book David O'List
as his replacement. Wynne Willson left his role as lighting manager and allied himself with the guitarist. Pink Floyd released the single "Apples and Oranges
" in November 1967 in the UK (although not in the US). Barrett's condition had reached a crisis point and they responded by adding a new member to their line-up.
to become the fifth member of Pink Floyd, which Gilmour accepted. Gilmour was already acquainted with Barrett, having studied together at Cambridge Tech in the early 1960s. The two had performed at lunchtimes together with guitars and harmonicas, and later hitch-hiked and busked their way around the south of France. In 1965, while a member of Joker's Wild
, Gilmour had watched The Tea Set. Barrett reluctantly agreed to Gilmour's addition to Pink Floyd. Steve O'Rourke
(an assistant to Bryan Morrison) gave Gilmour a room at his house and a salary of £30 per week. Gilmour immediately went out and bought a custom-made yellow Fender Stratocaster
from a music shop in Cambridge
(the instrument became one of Gilmour's favourite guitars throughout his career with Pink Floyd) and in January 1968 he was announced as the band's newest member. To the general public he was then the second guitarist, the fifth member of Pink Floyd, and the group originally intended to keep Barrett in the group as a non-performing songwriter. According to Jenner, "The idea was that Dave would be Syd's dep. and cover for his eccentricities. And when that got to be not workable, Syd was just going to write. Just to try to keep him involved, but in a way where the others could work and function." One of Gilmour's first duties was to pretend to play a guitar on an "Apples and Oranges" promotional film. In a demonstration of his frustration at being effectively sidelined, Barrett tried to teach the band a new song, "Have You Got It Yet?", but changed the structure on each performance—making it impossible for them to learn.
Working with Barrett eventually proved too difficult. Matters came to a head on the way to a performance in Southampton
. When somebody in the van asked if they should collect Barrett, the response was "No, fuck it, let's not bother". Waters later admitted "He was our friend, but most of the time we now wanted to strangle him". In early March 1968 Pink Floyd met with Peter Jenner
and Andrew King
of Blackhill Enterprises
, business partners at the time, to discuss the band's future. Barrett agreed to leave Pink Floyd and Pink Floyd "agreed to Blackhill's entitlement in perpetuity" with regard to "past activities". Pink Floyd's partnership with Peter Jenner and Andrew King was dissolved in March 1968; Jenner and King, who believed Barrett to be the creative genius of Pink Floyd, decided to represent him and end their relationship with Pink Floyd. Bryan Morrison then agreed that Steve O'Rourke
should become Pink Floyd's manager. The formal announcement about the departure of Barrett was made on 6 April 1968 although, for a short period after his de facto removal, Barrett still turned up to the occasional gig, apparently confused as to what was happening. Barrett had been their main songwriter and Gilmour mimed to his voice on the group's European television appearances but, while playing on the university circuit, Waters and Wright created their own new material, such as "It Would Be So Nice
" and "Careful With That Axe, Eugene
". They were joined by road manager Peter Watts
before touring Europe in 1968.
In July 1969, perhaps because of their space-related music and lyrics, Pink Floyd were part of live BBC television coverage of the Apollo 11
moon landing, performing live an instrumental piece, which they called "Moonhead". An audio copy exists of the track and occasionally appears on Pink Floyd bootleg albums.
" (his final contribution to their discography). Waters contributed three songs, "Let There Be More Light
", "Corporal Clegg
", and "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun
" (which includes guitar work by Gilmour and Barrett). Wright composed "See-Saw
" and "Remember a Day
". Encouraged by Smith some of the new material was recorded at their homes, continuing the type of experimentation seen on The Piper at the Gates of Dawn. Smith remained unconvinced by their musical style, but when Mason struggled to perform on "Remember a Day", he stepped in as his replacement. Wright recalled Smith's attitude about the sessions, "Norman gave up on the second album ... he was forever saying things like, 'You can't do twenty minutes of this ridiculous noise.'" Neither Waters nor Mason could read music so to create the album's title track, "A Saucerful of Secrets
", they invented their own system of notation; Gilmour later described this as looking "... like an architectural diagram".
A Saucerful of Secrets
was released in June 1968. The album cover was designed by Storm Thorgerson
and Aubrey Powell of Hipgnosis
. Record Mirror
urged listeners to "forget it as background music to a party" and John Peel
claimed that the album was "...like a religious experience...". NME
, however, viewed the title track as "...long and boring, and has little to warrant its monotonous direction". Upon the album's release Pink Floyd performed at the first free Hyde Park concert, organised by Blackhill Enterprises, alongside Roy Harper
and Jethro Tull
. The band considered Morrison's assistant, Steve O'Rourke, as a "great deal-maker" whose business acumen overshadowed his lack of interest in aesthetic matters and, when Morrison sold his business to NEMS Enterprises, O'Rourke became the band's personal manager. This also enabled the band to take complete control of their artistic outlook. They returned to the US for their first major tour, accompanied by Soft Machine
and The Who
.
. Just before Christmas 1968 they released "Point Me At The Sky
", which was no more successful than the two singles they had released since "See Emily Play". "Point Me At The Sky" would be the band's last single for several years. In 1969 they recorded the score for Barbet Schroeder
's film More. The soundtrack proved important; not only did it pay well but, along with A Saucerful of Secrets, the material they created became part of their live shows for some time thereafter. A tour of the UK ended at the Royal Festival Hall
in July 1969, during which an electric shock caused by poor grounding
sent Gilmour flying across the stage. The performances, built around two long pieces called The Man and The Journey, were backed with performance art created by artist Peter Dockley. Some of the sound effects were later used on 1970's "Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast
". While composing the soundtrack for Zabriskie Point
, for director Michelangelo Antonioni
, the band stayed at a luxury hotel in Rome. Waters has since claimed that, but for Antonioni's continuous changes to the music, the work could have been completed in less than a week. Eventually he used only three of their recordings, in addition to material from the Grateful Dead
, The Youngbloods
, Patti Page
, and the Rolling Stones. One of the pieces turned down by Antonioni, called "The Violent Sequence", later became "Us and Them", included on Pink Floyd's 1973 The Dark Side of the Moon
. The band also worked on the soundtrack for a proposed cartoon series called Rollo but a lack of funds meant that it was never produced. Waters also collaborated with Ron Geesin
when they scored the soundtrack to the 1970 film The Body
.
Ummagumma presented a departure from their previous work and contains live performance and older compositions. Released as a double-LP on EMI's Harvest
label, the first two sides contained live performances recorded at Manchester College of Commerce and at Mother's Club in Birmingham. The second LP contained a single experimental contribution from each band member. Ummagumma was released to positive reviews in October 1969.
Atom Heart Mother
quickly followed Ummagumma in the second half of 1970. The band's previous LPs were recorded using a four-track
system, but Atom Heart Mother was their first eight-track album. An early version was premièred in France in January but disagreements over the mix prompted the hiring of Ron Geesin to work out the sound issues. Geesin worked for about a month to improve the score but, with little creative input from the band, production was troublesome; it was eventually completed with the aid of John Aldiss. Norman Smith was credited as an executive producer and the album marked his final contribution to the band's discography. Gilmour is generally dismissive of Atom Heart Mother and once described it as "a load of rubbish", although in 2001 he said it "was a good thing to have attempted, but I don't really think the attempt comes off that well". Waters was similarly critical, claiming that he would not mind if it were "thrown into the dustbin and never listened to by anyone ever again." Atom Heart Mother was hugely successful in the UK and was premièred at the Bath Festival on 27 June 1970. The band toured extensively across America and Europe in 1970.
In 1971 Pink Floyd took second place in a readers poll in Melody Maker and for the first time were making a profit. In New Orleans the theft of equipment worth about $40,000 almost crippled the band's finances but, although the local police were unhelpful, hours after the band notified the FBI the equipment was returned. Mason and Wright became fathers and bought homes in London while Gilmour, still single, moved to a 19th-century farm in Essex. Waters installed a home recording studio at his house in Islington
in a converted tool-shed at the back of his garden.
Meddle was released on 30 October 1971 in the US and 13 November in the UK, while the band were touring in the US. Rolling Stone
's Jean-Charles Costa wrote "Meddle not only confirms lead guitarist David Gilmour's emergence as a real shaping force with the group, it states forcefully and accurately that the group is well into the growth track again", and NME
called it "an exceptionally good album". Melody Maker's
Michael Watts was underwhelmed, claiming the album was "a soundtrack to a non-existent movie" and shrugged it off as "so much sound and fury, signifying nothing". Meddle
is sometimes considered to be a transitional album between the Barrett-influenced band and the modern Pink Floyd.
The group's other releases around this period, More and Zabriskie Point
, were soundtracks and Atom Heart Mother was influenced as much by Ron Geesin and the session artists as it was by the band. The band again worked with Barbet Schroeder on the film La Vallée, for which a soundtrack album was released called Obscured by Clouds
. The material was composed in about a week at the Château d'Hérouville
near Paris and, upon its release, was their first to break into the top 50 on the US Billboard chart. At about the same time the band also produced the compilation album Relics
.
The band's next album, titled The Dark Side of the Moon (an allusion to lunacy, rather than astronomy), was recorded between May 1972 and January 1973 with EMI staff engineer Alan Parsons
at Abbey Road. Late in the album's production Parsons was assisted by producer Chris Thomas
, who became responsible for significant changes such as the echo used on "Us and Them". The album's packaging was designed by Hipgnosis
and bore George Hardie
's iconic refracting prism
on the cover. Since Barrett's departure the burden of lyrical composition had fallen mostly on Waters and he is therefore credited as the author of the album's lyrics. The band filmed studio footage for Pink Floyd: Live at Pompeii
before beginning a tour of Europe in 1972.
The Dark Side of the Moon was released in March 1973 and became an instant chart success in Britain and throughout Western Europe. The critical reaction was generally enthusiastic. Melody Maker
s Roy Hollingworth described side one as "...so utterly confused with itself it was difficult to follow," but praised side two writing, "The songs, the sounds, the rhythms were solid and sound, Saxophone hit the air, the band rocked and rolled, and then gushed and tripped away into the night." In his 1973 album review for Rolling Stone
magazine, Lloyd Grossman wrote, "a fine album with a textural and conceptual richness that not only invites, but demands involvement." Throughout March 1973 it featured as part of their US tour, including a midnight performance at Radio City Music Hall in New York City on 17 March.
The success of the album brought previously unknown wealth to all four members of the band. Richard Wright and Roger Waters bought large country houses while Nick Mason became a collector of expensive cars. Much of the album's early state-side success has been attributed to the efforts of Pink Floyd's US record company, Capitol Records
. Newly appointed chairman Bhaskar Menon
reversed the relatively poor performance of the band's previous US releases but, disenchanted with Capitol, the band and manager O'Rourke negotiated a new contract with Columbia Records
. The Dark Side of the Moon was the last album that Pink Floyd were obliged to release before formally signing a new contract. Menon's efforts to secure a contract renewal with Pink Floyd were in vain and the band signed for Columbia, with a reported advance fee of US$1M (approximately $ today), while in Britain and Europe they continued to be represented by Harvest Records
.
had declined the band's offer to continue working with them, instead becoming successful in his own right with The Alan Parsons Project
, and so the band turned to Brian Humphries with whom they had already worked on More. The group initially found it difficult to devise any new material, especially as the success of The Dark Side of the Moon had left all four physically and emotionally drained. Richard Wright later described these early sessions as "falling within a difficult period" and Waters found them "torturous". Gilmour was more interested in improving the band's existing material. Mason's marriage was failing leaving him in a general malaise and with a sense of apathy, both of which interfered with his drumming.
Despite the lack of creative direction Waters began to visualise a new concept after several weeks. During 1974 they had sketched out three new compositions and had performed them at a series of concerts in Europe. These new compositions became the starting point for a new album whose opening four-note guitar phrase, composed entirely by accident by Gilmour, reminded Waters of the lingering ghost of former band-member Syd Barrett. The songs provided an apt summary of the rise and fall of their former band mate: "Because I wanted to get as close as possible to what I felt ... that sort of indefinable, inevitable melancholy about the disappearance of Syd." While the band were working on the album Barrett made an impromptu visit to the studio, during which Thorgerson
recalled that he "sat round and talked for a bit but he wasn't really there." He had changed in appearance and the band did not initially recognise him, Waters was reportedly deeply upset by the experience. Barrett eventually left without saying goodbye and none of the band members ever saw him again, apart from a run-in between Waters and Barrett a couple of years later. Some of the material also contained barely veiled attacks on the music business. "Raving and Drooling" and "Gotta Be Crazy" had no place in the new concept and were set aside. Storm Thorgerson concealed the album cover artwork with a dark-coloured shrink-wrap. The cover image was inspired by the idea that people tend to conceal their true feelings, for fear of "getting burned", and thus two businessmen were pictured shaking hands with one man on fire.
Much of Wish You Were Here was premièred on 5 July 1975 at an open-air music festival at Knebworth
before being released in September that year. It reached number one in Britain and the US, along with positive reviews; Robert Christgau
wrote: "... the music is not only simple and attractive, with the synthesiser used mostly for texture and the guitar breaks for comment, but it actually achieves some of the symphonic dignity (and cross-referencing) that The Dark Side of the Moon simulated so ponderously."
Following the Knebworth concert the band bought a three-storey block of church halls, at 35 Britannia Row
in Islington, and set about converting the building into a recording studio and storage facility. The work took up most of 1975 and in 1976 they recorded Animals there, their eighth studio album.
Animals was another Waters concept, loosely based on George Orwell
's political fable Animal Farm
—its lyrics described various classes of society as dogs, pigs, and sheep. Brian Humphries was again brought in to engineer the album which was completed in December 1976. Apart from its critique of society the album was also in part a response to the punk rock
movement, which grew in popularity as a nihilistic
statement against the prevailing social and political conditions, and also a reaction to the general complacency and nostalgia that appeared to surround rock music. Pink Floyd were an obvious target for punk musicians, notably Johnny Rotten who wore a Pink Floyd t-shirt on which the words "I hate" had been written. Mason later stated that he welcomed the "Punk Rock insurrection" and viewed it as a welcome return to the underground scene from which Pink Floyd had grown. In 1977 he produced The Damned's second album at Britannia Row.
Hipgnosis were credited for the packaging of Animals but the final concept was designed by Waters, who chose an image of the ageing Battersea Power Station
. The band commissioned a 30 feet (9.1 m) pig-shaped balloon and photography began on 2 December. Inclement weather delayed filming and the balloon broke free of its moorings in strong winds, disappearing to eventually land in Kent
where it was recovered by a local farmer, reportedly furious that it had "apparently scared his cows". Shooting resumed but a decision was made instead to superimpose the image of the pig onto the photograph of the power station.
The division of royalties became a sore topic during production of the album. Royalties were accorded on a per-song basis and, although Gilmour was largely responsible for "Dogs" which took up almost the entire first side of the album, he received less than Waters who also contributed the two-part "Pigs on the Wing
", which contains references to Waters' romantic involvement with Carolyne Anne Christie. Gilmour was also distracted by the birth of his first child and contributed little else toward the album. Similarly, neither Mason nor Wright contributed much toward Animals (the first Pink Floyd album not to contain a writing credit for Wright); Wright had marital problems, and his relationship with Waters was also suffering. Wright recalled the recording:
The album was released on 23 January 1977 and entered the UK charts at number two and number three in the US. NME called the album "... one of the most extreme, relentless, harrowing and downright iconoclastic hunks of music to have been made available this side of the sun ...", and Melody Makers Karl Dallas wrote "... [an] uncomfortable taste of reality in a medium that has become in recent years, increasingly soporific ...".
The album became the subject material for the band's "In the Flesh" tour, during which early signs of discord became apparent. This tour was Pink Floyd's first experience with playing in large stadiums and the size of the venues was an issue. Waters began arriving at each venue alone, departing immediately after the performance was complete, and Gilmour's wife Ginger
did not get along with Waters' new girlfriend. On one occasion Wright flew back to England threatening to leave the band. At the Montréal Olympic Stadium a small group of noisy and excited fans in the front row of the audience irritated Waters so much that he spat at one of them. Waters was not the only person who felt depressed about playing in such large venues, as that same night Gilmour refused to perform the band's usual twelve-bar blues encore. The end of the tour was a low point for Gilmour who felt that the band had by then achieved the success they sought, and that there was nothing else to look forward to.
and Wet Dream
respectively. While Gilmour's album sold reasonably well Wright's album sold poorly, a situation only exacerbated by the loss of much of the band's accumulated wealth. In 1976 the band had become involved with financial advisers Norton Warburg Group (NWG). NWG became the band's collecting agents and handled all financial planning, for an annual fee of about £300,000. Between £1.6 million and £3.3 million of the band's money was invested in high-risk venture capital schemes, primarily to reduce the band's exposure to high UK taxes. It soon became obvious that the band was still losing money. Not only did NWG invest in failing businesses, they also left the band liable for tax bills as high as 83 percent of their income. The band eventually terminated their relationship with NWG and demanded the return of any cash not yet invested, which at that time amounted to £860,000 although they received only £740,000.
. Although both Mason and Gilmour were initially cautious the former (inspired by the recent spitting incident) was chosen to be their next album. Bob Ezrin
was brought in as co-producer and he wrote a forty-page script for the new album. The story was based on the central character of Pink—a character inspired by Waters' childhood experiences, the most notable of which was the death of his father in World War II. This first 'brick in the wall' led to more problems, Pink would become so drug-addled and worn down by the music industry that he would transform into a megalomaniac, a development inspired partly by the decline of Syd Barrett
. At the end of the album the increasingly fascist audience would watch as Pink 'tore down the wall', once again becoming a normal caring person.
Engineer Brian Humphries, emotionally drained by his five years with the band, was replaced by James Guthrie
for the recording of the album. In March 1979 the band's critical financial situation demanded that they leave the UK for a year or more and recording was moved to the Super Bear Studios near Nice
. The band were rarely in the studio together and Waters' relationship with Wright broke down completely. Wright was given a trial period as a producer but his working methods, and lack of creative input, caused considerable tension. Wright eventually stopped coming into the studio during the day and worked only at night. Matters came to a head when Columbia
offered the band a better deal, in exchange for a Christmas release of the album. Waters increased their workload accordingly but Wright, with a failing marriage and suffering from depression, refused to cut short his family holiday in Rhodes
stating, "The rest of the band's children were young enough to stay with them in France but mine were older and had to go to school. I was missing my children terribly." In Inside Out (2005), Mason says that Waters called O'Rourke, who was travelling to the US on the QE2, and told him to have Wright out of the band by the time Waters arrived in LA to mix the album; however, in Comfortably Numb (2008) Pink Floyd biographer Mark Blake states that Waters called O'Rourke and asked him to tell Wright about the new recording arrangements and that Wright's response was apparently "Tell Roger to fuck off." Wright disagreed with this recollection, stating that the band had agreed to record only through the spring and early summer and that he had no idea they were so far behind schedule. Waters was stunned and felt that Wright was not doing enough to help complete the album. Gilmour was on holiday in Dublin when he learned what was happening and tried to calm the situation. He later spoke with Wright and gave him his support, but he reminded him about his lack of input on the album. Waters was insisting that Wright leave, or else he would refuse to release The Wall. Several days later, worried about their financial situation and the failing interpersonal relationships within the band, Wright quit. Rumours persisted that Wright had a cocaine addiction, something he always disputed, and although his name did not appear anywhere on the finished album he was employed as a paid musician on the band's subsequent The Wall tour. Production of the album continued and by August 1979 the running order was largely complete. Wright completed his duties, aided by session musicians. Toward the end of The Wall sessions, Mason left the final mix to Waters, Gilmour, Ezrin, and Guthrie, travelling to New York to record his début solo album, Nick Mason's Fictitious Sports.
Although Pink Floyd rarely released singles, and had not done so since 1968, the album was promoted with "Another Brick in the Wall (Part II)", which topped the charts in the US and the UK. A National Endowment for the Arts
and RIAA poll named "Another Brick in the Wall (Part II)" one of the 365 Songs of the Century
in 2001. The Wall was released on 30 November 1979 and topped the Billboard charts for fifteen weeks. The Wall ranks No.4 of all time on the RIAA's list of the Top 100 albums, with 23 million certified units sold in the US alone, and remains one of the band's best-selling albums. The cover is one of their most minimalist designs, with a simple white brick wall, and no logo or band name.
The band went on tour with an elaborate stage show. Gerald Scarfe
was employed to produce a series of animations for the subsequent The Wall Tour, including a series of nightmarish visions of the future such as a dove of peace exploding to reveal an eagle. Large inflatable puppets were also created for the live shows. Relationships within the band were at an all-time low. Their four Winnebago
s were parked in a circle, with the doors facing away from the centre. Waters used his own vehicle to arrive at the venue and stayed in separate hotels from the rest of the band. Wright returned as a paid musician and was the only 'member' of the band to profit from the venture, which lost about $600,000.
The Wall concept also spawned an eponymous film, the original plan for which was to be a mixture of live concert footage and animated scenes. The concert footage, however, proved impractical to film. Alan Parker
agreed to direct and took a different approach. The animated sequences would remain, but scenes would be acted by professional actors with no dialogue. Waters was screen-tested but quickly discarded and Bob Geldof
was asked to take the role of Pink. Geldof was initially disdainful, condemning The Walls storyline as "bollocks". He was eventually won over by the prospect of being involved in a major film and receiving a large payment for his work. Waters took a six-week holiday during filming and returned to find that Parker had used his creative license to change parts of the film to his liking. Waters was irate, the two fought, and Parker threatened to walk out. Gilmour pleaded with Waters to reconsider his stance, reminding the bassist that he and the other band members were shareholders and directors and could out-vote him on such decisions. A modified soundtrack was also created for some of the film's songs. Pink Floyd—The Wall was screened at the Cannes Film Festival
in May 1982, released in the UK in July 1982, and released internationally through the rest of 1982.
Waters changed direction and began writing new material. Waters saw Margaret Thatcher
's response to the invasion of the Falklands as jingoistic and unnecessary, and he dedicated the new album—provisionally titled Requiem for a Post-War Dream—to his dead father. Immediately there were arguments between Waters and Gilmour, who felt that the album should contain all new material, rather than songs not considered good enough for The Wall. Waters felt that Gilmour had contributed little to the band's lyrical repertoire. Michael Kamen (a contributor to the orchestral sections of The Wall) mediated between the two, also performing the role traditionally occupied by the then absent Wright. James Guthrie was the studio engineer and Mason was aided by two session drummers. Recording took place in eight studios, including Gilmour's home studio at Hookend Manor
and Waters' home studio at East Sheen
. The tension within the band grew, Waters and Gilmour worked separately (itself not unusual) but Gilmour began to feel the strain, sometimes barely maintaining his composure. Waters lost his temper and began ranting at Kamen who, out of boredom during one recording session, had started repeatedly writing "I Must Not Fuck Sheep" on a notepad in the studio's control room. After a final confrontation Gilmour's name as producer was removed from the credit list, reflecting what Waters felt was his lack of song writing contributions. Mason's contributions were minimal, as he busied himself recording sound effects for an experimental new Holophonic system to be used on the album. With marital problems of his own, he remained a distant figure. Thorgerson was passed over for the cover design, Waters choosing to instead design it himself and his brother-in-law, Willie Christie, was commissioned to take photographs for the album cover. The Final Cut
was released in March 1983, going straight to No.1 in the UK and No.6 in the US. Waters is credited with writing all the lyrics as well as all the music on the album. Gilmour did not have any material ready for the album and asked Waters to delay the recording until he could write some songs, but Waters refused. Gilmour later commented, "I'm certainly guilty at times of being lazy ... but he wasn't right about wanting to put some duff tracks on The Final Cut." According to Mason, Gilmour's name "disappeared" from the production credits, after power struggles within the band and creative arguments about the album, though he retained his pay. "Not Now John
" was released as a single, with its chorus of "Fuck all that" bowdlerised to "Stuff all that"; Melody Maker declared it to be "... a milestone in the history of awfulness ...". Rolling Stone magazine gave the album five stars, with Kurt Loder
calling it "a superlative achievement on several levels ..." and "art rock's crowning masterpiece". Loder viewed the album as "... essentially a Roger Waters solo album ..."
Gilmour recorded his second solo album About Face
in 1984 and used it to express his feelings about a range of topics; from the murder of John Lennon
to his relationship with Waters. He later stated that he also used the album to distance himself from Pink Floyd. Soon afterwards Waters began touring his new solo album The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking
. Richard Wright formed Zee with Dave Harris and recorded Identity, which went almost unnoticed upon its release. Wright was also in the midst of a difficult divorce and said later that it was, "... made at a time in my life when I was lost." Mason released his second solo album Profiles
in August 1985, which featured a contribution from Gilmour on "Lie for a Lie".
After Waters declared Pink Floyd "a spent force", he contacted O'Rourke to discuss settling future royalty payments. O'Rourke felt obliged to inform Mason and Gilmour, as a result Waters was angered and wanted to dismiss him as the band's manager. Waters then went to the High Court
to prevent the Pink Floyd name from ever being used again. His lawyers discovered that the partnership had never been formally confirmed and Waters returned to the High Court in an attempt to gain a veto over further use of the band's name. Gilmour's team responded by issuing a carefully worded press release affirming that Pink Floyd would continue to exist. Gilmour later told a Sunday Times reporter that "Roger is a dog in the manger and I'm going to fight him ...".
Waters wrote to EMI and Columbia, declared his intention to leave the group, and asked them to release him from his contractual obligations. Gilmour believed that Waters left to hasten the demise of Pink Floyd. Waters later stated that by not making new albums Pink Floyd would be in breach of contract—which would mean that royalty payments would be suspended—and that he was effectively forced from the band as the other members threatened to sue him. With the case still pending Waters dismissed O'Rourke and employed Peter Rudge to manage his affairs. He went on to record the soundtrack for When the Wind Blows, as well as his second solo album, Radio K.A.O.S.
.
. Artists such as Jon Carin
and Phil Manzanera
worked on the album, joined by Bob Ezrin. Gilmour was also contacted by Wright's new wife. She had heard that he was working on new material and asked if Wright could contribute. Gilmour considered the request; there were several legal obstacles to Wright's re-admittance to the band but, after a meeting in Hampstead, he was brought back in. Gilmour later stated in an interview with author Karl Dallas that Wright's presence, "would make us stronger legally and musically" and he was employed as a paid musician on a weekly wage of $11,000. The album was recorded on Gilmour's houseboat, the Astoria
, moored along the River Thames
with Andy Jackson
(a colleague of Guthrie) brought in as an engineer. Gilmour experimented with various songwriters, such as Eric Stewart
and Roger McGough
, but eventually settled on Anthony Moore
as the lyricist. Gilmour would later admit that the new project was difficult without Waters's presence. Nick Mason was concerned that he was too out of practice to perform on the album and was replaced on occasion by session musicians. He instead busied himself with the album's sound effects. In a change from previous Floyd albums A Momentary Lapse of Reason was recorded onto a 32-channel Mitsubishi digital recorder using MIDI synchronisation with the aid of an Apple Macintosh computer. Waters on one occasion visited Astoria to see Ezrin, along with Christie who was by then his wife. As he was still a shareholder and director of Pink Floyd music, he was able to block any decisions made by his former band mates. Recording moved first to Mayfair Studios
and then to Los Angeles—"It was fantastic because ... the lawyers couldn't call in the middle of recording unless they were calling in the middle of the night."
The album was released in September 1987. Storm Thorgerson
, whose creative input was absent from The Wall and The Final Cut, was employed to design the cover. In order to drive home the message that Waters had left the band, a group photograph was—for the first time since Meddle—included on the inside of the cover. The album went straight to number three in the United Kingdom and United States—held from the top spot by Michael Jackson
's Bad
and Whitesnake
's eponymous album Whitesnake
. Although Gilmour initially viewed the album as a return to the band's best form, Wright would later disagree stating, "Roger's criticisms are fair. It's not a band album at all." Q Magazines view was that the album was primarily a Gilmour solo effort. Waters said, "I think it's very facile, but a quite clever forgery ... The songs are poor in general; the lyrics I can't quite believe. Gilmour's lyrics are very third-rate."
The associated tour had a rocky start. Waters tried to block a proposed Pink Floyd tour by contacting every promoter in the US and threatening to sue them if they used the Pink Floyd name. Gilmour and Mason funded the start-up costs with Mason, separated from his wife, using his Ferrari 250 GTO
as collateral. Some promoters were offended by Waters's threat and, several months later, tickets went on sale in Toronto and were sold out within hours. Early rehearsals for the upcoming tour were chaotic, with Mason and Wright completely out of practice; realising he'd taken on too much work, Gilmour asked Bob Ezrin to take charge. As the new band toured throughout North America, Waters' Radio K.A.O.S. tour was, on occasion, close by. The bassist had banned any members of Pink Floyd from attending his concerts, which were generally in smaller venues than those housing his former band's performances. Waters issued a writ for copyright fees for the band's use of the flying pig
and Pink Floyd responded by attaching a huge set of male genitalia to its underside to distinguish it from his design.
By November 1987 Waters appeared to admit defeat and on 23 December a legal settlement was finally reached. Mason and Gilmour were allowed use of the Pink Floyd name in perpetuity and Waters would be granted, amongst other things, The Wall. The bickering continued however, with Waters issuing the occasional slight against his former friends and Gilmour and Mason responding by making light of Waters's claims that they would fail without him. The Sun
printed a story about Waters, whom it claimed had paid an artist to create 150 toilet rolls with Gilmour's face on every sheet; Waters denied the story, but joked that he thought it was a good idea.
(where Gilmour and O'Rourke crashed) and later recording a soundtrack for the film. Gilmour divorced Ginger and Mason married actress Annette Lynton. In January 1993 the band began working on a new album. They returned to a then remodelled Britannia Row Studios, where for several days Gilmour, Mason, and Wright worked collaboratively, ad-libbing new material. After about two weeks the band had enough ideas to start creating new songs. Bob Ezrin returned to work on the album and production moved to Astoria, where from February to May 1993 the band worked on about twenty-five ideas. Contractually, Wright was still not a full member of the band: "It came very close to a point where I wasn't going to do the album", a situation which clearly upset the keyboardist; however, he was given his first songwriting credit on a Pink Floyd album since 1975's Wish You Were Here. Another songwriter credited on the album was Gilmour's new girlfriend, Polly Samson
. She helped write "High Hopes
" with Gilmour—along with several other tracks—a situation which, though initially tense, Ezrin said, "pulled the whole album together". She also helped Gilmour who had developed a cocaine habit following his divorce. Michael Kamen was brought in to work on the album's various string arrangements and Dick Parry
and Chris Thomas
also returned. Keen to avoid competing against other album releases (as had happened with A Momentary Lapse) the band set a deadline of April 1994, at which point they would begin touring again. The album title was chosen by writer Douglas Adams
and Storm Thorgerson once again provided the cover artwork. Thorgerson also provided six new pieces of film for the upcoming tour.
The band spent three weeks rehearsing in a hangar at Norton Air Force Base
in San Bernardino
, California, before opening on 29 March 1994 in Miami with an almost identical crew to that used for their Momentary Lapse of Reason tour. They played a mixture of Pink Floyd favourites, but later changed their setlist to include The Dark Side of the Moon in its entirety. The band also renewed their acquaintance with Peter Wynne Willson. Waters declined the band's invitation to join them as the tour reached Europe, later expressing his annoyance that some Pink Floyd songs were again being performed in large venues. A 1,200 capacity stand collapsed at Earls Court
during the European leg of the tour, but with no serious injuries, and the performance was rescheduled.
The tour ended on 29 October and was the group's final tour. A live album Pulse and a concert video, also called Pulse, were released in 1995. This would also be the last appearance of the band before the one-off reunion in 2005 during Live 8
and their performances of "Fat Old Sun" and "The Great Gig in the Sky" at the funeral of their manager Steve O'Rourke
.
On Saturday 2 July 2005 the classic line-up of Pink Floyd performed together on stage for the first time in over 24 years at the Live 8
concert.
The reunion had been arranged by Live 8 organiser Bob Geldof
who had called Mason earlier in the year to discuss the band reuniting for the event. Geldof asked Gilmour, who turned down the offer, and then asked Mason to intercede on his behalf. Mason declined, but contacted Waters who was immediately enthusiastic. Waters then called Geldof to discuss the event, which was at that time only a month away. About two weeks later Waters called Gilmour, their first conversation for about two years, and the next day the latter agreed. Wright was contacted and immediately agreed. Statements were issued to the press which stressed the unimportance of the band's problems, compared to the context of the Live 8 event. The set-list was planned at the Connaught Hotel in London, followed by three days of rehearsals at Black Island Studios. The sessions were troublesome, with minor disagreements over the style and pace of the songs they were practising. Waters wanted to use the occasion to expand the concepts he had designed, whereas Gilmour wanted to perform the songs in exactly the way the audience would expect. The final set-list and running order was decided on the eve of the concert. Gilmour and Waters shared lead vocals. At the start of their performance, during "Wish You Were Here", Waters told the audience: "It's actually quite emotional, standing up here with these three guys after all these years, standing to be counted with the rest of you. Anyway, we're doing this for everyone who's not here, and particularly of course for Syd." At the end of their performance Gilmour thanked the audience and started to walk off the stage but Waters called him back and the band shared a group hug. Images of that hug were a favourite amongst Sunday newspapers after Live 8. Two years after their one-off reunion Waters remarked, "I don't think any of us came out of the years from 1985 with any credit ... It was a bad, negative time. And I regret my part in that negativity." In the week following their performance there was a revival of interest in Pink Floyd. According to HMV
, in the week following sales of Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd rose by 1,343 per cent, while Amazon.com
reported a significant increase in sales of The Wall. Gilmour subsequently declared that he would donate his share of profits from this sales boom to charity and urged other artists and record companies profiting from Live 8 to do the same.
After the show Gilmour confirmed that he and Waters were on "pretty amicable terms". The band turned down a £136 million (then about $250 million) deal for a final tour. Waters did not rule out further performances, but only for a special occasion. In a 2006 interview with La Repubblica
Gilmour stated that he wished to focus on solo projects and his family, and that his appearance at Live 8 was to help reconcile his differences with Waters. In a 2006 interview Mason stated that Pink Floyd would be willing to perform for a concert that would support peace between Israel
and Palestine
. Speaking of Pink Floyd's future Gilmour stated in 2006 "who knows". David Gilmour released his third solo record, On an Island
, on 6 March 2006—his 60th birthday. He began a tour of small concert venues in Europe, Canada and the US, with contributions from Wright and other musicians from the post-Waters Pink Floyd tours. Mason joined Gilmour and Wright for the final night of the tour and played on selected dates on Waters' 2006 Europe and U.S. tour "The Dark Side of the Moon Live". Gilmour, Wright, and Mason's encore performances of "Wish You Were Here" and "Comfortably Numb" marked the first performance by Pink Floyd since Live 8.
Syd Barrett died on 7 July 2006 at his home in Cambridgeshire
aged 60. He was interred at Cambridge Crematorium on 18 July 2006. No Pink Floyd members attended. After Barrett's death Wright said, "The band are very naturally upset and sad to hear of Syd Barrett's death. Syd was the guiding light of the early band line-up and leaves a legacy which continues to inspire." Although Barrett had faded into obscurity over the previous 35 years, he was lauded in the national press for his contributions to music. He left over £1.25M in his will, to be divided among his immediate family, and some of his possessions and artwork were auctioned.
In September 2005 Waters released Ça Ira, an opera in three acts to a French libretto
, based on the historical subject of the French Revolution
. Reviews were complimentary; Rolling Stone wrote, "the opera does reflect some of the man's long-term obsessions with war and peace, love and loss". 2007 saw the 40th anniversary of Pink Floyd's signing to EMI and the 40th anniversary of the release of their début album The Piper at the Gates of Dawn. 2007 saw the release of Oh, by the Way
, a limited edition box set containing all of their studio albums.
On 10 May 2007 Waters and Pink Floyd performed separately at the Syd Barrett tribute concert at the Barbican Centre
in London. The band performed some of Barrett's hits, such as "Bike
" and "Arnold Layne", at the event which was organised by Joe Boyd and Nick Laird-Clowes
. In a January 2007 interview Waters suggested he had become more open to a Pink Floyd reunion: "I would have no problem if the rest of them wanted to get together. It wouldn’t even have to be to save the world. It could be just because it would be fun. And people would love it." Later that year Gilmour stated: "I can’t see why I would want to be going back to that old thing. It’s very retrogressive. I want to look forward, and looking back isn’t my joy." In a May 2008 interview for BBC 6Music, David Gilmour hinted that he would be in favour of another one-off show, but ruled out a full tour. Speaking to Associated Press
to promote the release of his new live album, David Gilmour stated that a reunion would not happen. Gilmour said: "The rehearsals were less enjoyable. The rehearsals convinced me it wasn't something I wanted to be doing a lot of ... There have been all sorts of farewell moments in people's lives and careers which they have then rescinded, but I think I can fairly categorically say that there won't be a tour or an album again that I take part in. It isn't to do with animosity or anything like that. It's just that I've done that. I've been there, I've done it."
Richard Wright died of cancer on 15 September 2008 aged 65. He was praised by his surviving band mates for his influence on the overall sound of Pink Floyd.
On 10 July 2010 Roger Waters and David Gilmour performed together at a charity event for the Hoping Foundation. The event took place at Kiddington Hall in Oxfordshire, England. The pair played to an audience of approximately 200. The event raised money for Palestinian children in order to give them a better life. Gilmour played this event in 2009 when he performed alongside Kate Moss. In return for Waters' appearance at the event, Gilmour agreed to perform "Comfortably Numb" at one of Waters' upcoming performances of The Wall
.
On 4 January 2011 Pink Floyd signed a five year record deal with EMI, ending the legal dispute regarding how their material is distributed in the era of individual track downloads. They defended their vision to keep their albums as a cohesive unit and not just individual tracks.
On 12 May 2011 at the O2 Arena in London, David Gilmour made good on his promise to play "Comfortably Numb" at one of Roger Waters' performances of The Wall. Gilmour sang the first and second chorus, accidentally juxtaposing the last few lines in the second, and played the two guitar solos. After the wall fell down near the end of the show Waters said to the crowd, "We've done it today. So please welcome David Gilmour! By a strange and happy extraordinary coincidence, there is another remnant of our old band here tonight. Please welcome, Mr. Nick Mason!" Gilmour and Mason, with respectively a mandolin and a tambourine, joined Waters and the rest of his band for "Outside The Wall", effectively representing a full reunion of all living Pink Floyd members. It was the first time since Live 8 that the three members shared the same stage and the first time that the line-up from the album The Final Cut appeared in concert.
On 26 September 2011, Pink Floyd and EMI launched an exhaustive re-release campaign under the title Why Pink Floyd...?
which reissues the band's back catalogue in newly remastered
versions, including special "Immersion" multi-disc multi-format editions. All albums are being remastered by James Guthrie
, the co-producer of The Wall
.
Pink Floyd are one of the most commercially successful and influential rock music groups of all time. They have sold over 200 million albums worldwide, including 74.5 million certified units in the United States of which 36.4 million albums have been sold since 1991.
Pink Floyd ranked number 51 on Rolling Stone
magazine's list of "The 100 Greatest Artists of All Time", with David Gilmour ranking 14th in the greatest guitarists list.
The Sunday Times Rich List
Music Millionaires 2011 ranked Waters at No.22 with an estimated wealth of £105m, Gilmour at No.27 with £85m and Mason at No.41 with £50m.
Numerous artists have been influenced by Pink Floyd's work: David Bowie
has called Syd Barrett a major inspiration; A teenage The Edge
(of U2
fame) bought his first delay pedal after hearing the opening to Animals; and the Pet Shop Boys
paid homage to The Wall during a performance in Boston
; Marillion
guitarist Steve Rothery
has cited Wish You Were Here as a major inspiration; and many other bands, such as the Foo Fighters
, Dream Theater
, My Chemical Romance
, Porcupine Tree
, The Mars Volta
, Tool
, Queensryche
, Scissor Sisters
, Rush
, Radiohead
, Gorillaz
, Mudvayne
, Nine Inch Nails
, Primus
and the Smashing Pumpkins, some of whom have recorded Pink Floyd covers, have been influenced by them.
Pink Floyd have been nominated for and won multiple awards. Technical awards include a "Best Engineered Non-Classical Album" Grammy in 1980 for The Wall
and BAFTAs award for 'Best Original Song' (awarded to Waters) and 'Best Sound' (awarded to James Guthrie, Eddy Joseph, Clive Winter, Graham Hartstone and Nicholas Le Messurier) in 1982 for the The Wall film
. A Grammy came to them in 1995 for "Rock Instrumental Performance" on "Marooned
". In 2008 Pink Floyd were awarded the Polar Music Prize
for their contribution to contemporary music; Waters and Mason accepted the prize from King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
on 17 January 1996, the UK Music Hall of Fame
on 16 November 2005 and the Hit Parade Hall of Fame in 2010.
A new genus of spider, Pinkfloydia, was named by & (2011): An extraordinary new genus of spiders from Western Australia with an expanded hypothesis on the phylogeny of Tetragnathidae (Araneae). Zoological journal of the Linnean Society, 161(4): 735–768.
experience and were renowned for their lavish stage shows, in which the performers themselves were almost secondary. Pink Floyd also set high standards in sound quality, making use of innovative sound effects and quadraphonic speaker systems. From their earliest days they were well known for their use of visual effects, which accompanied the psychedelic rock
pieces performed at venues such as the UFO Club
in London. The quality of their live performances, even when pre-recorded, was considered by the band to be extremely important; they boycotted the press release of The Dark Side of the Moon as they felt presenting the album through a poor-quality PA system was not good enough. The album had been composed and refined mostly while the band toured the UK, Japan, North America, and Europe. An inflatable floating pig named "Algie" became the inspiration for a number of pig themes used throughout the "In the Flesh Tour", which began in Dortmund
and continued through Europe to the UK, and then the US.
Although Pink Floyd were experienced live performers the behaviour of the audience on their "In the Flesh" tour, and the sizes of the venues they played, were a powerful influence on their concept album The Wall
. The subsequent "The Wall Tour" featured a 40 feet (12.2 m) high wall, built from cardboard bricks, constructed between the band and the audience. Animations were projected onto the wall, and gaps allowed the audience to view various scenes in the story. Several characters from the story were realised as giant inflatables. One of the more notable elements of the tour was the performance of "Comfortably Numb". While Waters sang his opening verse, Gilmour waited for his cue on top of the wall in darkness. When it came, bright blue and white lights would suddenly illuminate him. Gilmour stood on a flight case on castors, a dangerous set-up supported from behind by a technician, both supported by a tall hydraulic platform.
In 1987 Pink Floyd embarked on their A Momentary Lapse of Reason Tour. Starting in Ottawa
on 9 September they spent about two years touring the US, Japan, Europe, and Central Asia. In Venice
, Italy, the band played to an audience of 200,000 fans at the Piazza San Marco
. The resulting storm of protest over the city's lack of toilet provision, first aid, and accommodation resulted in the resignation of Mayor Antonio Casellati and his government. At the end of the tour Pink Floyd released Delicate Sound of Thunder
, and in 1989 released the Delicate Sound of Thunder
concert video.
During the band's "Division Bell" tour, an unidentified person using the name Publius
posted a message on an internet newsgroup, inviting fans to solve a riddle supposedly concealed in the new album. The veracity of the user was demonstrated when white lights in front of the stage at the Pink Floyd concert in East Rutherford spelled out the words Enigma Publius. During a televised concert at Earls Court in October 1994 the word enigma was projected in large letters on to the backdrop of the stage. Mason later acknowledged that the Publius Enigma
did exist, and that it had been instigated by the record company rather than the band. As of the puzzle remains unsolved.
Timeline
Progressive rock
Progressive rock is a subgenre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s as part of a "mostly British attempt to elevate rock music to new levels of artistic credibility." John Covach, in Contemporary Music Review, says that many thought it would not just "succeed the pop of...
and psychedelic rock
Psychedelic rock
Psychedelic rock is a style of rock music that is inspired or influenced by psychedelic culture and attempts to replicate and enhance the mind-altering experiences of psychedelic drugs. It emerged during the mid 1960s among folk rock and blues rock bands in United States and the United Kingdom...
music. Their work is marked by the use of philosophical lyrics, sonic experimentation
Acoustics
Acoustics is the interdisciplinary science that deals with the study of all mechanical waves in gases, liquids, and solids including vibration, sound, ultrasound and infrasound. A scientist who works in the field of acoustics is an acoustician while someone working in the field of acoustics...
, innovative album art, and elaborate live shows
Pink Floyd live performances
Pink Floyd were pioneers in the live music experience, renowned for their lavish stage shows that combine intense visual experiences with music to create a show in which the performers themselves are almost secondary. Pink Floyd's combination of music and visuals set the standard for rock musicians...
. Pink Floyd are one of the most commercially successful and influential rock music groups of all time. They have sold over 200 million albums worldwide, including 74.5 million certified units in the United States. The band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum is a museum located on the shore of Lake Erie in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It is dedicated to archiving the history of some of the best-known and most influential artists, producers, engineers and others who have, in some major way,...
in 1996. Since then they have continued to enjoy worldwide fame.
The band originally consisted of students Roger Waters
Roger Waters
George Roger Waters is an English musician, singer-songwriter and composer. He was a founding member of the progressive rock band Pink Floyd, serving as bassist and co-lead vocalist. Following the departure of bandmate Syd Barrett in 1968, Waters became the band's lyricist, principal songwriter...
, Nick Mason
Nick Mason
Nicholas Berkeley "Nick" Mason is an English drummer and songwriter, best known for his work with Pink Floyd. He was the only constant member of the band since its formation in 1965...
, Richard Wright
Richard Wright (musician)
Richard William Wright was an English pianist, keyboardist and songwriter, best known for his career with Pink Floyd. Wright's richly textured keyboard layers were a vital ingredient and a distinctive characteristic of Pink Floyd's sound...
, and Syd Barrett
Syd Barrett
Syd Barrett , born Roger Keith Barrett, was an English singer-songwriter, guitarist, and painter, best remembered as a founding member of the band Pink Floyd. He was the lead vocalist, guitarist and primary songwriter during the band's psychedelic years, providing major musical and stylistic...
. Founded in 1965, the band first became popular playing in London's underground music scene in the late 1960s. Under Barrett's leadership they released two charting singles, "Arnold Layne
Arnold Layne
David Gilmour, during his solo tour promoting On an Island, unexpectedly added the song to the setlist near the end of the American tour on the 17 April 2006 show at the Oakland Paramount Theatre...
" and "See Emily Play
See Emily Play
"See Emily Play" was the second single recorded by the English psychedelic rock group Pink Floyd. It was written by original frontman Syd Barrett and recorded on 23 May 1967. The single featured "Scarecrow" as its B-side...
", and a successful début album, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn
The Piper at the Gates of Dawn
The Piper at the Gates of Dawn is the debut album by the English rock group Pink Floyd, and the only one made under founding member Syd Barrett's leadership. The album contains whimsical lyrics about space, scarecrows, gnomes, bicycles and fairy tales, along with psychedelic instrumental songs...
(1967). Guitarist and vocalist David Gilmour
David Gilmour
David Jon Gilmour, CBE, D.M. is an English rock musician and multi-instrumentalist who is best known as the guitarist, one of the lead singers and main songwriters in the progressive rock band Pink Floyd. In addition to his work with Pink Floyd, Gilmour has worked as a producer for a variety of...
joined Pink Floyd as its fifth member in December 1967, several months prior to Barrett's departure from the group due to his deteriorating mental health. Following the loss of their principal songwriter, Pink Floyd bassist and vocalist Roger Waters became the band's lyricist and conceptual leader, with Gilmour assuming lead guitar, taking on most of the band's music composition, and sharing lead vocals. With this line-up Pink Floyd achieved worldwide critical and commercial success with their concept albums
Concept album
In music, a concept album is an album that is "unified by a theme, which can be instrumental, compositional, narrative, or lyrical." Commonly, concept albums tend to incorporate preconceived musical or lyrical ideas rather than being improvised or composed in the studio, with all songs contributing...
The Dark Side of the Moon
The Dark Side of the Moon
The Dark Side of the Moon is the eighth studio album by English progressive rock band Pink Floyd, released in March 1973. It built on ideas explored in the band's earlier recordings and live shows, but lacks the extended instrumental excursions that characterised their work following the departure...
, Wish You Were Here, Animals and The Wall
The Wall
The Wall is the eleventh studio album by English progressive rock group Pink Floyd. Released as a double album on 30 November 1979, it was subsequently performed live with elaborate theatrical effects, and adapted into a feature film, Pink Floyd—The Wall.As with the band's previous three...
.
Wright left the group in 1979, and Waters in 1985, but Gilmour and Mason (subsequently rejoined by Wright) continued to record and tour. Waters resorted to legal means to try to keep them from performing as Pink Floyd, but the dispute was resolved with an out-of-court settlement which allowed Gilmour and Mason to continue, and which also released Waters from his contractual obligations to the band. Two further albums followed, A Momentary Lapse of Reason
A Momentary Lapse of Reason
A Momentary Lapse of Reason is the thirteenth studio album by English progressive rock group Pink Floyd. It was released in the UK and US in September 1987. In 1985 guitarist David Gilmour began to assemble a group of musicians to work on his third solo album...
and The Division Bell
The Division Bell
The Division Bell is the fourteenth and last studio album by English progressive rock group Pink Floyd. It was released in the United Kingdom by EMI Records on 28 March 1994, and in the United States by Columbia Records on 4 April....
. Following almost two decades of acrimony the band reunited in 2005 for a single performance, at the charity concert Live 8
Live 8
Live 8 was a string of benefit concerts that took place on 2 July 2005, in the G8 states and in South Africa. They were timed to precede the G8 Conference and summit held at the Gleneagles Hotel in Auchterarder, Scotland from 6–8 July 2005; they also coincided with the 20th anniversary of Live Aid...
. Wright died in 2008. Surviving members Waters, Gilmour and Mason reunited for one of Roger Waters' The Wall Tour shows on 12 May 2011 at the O2 Arena
The O2 arena (London)
The O2 Arena is a multi-purpose indoor arena located in the centre of The O2, a large entertainment complex on the Greenwich peninsula in London, England.With a capacity of up to 20,000 depending on the event, it is second largest...
in London; Gilmour performed "Comfortably Numb" along with Waters and "Outside the Wall" with Mason and Waters.
The beginning
Roger Waters and Nick Mason met while studying architecture at the Regent Street PolytechnicUniversity of Westminster
The University of Westminster is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom. Its origins go back to the foundation of the Royal Polytechnic Institution in 1838, and it was awarded university status in 1992.The university's headquarters and original campus are based on Regent...
in London. The pair first played together in a group formed by Keith Noble and Clive Metcalfe
Clive Metcalfe
Clive Metcalfe is a British musician and artist. A student at Southampton Art College and Chelsea School of Art in the early 1960s, Metcalfe played rhythm, and occasionally bass guitar as a member of the 1965 band The Abdabs with Roger Waters , Richard Wright , Nick Mason , , and...
together with Noble's sister Sheilagh. They were later joined by fellow student Richard Wright, becoming a sextet named Sigma 6, the first band to feature Waters on "rudimentary" lead guitar, Wright on rhythm guitar, and Mason on drums. Wright's girlfriend was a regular guest artist. The band initially performed during private functions, rehearsing in a tearoom in the basement of Regent Street Polytechnic. They covered songs by The Searchers
The Searchers (band)
The Searchers are an English beat group, who emerged as part of the 1960s Merseybeat scene along with The Beatles, The Fourmost, The Merseybeats, The Swinging Blue Jeans, and Gerry & The Pacemakers....
and material written by fellow student Ken Chapman, who became their manager and songwriter.
In September 1963, Waters and Mason moved into a flat at 39 Stanhope Gardens, near Crouch End
Crouch End
Crouch End is an area of north London, in the London Borough of Haringey.- Location :Crouch End is in a valley between Harringay to the east, Hornsey, Muswell Hill and Wood Green to the north, Finsbury Park and Archway to the south and Highgate to the west...
, London, owned by Mike Leonard, a part-time tutor at the Regent Street Polytechnic and Hornsey College of Art
Hornsey College of Art
Hornsey College of Art is a former college centred in Crouch End, London, England. Since 2008, the building has been a part of Coleridge Primary School, upon its expansion to four form entry...
. Leonard was a designer of light machines (perforated discs spun by electric motors to cast patterns of lights on the walls) and for a time played keyboard with them using the front room of his flat for rehearsals. Mason later moved out of the flat, while accomplished guitar player Bob Klose
Bob Klose
Rado 'Bob' Klose is an English musician and photographer. He was one of the earliest members of the rock band Pink Floyd, playing lead guitar, but left the band before they recorded their first released single, "Arnold Layne".- Abdabs :"The Abdabs" , with Roger Waters , Richard Wright Rado 'Bob'...
moved in. Sigma 6 went through a number of short-lived names, including The Meggadeaths, The (Screaming) Abdabs, Leonard's Lodgers, and The Spectrum Five before settling on The Tea Set. While Metcalfe and Noble left to form their own band, Klose and Waters were joined at Stanhope Gardens by Syd Barrett in 1964. Then aged 17, Barrett had arrived in London in the autumn of 1963 to study at the Camberwell College of Art. Waters and Barrett were childhood friends; the bassist had often visited Barrett as he played guitar at his mother's house. In his book Mason said this about Barrett, "In a period when everyone was being cool in a very adolescent, self-conscious way, Syd was unfashionably outgoing; my enduring memory of our first encounter is the fact that he bothered to come up and introduce himself to me."
After The Tea Set lost Noble and Metcalfe's vocal abilities, Klose introduced the band to Chris Dennis, a technician with the Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...
. It was during Dennis's tenure that the band was first referred to as "The Pink Floyd Sound", created by Barrett on the spur of the moment when he discovered that another band, also named The Tea Set, were to perform at one of their gigs. (The name is derived from the given names of two blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
musicians whose Piedmont blues
Piedmont blues
Piedmont blues refers primarily to a guitar style, the Piedmont fingerstyle, which is characterized by a fingerpicking approach in which a regular, alternating thumb bass string rhythmic pattern supports a syncopated melody using the treble strings generally picked with the fore-finger,...
records Barrett had in his collection, Pink Anderson
Pink Anderson
"Pink" Anderson was a blues singer and guitarist, born in Laurens, South Carolina.-Life and career:After being raised in Greenville and Spartanburg, South Carolina, he joined Dr...
and Floyd Council
Floyd Council
Floyd Council was an American blues guitarist and singer. He became a well-known practitioner of the Piedmont blues sound from that area, popular throughout the southeastern region of the US in the 1930s....
). At around the same time Dennis was posted to Bahrain
Bahrain
' , officially the Kingdom of Bahrain , is a small island state near the western shores of the Persian Gulf. It is ruled by the Al Khalifa royal family. The population in 2010 stood at 1,214,705, including 235,108 non-nationals. Formerly an emirate, Bahrain was declared a kingdom in 2002.Bahrain is...
, thrusting Barrett into the spotlight as front-man.
They first performed in a recording studio in December 1964, minus the presence of Wright who was taking a break from his studies. Through one of his friends, who let them use some "down time" for free, they managed to secure recording time at a studio in West Hampstead. This four-song session became The Tea Set's first demo tape and included: the R&B classic "I'm A King Bee"; two Syd Barrett originals, "Butterfly" and "Lucy Leave"; and "Double O Bo", a group-composition which—according to Mason—was "Bo Diddley meets the 007 theme."
The Pink Floyd Sound became the resident band at the Countdown Club, near Kensington High Street
Kensington High Street
Kensington High Street is the main shopping street in Kensington, west London. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London....
in London, where from late night until early morning they played three sets of 90 minutes. According to Mason, this period "... was the beginning of a realisation that songs could be extended with lengthy solos." An audition for ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
's Ready Steady Go!
Ready Steady Go!
Ready Steady Go! or simply RSG! was one of the UK's first rock/pop music TV programmes. It was conceived by Elkan Allan, head of Rediffusion TV. Allan was assisted by record producer/talent manager Vicki Wickham, who became the producer. It was broadcast from August 1963 until December 1966...
soon followed (they were invited by the programme's producers to return the following week), as did another club, and two rock contests. After pressure from his father, and advice from his college tutors, Bob Klose quit Pink Floyd in 1966 and Barrett took over on lead guitar. Playing mostly rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...
songs they began to receive paid bookings, including one for a performance at the Marquee Club
Marquee Club
The Marquee was a music club first located at 165 Oxford Street, London, England when it opened in 1958 with a range of jazz and skiffle acts.It was also the location of the first ever live performance by The Rolling Stones on 12 July 1962....
in March 1966 where they were watched by Peter Jenner
Peter Jenner
Peter Jenner is a British music manager and a record producer. Jenner, Andrew King and the original four members of Pink Floyd were partners in Blackhill Enterprises.- Early career :...
. A lecturer at the London School of Economics
London School of Economics
The London School of Economics and Political Science is a public research university specialised in the social sciences located in London, United Kingdom, and a constituent college of the federal University of London...
, Jenner was impressed by the acoustic effects Barrett and Wright created and, with his business partner and friend Andrew King
Andrew King (music manager)
Andrew King is a music manager, formerly for Blackhill Enterprises, where he co-managed Pink Floyd and others.King, Peter Jenner and the original four members of Pink Floyd were partners in Blackhill Enterprises...
, became their manager. The pair had little experience of the music industry and used inherited money to set up Blackhill Enterprises
Blackhill Enterprises
Blackhill Enterprises was a rock music management company, founded as a partnership by the four original members of Pink Floyd , with Peter Jenner and Andrew King....
, purchasing new instruments and equipment for the band including a Selmer
The Selmer Company
Henri Selmer Paris company is a French family-owned enterprise, manufacturer of musical instruments based in Paris, France in 1885. It is known for its high-quality woodwind and brass instruments, especially saxophones, clarinets and trumpets...
PA system. Under their guidance the band became part of London's underground music
Underground music
Underground music comprises a range of different musical genres that operate outside of mainstream culture. Such music can typically share common values, such as the valuing of sincerity and intimacy; an emphasis on freedom of creative expression; an appreciation of artistic creativity...
scene, playing at venues including All Saints Hall and The Marquee. While performing at the Countdown Club the band had experimented with long instrumental excursions and they began to expand upon these with rudimentary but visually powerful light shows, projected by coloured slides and domestic lights. To celebrate the launch of the London Free School
London Free School
The London Free School was founded 8 March 1966 principally by John 'Hoppy' Hopkins and Rhaune Laslett.The London Free School was a community action adult education project inspired by American free universities...
's magazine International Times
International Times
International Times was an underground newspaper founded in London in 1966. Editors included Hoppy, David Mairowitz, Pete Stansill, Barry Miles, Jim Haynes and playwright Tom McGrath...
, they performed in front of a 2,000-strong crowd at the opening of The Roundhouse
The Roundhouse
The Roundhouse is a Grade II* listed former railway engine shed in Chalk Farm, London, England, which has been converted into a performing arts and concert venue. It was originally built in 1847 as a roundhouse , a circular building containing a railway turntable, but was only used for railway...
, attended by celebrities including Alexander Trocchi
Alexander Trocchi
Alexander Whitelaw Robertson Trocchi was a Scottish novelist.-Early career:Trocchi was born in Glasgow to a Scottish mother and Italian father. After working as a seaman on the Murmansk convoys, he attended University of Glasgow. On graduation he obtained a traveling grant that enabled him to...
, Paul McCartney
Paul McCartney
Sir James Paul McCartney, MBE, Hon RAM, FRCM is an English musician, singer-songwriter and composer. Formerly of The Beatles and Wings , McCartney is listed in Guinness World Records as the "most successful musician and composer in popular music history", with 60 gold discs and sales of 100...
, and Marianne Faithfull
Marianne Faithfull
Marianne Evelyn Faithfull is an award-winning English singer, songwriter and actress whose career has spanned five decades....
. Jenner and King's diverse array of social connections helped gain the band important coverage in The Financial Times and The Sunday Times
The Sunday Times
The Sunday Times is a British Sunday newspaper.The Sunday Times may also refer to:*The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times...
.
UFO Club
The UFO Club was a famous but shortlived UK underground club in London during the 1960s, venue of performances by many of the top bands of the day.-History:...
in London though, Barrett's performances were reportedly exuberant, "... leaping around and the madness, and the kind of improvisation he was doing ... he was inspired. He would constantly manage to get past his limitations and into areas that were very, very interesting. Which none of the others could do." The audience was receptive to the music they played, often high on various drugs although the band remained drug-free — "We were out of it, not on acid, but out of the loop, stuck in the dressing room at UFO."
Signing with EMI
According to Mason, the psychedelic movement had "taken place around us—not within us". Nevertheless, The Pink Floyd Sound were present at the head of a wave of interest in psychedelic musicPsychedelic music
Psychedelic music covers a range of popular music styles and genres, which are inspired by or influenced by psychedelic culture and which attempt to replicate and enhance the mind-altering experiences of psychedelic drugs. It emerged during the mid 1960s among folk rock and blues-rock bands in the...
and what would later be called space rock
Space rock
Space rock is a subgenre of rock music; the term originally referred to a group of early, mostly British, 1970s progressive and psychedelic rock bands such as Hawkwind and Pink Floyd, characterised by slow, lengthy instrumental passages dominated by electric organs, synthesizers, experimental...
, and began to attract the attention of the music industry. While in negotiations with record companies Joe Boyd
Joe Boyd
Joe Boyd is an American record producer and former owner of the Witchseason production company. Boyd was instrumental in launching the careers of Nick Drake, Fairport Convention, and The Incredible String Band.-Career:...
and booking agent Bryan Morrison arranged for, and funded, the recording of several songs at Sound Techniques in West Hampstead
West Hampstead
West Hampstead is an area in northwest London, England, situated between Childs Hill to the north, Frognal and Hampstead to the north-east, Swiss Cottage to the east, and South Hampstead to the south. Until the late 19th century, the locale was a small village called West End...
, including "Arnold Layne
Arnold Layne
David Gilmour, during his solo tour promoting On an Island, unexpectedly added the song to the setlist near the end of the American tour on the 17 April 2006 show at the Oakland Paramount Theatre...
" and a version of "Interstellar Overdrive
Interstellar Overdrive
"Interstellar Overdrive" is a psychedelic composition written by Pink Floyd in 1966, which appears on their 1967 debut album The Piper at the Gates of Dawn at almost ten minutes in length. An earlier, longer recording, 16:52, can be heard on the soundtrack to the film Tonite Let's All Make Love in...
", and for the production of a short music film for "Arnold Layne" in Sussex. Despite early interest from Polydor the band signed with Electric and Musical Industries
EMI
The EMI Group, also known as EMI Music or simply EMI, is a multinational music company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the fourth-largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry and one of the "big four" record companies. EMI Group also has a major...
, with a £5,000 advance. Boyd was not included in the deal.
"Arnold Layne" became Pink Floyd's (the definite article seems to have been dropped from the band's name at some point in 1967) first single, released on 11 March 1967. Its references to cross-dressing
Cross-dressing
Cross-dressing is the wearing of clothing and other accoutrement commonly associated with a gender within a particular society that is seen as different than the one usually presented by the dresser...
saw it banned by several radio stations, but some creative manipulation at the shops which supplied sales figures to the music industry meant that it peaked in the UK charts at number 20.
On 29 April 1967 they headlined a famous all-night event called The 14 Hour Technicolour Dream at the Alexandra Palace
Alexandra Palace
Alexandra Palace is a building in North London, England. It stands in Alexandra Park, in an area between Hornsey, Muswell Hill and Wood Green...
, London, to raise funds for the counter-cultural newspaper International Times
International Times
International Times was an underground newspaper founded in London in 1966. Editors included Hoppy, David Mairowitz, Pete Stansill, Barry Miles, Jim Haynes and playwright Tom McGrath...
. Other artists included Yoko Ono
Yoko Ono
is a Japanese artist, musician, author and peace activist, known for her work in avant-garde art, music and filmmaking as well as her marriage to John Lennon...
and John Lennon
John Lennon
John Winston Lennon, MBE was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music...
. They played "Astronomy Domine
Astronomy Domine
"Astronomy Domine" is a song by British psychedelic rock band Pink Floyd. The song, written and composed by original vocalist/guitarist Syd Barrett, was the first track featured on their debut album, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn . The lead vocal was sung by Barrett and keyboard player Richard...
", "Arnold Layne", "Interstellar Overdrive", "Nick's Boogie", and other material from what was to become their debut album, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn
The Piper at the Gates of Dawn
The Piper at the Gates of Dawn is the debut album by the English rock group Pink Floyd, and the only one made under founding member Syd Barrett's leadership. The album contains whimsical lyrics about space, scarecrows, gnomes, bicycles and fairy tales, along with psychedelic instrumental songs...
. Serendipitously, the band appeared just as the sun was beginning to rise at around five o'clock in the morning.
All four members of the band had by then abandoned their studies or jobs, they upgraded their ageing Bedford
Bedford Vehicles
Bedford Vehicles, usually shortened to just Bedford, was a subsidiary of Vauxhall Motors, itself the British subsidiary of General Motors , established in 1930; and constructing commercial vehicles. Bedford Vehicles was a leading international truck manufacturer, with substantial export sales of...
van to a Ford Transit
Ford Transit
The Ford Transit is a range of panel vans, minibuses, and pickup trucks, produced by the Ford Motor Company in Europe.The Transit has been the best-selling light commercial vehicle in Europe for 40 years, and in some countries the term "Transit" has passed into common usage as a generic term...
, using it to travel to over 200 gigs in 1967 (a tenfold increase on the previous year). They were joined by road manager Peter Wynne Willson, with whom Barrett had previously shared a flat. Willson updated the band's lighting rig, with some innovative ideas including the use of polarisers, mirrors, and stretched condom
Condom
A condom is a barrier device most commonly used during sexual intercourse to reduce the probability of pregnancy and spreading sexually transmitted diseases . It is put on a man's erect penis and physically blocks ejaculated semen from entering the body of a sexual partner...
s. "See Emily Play
See Emily Play
"See Emily Play" was the second single recorded by the English psychedelic rock group Pink Floyd. It was written by original frontman Syd Barrett and recorded on 23 May 1967. The single featured "Scarecrow" as its B-side...
" was the group's second single and it was released on 16 June. It was premièred at the Queen Elizabeth Hall
Queen Elizabeth Hall
The Queen Elizabeth Hall is a music venue on the South Bank in London, United Kingdom that hosts daily classical, jazz, and avant-garde music and dance performances. The QEH forms part of Southbank Centre arts complex and stands alongside the Royal Festival Hall, which was built for the Festival...
in London in May that year, where the band also used a device called an Azimuth co-ordinator
Azimuth co-ordinator
The Azimuth Co-ordinator was the first panning control for a quadraphonic sound system, at that time a new concept. Pink Floyd became the first band to use it in their early shows.The Azimuth Co-ordinator uses four rotary rheostats housed in a large box...
. They performed on the BBC's Look of the Week, where an erudite and engaging Waters and Barrett faced rigorous questioning from Hans Keller
Hans Keller
Hans Keller was an influential Austrian-born British musician and writer who made significant contributions to musicology and music criticism, as well as being an insightful commentator on such disparate fields as psychoanalysis and football...
. The single fared slightly better than "Arnold Layne" and after two weeks was at number 17 in the charts. They were invited to appear on the BBC's Top Of The Pops
Top of the Pops
Top of the Pops, also known as TOTP, is a British music chart television programme, made by the BBC and originally broadcast weekly from 1 January 1964 to 30 July 2006. After 25 December 2006 it became a radio program, now hosted by Tony Blackburn...
, which was immensely popular but which controversially required artists to simply mime their singing and playing. They returned after the single climbed to number six, but a scheduled third appearance was cancelled when Barrett refused to perform.
It was about this time the rest of the band first noticed changes in Barrett's behaviour. By early 1967 he was regularly using LSD and, at an earlier show in the Netherlands, Mason observed him to be "completely distanced from everything going on, whether simply tripping or suffering from a more organic neural disturbance I still have no idea."
The Piper at the Gates of Dawn
Pink Floyd's contract with EMI had been negotiated by their agent Bryan MorrisonBryan Morrison
Bryan Morrison was a representative for musicians such as Pink Floyd. His company, the Bryan Morrison Agency, became one of the leading London booking agents for R&B and progressive rock, as well as organising tours for US acts...
and EMI producer Norman Smith. They were obliged to record their first album at EMI's Abbey Road Studios
Abbey Road Studios
Abbey Road Studios is a recording studio located at 3 Abbey Road, St John's Wood, City of Westminster, London, England. It was established in November 1931 by the Gramophone Company, a predecessor of British music company EMI, its present owner...
in London. There they experimented with musique concrète
Musique concrète
Musique concrète is a form of electroacoustic music that utilises acousmatic sound as a compositional resource. The compositional material is not restricted to the inclusion of sounds derived from musical instruments or voices, nor to elements traditionally thought of as "musical"...
and were at one point invited to watch The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
record "Lovely Rita
Lovely Rita
"Lovely Rita" is a song by The Beatles performed on the album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, written and sung by Paul McCartney, although as with all McCartney or Lennon-written Beatles' songs, it is credited to Lennon–McCartney...
". In his 2005 autobiography Mason recalled that the sessions were relatively trouble-free, Smith disagreed stating that Barrett was unresponsive to his suggestions and constructive criticism. The Piper at the Gates of Dawn
The Piper at the Gates of Dawn
The Piper at the Gates of Dawn is the debut album by the English rock group Pink Floyd, and the only one made under founding member Syd Barrett's leadership. The album contains whimsical lyrics about space, scarecrows, gnomes, bicycles and fairy tales, along with psychedelic instrumental songs...
was released in August 1967 and Pink Floyd continued to draw huge crowds at the UFO Club, but Barrett's deterioration was by then giving them serious concern. The rest of the band initially hoped that his erratic behaviour would be a passing phase but some, including Jenner and June Child, were more realistic:
I found him in the dressing room and he was so ... gone. Roger Waters and I got him on his feet, we got him out to the stage ... and of course the audience went spare because they loved him. The band started to play and Syd just stood there. He had his guitar around his neck and his arms just hanging down.
To their consternation the band were forced to cancel their appearance at the prestigious National Jazz and Blues Festival
National Jazz and Blues Festival
The National Jazz and Blues Festival was the precursor to the Reading Rock Festival and was the brainchild of Harold Pendleton, the manager of the prestigious Marquee Club in Soho....
, informing the music press that Barrett was suffering from nervous exhaustion. Jenner and Waters arranged for Barrett to see a psychiatrist, which he did not attend, and a stay in Formentera
Formentera
Formentera is the smaller and more southerly island of the Pine Islands group , which belongs to the Balearic Islands autonomous community .-Geography:...
, with Sam Hutt
Hank Wangford
Hank Wangford is a distinguished English country and western songwriter. Hank Wangford is the stage name of Dr. Samuel Hutt, . His music is notable for its humour and cheerful irony, and occasional excursions into biting political undercurrent....
, a doctor well-established in the underground music scene, led to no visible improvement. A few dates in September were followed by the band's first tour of the United States. Blackhill's late application for work permits forced the band to cancel several dates and Barrett's condition grew steadily worse. He detuned his guitar during a performance at the Winterland Ballroom
Winterland Ballroom
The Winterland Ballroom, often referred to as Winterland Arena or simply Winterland, was an old ice skating rink and 5,400-seat music venue in San Francisco, California...
, causing the strings to come off and during a recording for The Pat Boone Show
Pat Boone
Charles Eugene "Pat" Boone is an American singer, actor and writer who has been a successful pop singer in the United States during the 1950s and early 1960s. He covered black artists' songs and sold more copies than his black counterparts...
he confounded the director by miming the song perfectly during the rehearsal, then standing motionless during the take. King quickly curtailed the band's US visit, sending them home on the next flight.
Shortly after their return from the US the band supported Jimi Hendrix
Jimi Hendrix
James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix was an American guitarist and singer-songwriter...
's tour of England but Barrett's depression worsened the longer the tour continued, his absence on one occasion forced the band to book David O'List
David O'List
David 'Davy' O'List is a rock guitarist, vocalist and trumpeter.Most notably, he played with The Attack, The Nice and Jet.- Career :...
as his replacement. Wynne Willson left his role as lighting manager and allied himself with the guitarist. Pink Floyd released the single "Apples and Oranges
Apples and Oranges (song)
"Apples and Oranges" is the third United Kingdom single by Pink Floyd and the final one written by Syd Barrett. The B-side was "Paint Box" written by Richard Wright. The song is about a girl whom the narrator meets at the supermarket...
" in November 1967 in the UK (although not in the US). Barrett's condition had reached a crisis point and they responded by adding a new member to their line-up.
Gilmour replaces Barrett
Barrett had recently suggested adding four new members: in the words of Waters, "two freaks he'd met somewhere. One of them played the banjo, the other the saxophone ... [and] a couple of chick singers". In December 1967 the band asked David GilmourDavid Gilmour
David Jon Gilmour, CBE, D.M. is an English rock musician and multi-instrumentalist who is best known as the guitarist, one of the lead singers and main songwriters in the progressive rock band Pink Floyd. In addition to his work with Pink Floyd, Gilmour has worked as a producer for a variety of...
to become the fifth member of Pink Floyd, which Gilmour accepted. Gilmour was already acquainted with Barrett, having studied together at Cambridge Tech in the early 1960s. The two had performed at lunchtimes together with guitars and harmonicas, and later hitch-hiked and busked their way around the south of France. In 1965, while a member of Joker's Wild
Joker's Wild (band)
Jokers Wild were a mid 1960s blues-rock band from Cambridge, England.The line-up included guitarist David Gilmour, who went on to join Pink Floyd....
, Gilmour had watched The Tea Set. Barrett reluctantly agreed to Gilmour's addition to Pink Floyd. Steve O'Rourke
Steve O'Rourke
Steve O'Rourke was born in Willesden, London, England. He was well known for being manager of the highly influential rock band Pink Floyd after the departure of Syd Barrett in 1968 until his death. He also had to weather the band's falling-out with member Roger Waters.He first managed Pink Floyd...
(an assistant to Bryan Morrison) gave Gilmour a room at his house and a salary of £30 per week. Gilmour immediately went out and bought a custom-made yellow Fender Stratocaster
Fender Stratocaster
The Fender Stratocaster, often referred to as "Strat", is a model of electric guitar designed by Leo Fender, George Fullerton, and Freddie Tavares in 1954, and manufactured continuously by the Fender Musical Instruments Corporation to the present. It is a double-cutaway guitar, with an extended top...
from a music shop in Cambridge
Cambridge
The city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen – a play on Silicon Valley and the fens surrounding the...
(the instrument became one of Gilmour's favourite guitars throughout his career with Pink Floyd) and in January 1968 he was announced as the band's newest member. To the general public he was then the second guitarist, the fifth member of Pink Floyd, and the group originally intended to keep Barrett in the group as a non-performing songwriter. According to Jenner, "The idea was that Dave would be Syd's dep. and cover for his eccentricities. And when that got to be not workable, Syd was just going to write. Just to try to keep him involved, but in a way where the others could work and function." One of Gilmour's first duties was to pretend to play a guitar on an "Apples and Oranges" promotional film. In a demonstration of his frustration at being effectively sidelined, Barrett tried to teach the band a new song, "Have You Got It Yet?", but changed the structure on each performance—making it impossible for them to learn.
Working with Barrett eventually proved too difficult. Matters came to a head on the way to a performance in Southampton
Southampton
Southampton is the largest city in the county of Hampshire on the south coast of England, and is situated south-west of London and north-west of Portsmouth. Southampton is a major port and the closest city to the New Forest...
. When somebody in the van asked if they should collect Barrett, the response was "No, fuck it, let's not bother". Waters later admitted "He was our friend, but most of the time we now wanted to strangle him". In early March 1968 Pink Floyd met with Peter Jenner
Peter Jenner
Peter Jenner is a British music manager and a record producer. Jenner, Andrew King and the original four members of Pink Floyd were partners in Blackhill Enterprises.- Early career :...
and Andrew King
Andrew King (music manager)
Andrew King is a music manager, formerly for Blackhill Enterprises, where he co-managed Pink Floyd and others.King, Peter Jenner and the original four members of Pink Floyd were partners in Blackhill Enterprises...
of Blackhill Enterprises
Blackhill Enterprises
Blackhill Enterprises was a rock music management company, founded as a partnership by the four original members of Pink Floyd , with Peter Jenner and Andrew King....
, business partners at the time, to discuss the band's future. Barrett agreed to leave Pink Floyd and Pink Floyd "agreed to Blackhill's entitlement in perpetuity" with regard to "past activities". Pink Floyd's partnership with Peter Jenner and Andrew King was dissolved in March 1968; Jenner and King, who believed Barrett to be the creative genius of Pink Floyd, decided to represent him and end their relationship with Pink Floyd. Bryan Morrison then agreed that Steve O'Rourke
Steve O'Rourke
Steve O'Rourke was born in Willesden, London, England. He was well known for being manager of the highly influential rock band Pink Floyd after the departure of Syd Barrett in 1968 until his death. He also had to weather the band's falling-out with member Roger Waters.He first managed Pink Floyd...
should become Pink Floyd's manager. The formal announcement about the departure of Barrett was made on 6 April 1968 although, for a short period after his de facto removal, Barrett still turned up to the occasional gig, apparently confused as to what was happening. Barrett had been their main songwriter and Gilmour mimed to his voice on the group's European television appearances but, while playing on the university circuit, Waters and Wright created their own new material, such as "It Would Be So Nice
It Would Be So Nice
"It Would Be So Nice" is a 1968 song by the rock band, Pink Floyd, written by Richard Wright. It was released as the fourth single by the group. The song was left out of the 1971 collection Relics and prior to the release of The Early Singles in 1992 with the box set Shine On it was only available...
" and "Careful With That Axe, Eugene
Careful with That Axe, Eugene
"Careful with That Axe, Eugene" is an instrumental song by the British band Pink Floyd. The studio recording was originally released as the B-side of their single "Point Me at the Sky" and is also featured on the Relics compilation album; live versions can also be found on Ummagumma and in the film...
". They were joined by road manager Peter Watts
Peter Watts (road manager)
Peter Anthony Watts was an English road manager and sound engineer who worked with Pink Floyd.-Biography:Watts was born Peter Anthony Watts on 16th January 1946 in Bedford, Bedfordshire, the son of Jane P. G. and Anthony Watts. Watts had one older brother, Michael, and one younger sister,...
before touring Europe in 1968.
In July 1969, perhaps because of their space-related music and lyrics, Pink Floyd were part of live BBC television coverage of the Apollo 11
Apollo 11
In early 1969, Bill Anders accepted a job with the National Space Council effective in August 1969 and announced his retirement as an astronaut. At that point Ken Mattingly was moved from the support crew into parallel training with Anders as backup Command Module Pilot in case Apollo 11 was...
moon landing, performing live an instrumental piece, which they called "Moonhead". An audio copy exists of the track and occasionally appears on Pink Floyd bootleg albums.
A Saucerful of Secrets
For their second studio album the band returned with Smith to Abbey Road Studios. Several songs featuring Barrett had already been laid down, including "Jugband BluesJugband Blues
"Jugband Blues" is a song by British psychedelic rock band Pink Floyd, and is featured on their second album, A Saucerful of Secrets...
" (his final contribution to their discography). Waters contributed three songs, "Let There Be More Light
Let There Be More Light
"Let There Be More Light" is the opening track on Pink Floyd's second album A Saucerful of Secrets. It was also released in edited form as the fourth US single by the group. A rare US-only single release contains edited mono versions of this song and "Remember a Day". The single did not chart...
", "Corporal Clegg
Corporal Clegg
"Corporal Clegg" is a song by British psychedelic rock band Pink Floyd, and is featured on their second album, A Saucerful of Secrets . It was written by Roger Waters and features David Gilmour, Nick Mason, and Richard Wright on vocals. The song also features a kazoo.-Lyrics:The song is about a...
", and "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun
Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun
"Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun" is a song by British rock band Pink Floyd and is featured on their second album A Saucerful of Secrets . It was written by Roger Waters and features a drum part by Nick Mason played with timpani mallets...
" (which includes guitar work by Gilmour and Barrett). Wright composed "See-Saw
See-Saw (song)
"See-Saw" is a song from Pink Floyd's 1968 album A Saucerful of Secrets. It is the third Pink Floyd song written solely by Richard Wright, and the second on the album as such, and features Wright on vocals...
" and "Remember a Day
Remember a Day
"Remember a Day" is a song by British psychedelic rock band Pink Floyd, and is featured on their second album, A Saucerful of Secrets . The song, written and sung by Richard Wright, was recorded in October 1967 at De Lane Lea Studios in London, England...
". Encouraged by Smith some of the new material was recorded at their homes, continuing the type of experimentation seen on The Piper at the Gates of Dawn. Smith remained unconvinced by their musical style, but when Mason struggled to perform on "Remember a Day", he stepped in as his replacement. Wright recalled Smith's attitude about the sessions, "Norman gave up on the second album ... he was forever saying things like, 'You can't do twenty minutes of this ridiculous noise.'" Neither Waters nor Mason could read music so to create the album's title track, "A Saucerful of Secrets
A Saucerful of Secrets (song)
"A Saucerful of Secrets" is a multi-part instrumental composition by the rock band Pink Floyd from the album A Saucerful of Secrets, released in 1968. The track lasts 11:52 and was composed by band members Roger Waters, Richard Wright, Nick Mason, and David Gilmour...
", they invented their own system of notation; Gilmour later described this as looking "... like an architectural diagram".
A Saucerful of Secrets
A Saucerful of Secrets
A Saucerful of Secrets is the second studio album by the English rock group Pink Floyd. It was recorded at EMI's Abbey Road Studios on various dates from August 1967 to April 1968...
was released in June 1968. The album cover was designed by Storm Thorgerson
Storm Thorgerson
Storm Thorgerson is an English graphic designer, known for his work for rock bands such as Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, 10cc, Dream Theater, The Mars Volta, Muse, The Cranberries, and Biffy Clyro.-Biography:...
and Aubrey Powell of Hipgnosis
Hipgnosis
Hipgnosis was a British art design group that specialized in creating cover art for the albums of rock musicians and bands, most notably Pink Floyd, T.Rex, The Pretty Things, UFO, 10cc, Bad Company, Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, Scorpions, Yes, The Alan Parsons Project, Genesis, Peter Gabriel, ELO and XTC...
. Record Mirror
Record Mirror
Record Mirror was a British weekly pop music newspaper, founded by Isadore Green and featured, news articles, interviews, record charts, record reviews, concert reviews, letters from readers and photographs. The paper became respected by both mainstream pop music fans and serious record collectors...
urged listeners to "forget it as background music to a party" and John Peel
John Peel
John Robert Parker Ravenscroft, OBE , known professionally as John Peel, was an English disc jockey, radio presenter, record producer and journalist. He was the longest-serving of the original BBC Radio 1 DJs, broadcasting regularly from 1967 until his death in 2004...
claimed that the album was "...like a religious experience...". NME
NME
The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...
, however, viewed the title track as "...long and boring, and has little to warrant its monotonous direction". Upon the album's release Pink Floyd performed at the first free Hyde Park concert, organised by Blackhill Enterprises, alongside Roy Harper
Roy Harper
Roy Harper is an English folk / rock singer-songwriter and guitarist who has been a professional musician since the mid 1960s...
and Jethro Tull
Jethro Tull (band)
Jethro Tull are a British rock group formed in 1967. Their music is characterised by the vocals, acoustic guitar, and flute playing of Ian Anderson, who has led the band since its founding, and the guitar work of Martin Barre, who has been with the band since 1969.Initially playing blues rock with...
. The band considered Morrison's assistant, Steve O'Rourke, as a "great deal-maker" whose business acumen overshadowed his lack of interest in aesthetic matters and, when Morrison sold his business to NEMS Enterprises, O'Rourke became the band's personal manager. This also enabled the band to take complete control of their artistic outlook. They returned to the US for their first major tour, accompanied by Soft Machine
Soft Machine
Soft Machine were an English rock band from Canterbury, named after the book The Soft Machine by William S. Burroughs. They were one of the central bands in the Canterbury scene, and helped pioneer the progressive rock genre...
and The Who
The Who
The Who are an English rock band formed in 1964 by Roger Daltrey , Pete Townshend , John Entwistle and Keith Moon . They became known for energetic live performances which often included instrument destruction...
.
Soundtracks
In 1968 the band recorded the score for the film The CommitteeThe Committee (film)
The Committee is a 1968 British independent Black-and-white film noir film. It featured original music by Pink Floyd as well as Arthur Brown's song Nightmare.-Synopsis:...
. Just before Christmas 1968 they released "Point Me At The Sky
Point Me at the Sky
"Point Me at the Sky" is the fifth United Kingdom single by the British band Pink Floyd, released on 17 December 1968. The song was an early collaboration by bassist Roger Waters and guitarist David Gilmour. The single was not released in the United States However, it was released by Capitol...
", which was no more successful than the two singles they had released since "See Emily Play". "Point Me At The Sky" would be the band's last single for several years. In 1969 they recorded the score for Barbet Schroeder
Barbet Schroeder
Barbet Schroeder is a Franco-Swiss movie director and producer who started his career in French cinema in the 1960s, working together with directors such as Jean-Luc Godard and Jacques Rivette.-Life and career:...
's film More. The soundtrack proved important; not only did it pay well but, along with A Saucerful of Secrets, the material they created became part of their live shows for some time thereafter. A tour of the UK ended at the Royal Festival Hall
Royal Festival Hall
The Royal Festival Hall is a 2,900-seat concert, dance and talks venue within Southbank Centre in London. It is situated on the South Bank of the River Thames, not far from Hungerford Bridge. It is a Grade I listed building - the first post-war building to become so protected...
in July 1969, during which an electric shock caused by poor grounding
Ground (electricity)
In electrical engineering, ground or earth may be the reference point in an electrical circuit from which other voltages are measured, or a common return path for electric current, or a direct physical connection to the Earth....
sent Gilmour flying across the stage. The performances, built around two long pieces called The Man and The Journey, were backed with performance art created by artist Peter Dockley. Some of the sound effects were later used on 1970's "Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast
Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast
"Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast" is a three-part instrumental track from the 1970 Pink Floyd album Atom Heart Mother.-Overview:The track features Pink Floyd playing in the background as Alan Stiles speaks about the breakfast he is preparing and eating, as well as breakfasts he has had in the past...
". While composing the soundtrack for Zabriskie Point
Zabriskie Point (film)
Zabriskie Point is a 1970 film by Italian director Michelangelo Antonioni, widely noted at the time for its setting in the late 1960s counterculture of the United States...
, for director Michelangelo Antonioni
Michelangelo Antonioni
Michelangelo Antonioni, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI was an Italian modernist film director, screenwriter, editor and short story writer.- Personal life :...
, the band stayed at a luxury hotel in Rome. Waters has since claimed that, but for Antonioni's continuous changes to the music, the work could have been completed in less than a week. Eventually he used only three of their recordings, in addition to material from the Grateful Dead
Grateful Dead
The Grateful Dead was an American rock band formed in 1965 in the San Francisco Bay Area. The band was known for its unique and eclectic style, which fused elements of rock, folk, bluegrass, blues, reggae, country, improvisational jazz, psychedelia, and space rock, and for live performances of long...
, The Youngbloods
The Youngbloods
The Youngbloods was an American folk rock band consisting of Jesse Colin Young , Jerry Corbitt , Lowell Levinger, nicknamed "Banana," , and Joe Bauer . Despite receiving critical acclaim, they never achieved widespread popularity. Their only U.S. Top 40 entry was "Get Together".-Background and...
, Patti Page
Patti Page
Clara Ann Fowler , known by her professional name Patti Page, is an American singer, one of the best-known female artists in traditional pop music. She was the best-selling female artist of the 1950s, and has sold over 100 million records...
, and the Rolling Stones. One of the pieces turned down by Antonioni, called "The Violent Sequence", later became "Us and Them", included on Pink Floyd's 1973 The Dark Side of the Moon
The Dark Side of the Moon
The Dark Side of the Moon is the eighth studio album by English progressive rock band Pink Floyd, released in March 1973. It built on ideas explored in the band's earlier recordings and live shows, but lacks the extended instrumental excursions that characterised their work following the departure...
. The band also worked on the soundtrack for a proposed cartoon series called Rollo but a lack of funds meant that it was never produced. Waters also collaborated with Ron Geesin
Ron Geesin
Ronald 'Ron' Geesin is a British musician and composer, noted for his quirky creations and novel applications of sound. He is probably best known as the orchestrator and organizer of Pink Floyd's "Atom Heart Mother" in 1970, after the band found themselves hopelessly deadlocked over how to...
when they scored the soundtrack to the 1970 film The Body
The Body (1970 film)
The Body is a 1970 scientific documentary film directed and produced by Roy Battersby. In the film, external and internal cameras are used to showcase different parts of the human body. The film's narrators, Frank Finlay and Vanessa Redgrave, provide insightful commentary that combines the...
.
Ummagumma and Atom Heart Mother
Harvest Records
-References:* Harvest Records collectors guide ISBN 978-5-9622-0021-7...
label, the first two sides contained live performances recorded at Manchester College of Commerce and at Mother's Club in Birmingham. The second LP contained a single experimental contribution from each band member. Ummagumma was released to positive reviews in October 1969.
Atom Heart Mother
Atom Heart Mother
Atom Heart Mother is the fifth studio album by English progressive rock band Pink Floyd, released in 1970 by Harvest and EMI Records in the United Kingdom and Harvest and Capitol in the United States. It was recorded at Abbey Road Studios, London, England, and reached number one in the United...
quickly followed Ummagumma in the second half of 1970. The band's previous LPs were recorded using a four-track
Multitrack recording
Multitrack recording is a method of sound recording that allows for the separate recording of multiple sound sources to create a cohesive whole...
system, but Atom Heart Mother was their first eight-track album. An early version was premièred in France in January but disagreements over the mix prompted the hiring of Ron Geesin to work out the sound issues. Geesin worked for about a month to improve the score but, with little creative input from the band, production was troublesome; it was eventually completed with the aid of John Aldiss. Norman Smith was credited as an executive producer and the album marked his final contribution to the band's discography. Gilmour is generally dismissive of Atom Heart Mother and once described it as "a load of rubbish", although in 2001 he said it "was a good thing to have attempted, but I don't really think the attempt comes off that well". Waters was similarly critical, claiming that he would not mind if it were "thrown into the dustbin and never listened to by anyone ever again." Atom Heart Mother was hugely successful in the UK and was premièred at the Bath Festival on 27 June 1970. The band toured extensively across America and Europe in 1970.
In 1971 Pink Floyd took second place in a readers poll in Melody Maker and for the first time were making a profit. In New Orleans the theft of equipment worth about $40,000 almost crippled the band's finances but, although the local police were unhelpful, hours after the band notified the FBI the equipment was returned. Mason and Wright became fathers and bought homes in London while Gilmour, still single, moved to a 19th-century farm in Essex. Waters installed a home recording studio at his house in Islington
Islington
Islington is a neighbourhood in Greater London, England and forms the central district of the London Borough of Islington. It is a district of Inner London, spanning from Islington High Street to Highbury Fields, encompassing the area around the busy Upper Street...
in a converted tool-shed at the back of his garden.
Meddle
Returning from touring Atom Heart Mother at the start of 1971 the band began working on new material. Lacking a central theme they attempted several largely unproductive experiments; engineer John Leckie described the sessions as often beginning in the afternoon and ending early the next morning, "during which time nothing would get done. There was no record company contact whatsoever, except when their label manager would show up now and again with a couple of bottles of wine and a couple of joints." The band spent long periods working on simple sounds, or a particular guitar riff. They also spent several days at Air Studios, attempting to create music using a variety of household objects, a project which would be revisited between The Dark Side of the Moon and Wish You Were Here. Meddles production was spread over a considerable period of time; the band recorded in the first half of April, but in the latter half played at Doncaster and Norwich before returning to record at the end of the month. In May they split their time between sessions at Abbey Road, rehearsals and concerts across Great Britain. June and July were spent mainly performing at venues across Europe whereas August was spent in the far east and Australia, returning to Europe in September.Meddle was released on 30 October 1971 in the US and 13 November in the UK, while the band were touring in the US. Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
's Jean-Charles Costa wrote "Meddle not only confirms lead guitarist David Gilmour's emergence as a real shaping force with the group, it states forcefully and accurately that the group is well into the growth track again", and NME
NME
The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...
called it "an exceptionally good album". Melody Maker's
Melody Maker
Melody Maker, published in the United Kingdom, was, according to its publisher IPC Media, the world's oldest weekly music newspaper. It was founded in 1926 as a magazine targeted at musicians; in 2000 it was merged into "long-standing rival" New Musical Express.-1950s–1960s:Originally the Melody...
Michael Watts was underwhelmed, claiming the album was "a soundtrack to a non-existent movie" and shrugged it off as "so much sound and fury, signifying nothing". Meddle
Meddle
Meddle is the sixth studio album by English progressive rock group Pink Floyd. It was released in October 1971.The album was recorded at a series of locations around London, including Abbey Road Studios...
is sometimes considered to be a transitional album between the Barrett-influenced band and the modern Pink Floyd.
The group's other releases around this period, More and Zabriskie Point
Zabriskie Point (album)
Zabriskie Point is a soundtrack album to the Michelangelo Antonioni film of the same name. It was originally released in January 1970 and is composed of songs from various artists. A 1997 re-release includes four bonus tracks each from Jerry Garcia and Pink Floyd that were used in the film, but not...
, were soundtracks and Atom Heart Mother was influenced as much by Ron Geesin and the session artists as it was by the band. The band again worked with Barbet Schroeder on the film La Vallée, for which a soundtrack album was released called Obscured by Clouds
Obscured by Clouds
-Singles:*"Free Four"/"Stay" *"Free Four"/"The Gold It's in the..." -Personnel:Pink Floyd*David Gilmour – guitars, vocals, pedal steel guitar, VCS3*Nick Mason – drums, percussion...
. The material was composed in about a week at the Château d'Hérouville
Château d'Hérouville
The Château d'Hérouville is a French château of the 18th century located in the village of Hérouville, in the Oise valley near Paris. The castle was built in 1740 by Gaudot, an architect of the school of Rome. In the 19th century, it was used as courier relay station and stabled a hundred...
near Paris and, upon its release, was their first to break into the top 50 on the US Billboard chart. At about the same time the band also produced the compilation album Relics
Relics (Pink Floyd album)
Relics is a compilation album by Pink Floyd released in 1971. The album was released on 14 May in the UK and 15 July in the United States. A re-mastered CD was released in 1995 with a different album cover, a three-dimensional version of the original sketch drawn by drummer Nick Mason for the...
.
The Dark Side of the Moon
Alan Parsons
Alan Parsons is a British audio engineer, musician, and record producer. He was involved with the production of several significant albums, including The Beatles' Abbey Road and Let It Be, as well as Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon for which Pink Floyd credit him as an important contributor...
at Abbey Road. Late in the album's production Parsons was assisted by producer Chris Thomas
Chris Thomas (record producer)
Chris Thomas is an English record producer who has worked extensively with The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Roxy Music, Badfinger, Elton John, Paul McCartney, Pulp and The Pretenders. He has also produced breakthrough albums for The Sex Pistols and INXS.Thomas is quoted as saying -Early life:Thomas was...
, who became responsible for significant changes such as the echo used on "Us and Them". The album's packaging was designed by Hipgnosis
Hipgnosis
Hipgnosis was a British art design group that specialized in creating cover art for the albums of rock musicians and bands, most notably Pink Floyd, T.Rex, The Pretty Things, UFO, 10cc, Bad Company, Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, Scorpions, Yes, The Alan Parsons Project, Genesis, Peter Gabriel, ELO and XTC...
and bore George Hardie
George Hardie (artist)
George Hardie is a graphic designer, illustrator and educator, best known for his work producing cover art for the albums of rock musicians and bands with the British art design group Hipgnosis....
's iconic refracting prism
Prism (optics)
In optics, a prism is a transparent optical element with flat, polished surfaces that refract light. The exact angles between the surfaces depend on the application. The traditional geometrical shape is that of a triangular prism with a triangular base and rectangular sides, and in colloquial use...
on the cover. Since Barrett's departure the burden of lyrical composition had fallen mostly on Waters and he is therefore credited as the author of the album's lyrics. The band filmed studio footage for Pink Floyd: Live at Pompeii
Pink Floyd: Live at Pompeii
Pink Floyd: Live at Pompeii is a 1972 film featuring Pink Floyd performing six songs in the ancient Roman amphitheatre in Pompeii, Italy. It was directed by Adrian Maben and recorded in the month of October using studio-quality 24-track recorders without a live audience.The performances of...
before beginning a tour of Europe in 1972.
The Dark Side of the Moon was released in March 1973 and became an instant chart success in Britain and throughout Western Europe. The critical reaction was generally enthusiastic. Melody Maker
Melody Maker
Melody Maker, published in the United Kingdom, was, according to its publisher IPC Media, the world's oldest weekly music newspaper. It was founded in 1926 as a magazine targeted at musicians; in 2000 it was merged into "long-standing rival" New Musical Express.-1950s–1960s:Originally the Melody...
s Roy Hollingworth described side one as "...so utterly confused with itself it was difficult to follow," but praised side two writing, "The songs, the sounds, the rhythms were solid and sound, Saxophone hit the air, the band rocked and rolled, and then gushed and tripped away into the night." In his 1973 album review for Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
magazine, Lloyd Grossman wrote, "a fine album with a textural and conceptual richness that not only invites, but demands involvement." Throughout March 1973 it featured as part of their US tour, including a midnight performance at Radio City Music Hall in New York City on 17 March.
The success of the album brought previously unknown wealth to all four members of the band. Richard Wright and Roger Waters bought large country houses while Nick Mason became a collector of expensive cars. Much of the album's early state-side success has been attributed to the efforts of Pink Floyd's US record company, Capitol Records
Capitol Records
Capitol Records is a major United States based record label, formerly located in Los Angeles, but operating in New York City as part of Capitol Music Group. Its former headquarters building, the Capitol Tower, is a major landmark near the corner of Hollywood and Vine...
. Newly appointed chairman Bhaskar Menon
Bhaskar Menon
Bhaskar Menon is a music industry executive of Indian origin. He hails from Palaghat, Kerala, India. He initially worked with The Gramophone Company of India Ltd. Dum Dum, Calcutta, India as the Chairman and MD...
reversed the relatively poor performance of the band's previous US releases but, disenchanted with Capitol, the band and manager O'Rourke negotiated a new contract with Columbia Records
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...
. The Dark Side of the Moon was the last album that Pink Floyd were obliged to release before formally signing a new contract. Menon's efforts to secure a contract renewal with Pink Floyd were in vain and the band signed for Columbia, with a reported advance fee of US$1M (approximately $ today), while in Britain and Europe they continued to be represented by Harvest Records
Harvest Records
-References:* Harvest Records collectors guide ISBN 978-5-9622-0021-7...
.
Wish You Were Here
Pink Floyd returned to the studio in January 1975. Alan ParsonsAlan Parsons
Alan Parsons is a British audio engineer, musician, and record producer. He was involved with the production of several significant albums, including The Beatles' Abbey Road and Let It Be, as well as Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon for which Pink Floyd credit him as an important contributor...
had declined the band's offer to continue working with them, instead becoming successful in his own right with The Alan Parsons Project
The Alan Parsons Project
The Alan Parsons Project was a British progressive rock band, active between 1975 and 1990, consisting of singer Eric Woolfson and keyboardist Alan Parsons surrounded by a varying number of session musicians....
, and so the band turned to Brian Humphries with whom they had already worked on More. The group initially found it difficult to devise any new material, especially as the success of The Dark Side of the Moon had left all four physically and emotionally drained. Richard Wright later described these early sessions as "falling within a difficult period" and Waters found them "torturous". Gilmour was more interested in improving the band's existing material. Mason's marriage was failing leaving him in a general malaise and with a sense of apathy, both of which interfered with his drumming.
It was a very difficult period I have to say. All your childhood dreams had been sort of realised and we had the biggest selling records in the world and all the things you got into it for. The girls and the money and the fame and all that stuff it was all ... everything had sort of come our way and you had to reassess what you were in it for thereafter, and it was a pretty confusing and sort of empty time for a while ...
Despite the lack of creative direction Waters began to visualise a new concept after several weeks. During 1974 they had sketched out three new compositions and had performed them at a series of concerts in Europe. These new compositions became the starting point for a new album whose opening four-note guitar phrase, composed entirely by accident by Gilmour, reminded Waters of the lingering ghost of former band-member Syd Barrett. The songs provided an apt summary of the rise and fall of their former band mate: "Because I wanted to get as close as possible to what I felt ... that sort of indefinable, inevitable melancholy about the disappearance of Syd." While the band were working on the album Barrett made an impromptu visit to the studio, during which Thorgerson
Storm Thorgerson
Storm Thorgerson is an English graphic designer, known for his work for rock bands such as Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, 10cc, Dream Theater, The Mars Volta, Muse, The Cranberries, and Biffy Clyro.-Biography:...
recalled that he "sat round and talked for a bit but he wasn't really there." He had changed in appearance and the band did not initially recognise him, Waters was reportedly deeply upset by the experience. Barrett eventually left without saying goodbye and none of the band members ever saw him again, apart from a run-in between Waters and Barrett a couple of years later. Some of the material also contained barely veiled attacks on the music business. "Raving and Drooling" and "Gotta Be Crazy" had no place in the new concept and were set aside. Storm Thorgerson concealed the album cover artwork with a dark-coloured shrink-wrap. The cover image was inspired by the idea that people tend to conceal their true feelings, for fear of "getting burned", and thus two businessmen were pictured shaking hands with one man on fire.
Much of Wish You Were Here was premièred on 5 July 1975 at an open-air music festival at Knebworth
Knebworth House
Knebworth House is a country house in the civil parish of Knebworth in Hertfordshire, England.-History and description:The home of the Lytton family since 1490, when Thomas Bourchier sold the reversion of the manor to Sir Robert Lytton, Knebworth House was originally a genuine red-brick Late Gothic...
before being released in September that year. It reached number one in Britain and the US, along with positive reviews; Robert Christgau
Robert Christgau
Robert Christgau is an American essayist, music journalist, and self-proclaimed "Dean of American Rock Critics".One of the earliest professional rock critics, Christgau is known for his terse capsule reviews, published since 1969 in his Consumer Guide columns...
wrote: "... the music is not only simple and attractive, with the synthesiser used mostly for texture and the guitar breaks for comment, but it actually achieves some of the symphonic dignity (and cross-referencing) that The Dark Side of the Moon simulated so ponderously."
Animals
Britannia Row Studios
Britannia Row Studios is a recording studio in Fulham, London SW6, England.Pink Floyd built the original Britannia Row Studios, located in the street Britannia Row, Islington, London N1, after their 1975 album Wish You Were Here was released...
in Islington, and set about converting the building into a recording studio and storage facility. The work took up most of 1975 and in 1976 they recorded Animals there, their eighth studio album.
Animals was another Waters concept, loosely based on George Orwell
George Orwell
Eric Arthur Blair , better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English author and journalist...
's political fable Animal Farm
Animal Farm
Animal Farm is an allegorical novella by George Orwell published in England on 17 August 1945. According to Orwell, the book reflects events leading up to and during the Stalin era before World War II...
—its lyrics described various classes of society as dogs, pigs, and sheep. Brian Humphries was again brought in to engineer the album which was completed in December 1976. Apart from its critique of society the album was also in part a response to the punk rock
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
movement, which grew in popularity as a nihilistic
Nihilism
Nihilism is the philosophical doctrine suggesting the negation of one or more putatively meaningful aspects of life. Most commonly, nihilism is presented in the form of existential nihilism which argues that life is without objective meaning, purpose, or intrinsic value...
statement against the prevailing social and political conditions, and also a reaction to the general complacency and nostalgia that appeared to surround rock music. Pink Floyd were an obvious target for punk musicians, notably Johnny Rotten who wore a Pink Floyd t-shirt on which the words "I hate" had been written. Mason later stated that he welcomed the "Punk Rock insurrection" and viewed it as a welcome return to the underground scene from which Pink Floyd had grown. In 1977 he produced The Damned's second album at Britannia Row.
Hipgnosis were credited for the packaging of Animals but the final concept was designed by Waters, who chose an image of the ageing Battersea Power Station
Battersea Power Station
Battersea Power Station is a decommissioned coal-fired power station located on the south bank of the River Thames, in Battersea, South London. The station comprises two individual power stations, built in two stages in the form of a single building. Battersea A Power Station was built first in the...
. The band commissioned a 30 feet (9.1 m) pig-shaped balloon and photography began on 2 December. Inclement weather delayed filming and the balloon broke free of its moorings in strong winds, disappearing to eventually land in Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
where it was recovered by a local farmer, reportedly furious that it had "apparently scared his cows". Shooting resumed but a decision was made instead to superimpose the image of the pig onto the photograph of the power station.
The division of royalties became a sore topic during production of the album. Royalties were accorded on a per-song basis and, although Gilmour was largely responsible for "Dogs" which took up almost the entire first side of the album, he received less than Waters who also contributed the two-part "Pigs on the Wing
Pigs on the Wing
"Pigs on the Wing" is a two-part song by the progressive rock band Pink Floyd from their 1977 concept album, Animals, starting and wrapping up the album. According to various interviews, it was written by Roger Waters as a declaration of love to his then-love, Carolyne...
", which contains references to Waters' romantic involvement with Carolyne Anne Christie. Gilmour was also distracted by the birth of his first child and contributed little else toward the album. Similarly, neither Mason nor Wright contributed much toward Animals (the first Pink Floyd album not to contain a writing credit for Wright); Wright had marital problems, and his relationship with Waters was also suffering. Wright recalled the recording:
Animals was a slog. It wasn't a fun record to make, but this was when Roger really started to believe that he was the sole writer for the band. He believed that it was only because of him that the band was still going, and obviously, when he started to develop his ego trips, the person he would have his conflicts with would be me.
The album was released on 23 January 1977 and entered the UK charts at number two and number three in the US. NME called the album "... one of the most extreme, relentless, harrowing and downright iconoclastic hunks of music to have been made available this side of the sun ...", and Melody Makers Karl Dallas wrote "... [an] uncomfortable taste of reality in a medium that has become in recent years, increasingly soporific ...".
Ginger Gilmour
Ginger Gilmour, Ginger Gilmour, Ginger Gilmour, (born Virginia Hasenbein in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA on 19 January 1949, is an artist and former model, and the first wife of Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour.-Personal life :...
did not get along with Waters' new girlfriend. On one occasion Wright flew back to England threatening to leave the band. At the Montréal Olympic Stadium a small group of noisy and excited fans in the front row of the audience irritated Waters so much that he spat at one of them. Waters was not the only person who felt depressed about playing in such large venues, as that same night Gilmour refused to perform the band's usual twelve-bar blues encore. The end of the tour was a low point for Gilmour who felt that the band had by then achieved the success they sought, and that there was nothing else to look forward to.
Financial problems
Gilmour and Wright released their début solo albums around this time, David GilmourDavid Gilmour (album)
David Gilmour is the first solo album from Pink Floyd guitarist and vocalist David Gilmour, released in May 1978 in the UK and on 17 June 1978 in the US. The album reached #17 in the UK and #29 on the Billboard US album charts and was certified Gold in the US by the RIAA...
and Wet Dream
Wet Dream (album)
Wet Dream was the first solo album from Pink Floyd keyboardist Richard Wright, released in 1978. The album went virtually unnoticed at the time...
respectively. While Gilmour's album sold reasonably well Wright's album sold poorly, a situation only exacerbated by the loss of much of the band's accumulated wealth. In 1976 the band had become involved with financial advisers Norton Warburg Group (NWG). NWG became the band's collecting agents and handled all financial planning, for an annual fee of about £300,000. Between £1.6 million and £3.3 million of the band's money was invested in high-risk venture capital schemes, primarily to reduce the band's exposure to high UK taxes. It soon became obvious that the band was still losing money. Not only did NWG invest in failing businesses, they also left the band liable for tax bills as high as 83 percent of their income. The band eventually terminated their relationship with NWG and demanded the return of any cash not yet invested, which at that time amounted to £860,000 although they received only £740,000.
The Wall
In the midst of these problems Waters presented the band with two new ideas, in July 1978. The first was a 90-minute demo given the provisional title Bricks in the Wall and the other would later become Waters' first solo album, The Pros and Cons of Hitch HikingThe Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking
The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking is a 1984 concept album and the first solo album by English musician Roger Waters. The album was certified gold in the United States by the Recording Industry Association of America in April 1995.-Concept history:...
. Although both Mason and Gilmour were initially cautious the former (inspired by the recent spitting incident) was chosen to be their next album. Bob Ezrin
Bob Ezrin
Robert Alan "Bob" Ezrin is a Canadian music producer and keyboardist, known for his work with artists including Alice Cooper, Kiss and Pink Floyd. He was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 2004.-Biography:...
was brought in as co-producer and he wrote a forty-page script for the new album. The story was based on the central character of Pink—a character inspired by Waters' childhood experiences, the most notable of which was the death of his father in World War II. This first 'brick in the wall' led to more problems, Pink would become so drug-addled and worn down by the music industry that he would transform into a megalomaniac, a development inspired partly by the decline of Syd Barrett
Syd Barrett
Syd Barrett , born Roger Keith Barrett, was an English singer-songwriter, guitarist, and painter, best remembered as a founding member of the band Pink Floyd. He was the lead vocalist, guitarist and primary songwriter during the band's psychedelic years, providing major musical and stylistic...
. At the end of the album the increasingly fascist audience would watch as Pink 'tore down the wall', once again becoming a normal caring person.
Engineer Brian Humphries, emotionally drained by his five years with the band, was replaced by James Guthrie
James Guthrie (record producer)
James K.A. Guthrie is a British recording engineer and record producer best known for his work with the progressive rock band Pink Floyd, having served as a producer and engineer for the band since 1978...
for the recording of the album. In March 1979 the band's critical financial situation demanded that they leave the UK for a year or more and recording was moved to the Super Bear Studios near Nice
Nice
Nice is the fifth most populous city in France, after Paris, Marseille, Lyon and Toulouse, with a population of 348,721 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Nice extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of more than 955,000 on an area of...
. The band were rarely in the studio together and Waters' relationship with Wright broke down completely. Wright was given a trial period as a producer but his working methods, and lack of creative input, caused considerable tension. Wright eventually stopped coming into the studio during the day and worked only at night. Matters came to a head when Columbia
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...
offered the band a better deal, in exchange for a Christmas release of the album. Waters increased their workload accordingly but Wright, with a failing marriage and suffering from depression, refused to cut short his family holiday in Rhodes
Rhodes
Rhodes is an island in Greece, located in the eastern Aegean Sea. It is the largest of the Dodecanese islands in terms of both land area and population, with a population of 117,007, and also the island group's historical capital. Administratively the island forms a separate municipality within...
stating, "The rest of the band's children were young enough to stay with them in France but mine were older and had to go to school. I was missing my children terribly." In Inside Out (2005), Mason says that Waters called O'Rourke, who was travelling to the US on the QE2, and told him to have Wright out of the band by the time Waters arrived in LA to mix the album; however, in Comfortably Numb (2008) Pink Floyd biographer Mark Blake states that Waters called O'Rourke and asked him to tell Wright about the new recording arrangements and that Wright's response was apparently "Tell Roger to fuck off." Wright disagreed with this recollection, stating that the band had agreed to record only through the spring and early summer and that he had no idea they were so far behind schedule. Waters was stunned and felt that Wright was not doing enough to help complete the album. Gilmour was on holiday in Dublin when he learned what was happening and tried to calm the situation. He later spoke with Wright and gave him his support, but he reminded him about his lack of input on the album. Waters was insisting that Wright leave, or else he would refuse to release The Wall. Several days later, worried about their financial situation and the failing interpersonal relationships within the band, Wright quit. Rumours persisted that Wright had a cocaine addiction, something he always disputed, and although his name did not appear anywhere on the finished album he was employed as a paid musician on the band's subsequent The Wall tour. Production of the album continued and by August 1979 the running order was largely complete. Wright completed his duties, aided by session musicians. Toward the end of The Wall sessions, Mason left the final mix to Waters, Gilmour, Ezrin, and Guthrie, travelling to New York to record his début solo album, Nick Mason's Fictitious Sports.
Although Pink Floyd rarely released singles, and had not done so since 1968, the album was promoted with "Another Brick in the Wall (Part II)", which topped the charts in the US and the UK. A National Endowment for the Arts
National Endowment for the Arts
The National Endowment for the Arts is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created by an act of the U.S. Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. Its current...
and RIAA poll named "Another Brick in the Wall (Part II)" one of the 365 Songs of the Century
Songs of the Century
The "Songs of the Century" list is part of an education project by the Recording Industry Association of America , the National Endowment for the Arts, and Scholastic Inc. that aims to "promote a better understanding of America’s musical and cultural heritage" in American schools...
in 2001. The Wall was released on 30 November 1979 and topped the Billboard charts for fifteen weeks. The Wall ranks No.4 of all time on the RIAA's list of the Top 100 albums, with 23 million certified units sold in the US alone, and remains one of the band's best-selling albums. The cover is one of their most minimalist designs, with a simple white brick wall, and no logo or band name.
The band went on tour with an elaborate stage show. Gerald Scarfe
Gerald Scarfe
Gerald Anthony Scarfe, CBE, RDI, is an English cartoonist and illustrator. He worked as editorial cartoonist for The Sunday Times and illustrator for The New Yorker...
was employed to produce a series of animations for the subsequent The Wall Tour, including a series of nightmarish visions of the future such as a dove of peace exploding to reveal an eagle. Large inflatable puppets were also created for the live shows. Relationships within the band were at an all-time low. Their four Winnebago
Winnebago Industries
Winnebago Industries Inc., , is a manufacturer of motor homes, a type of recreational vehicle or RV, in the United States. It is based in Forest City, Iowa.-Corporate history:...
s were parked in a circle, with the doors facing away from the centre. Waters used his own vehicle to arrive at the venue and stayed in separate hotels from the rest of the band. Wright returned as a paid musician and was the only 'member' of the band to profit from the venture, which lost about $600,000.
The Wall concept also spawned an eponymous film, the original plan for which was to be a mixture of live concert footage and animated scenes. The concert footage, however, proved impractical to film. Alan Parker
Alan Parker
Sir Alan William Parker, CBE is an English film director, producer, writer and actor. He has been active in both the British cinema and American cinema and was a founding member of the Directors Guild of Great Britain.-Life and career:...
agreed to direct and took a different approach. The animated sequences would remain, but scenes would be acted by professional actors with no dialogue. Waters was screen-tested but quickly discarded and Bob Geldof
Bob Geldof
Robert Frederick Zenon "Bob" Geldof, KBE is an Irish singer, songwriter, author, occasional actor and political activist. He rose to prominence as the lead singer of the Irish rock band The Boomtown Rats in the late 1970s and early 1980s alongside the punk rock movement. The band had hits with his...
was asked to take the role of Pink. Geldof was initially disdainful, condemning The Walls storyline as "bollocks". He was eventually won over by the prospect of being involved in a major film and receiving a large payment for his work. Waters took a six-week holiday during filming and returned to find that Parker had used his creative license to change parts of the film to his liking. Waters was irate, the two fought, and Parker threatened to walk out. Gilmour pleaded with Waters to reconsider his stance, reminding the bassist that he and the other band members were shareholders and directors and could out-vote him on such decisions. A modified soundtrack was also created for some of the film's songs. Pink Floyd—The Wall was screened at the Cannes Film Festival
Cannes Film Festival
The Cannes International Film Festival , is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films of all genres including documentaries from around the world. Founded in 1946, it is among the world's most prestigious and publicized film festivals...
in May 1982, released in the UK in July 1982, and released internationally through the rest of 1982.
The Final Cut
A new musical project, with the working title Spare Bricks, was originally conceived as the soundtrack album for Pink Floyd The Wall, but with the onset of the Falklands WarFalklands War
The Falklands War , also called the Falklands Conflict or Falklands Crisis, was fought in 1982 between Argentina and the United Kingdom over the disputed Falkland Islands and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands...
Waters changed direction and began writing new material. Waters saw Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990...
's response to the invasion of the Falklands as jingoistic and unnecessary, and he dedicated the new album—provisionally titled Requiem for a Post-War Dream—to his dead father. Immediately there were arguments between Waters and Gilmour, who felt that the album should contain all new material, rather than songs not considered good enough for The Wall. Waters felt that Gilmour had contributed little to the band's lyrical repertoire. Michael Kamen (a contributor to the orchestral sections of The Wall) mediated between the two, also performing the role traditionally occupied by the then absent Wright. James Guthrie was the studio engineer and Mason was aided by two session drummers. Recording took place in eight studios, including Gilmour's home studio at Hookend Manor
Outside Studios
Outside Studios is a recording studio located in Hook End Manor, Checkendon, Oxfordshire, England.The albums Gold Against the Soul by Welsh rock band Manic Street Preachers and The Cure's Mixed Up were both recorded here.- References :*...
and Waters' home studio at East Sheen
East Sheen
East Sheen, also known as 'Sheen', is an affluent suburb of London, England in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. It forms part of the London post town in the SW postcode area....
. The tension within the band grew, Waters and Gilmour worked separately (itself not unusual) but Gilmour began to feel the strain, sometimes barely maintaining his composure. Waters lost his temper and began ranting at Kamen who, out of boredom during one recording session, had started repeatedly writing "I Must Not Fuck Sheep" on a notepad in the studio's control room. After a final confrontation Gilmour's name as producer was removed from the credit list, reflecting what Waters felt was his lack of song writing contributions. Mason's contributions were minimal, as he busied himself recording sound effects for an experimental new Holophonic system to be used on the album. With marital problems of his own, he remained a distant figure. Thorgerson was passed over for the cover design, Waters choosing to instead design it himself and his brother-in-law, Willie Christie, was commissioned to take photographs for the album cover. The Final Cut
The Final Cut (album)
The Final Cut is the twelfth studio album by English progressive rock group Pink Floyd. It was released in March 1983 by Harvest Records in the United Kingdom, and several weeks later by Columbia Records in the United States. A concept album, The Final Cut is the last of the band's releases to...
was released in March 1983, going straight to No.1 in the UK and No.6 in the US. Waters is credited with writing all the lyrics as well as all the music on the album. Gilmour did not have any material ready for the album and asked Waters to delay the recording until he could write some songs, but Waters refused. Gilmour later commented, "I'm certainly guilty at times of being lazy ... but he wasn't right about wanting to put some duff tracks on The Final Cut." According to Mason, Gilmour's name "disappeared" from the production credits, after power struggles within the band and creative arguments about the album, though he retained his pay. "Not Now John
Not Now John
"Not Now John" is a song from Pink Floyd's 1983 album, The Final Cut. The track is the only song from the album featuring the vocals of David Gilmour, found in the verses, with Roger Waters singing the refrains and interludes. The song was released as a single in modified form, with the word...
" was released as a single, with its chorus of "Fuck all that" bowdlerised to "Stuff all that"; Melody Maker declared it to be "... a milestone in the history of awfulness ...". Rolling Stone magazine gave the album five stars, with Kurt Loder
Kurt Loder
Kurt Loder is an American film critic, author, columnist, and television personality. He served in the 1980s as editor at Rolling Stone, during a tenure that Reason later called "legendary". He has contributed to articles in Reason, Esquire, Details, New York, and Time. He has also made cameos on...
calling it "a superlative achievement on several levels ..." and "art rock's crowning masterpiece". Loder viewed the album as "... essentially a Roger Waters solo album ..."
"A spent force"
About Face (album)
About Face is the second solo album by the Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour, released in March 1984. The album was co-produced by Bob Ezrin and David Gilmour. Two songs, "All Lovers Are Deranged", and the more radio-friendly "Love on the Air" were co-written by Gilmour, who composed the music,...
in 1984 and used it to express his feelings about a range of topics; from the murder of John Lennon
John Lennon
John Winston Lennon, MBE was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music...
to his relationship with Waters. He later stated that he also used the album to distance himself from Pink Floyd. Soon afterwards Waters began touring his new solo album The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking
The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking
The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking is a 1984 concept album and the first solo album by English musician Roger Waters. The album was certified gold in the United States by the Recording Industry Association of America in April 1995.-Concept history:...
. Richard Wright formed Zee with Dave Harris and recorded Identity, which went almost unnoticed upon its release. Wright was also in the midst of a difficult divorce and said later that it was, "... made at a time in my life when I was lost." Mason released his second solo album Profiles
Profiles
Profiles is an album by Pink Floyd's drummer Nick Mason and 10cc's guitarist Rick Fenn, released in 1985. It is almost entirely instrumental, save for two songs: "Lie for a Lie," featuring Pink Floyd singer and guitarist David Gilmour and Mike Oldfield's early 80s singer Maggie Reilly; and...
in August 1985, which featured a contribution from Gilmour on "Lie for a Lie".
After Waters declared Pink Floyd "a spent force", he contacted O'Rourke to discuss settling future royalty payments. O'Rourke felt obliged to inform Mason and Gilmour, as a result Waters was angered and wanted to dismiss him as the band's manager. Waters then went to the High Court
High Court of Justice
The High Court of Justice is, together with the Court of Appeal and the Crown Court, one of the Senior Courts of England and Wales...
to prevent the Pink Floyd name from ever being used again. His lawyers discovered that the partnership had never been formally confirmed and Waters returned to the High Court in an attempt to gain a veto over further use of the band's name. Gilmour's team responded by issuing a carefully worded press release affirming that Pink Floyd would continue to exist. Gilmour later told a Sunday Times reporter that "Roger is a dog in the manger and I'm going to fight him ...".
Waters wrote to EMI and Columbia, declared his intention to leave the group, and asked them to release him from his contractual obligations. Gilmour believed that Waters left to hasten the demise of Pink Floyd. Waters later stated that by not making new albums Pink Floyd would be in breach of contract—which would mean that royalty payments would be suspended—and that he was effectively forced from the band as the other members threatened to sue him. With the case still pending Waters dismissed O'Rourke and employed Peter Rudge to manage his affairs. He went on to record the soundtrack for When the Wind Blows, as well as his second solo album, Radio K.A.O.S.
Radio K.A.O.S.
Radio K.A.O.S. is a 1987 concept album by former Pink Floyd bassist, singer songwriter Roger Waters. It is his second solo album.-Storyline:The concept is based around a 23-year-old disabled man from Wales named Billy....
.
A Momentary Lapse of Reason
As Radio K.A.O.S. was released in June 1987, Gilmour was recruiting musicians for what would become Pink Floyd's first album without Waters—A Momentary Lapse of ReasonA Momentary Lapse of Reason
A Momentary Lapse of Reason is the thirteenth studio album by English progressive rock group Pink Floyd. It was released in the UK and US in September 1987. In 1985 guitarist David Gilmour began to assemble a group of musicians to work on his third solo album...
. Artists such as Jon Carin
Jon Carin
Jon Carin is a producer, artist and musician best known for his association with Pink Floyd, and more specifically its guitarist David Gilmour and former member Roger Waters over the last twenty five years. In the early eighties, he gained fame as the front-man for the band Industry...
and Phil Manzanera
Phil Manzanera
Phil Manzanera is a musician and record producer. He is the lead guitarist with Roxy Music. In 2006 Manzanera co-produced David Gilmour's album On An Island and played in Gilmour's band for tours in Europe and North America...
worked on the album, joined by Bob Ezrin. Gilmour was also contacted by Wright's new wife. She had heard that he was working on new material and asked if Wright could contribute. Gilmour considered the request; there were several legal obstacles to Wright's re-admittance to the band but, after a meeting in Hampstead, he was brought back in. Gilmour later stated in an interview with author Karl Dallas that Wright's presence, "would make us stronger legally and musically" and he was employed as a paid musician on a weekly wage of $11,000. The album was recorded on Gilmour's houseboat, the Astoria
Astoria (recording studio)
Astoria is a grand houseboat, adapted as a recording studio by its owner, Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour. It is moored on the River Thames near Hampton Court...
, moored along the River Thames
River Thames
The River Thames flows through southern England. It is the longest river entirely in England and the second longest in the United Kingdom. While it is best known because its lower reaches flow through central London, the river flows alongside several other towns and cities, including Oxford,...
with Andy Jackson
Andrew Jackson (recording engineer)
Andrew Jackson is a British recording engineer famous for his work with the British band Pink Floyd. He first helped out on the film soundtrack to Pink Floyd The Wall in 1982...
(a colleague of Guthrie) brought in as an engineer. Gilmour experimented with various songwriters, such as Eric Stewart
Eric Stewart
Eric Stewart is an English musician, songwriter and record producer most known for his tenure with The Mindbenders in the 1960s, and 10cc from 1972 to 1995....
and Roger McGough
Roger McGough
Roger Joseph McGough CBE is a well-known English performance poet. He presents the BBC Radio 4 programme Poetry Please and records voice-overs for commercials, as well as performing his own poetry regularly...
, but eventually settled on Anthony Moore
Anthony Moore
Anthony Moore is a British experimental music composer, performer and producer. He was a founding member of the band Slapp Happy, worked with Henry Cow and has made a number of solo albums, including Flying Doesn't Help and World Service .As a lyricist, Moore has collaborated with Pink Floyd on...
as the lyricist. Gilmour would later admit that the new project was difficult without Waters's presence. Nick Mason was concerned that he was too out of practice to perform on the album and was replaced on occasion by session musicians. He instead busied himself with the album's sound effects. In a change from previous Floyd albums A Momentary Lapse of Reason was recorded onto a 32-channel Mitsubishi digital recorder using MIDI synchronisation with the aid of an Apple Macintosh computer. Waters on one occasion visited Astoria to see Ezrin, along with Christie who was by then his wife. As he was still a shareholder and director of Pink Floyd music, he was able to block any decisions made by his former band mates. Recording moved first to Mayfair Studios
Mayfair Studios
Mayfair Studios is a recording studio located in Primrose Hill, London, England. The studio was originally established in Mayfair, London in the 1960s thus giving the studio its name...
and then to Los Angeles—"It was fantastic because ... the lawyers couldn't call in the middle of recording unless they were calling in the middle of the night."
The album was released in September 1987. Storm Thorgerson
Storm Thorgerson
Storm Thorgerson is an English graphic designer, known for his work for rock bands such as Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, 10cc, Dream Theater, The Mars Volta, Muse, The Cranberries, and Biffy Clyro.-Biography:...
, whose creative input was absent from The Wall and The Final Cut, was employed to design the cover. In order to drive home the message that Waters had left the band, a group photograph was—for the first time since Meddle—included on the inside of the cover. The album went straight to number three in the United Kingdom and United States—held from the top spot by Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson
Michael Joseph Jackson was an American recording artist, entertainer, and businessman. Referred to as the King of Pop, or by his initials MJ, Jackson is recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records...
's Bad
Bad (album)
Bad is the seventh studio album by American songwriter and recording artist Michael Jackson. The album was released on August 31, 1987 by Epic/CBS Records, nearly five years after Jackson's previous studio album, Thriller, which went on to become the world's best-selling album...
and Whitesnake
Whitesnake
Whitesnake are an English rock band, founded in 1978 by David Coverdale after his departure from his previous band, Deep Purple. The band's early material has been compared by critics to Deep Purple, but by the mid 1980s they had moved to a more commercial hard rock style...
's eponymous album Whitesnake
Whitesnake (album)
Tracks 12-15 taken from Live: In the Shadow of the Blues-20th Anniversary Edition DVD:-Singles:*"Here I Go Again" *"Is This Love"*"Still of the Night"*"Crying in the Rain" *"Give Me All Your Love"-Personnel:...
. Although Gilmour initially viewed the album as a return to the band's best form, Wright would later disagree stating, "Roger's criticisms are fair. It's not a band album at all." Q Magazines view was that the album was primarily a Gilmour solo effort. Waters said, "I think it's very facile, but a quite clever forgery ... The songs are poor in general; the lyrics I can't quite believe. Gilmour's lyrics are very third-rate."
The associated tour had a rocky start. Waters tried to block a proposed Pink Floyd tour by contacting every promoter in the US and threatening to sue them if they used the Pink Floyd name. Gilmour and Mason funded the start-up costs with Mason, separated from his wife, using his Ferrari 250 GTO
Ferrari 250 GTO
The Ferrari 250 GTO is a GT car which was produced by Ferrari from 1962 to 1964 for homologation into the FIA's Group 3 Grand Touring Car category....
as collateral. Some promoters were offended by Waters's threat and, several months later, tickets went on sale in Toronto and were sold out within hours. Early rehearsals for the upcoming tour were chaotic, with Mason and Wright completely out of practice; realising he'd taken on too much work, Gilmour asked Bob Ezrin to take charge. As the new band toured throughout North America, Waters' Radio K.A.O.S. tour was, on occasion, close by. The bassist had banned any members of Pink Floyd from attending his concerts, which were generally in smaller venues than those housing his former band's performances. Waters issued a writ for copyright fees for the band's use of the flying pig
Pink Floyd pigs
Inflatable Pink Floyd flying pigs were one of the staple props of their live shows. The first was a sow, but a very obviously male pig appeared in the 1980s...
and Pink Floyd responded by attaching a huge set of male genitalia to its underside to distinguish it from his design.
By November 1987 Waters appeared to admit defeat and on 23 December a legal settlement was finally reached. Mason and Gilmour were allowed use of the Pink Floyd name in perpetuity and Waters would be granted, amongst other things, The Wall. The bickering continued however, with Waters issuing the occasional slight against his former friends and Gilmour and Mason responding by making light of Waters's claims that they would fail without him. The Sun
The Sun (newspaper)
The Sun is a daily national tabloid newspaper published in the United Kingdom and owned by News Corporation. Sister editions are published in Glasgow and Dublin...
printed a story about Waters, whom it claimed had paid an artist to create 150 toilet rolls with Gilmour's face on every sheet; Waters denied the story, but joked that he thought it was a good idea.
The Division Bell
For several years the three members of Pink Floyd busied themselves with personal pursuits, such as filming and competing in the Carrera PanamericanaCarrera Panamericana
The Carrera Panamericana was a border-to-border sports car racing event on open roads in Mexico similar to the Mille Miglia and Targa Florio in Italy. Running for five consecutive years from 1950 to 1954, it was widely held by contemporaries to be the most dangerous race of any type in the world...
(where Gilmour and O'Rourke crashed) and later recording a soundtrack for the film. Gilmour divorced Ginger and Mason married actress Annette Lynton. In January 1993 the band began working on a new album. They returned to a then remodelled Britannia Row Studios, where for several days Gilmour, Mason, and Wright worked collaboratively, ad-libbing new material. After about two weeks the band had enough ideas to start creating new songs. Bob Ezrin returned to work on the album and production moved to Astoria, where from February to May 1993 the band worked on about twenty-five ideas. Contractually, Wright was still not a full member of the band: "It came very close to a point where I wasn't going to do the album", a situation which clearly upset the keyboardist; however, he was given his first songwriting credit on a Pink Floyd album since 1975's Wish You Were Here. Another songwriter credited on the album was Gilmour's new girlfriend, Polly Samson
Polly Samson
Polly Samson is a journalist and writer.-Biography:Samson was born to a diplomatic correspondent father and a writer mother of Chinese descent, Esther Cheo Ying, who wrote a memoir, Black Country Girl in Red China, about her time serving as a Major in Mao Zedong's Red Army...
. She helped write "High Hopes
High Hopes (Pink Floyd song)
"High Hopes" is a song from the 1994 Pink Floyd album, The Division Bell, composed by David Gilmour with lyrics by Gilmour and Polly Samson...
" with Gilmour—along with several other tracks—a situation which, though initially tense, Ezrin said, "pulled the whole album together". She also helped Gilmour who had developed a cocaine habit following his divorce. Michael Kamen was brought in to work on the album's various string arrangements and Dick Parry
Dick Parry
Richard 'Dick' Parry is an English saxophonist. He has appeared as a session musician on various albums by modern bands and artists, and is probably best known for his solo parts on the Pink Floyd songs "Money", "Us and Them", "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" and "Wearing the Inside Out"...
and Chris Thomas
Chris Thomas (record producer)
Chris Thomas is an English record producer who has worked extensively with The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Roxy Music, Badfinger, Elton John, Paul McCartney, Pulp and The Pretenders. He has also produced breakthrough albums for The Sex Pistols and INXS.Thomas is quoted as saying -Early life:Thomas was...
also returned. Keen to avoid competing against other album releases (as had happened with A Momentary Lapse) the band set a deadline of April 1994, at which point they would begin touring again. The album title was chosen by writer Douglas Adams
Douglas Adams
Douglas Noel Adams was an English writer and dramatist. He is best known as the author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which started life in 1978 as a BBC radio comedy before developing into a "trilogy" of five books that sold over 15 million copies in his lifetime, a television...
and Storm Thorgerson once again provided the cover artwork. Thorgerson also provided six new pieces of film for the upcoming tour.
The band spent three weeks rehearsing in a hangar at Norton Air Force Base
Norton Air Force Base
Norton Air Force Base is a former front-line United States Air Force facility located east of downtown San Bernardino, California in San Bernardino County.-Overview:...
in San Bernardino
San Bernardino, California
San Bernardino is a city located in the Riverside-San Bernardino metropolitan area , and serves as the county seat of San Bernardino County, California, United States...
, California, before opening on 29 March 1994 in Miami with an almost identical crew to that used for their Momentary Lapse of Reason tour. They played a mixture of Pink Floyd favourites, but later changed their setlist to include The Dark Side of the Moon in its entirety. The band also renewed their acquaintance with Peter Wynne Willson. Waters declined the band's invitation to join them as the tour reached Europe, later expressing his annoyance that some Pink Floyd songs were again being performed in large venues. A 1,200 capacity stand collapsed at Earls Court
Earls Court
Earls Court is a district in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in London, England. It is an inner-city district centred on Earl's Court Road and surrounding streets, located 3.1 miles west south-west of Charing Cross. It borders the sub-districts of South Kensington to the East, West...
during the European leg of the tour, but with no serious injuries, and the performance was rescheduled.
The tour ended on 29 October and was the group's final tour. A live album Pulse and a concert video, also called Pulse, were released in 1995. This would also be the last appearance of the band before the one-off reunion in 2005 during Live 8
Live 8
Live 8 was a string of benefit concerts that took place on 2 July 2005, in the G8 states and in South Africa. They were timed to precede the G8 Conference and summit held at the Gleneagles Hotel in Auchterarder, Scotland from 6–8 July 2005; they also coincided with the 20th anniversary of Live Aid...
and their performances of "Fat Old Sun" and "The Great Gig in the Sky" at the funeral of their manager Steve O'Rourke
Steve O'Rourke
Steve O'Rourke was born in Willesden, London, England. He was well known for being manager of the highly influential rock band Pink Floyd after the departure of Syd Barrett in 1968 until his death. He also had to weather the band's falling-out with member Roger Waters.He first managed Pink Floyd...
.
Live 8 and beyond (2005–present)
Live 8
Live 8 was a string of benefit concerts that took place on 2 July 2005, in the G8 states and in South Africa. They were timed to precede the G8 Conference and summit held at the Gleneagles Hotel in Auchterarder, Scotland from 6–8 July 2005; they also coincided with the 20th anniversary of Live Aid...
concert.
The reunion had been arranged by Live 8 organiser Bob Geldof
Bob Geldof
Robert Frederick Zenon "Bob" Geldof, KBE is an Irish singer, songwriter, author, occasional actor and political activist. He rose to prominence as the lead singer of the Irish rock band The Boomtown Rats in the late 1970s and early 1980s alongside the punk rock movement. The band had hits with his...
who had called Mason earlier in the year to discuss the band reuniting for the event. Geldof asked Gilmour, who turned down the offer, and then asked Mason to intercede on his behalf. Mason declined, but contacted Waters who was immediately enthusiastic. Waters then called Geldof to discuss the event, which was at that time only a month away. About two weeks later Waters called Gilmour, their first conversation for about two years, and the next day the latter agreed. Wright was contacted and immediately agreed. Statements were issued to the press which stressed the unimportance of the band's problems, compared to the context of the Live 8 event. The set-list was planned at the Connaught Hotel in London, followed by three days of rehearsals at Black Island Studios. The sessions were troublesome, with minor disagreements over the style and pace of the songs they were practising. Waters wanted to use the occasion to expand the concepts he had designed, whereas Gilmour wanted to perform the songs in exactly the way the audience would expect. The final set-list and running order was decided on the eve of the concert. Gilmour and Waters shared lead vocals. At the start of their performance, during "Wish You Were Here", Waters told the audience: "It's actually quite emotional, standing up here with these three guys after all these years, standing to be counted with the rest of you. Anyway, we're doing this for everyone who's not here, and particularly of course for Syd." At the end of their performance Gilmour thanked the audience and started to walk off the stage but Waters called him back and the band shared a group hug. Images of that hug were a favourite amongst Sunday newspapers after Live 8. Two years after their one-off reunion Waters remarked, "I don't think any of us came out of the years from 1985 with any credit ... It was a bad, negative time. And I regret my part in that negativity." In the week following their performance there was a revival of interest in Pink Floyd. According to HMV
HMV Group
HMV is a British global entertainment retail chain and is the largest of its kind in the United Kingdom and Ireland. The company also operates in Hong Kong and Singapore. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE Fledgling Index...
, in the week following sales of Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd rose by 1,343 per cent, while Amazon.com
Amazon.com
Amazon.com, Inc. is a multinational electronic commerce company headquartered in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the world's largest online retailer. Amazon has separate websites for the following countries: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, and...
reported a significant increase in sales of The Wall. Gilmour subsequently declared that he would donate his share of profits from this sales boom to charity and urged other artists and record companies profiting from Live 8 to do the same.
After the show Gilmour confirmed that he and Waters were on "pretty amicable terms". The band turned down a £136 million (then about $250 million) deal for a final tour. Waters did not rule out further performances, but only for a special occasion. In a 2006 interview with La Repubblica
La Repubblica
la Repubblica is an Italian daily general-interest newspaper. Founded in 1976 in Rome by the journalist Eugenio Scalfari, as of 2008 is the second largest circulation newspaper, behind the Corriere della Sera.-Foundation:...
Gilmour stated that he wished to focus on solo projects and his family, and that his appearance at Live 8 was to help reconcile his differences with Waters. In a 2006 interview Mason stated that Pink Floyd would be willing to perform for a concert that would support peace between Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
and Palestine
Palestine
Palestine is a conventional name, among others, used to describe the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands....
. Speaking of Pink Floyd's future Gilmour stated in 2006 "who knows". David Gilmour released his third solo record, On an Island
On an Island
On an Island is the third solo album by David Gilmour, best known as vocalist and lead guitarist for Pink Floyd. It was released in the UK on 6 March 2006, Gilmour's 60th birthday, and in the United States the following day. It was Gilmour's first new solo album in 22 years...
, on 6 March 2006—his 60th birthday. He began a tour of small concert venues in Europe, Canada and the US, with contributions from Wright and other musicians from the post-Waters Pink Floyd tours. Mason joined Gilmour and Wright for the final night of the tour and played on selected dates on Waters' 2006 Europe and U.S. tour "The Dark Side of the Moon Live". Gilmour, Wright, and Mason's encore performances of "Wish You Were Here" and "Comfortably Numb" marked the first performance by Pink Floyd since Live 8.
Syd Barrett died on 7 July 2006 at his home in Cambridgeshire
Cambridgeshire
Cambridgeshire is a county in England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the northeast, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire to the west...
aged 60. He was interred at Cambridge Crematorium on 18 July 2006. No Pink Floyd members attended. After Barrett's death Wright said, "The band are very naturally upset and sad to hear of Syd Barrett's death. Syd was the guiding light of the early band line-up and leaves a legacy which continues to inspire." Although Barrett had faded into obscurity over the previous 35 years, he was lauded in the national press for his contributions to music. He left over £1.25M in his will, to be divided among his immediate family, and some of his possessions and artwork were auctioned.
In September 2005 Waters released Ça Ira, an opera in three acts to a French libretto
Libretto
A libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata, or musical. The term "libretto" is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as mass, requiem, and sacred cantata, or even the story line of a...
, based on the historical subject of the French Revolution
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
. Reviews were complimentary; Rolling Stone wrote, "the opera does reflect some of the man's long-term obsessions with war and peace, love and loss". 2007 saw the 40th anniversary of Pink Floyd's signing to EMI and the 40th anniversary of the release of their début album The Piper at the Gates of Dawn. 2007 saw the release of Oh, by the Way
Oh, by the Way
Oh, by the Way is a compilation box set by Pink Floyd released on 10 December 2007, by EMI Records in the United Kingdom and the following day in the United States through Capitol Records. The box set includes all fourteen of their standard studio albums, packaged as mini-vinyl replicas...
, a limited edition box set containing all of their studio albums.
On 10 May 2007 Waters and Pink Floyd performed separately at the Syd Barrett tribute concert at the Barbican Centre
Barbican Centre
The Barbican Centre is the largest performing arts centre in Europe. Located in the City of London, England, the Centre hosts classical and contemporary music concerts, theatre performances, film screenings and art exhibitions. It also houses a library, three restaurants, and a conservatory...
in London. The band performed some of Barrett's hits, such as "Bike
Bike (song)
"Bike" is a song by British psychedelic rock band Pink Floyd, and is featured on their debut album, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn .-Information:...
" and "Arnold Layne", at the event which was organised by Joe Boyd and Nick Laird-Clowes
Nick Laird-Clowes
Nick Laird-Clowes is a musician, most famous for his membership as the lead singer and one of the principal songwriters for the band called The Dream Academy...
. In a January 2007 interview Waters suggested he had become more open to a Pink Floyd reunion: "I would have no problem if the rest of them wanted to get together. It wouldn’t even have to be to save the world. It could be just because it would be fun. And people would love it." Later that year Gilmour stated: "I can’t see why I would want to be going back to that old thing. It’s very retrogressive. I want to look forward, and looking back isn’t my joy." In a May 2008 interview for BBC 6Music, David Gilmour hinted that he would be in favour of another one-off show, but ruled out a full tour. Speaking to Associated Press
Associated Press
The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...
to promote the release of his new live album, David Gilmour stated that a reunion would not happen. Gilmour said: "The rehearsals were less enjoyable. The rehearsals convinced me it wasn't something I wanted to be doing a lot of ... There have been all sorts of farewell moments in people's lives and careers which they have then rescinded, but I think I can fairly categorically say that there won't be a tour or an album again that I take part in. It isn't to do with animosity or anything like that. It's just that I've done that. I've been there, I've done it."
Richard Wright died of cancer on 15 September 2008 aged 65. He was praised by his surviving band mates for his influence on the overall sound of Pink Floyd.
On 10 July 2010 Roger Waters and David Gilmour performed together at a charity event for the Hoping Foundation. The event took place at Kiddington Hall in Oxfordshire, England. The pair played to an audience of approximately 200. The event raised money for Palestinian children in order to give them a better life. Gilmour played this event in 2009 when he performed alongside Kate Moss. In return for Waters' appearance at the event, Gilmour agreed to perform "Comfortably Numb" at one of Waters' upcoming performances of The Wall
The Wall Live (2010–2011 tour)
The Wall Live is a worldwide concert tour by Roger Waters, formerly of Pink Floyd. The tour is the first time the Pink Floyd album The Wall has been performed in its entirety by the band or any of its former members since Waters performed the album live in Berlin 21 July 1990...
.
On 4 January 2011 Pink Floyd signed a five year record deal with EMI, ending the legal dispute regarding how their material is distributed in the era of individual track downloads. They defended their vision to keep their albums as a cohesive unit and not just individual tracks.
On 12 May 2011 at the O2 Arena in London, David Gilmour made good on his promise to play "Comfortably Numb" at one of Roger Waters' performances of The Wall. Gilmour sang the first and second chorus, accidentally juxtaposing the last few lines in the second, and played the two guitar solos. After the wall fell down near the end of the show Waters said to the crowd, "We've done it today. So please welcome David Gilmour! By a strange and happy extraordinary coincidence, there is another remnant of our old band here tonight. Please welcome, Mr. Nick Mason!" Gilmour and Mason, with respectively a mandolin and a tambourine, joined Waters and the rest of his band for "Outside The Wall", effectively representing a full reunion of all living Pink Floyd members. It was the first time since Live 8 that the three members shared the same stage and the first time that the line-up from the album The Final Cut appeared in concert.
On 26 September 2011, Pink Floyd and EMI launched an exhaustive re-release campaign under the title Why Pink Floyd...?
Why Pink Floyd...?
Why Pink Floyd...? is an exhaustive re-release campaign of the entire back catalogue of the English rock group Pink Floyd scheduled for 2011–12. It will entail various incarnations of the band's material in multiple formats. The music will be presented newly remastered, featuring unreleased tracks...
which reissues the band's back catalogue in newly remastered
Audio mastering
Mastering, a form of audio post-production, is the process of preparing and transferring recorded audio from a source containing the final mix to a data storage device ; the source from which all copies will be produced...
versions, including special "Immersion" multi-disc multi-format editions. All albums are being remastered by James Guthrie
James Guthrie (record producer)
James K.A. Guthrie is a British recording engineer and record producer best known for his work with the progressive rock band Pink Floyd, having served as a producer and engineer for the band since 1978...
, the co-producer of The Wall
The Wall
The Wall is the eleventh studio album by English progressive rock group Pink Floyd. Released as a double album on 30 November 1979, it was subsequently performed live with elaborate theatrical effects, and adapted into a feature film, Pink Floyd—The Wall.As with the band's previous three...
.
Influence and awards
Pink Floyd ranked number 51 on Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
magazine's list of "The 100 Greatest Artists of All Time", with David Gilmour ranking 14th in the greatest guitarists list.
The Sunday Times Rich List
Sunday Times Rich List
The Sunday Times Rich List is a list of the 1,000 wealthiest people or families in the United Kingdom, updated annually in April and published as a magazine supplement by British national Sunday newspaper The Sunday Times since 1989...
Music Millionaires 2011 ranked Waters at No.22 with an estimated wealth of £105m, Gilmour at No.27 with £85m and Mason at No.41 with £50m.
Numerous artists have been influenced by Pink Floyd's work: David Bowie
David Bowie
David Bowie is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. A major figure for over four decades in the world of popular music, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s...
has called Syd Barrett a major inspiration; A teenage The Edge
The Edge
David Howell Evans , more widely known by his stage name The Edge , is a musician best known as the guitarist, backing vocalist, and keyboardist of the Irish rock band U2. A member of the group since its inception, he has recorded 12 studio albums with the band and has released one solo record...
(of U2
U2
U2 are an Irish rock band from Dublin. Formed in 1976, the group consists of Bono , The Edge , Adam Clayton , and Larry Mullen, Jr. . U2's early sound was rooted in post-punk but eventually grew to incorporate influences from many genres of popular music...
fame) bought his first delay pedal after hearing the opening to Animals; and the Pet Shop Boys
Pet Shop Boys
Pet Shop Boys are an English electronic dance music duo, consisting of Neil Tennant, who provides main vocals, keyboards and occasional guitar, and Chris Lowe on keyboards....
paid homage to The Wall during a performance in Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
; Marillion
Marillion
Marillion are a British rock band, formed in Aylesbury, England in 1979. Their recorded studio output comprises sixteen albums generally regarded in two distinct eras, delineated by the departure of original vocalist & frontman Fish in late 1988, and the subsequent arrival of replacement Steve...
guitarist Steve Rothery
Steve Rothery
Steve Rothery is the guitarist of the English rock band Marillion. He was born in Brampton, South Yorkshire, England. From the age of six he lived in Whitby, North Yorkshire.-Biography:...
has cited Wish You Were Here as a major inspiration; and many other bands, such as the Foo Fighters
Foo Fighters
Foo Fighters is an American alternative rock band originally formed in 1994 by Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl as a one-man project following the dissolution of his previous band. The band got its name from the UFOs and various aerial phenomena that were reported by Allied aircraft pilots in World War...
, Dream Theater
Dream Theater
Dream Theater is an American progressive metal band formed in 1985 under the name Majesty by John Petrucci, John Myung, and Mike Portnoy while they attended Berklee College of Music in Massachusetts. They subsequently dropped out of their studies to further concentrate on the band that would...
, My Chemical Romance
My Chemical Romance
My Chemical Romance is an American alternative rock band from New Jersey, formed in 2001. The band consists of lead vocalist Gerard Way, guitarists Ray Toro and Frank Iero, and bassist Mikey Way and have a diverse sound incorporating elements of punk, emo, glam metal, and progressive rock...
, Porcupine Tree
Porcupine Tree
Porcupine Tree is a progressive rock band formed by Steven Wilson in 1987 in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, England. Their music is difficult to categorise, being associated with both psychedelic rock and progressive rock, yet having been influenced by trance, krautrock and ambient due to Steven...
, The Mars Volta
The Mars Volta
The Mars Volta is a Grammy award winning American progressive rock band from El Paso, Texas. Founded in 2001 by guitarist Omar Rodríguez-López and vocalist Cedric Bixler-Zavala, the band incorporates various influences including progressive rock, krautrock, jazz fusion, Latin American music, and...
, Tool
Tool (band)
Tool is an American rock band from Los Angeles, California. Formed in 1990, the group's line-up has included drummer Danny Carey, guitarist Adam Jones, and vocalist Maynard James Keenan. Since 1995, Justin Chancellor has been the band's bassist, replacing their original bassist Paul D'Amour...
, Queensryche
Queensrÿche
thumb|250px|right|Queensrÿche's classic line-up performing at the [[Sauna Open Air Metal Festival]] 2011 in [[Tampere]], [[Finland]]. Left to right: bass Eddie Jackson, lead vocals Geoff Tate, drums Scott Rockenfield and guitars Michael Wilton....
, Scissor Sisters
Scissor Sisters
Scissor Sisters are an American band "spawned by the scuzzy, gay nightlife scene of New York" who took their name from a sexual position between two women also known as tribadism...
, Rush
Rush (band)
Rush is a Canadian rock band formed in August 1968, in the Willowdale neighbourhood of Toronto, Ontario. The band is composed of bassist, keyboardist, and lead vocalist Geddy Lee, guitarist Alex Lifeson, and drummer and lyricist Neil Peart...
, Radiohead
Radiohead
Radiohead are an English rock band from Abingdon, Oxfordshire, formed in 1985. The band consists of Thom Yorke , Jonny Greenwood , Ed O'Brien , Colin Greenwood and Phil Selway .Radiohead released their debut single "Creep" in 1992...
, Gorillaz
Gorillaz
Gorillaz is an English musical project created in 1998 by Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett. This project consists of Gorillaz music itself and an extensive fictional universe depicting a "virtual band" of cartoon characters...
, Mudvayne
Mudvayne
Mudvayne is an American heavy metal band. Their work is marked by the use of sonic experimentation, innovative album art, and elaborate visual appearance, which has included face and body paint, masks and uniforms...
, Nine Inch Nails
Nine Inch Nails
Nine Inch Nails is an American industrial rock project, founded in 1988 by Trent Reznor in Cleveland, Ohio. As its main producer, singer, songwriter, and instrumentalist, Reznor is the only official member of Nine Inch Nails and remains solely responsible for its direction...
, Primus
Primus (band)
Primus is an American rock band based in San Francisco, California, currently composed of bassist/vocalist Les Claypool, guitarist Larry "Ler" LaLonde and drummer Jay Lane. Primus originally formed in 1984 with Claypool and guitarist Todd Huth, later joined by Lane, though the latter two departed...
and the Smashing Pumpkins, some of whom have recorded Pink Floyd covers, have been influenced by them.
Pink Floyd have been nominated for and won multiple awards. Technical awards include a "Best Engineered Non-Classical Album" Grammy in 1980 for The Wall
The Wall
The Wall is the eleventh studio album by English progressive rock group Pink Floyd. Released as a double album on 30 November 1979, it was subsequently performed live with elaborate theatrical effects, and adapted into a feature film, Pink Floyd—The Wall.As with the band's previous three...
and BAFTAs award for 'Best Original Song' (awarded to Waters) and 'Best Sound' (awarded to James Guthrie, Eddy Joseph, Clive Winter, Graham Hartstone and Nicholas Le Messurier) in 1982 for the The Wall film
Pink Floyd The Wall (film)
Pink Floyd—The Wall is a 1982 British live-action/animated musical film directed by Alan Parker based on the 1979 Pink Floyd album The Wall. The screenplay was written by Pink Floyd vocalist and bassist Roger Waters. The film is highly metaphorical and is rich in symbolic imagery and sound...
. A Grammy came to them in 1995 for "Rock Instrumental Performance" on "Marooned
Marooned (song)
"Marooned" is an instrumental track on Pink Floyd's 1994 album, The Division Bell; the track won a Grammy Award in 1995.The piece was written by David Gilmour and Richard Wright. It has sounds that describe the setting as an island . It was composed while jamming aboard the Astoria in early 1993...
". In 2008 Pink Floyd were awarded the Polar Music Prize
Polar Music Prize
The Polar Music Prize is a Swedish international music award founded in 1989 by Stig Anderson, possibly best known to be the manager of the Swedish pop group ABBA, with a donation to the Royal Swedish Academy of Music....
for their contribution to contemporary music; Waters and Mason accepted the prize from King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum is a museum located on the shore of Lake Erie in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It is dedicated to archiving the history of some of the best-known and most influential artists, producers, engineers and others who have, in some major way,...
on 17 January 1996, the UK Music Hall of Fame
UK Music Hall of Fame
The UK Music Hall of Fame was an awards ceremony to honour musicians, of any nationality, for their lifetime contributions to music in the United Kingdom. The Hall of Fame started in 2004 with the induction of five founder members and five more members selected by a public televote, two from each...
on 16 November 2005 and the Hit Parade Hall of Fame in 2010.
A new genus of spider, Pinkfloydia, was named by & (2011): An extraordinary new genus of spiders from Western Australia with an expanded hypothesis on the phylogeny of Tetragnathidae (Araneae). Zoological journal of the Linnean Society, 161(4): 735–768.
Live performances
Pink Floyd are regarded as pioneers in the live musicConcert
A concert is a live performance before an audience. The performance may be by a single musician, sometimes then called a recital, or by a musical ensemble, such as an orchestra, a choir, or a musical band...
experience and were renowned for their lavish stage shows, in which the performers themselves were almost secondary. Pink Floyd also set high standards in sound quality, making use of innovative sound effects and quadraphonic speaker systems. From their earliest days they were well known for their use of visual effects, which accompanied the psychedelic rock
Psychedelic rock
Psychedelic rock is a style of rock music that is inspired or influenced by psychedelic culture and attempts to replicate and enhance the mind-altering experiences of psychedelic drugs. It emerged during the mid 1960s among folk rock and blues rock bands in United States and the United Kingdom...
pieces performed at venues such as the UFO Club
UFO Club
The UFO Club was a famous but shortlived UK underground club in London during the 1960s, venue of performances by many of the top bands of the day.-History:...
in London. The quality of their live performances, even when pre-recorded, was considered by the band to be extremely important; they boycotted the press release of The Dark Side of the Moon as they felt presenting the album through a poor-quality PA system was not good enough. The album had been composed and refined mostly while the band toured the UK, Japan, North America, and Europe. An inflatable floating pig named "Algie" became the inspiration for a number of pig themes used throughout the "In the Flesh Tour", which began in Dortmund
Dortmund
Dortmund is a city in Germany. It is located in the Bundesland of North Rhine-Westphalia, in the Ruhr area. Its population of 585,045 makes it the 7th largest city in Germany and the 34th largest in the European Union....
and continued through Europe to the UK, and then the US.
Although Pink Floyd were experienced live performers the behaviour of the audience on their "In the Flesh" tour, and the sizes of the venues they played, were a powerful influence on their concept album The Wall
The Wall
The Wall is the eleventh studio album by English progressive rock group Pink Floyd. Released as a double album on 30 November 1979, it was subsequently performed live with elaborate theatrical effects, and adapted into a feature film, Pink Floyd—The Wall.As with the band's previous three...
. The subsequent "The Wall Tour" featured a 40 feet (12.2 m) high wall, built from cardboard bricks, constructed between the band and the audience. Animations were projected onto the wall, and gaps allowed the audience to view various scenes in the story. Several characters from the story were realised as giant inflatables. One of the more notable elements of the tour was the performance of "Comfortably Numb". While Waters sang his opening verse, Gilmour waited for his cue on top of the wall in darkness. When it came, bright blue and white lights would suddenly illuminate him. Gilmour stood on a flight case on castors, a dangerous set-up supported from behind by a technician, both supported by a tall hydraulic platform.
In 1987 Pink Floyd embarked on their A Momentary Lapse of Reason Tour. Starting in Ottawa
Ottawa
Ottawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario...
on 9 September they spent about two years touring the US, Japan, Europe, and Central Asia. In Venice
Venice
Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...
, Italy, the band played to an audience of 200,000 fans at the Piazza San Marco
Piazza San Marco
Piazza San Marco , is the principal public square of Venice, Italy, where it is generally known just as "the Piazza". All other urban spaces in the city are called "campi"...
. The resulting storm of protest over the city's lack of toilet provision, first aid, and accommodation resulted in the resignation of Mayor Antonio Casellati and his government. At the end of the tour Pink Floyd released Delicate Sound of Thunder
Delicate Sound of Thunder
-LP / Cassette:Side 1# "Shine On You Crazy Diamond"# "Learning to Fly# "Yet Another Movie"# "Round and Around"Side 2# "Sorrow"# "The Dogs of War"# "On the Turning Away"Side 3# "One of These Days"# "Time"...
, and in 1989 released the Delicate Sound of Thunder
Delicate Sound of Thunder (film)
Delicate Sound of Thunder is a Pink Floyd concert video taken from the A Momentary Lapse of Reason tour. It was largely filmed during the concerts running from August 19, 1988 through August 23, 1988 at the Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, New York, with some additional footage from June 21, 1988 and...
concert video.
During the band's "Division Bell" tour, an unidentified person using the name Publius
Publius Enigma
The Publius Enigma is a mystery involving a riddle proposed in connection with the 1994 Pink Floyd album The Division Bell. It originated on the Internet as a Web-based contest implemented to promote the album and its tour, possibly an early example of viral marketing...
posted a message on an internet newsgroup, inviting fans to solve a riddle supposedly concealed in the new album. The veracity of the user was demonstrated when white lights in front of the stage at the Pink Floyd concert in East Rutherford spelled out the words Enigma Publius. During a televised concert at Earls Court in October 1994 the word enigma was projected in large letters on to the backdrop of the stage. Mason later acknowledged that the Publius Enigma
Publius Enigma
The Publius Enigma is a mystery involving a riddle proposed in connection with the 1994 Pink Floyd album The Division Bell. It originated on the Internet as a Web-based contest implemented to promote the album and its tour, possibly an early example of viral marketing...
did exist, and that it had been instigated by the record company rather than the band. As of the puzzle remains unsolved.
Discography
| Date of release | Title | Billboard Billboard 200 The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists... peak |
RIAA cert. RIAA certification In the United States, the Recording Industry Association of America awards certification based on the number of albums and singles sold through retail and other ancillary markets. Other countries have similar awards... |
Label |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 August 1967 | The Piper at the Gates of Dawn The Piper at the Gates of Dawn The Piper at the Gates of Dawn is the debut album by the English rock group Pink Floyd, and the only one made under founding member Syd Barrett's leadership. The album contains whimsical lyrics about space, scarecrows, gnomes, bicycles and fairy tales, along with psychedelic instrumental songs... |
131 | — | Columbia Columbia Graphophone Company The Columbia Graphophone Company was one of the earliest gramophone companies in the United Kingdom. Under EMI, as Columbia Records, it became a very successful label in the 1950s and 1960s... /EMI EMI Records EMI Records is the flagship record label founded by the EMI company in 1972 and launched in January 1973 as the successor to its Columbia label. The EMI label was launched worldwide... (UK) Tower Tower Records (record label) Tower Records was a record label from 1964 to 1970. A subsidiary of Capitol Records, Tower often released music by artists who were relatively low profile in comparison to those released on the parent label, including a number of artists—such as The Standells and The Chocolate Watch Band—later... /Capitol Capitol Records Capitol Records is a major United States based record label, formerly located in Los Angeles, but operating in New York City as part of Capitol Music Group. Its former headquarters building, the Capitol Tower, is a major landmark near the corner of Hollywood and Vine... (US) |
| 28 June 1968 | A Saucerful of Secrets A Saucerful of Secrets A Saucerful of Secrets is the second studio album by the English rock group Pink Floyd. It was recorded at EMI's Abbey Road Studios on various dates from August 1967 to April 1968... |
— | — | |
| 13 June 1969 | Soundtrack from the Film More | 153 | — | |
| 7 November 1969 | Ummagumma Ummagumma Ummagumma is a double album by English progressive rock band Pink Floyd, released in 1969 by Harvest and EMI in the United Kingdom and Harvest and Capitol in the United States... |
74 | Platinum | Harvest Harvest Records -References:* Harvest Records collectors guide ISBN 978-5-9622-0021-7... /EMI EMI Records EMI Records is the flagship record label founded by the EMI company in 1972 and launched in January 1973 as the successor to its Columbia label. The EMI label was launched worldwide... |
| 2 October 1970 | Atom Heart Mother Atom Heart Mother Atom Heart Mother is the fifth studio album by English progressive rock band Pink Floyd, released in 1970 by Harvest and EMI Records in the United Kingdom and Harvest and Capitol in the United States. It was recorded at Abbey Road Studios, London, England, and reached number one in the United... |
55 | Gold | |
| 5 November 1971 | Meddle Meddle Meddle is the sixth studio album by English progressive rock group Pink Floyd. It was released in October 1971.The album was recorded at a series of locations around London, including Abbey Road Studios... |
70 | 2x Platinum | |
| 2 June 1972 | Obscured by Clouds Obscured by Clouds -Singles:*"Free Four"/"Stay" *"Free Four"/"The Gold It's in the..." -Personnel:Pink Floyd*David Gilmour – guitars, vocals, pedal steel guitar, VCS3*Nick Mason – drums, percussion... |
46 | Gold | |
| 23 March 1973 | The Dark Side of the Moon The Dark Side of the Moon The Dark Side of the Moon is the eighth studio album by English progressive rock band Pink Floyd, released in March 1973. It built on ideas explored in the band's earlier recordings and live shows, but lacks the extended instrumental excursions that characterised their work following the departure... |
1 | 15x Platinum | |
| 12 September 1975 | Wish You Were Here | 1 | 6× Platinum | Harvest Harvest Records -References:* Harvest Records collectors guide ISBN 978-5-9622-0021-7... /EMI EMI Records EMI Records is the flagship record label founded by the EMI company in 1972 and launched in January 1973 as the successor to its Columbia label. The EMI label was launched worldwide... Columbia/CBS Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company... |
| 21 January 1977 | Animals | 3 | 4x Platinum | |
| 30 November 1979 | The Wall The Wall The Wall is the eleventh studio album by English progressive rock group Pink Floyd. Released as a double album on 30 November 1979, it was subsequently performed live with elaborate theatrical effects, and adapted into a feature film, Pink Floyd—The Wall.As with the band's previous three... |
1 | 23x Platinum | |
| 21 March 1983 | The Final Cut The Final Cut (album) The Final Cut is the twelfth studio album by English progressive rock group Pink Floyd. It was released in March 1983 by Harvest Records in the United Kingdom, and several weeks later by Columbia Records in the United States. A concept album, The Final Cut is the last of the band's releases to... |
6 | 2x Platinum | |
| 7 September 1987 | A Momentary Lapse of Reason A Momentary Lapse of Reason A Momentary Lapse of Reason is the thirteenth studio album by English progressive rock group Pink Floyd. It was released in the UK and US in September 1987. In 1985 guitarist David Gilmour began to assemble a group of musicians to work on his third solo album... |
3 | 4x Platinum | EMI EMI Records EMI Records is the flagship record label founded by the EMI company in 1972 and launched in January 1973 as the successor to its Columbia label. The EMI label was launched worldwide... |
| 28 March 1994 | The Division Bell The Division Bell The Division Bell is the fourteenth and last studio album by English progressive rock group Pink Floyd. It was released in the United Kingdom by EMI Records on 28 March 1994, and in the United States by Columbia Records on 4 April.... |
1 | 3x Platinum |
Band members
Former members- Syd BarrettSyd BarrettSyd Barrett , born Roger Keith Barrett, was an English singer-songwriter, guitarist, and painter, best remembered as a founding member of the band Pink Floyd. He was the lead vocalist, guitarist and primary songwriter during the band's psychedelic years, providing major musical and stylistic...
– lead vocals, lead guitar (1965–1968) - David GilmourDavid GilmourDavid Jon Gilmour, CBE, D.M. is an English rock musician and multi-instrumentalist who is best known as the guitarist, one of the lead singers and main songwriters in the progressive rock band Pink Floyd. In addition to his work with Pink Floyd, Gilmour has worked as a producer for a variety of...
– lead vocals, lead guitar, bass guitar, keyboards, special effects (December 1967–1996, 2005) - Bob KloseBob KloseRado 'Bob' Klose is an English musician and photographer. He was one of the earliest members of the rock band Pink Floyd, playing lead guitar, but left the band before they recorded their first released single, "Arnold Layne".- Abdabs :"The Abdabs" , with Roger Waters , Richard Wright Rado 'Bob'...
– guitars (1965) - Nick MasonNick MasonNicholas Berkeley "Nick" Mason is an English drummer and songwriter, best known for his work with Pink Floyd. He was the only constant member of the band since its formation in 1965...
– drums, percussion, programming (1965–1996, 2005) - Roger WatersRoger WatersGeorge Roger Waters is an English musician, singer-songwriter and composer. He was a founding member of the progressive rock band Pink Floyd, serving as bassist and co-lead vocalist. Following the departure of bandmate Syd Barrett in 1968, Waters became the band's lyricist, principal songwriter...
– lead vocals, bass guitar, guitars, percussion, programming (1965–1985, 2005) - Richard WrightRichard Wright (musician)Richard William Wright was an English pianist, keyboardist and songwriter, best known for his career with Pink Floyd. Wright's richly textured keyboard layers were a vital ingredient and a distinctive characteristic of Pink Floyd's sound...
– keyboards, vocals (occasionally lead), organ, piano, synthesisers, mellotron (1965–1979, 1987–1996, 2005)
Timeline