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Pink Floyd were an English rock band who, in the late 1960s, earned recognition for their psychedelic and space rock music, and in the 1970s, as they evolved, for their progressive rock music. Pink Floyd's work is marked by philosophical lyrics, sonic experimentation, innovative album cover art, and elaborate live shows. One of rock music's most critically acclaimed and commercially successful acts, the group has sold over 200 million albums worldwide, including 74.5 million certified units in the United States.
Pink Floyd were formed in 1965, soon after Syd Barrett joined The Tea Set, a group that consisted of architecture students Nick Mason, Roger Waters, Richard Wright and Bob Klose. Klose left shortly after, but the group had moderate mainstream success and were a popular fixture on London's underground music scene. The erratic behaviour of Barrett prompted his colleagues to add guitarist and singer David Gilmour to the line-up. Following Barrett's departure, bass player and singer Roger Waters became the lyricist and dominant figure in the band, which thereafter achieved worldwide critical and commercial success with the concept albums The Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here, Animals, and rock opera The Wall.
Wright left the band in 1979, and Waters in 1985, but Gilmour and Mason (joined by Wright) continued recording and touring under the name Pink Floyd. Waters used legal means to try to keep them from using the name, declaring Pink Floyd a spent force, but the parties reached an out-of-court settlement allowing Gilmour, Mason and Wright to continue as Pink Floyd
. The band again enjoyed worldwide success with A Momentary Lapse of Reason (1987) and The Division Bell (1994), and Waters continued as a solo musician, releasing three studio albums. Although for some years relations between Waters and the remaining three members were sour, the band reformed for what would be a final one-off performance at Live 8.
HistoryEarly years (1963–1967)FormationFuture Pink Floyd members Nick Mason (drummer) and Roger Waters (bass guitarist) met in 1963 at the Regent Street Polytechnic in London, where both were studying architecture, and first played together in Sigma 6, a band formed by Keith Noble and Clive Metcalfe. A third future Pink Floyd member Richard Wright (keyboardist), also a student at the Polytechnic, later joined the same band, [2008]
source=Nick Mason
In September 1963 Mason and Waters moved into the lower flat of Stanhope Gardens, and used the front room for rehearsals.[2005] The flat was owned by Mike Leonard, a part-time tutor at the Regent Street Polytechnic, who was a designer of light machines (perforated discs spun by electric motors to cast patterns of lights on the walls; these would be demonstrated in an early edition of ''Tomorrow's World''), and for a time played keyboard with the band. The band's name changed several times, including the Megadeaths and the Abdabs, settling briefly on The Tea Set.[2008] Bob Klose, an accomplished guitar player, moved in and joined the band, requiring Waters, who initially played lead guitar, to switch to bass guitar.[Glenn Povey, title=Echoes: the complete history of Pink Floyd, page 14 ] Syd Barrett (guitarist), a childhood friend of Waters, arrived in London in the autumn of 1963, to study at Camberwell College of Art.[2005] Barrett, then aged 18,[2008] joined The Tea Set in 1964 and moved into Stanhope Gardens alongside Klose and Waters.
As "The Pink Floyd Sound" The band's first concert under the name "The Pink Floyd Sound" was on 12 October 1965 at The Coundown Club. The name being taken from that of two blues musicians that Barrett had in his record collection—Pink Anderson and Floyd Council;[1991] Barrett creating it on the spur of the moment, when he discovered that another band, also named Tea Set, were to perform at one of their gigs.[2005] The band had undergone a few personal changes - for a short period the band had Chris Dennis, a technician with the Royal Air Force, as singer;[2008] however, when he was posted to Bahrain Barrett became lead singer and frontman.
At a performance at the The Marquee in March 1966, a lecturer at the London School of Economics, Peter Jenner, was impressed with the strange acoustic effects that Barrett and Wright created during their performance, and with his business partner and friend Andrew King became their manager. Although the pair had little experience of the music industry, they used inherited money to set up Blackhill Enterprises and purchased new instruments and equipment for the band, including a Selmer PA system.[1991] Under their guidance, the band began performing on London's underground music scene at venues including All Saints Hall and The Marquee.
[ The album was produced by Norman Smith, an EMI staff member who had engineered all of the Beatles' recordings up to 1965's Rubber Soul,][Gordon Thompson, title=Please Please Me: Sixties British Pop, Inside Out ] and would also produce Pink Floyd's follow up album, A Saucerful of Secrets. The album was released in August 1967.
Pink Floyd continued to perform at the UFO Club drawing huge crowds, but Barrett's deterioration caused them serious concern. The band initially hoped that his erratic behaviour was a phase that would pass, but others, including Jenner and June Child,-->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, aged 60, at his home in Cambridgeshire.[ first = Jon ] He was interred at Cambridge Crematorium on 18 July 2006. No Pink Floyd members attended. 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 between his immediate family. Some of his possessions and artwork were auctioned, with fans paying generous amounts to own a memento of the former Pink Floyd star.[2008]
source = Richard Wright
In September 2006 Waters released his long-awaited 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".[2008] 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. This was marked by the release of a limited edition set containing mono and stereo mixes of the albums, plus tracks from the singles and other rare recordings. On 10 May 2007 Waters and Pink Floyd performed separately at the Syd Barrett tribute concert at the Barbican Centre in London, alongside artists such as Damon Albarn and Robyn Hitchcock. The event, organised by Joe Boyd and Nick Laird-Clowes, saw the band perform some of Barrett's hits, such as "Bike", and "Arnold Layne". The Pink Floyd band members had not been announced, and they received an rapturous welcome from the audience. Hopes of a second reunion concert with the band's classic line-up were dashed when Waters did not perform with the group. Roger Waters took to the stage to screams of "Pink Floyd!" to which he responded, "Later." Gilmour, Mason, and Wright took to the stage for what would be the final time to screams of "Roger Waters!" to which Gilmour politely responded, "Yeah, he was here too, now the rest of us."
Gilmour in performance, Frankfurt 2006
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."[ last=Hiatt ] 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."
Just over two years after the death of Barrett, on 15 September 2008 Richard Wright died of cancer, aged 65. He was lauded by his surviving bandmates, Gilmour in particular, for his influence on the overall sound of Pink Floyd.
{{Quote|No one can replace Richard Wright. He was my musical partner and my friend. In the welter of arguments about who or what was Pink Floyd, Rick's enormous input was frequently forgotten. He was gentle, unassuming and private but his soulful voice and playing were vital, magical components of our most recognised Pink Floyd sound. I have never played with anyone quite like him. The blend of his and my voices and our musical telepathy reached their first major flowering in 1971 on 'Echoes'. In my view all the greatest PF moments are the ones where he is in full flow. After all, without 'Us and Them' and 'The Great Gig in the Sky', both of which he wrote, what would 'The Dark Side of the Moon' have been? Without his quiet touch the album 'Wish You Were Here' would not quite have worked. In our middle years, for many reasons he lost his way for a while, but in the early Nineties, with 'The Division Bell', his vitality, spark and humour returned to him and then the audience reaction to his appearances on my tour in 2006 was hugely uplifting and it's a mark of his modesty that those standing ovations came as a huge surprise to him, (though not to the rest of us). Like Rick, I don't find it easy to express my feelings in words, but I loved him and will miss him enormously.|David Gilmour|
Legacy Acclaim and honours The four members of Pink Floyd's classic line-up, composition from separate photographs displaying (clockwise from top) Roger Waters, David Gilmour, Richard Wright, and Nick Mason
In 1980 The Wall won a Grammy for 'Best Engineered Non-Classical Album', and in 1982 the film of the same name won a BAFTA for sound. "Marooned" won a Grammy in 1995 for 'Rock Instrumental Performance'. On 17 January 1996 Pink Floyd were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Billy Corgan presented the award to Gilmour and Wright, who remained onstage to perform an unplugged rendition of "Wish You Were Here". Almost ten years later on 16 November 2005 they were inducted into the UK Music Hall of Fame, and presented with an award by Pete Townshend. Gilmour and Mason attended in person, explaining that Wright was in hospital following eye surgery, and Waters appeared on a video screen, from Rome. In a BBC radio interview shortly after the ceremony, Mark Radcliffe asked them if they were tempted to perform on the night, to which Gilmour replied that although they'd enjoyed Live 8, a performance for the award show would have been unlikely. In 2008 they were awarded the Polar Music Prize for their contribution to contemporary music. Waters and Mason were present at the ceremony, where they received the prize from King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden.
The group has sold over 200 million albums worldwide, including 74.5 million certified units in the United States.[ ]
Influence A number of notable musicians and bands from diverse genres have been influenced by Pink Floyd's music. These include David Bowie, Blur, Tangerine Dream, Nine Inch Nails, Dream Theater, My Chemical Romance, Nazz, Muse, Oasis, Queen, The Mars Volta, Phish, Radiohead, Porcupine Tree, and the Smashing Pumpkins. Italian composer and conductor Martino Traversa listened to the group as a teenager. The Pet Shop Boys paid homage to The Wall'' during a performance in Boston.
On 8 February 1995 the opening sequence of "Time" was played as a wakeup call for the crew of space mission STS-63.
Live performances Pink Floyd are regarded as pioneers in the live music experience, and were renowned for their lavish stage shows in which the performers themselves were almost secondary. As well as the visual effects, Pink Floyd set standards in sound quality, with innovative use of sound effects and panning quadrophonic speaker systems.Citation needed
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.[1991][2007] The album had been composed and refined mostly while the band toured the UK, Japan, North America, and Europe. Animals was the centrepiece for their In the Flesh tour, which began in Dortmund, and continued through Europe to the UK, and then the US. A inflatable floating pig named Algie became the inspiration for a number of pig themes used throughout the tour.
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 rock opera album, The Wall. The subsequent The Wall Tour featured a ft 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 in darkness, for his cue, on top of the wall. When it came, bright blue and white lights would suddenly illuminate him, astonishing the audience. 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.
Two years after the departure of Waters the band 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, 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 a concert video—Delicate Sound of Thunder concert video in 1989.
During the band's Division Bell tour, an anonymous person named 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 2009 the puzzle remains unsolved.
Discography - The Piper at the Gates of Dawn (1967)
- A Saucerful of Secrets (1968)
- Soundtrack from the Film More (1969)
- Ummagumma (1969)
- Atom Heart Mother (1970)
- Meddle (1971)
- Obscured by Clouds (1972)
- The Dark Side of the Moon (1973)
- Wish You Were Here (1975)
- Animals (1977)
- The Wall (1979)
- The Final Cut (1983)
- A Momentary Lapse of Reason (1987)
- The Division Bell (1994)
Copyright Citations
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