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, and his girlfriend Juliette Gale was often a guest artist. Early gigs were for private functions, and the band rehearsed in a tearoom in the basement of the Polytechnic. Sigma 6 played songs by The Searchers as well as material written by fellow student Ken Chapman, who became their manager and songwriter. In September 1963 Mason and Waters moved into the lower flat of Stanhope Gardens, and used the front room for rehearsals. 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. When Mason later moved out of the flat, and Metcalfe and Noble left the band to form a duo, [Glenn Povey, ] Syd Barrett (guitarist), a childhood friend of Waters, arrived in London in the autumn of 1963, to study at Camberwell College of Art. 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;
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.
The band felt encouraged to work on the instrumental excursions they had experimented with at the Countdown Club, and rudimentary light shows projected by coloured slides and domestic lights were used to powerful effect.
 A poster for Pink Floyd at the CIA-UFO club, 28 July 1967, by Hapshash and the Coloured Coat Signing with EMI Although in 1967 Mason admitted that the psychedelic movement had "taken place around us—not within us", the Pink Floyd Sound were present at the head of a wave of interest in psychedelic music, so attracted attention from record companies.[Glenn Povey, ] While negotiating with the record companies, Joe Boyd and their booking agent Bryan Morrison arranged and paid for the band to record several songs at Sound Techniques in West Hampstead, including "Arnold Layne", and a version of "Interstellar Overdrive";[ and to record a short music film for "Arnold Layne" in Sussex. Despite early interest from Polydor, the band signed with EMI, with a £5,000 advance. Boyd was not included in the deal.]
"Arnold Layne" became their first single, released on 11 March 1967. It was banned by several radio stations for its vague references to sexual perversions, but due to some creative manipulation at the shops which supplied sales figures to the music industry, it peaked at #20 in the UK charts.
"See Emily Play" was Pink Floyd's second release, recorded at Sound Techniques in London. The Piper at the Gates of Dawn
Recording of the first album, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, began on 21 February 1967 in studio three of EMI's Abbey Road Studios at the same time The Beatles were recording Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and The Pretty Things were recording S.F. Sorrow.[ 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, ] 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, were more realistic:
Due to Barrett's condition they had to cancel a performance at the Windsor Jazz Festival, and inform the music press that Barrett was suffering from "nervous exhaustion". Jenner and Waters arranged for Barrett to see a psychiatrist—a meeting he did not attend. He was sent to Formentera with Sam Hutt (a doctor well-established in the underground music scene) but later showed no signs of improvement.
The band's first tour of the United States took place in October and November of 1967,
Shortly after their return from the US, beginning 14 November the band supported Jimi Hendrix on a tour of England,Introduction of Gilmour and departure of Barrett (1968)David Gilmour was already acquainted with Barrett, having studied modern language in the early 1960s at Cambridge Tech while Barrett studied art. Gilmour had started playing guitar aged thirteen,
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. Matters came to a head on the day they were due to perform 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".Classic lineup (1968–1979)A Saucerful of Secrets
In 1968 the band returned to Abbey Road Studios with Smith, to record their second studio album. They already had several songs recorded with Barrett, including "Jugband Blues" (his final contribution to their discography). Waters wrote three songs, "Let There Be More Light", "Corporal Clegg" (which alludes to Waters' obsession with war and the military), and "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun". Wright contributed "See-Saw" and "Remember a Day". The band continued the experimentation seen on The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, recording some material at their homes, a process that Smith encouraged. He remained unconvinced by their music, but played drums on "Remember a Day" when Mason struggled with the song.
Neither Waters nor Mason could read music, and both created the album's title track "A Saucerful of Secrets" by inventing their own system of notation—something which Gilmour later would comment looked "… like an architectural diagram".SoundtracksIn 1968 the group worked on the score for The Committee, and just before Christmas that year released "Point Me At The Sky". It was no more successful than the two singles they had released since "See Emily Play", and it was to become the band's only single for several more years
While composing the soundtrack for Zabriskie Point (directed by Michaelangelo Antonioni) the band spent almost a month in a luxury hotel in Rome. Waters has since claimed that the work could have been completed in less than a week, but for Antonioni's continuous changes to the music. Eventually he used recordings by the Grateful Dead, The Youngbloods, Patti Page, and the Rolling Stones, but three of Pink Floyd's contributions remained. One of the pieces turned down by Antonioni would eventually become "Us and Them" on Pink Floyd's 1973 The Dark Side of the Moon. The band also did some work on the soundtrack for a proposed cartoon series called Rollo, but a lack of funds meant that the series was never produced, and away from Pink Floyd, Waters scored the soundtrack to the 1970 film The Body (directed by Ron Geesin).
Ummagumma and Atom Heart Mother
Pink Floyd's next album was something of a departure from their previous work. Ummagumma, a double-LP released on EMI's Harvest label, contained barely any new compositions. The first two sides of the album were live acts, recorded at Manchester College of Commerce and at Mother's Club in Birmingham. For the second LP, each member was given one half of each side on which to experiment. The album was released to positive reviews in October 1969.
thumb|left|upright|[[Roger Waters performing with Pink Floyd, at Leeds University in 1970]]
Ummagumma was quickly followed by 1970's Atom Heart Mother. The album apes the work produced at the time by groups such as Deep Purple and Emerson, Lake and Palmer. The band's previous LPs had been recorded using a four-track system, but Atom Heart Mother was their first to use eight tracks of audio. An early version was premièred in France in January 1970, but disagreements over its direction prompted the arrival of Ron Geesin, who worked for about a month to improve the score. Production was troublesome, with little creative input from the band, but with the aid of John Aldiss the album was eventually completed. Gilmour has since dismissed Atom Heart Mother as "a load of rubbish",
In 1971 they took second place in a poll of readers by Melody Maker (behind Emerson, Lake and Palmer), and for the first time in their history were making a profit. However, the theft in New Orleans of equipment worth about $40,000 almost crippled the band's finances. The local police were unhelpful, but within hours of notifying the FBI the equipment was returned. Both Mason and Wright were now fathers, and both bought homes in London. Gilmour, still unmarried, moved to a 19th-century farm in Essex. At his house in Islington, Waters installed a home recording studio in a converted tool-shed at the bottom of his garden, shared with his wife, a potter.
Meddle
Meddle is sometimes considered to be a transitional album between the Barrett-influenced band and the modern Pink Floyd. The groups's other releases during this period, More and Zabriski Point, were soundtracks, and Atom Heart Mother was influenced as much by Ron Geesin and the session artists as it was by the band.
Returning from touring Atom Heart Mother, at the start of 1971 the band started work on new material at Abbey Road, and several other studios in London.
Meddle was recorded between the band's various concert commitments, and therefore its production was spread over a considerable period of time.
The band again worked with Barbet Schroeder on La Vallée, although the soundtrack album was called Obscured by Clouds. The material was composed in about a week, at the Château d'Hérouville near Paris. The album was their first to break into the top 50 on the US Billboard chart.
The Dark Side of the Moon
Following the release of Meddle, in December 1971 the band assembled for an upcoming tour of Britain, Japan, and the United States. Rehearsing in London, there was the looming prospect of a new album, and Waters proposed that it should deal with things that "make people mad", and that it could also form part of the tour.
thumb|left|Abbey Road Studios main entrance|alt=A flight of stone steps leads from an asphalt car park up to the main entrance of a white two-story building. The ground floor has two sash windows, the first floor has three shorter sash windows. Two more windows are visible at basement level. The decorative stonework around the doors and windows is painted grey.
The album was recorded at Abbey Road Studios, in two sessions, between May 1972 and January 1973. The band were assigned staff engineer Alan Parsons.
The album is notable for the use of short sections of interviews that Waters recorded with some of the studio's occupants. Roadie Chris Adamson recorded the explicit diatribe that opens the album—"I've been mad for fucking years—absolutely years". The closing words "there is no dark side of the Moon really … as a matter of fact it's all dark" came from the studios' Irish doorman, Gerry O'Driscoll. Producer Chris Thomas was also hired, to provide 'a fresh pair of ears'.
 A live performance The Dark Side of the Moon at Earls Court, shortly after its release in 1973. (l-r) David Gilmour, Nick Mason, Dick Parry, Roger Waters
The Dark Side of the Moon was released in March 1973. It became an instant chart success in Britain and throughout Western Europe. The album became the band's first #1 on US charts and is one of the biggest-selling albums in US history.
Wish You Were Here
They returned to the studio in the first week of 1975.
After several weeks, however, Waters began to visualise another concept.
thumb|left|alt=An overweight white male with shaved head and eyebrows, wearing a white short-sleeved shirt and black trousers, looks at the camera with a neutral expression. The room behind him appears dark, and several unidentifiable pieces of equipment are visible.|Syd Barrett, visiting Abbey Road Studios in July 1975
On 5 June 1975, Gilmour married his first wife, Ginger, and it was also the eve of Pink Floyd's second tour of the US that year. The band were in the process of completing a final mix of "Shine On", when an overweight man entered the room. Initially, none of the band recognised the visitor, but it soon became apparent that it was Barrett.
Storm Thorgerson thought that the songs were, in general, concerned with "unfulfilled presence", rather than Barrett's illness. He concealed the artwork with a dark-coloured shrink-wrap (making the album art "absent"). 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, one man on fire.
Much of Wish You Were Here was premièred on 5 July 1975 at an open-air music festival at Knebworth, but the performance was savaged by critics.
Animals
Following the Knebworth concert, the band bought a three-storey block of church halls at 35 Britannia Row in Islington. Their deal with EMI for unlimited studio time in return for a reduced percentage of sales had expired, and they set about converting the building into a recording studio, and storage facility. The studio would be on the ground floor, with the storage facility above, necessitating the installation of a hoist to move the band's equipment in and out of the building. The top floor became an office, equipped with a pool table. The band also envisaged hiring their equipment out, but the hire business was unsuccessful and would later be taken over by Brian Grant and Robbie Williams. The studio, however, was more successful. Its construction took up most of 1975, and in 1976 the band recorded their eighth studio album, Animals at the new facility.
right|thumb|Animals./" class="wiki">Battersea Power Station was the subject for the cover image for the band's 1977 album, Animals.Animals was born from another Waters concept, where the human race was reduced to dogs, pigs, and sheep. The idea was borrowed from George Orwell's Animal Farm, but in Waters' version the sheep eventually rise up to overpower their oppressors. Brian Humphries was again called upon to engineer the album. Two tracks previously considered for Wish You Were Here—"Raving and Drooling" and "Gotta Be Crazy"—reappeared as "Sheep" and "Dogs" respectively. Snowy White was asked to record a guitar solo on "Pigs on the Wing", which although cut from the vinyl release was included on the eight-track cartridge version of the album.
The division of royalties had been the cause of some consternation 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 far less than Waters, who also contributed the two-part "Pigs on the Wing". The song contains references to Waters' private life—his new romantic interest was Carolyne Anne Christie (married to Rock Scully, manager of the Grateful Dead). Waters' marriage to Judy had produced no children, but he became a father with Carolyne in November 1976. 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, but his relationship with Waters was also suffering:
right|thumb|The [[Soldier Field stadium in Chicago. The band played here during their 1977 In the Flesh tour.]]
Animals was released on 23 January 1977,
The album became the subject material for the band's In the Flesh tour, during which early signs of discord became apparent. Waters began arriving at each venue alone, and 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. The size of the venues was also an issue, and the end of the tour was a low point for Gilmour, who felt that the band had by now achieved the success they sought, and that there was nothing else to look forward to.
The Wall
The In the Flesh tour was Pink Floyd's first playing in large stadiums, and at one venue a small group of noisy and excited fans in the front row of the audience irritated Waters to such an extent that he spat at one of them. Waters was not the only person who felt depressed about playing in such large venues, as Gilmour refused to perform the band's usual twelve-bar blues encore. Waters used the spitting incident as the basis for a new concept, based around the audience's separation from the performers on stage.
Meanwhile, Gilmour and Wright released their début solo albums, David Gilmour, and Wet Dream. Both albums sold poorly, a situation only exacerbated by the loss 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 £1.6M and £3.3M 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 were still losing money. Not only did NWG invest in failing businesses, they also left the band liable for tax bills as high as 83% of their income. They eventually terminated their relationship with NWG, demanding the return of any cash not yet invested, which at that time amounted to £860,000 (they received £740,000).
In the midst of this, in July 1977 Waters presented the band with two new ideas. The first was a ninety-minute demo given the provisional title Bricks in the Wall, and the other what would later become his first solo album, The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking. Although both Mason and Gilmour were initially cautious, the former was chosen to be their next album. Bob Ezrin was brought in as co-producer. He wrote a forty-page script, and presented it to the rest of the band: "The next day at the studio, we had a table read, like you would with a play, but with the whole of the band, and their eyes all twinkled, because then they could see the 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, each serving to isolate Pink further. Pink would later 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.
At Britannia Row, Brian Humphries was emotionally drained by his five years with the band, and was replaced by James Guthrie. Early sessions were difficult, as Ezrin, Guthrie and Waters each had strong ideas about the direction the album would take; however, Ezrin's role expanded to that of an intermediary between Waters and the rest of the band. Work continued up to March 1979, at which point the band's critical financial situation demanded that they leave the UK for a year or more, to continue recording at the Super Bear Studios near Nice.
Waters planned the recording sessions on a tight schedule. His relationship with Ezrin had soured, but his relationship with Wright had broken down completely. The band were rarely in the studio together, and Wright, worried about the effect that the introduction of Ezrin would have on the band's internal relationships, was keen to have a producer's credit on the album (their albums up to that point had always stated "Produced by Pink Floyd"). Waters had agreed to a trial period, after which Wright was to be given a producer's credit, but after a few weeks Waters and Ezrin expressed dissatisfaction with his methods. The keyboardist eventually stopped coming into the studio during the day, and worked only at nights. Gilmour also expressed his annoyance, complaining that Wright's lack of input was "driving us all mad".
What exactly happened next remains unclear. 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. In Comfortably Numb (2008), however, the author 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 …".
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.
The album was promoted by the single "Another Brick in the Wall (Part II)", which peaked at #1 on both the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States and the UK Singles Chart.
The Wall was released on 30 November 1979, and topped the Billboard charts for fifteen weeks. As of 2009 it is certified 23x platinum, (but as a double album this signifies sales of 11.5 million). According to The New York Times, between 1979 and 1990, the album sold over 19 million copies worldwide.
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. Meanwhile relationships within the band were now at an all-time low. On tour, their four Winnebagos were parked in a circle, with the doors facing away from the centre. Waters remained isolated, using his own vehicle to arrive at the venue, and staying in separate hotels from the rest of the band. Wright, who had returned as a paid musician, and was the only 'member' of the band to profit from the venture, which lost about $600,000. They were asked to play at Philadelphia's John F. Kennedy Stadium, but Waters refused. The band returned to the UK following their year as tax exiles.
The album also spawned a film. The original plan was for the film to be a mixture of live concert footage and animated scenes. However, the concert footage 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 licence 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. The Wall was released in July 1982.Waters-led era (1982–85)The Final CutSpare Bricks was to have been the soundtrack album for The Wall film, but with the onset of the Falklands Conflict Waters changed direction, and began writing new material. A socialist at heart, Waters saw Margaret Thatcher's response to the invasion of the islands as jingoistic and unnecessary, and he dedicated the new album—then 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 new material, rather than songs not considered good enough for The Wall. Waters opposed, as Gilmour had contributed little to the band's lyrical repertoire over the previous few years.
Michael Kamen (a contributor to the orchestral sections of The Wall) mediated between the two, and also performed the role traditionally occupied by the now absent Richard Wright. James Guthrie was the studio engineer, and surprisingly, Mason was helped by Ray Cooper and Andy Newmark, and Baker Street's Raphael Ravenscroft was hired to play the saxophone (most previous Floyd albums tend to make repeated use of particular musicians). Recording took place in an unprecedented eight studios, including Gilmour's home studio at Hookend Manor and Waters' home studio at East Sheen. Still, the tension within the band grew worse. Waters and Gilmour worked separately, itself not unusual, but Gilmour began to feel the strain, sometimes barely maintaining his composure. Waters lost his temper, ranting at Kamen, who in boredom during one recording session, had started writing "I Must Not Fuck Sheep"
Hipgnosis had by this time disbanded, but again Thorgerson was passed over for the cover design, Waters choosing to design it himself. His brother-in-law, Willie Christie, was commissioned to take pictures for the album."Spent force"right|thumb|Gilmour performing in About Face tour/" class="wiki">Brussels in 1984, on his About Face tour
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 has since admitted that he also used the album to distance himself from Pink Floyd. Soon after, Waters began touring his new solo album, The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking. Richard Wright meanwhile formed Zee with Dave Harris. They recorded Identity, an album which makes heavy use of the Fairlight CMI (a musical synthesizer popularised in the 1980s). The album went almost unnoticed upon its release. Wright was also in the midst of a difficult divorce, and has since admitted 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".
Waters now believed that Pink Floyd was a spent force, and contacted O'Rourke with a view to settling future royalty payments. O'Rourke felt obliged to inform Mason and Gilmour, and as a result Waters tried to dismiss him. Waters then went to the High Court to prevent the Pink Floyd name from ever being used again.
Waters wrote to EMI and Columbia and declared his intention to leave the group, asking them to release him from his contractual obligations. Gilmour believed that Waters left to hasten the demise of Pink Floyd. However, 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 dispensed with O'Rourke and employed Peter Rudge to manage his affairs.Gilmour-led era (1985–1994)A Momentary Lapse of ReasonRadio K.A.O.S. was released in June 1987,
The album was recorded along the River Thames, on Gilmour's houseboat Astoria. Andy Jackson (a colleague of Guthrie) was brought in as engineer. Gilmour experimented with various songwriters such as Eric Stewart and Roger McGough, but eventually settled on Anthony Moore as a lyricist. An early version proved disappointing for Ezrin and CBS representative Stephen Ralbosky, who claimed that what they'd heard had sounded nothing like Pink Floyd.
Waters on one occasion visited Astoria to see Ezrin, along with Christie, 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 bandmates. Recording moved to Mayfair and Audio International 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." Waters tried to block a proposed Pink Floyd tour, by contacting every promoter in the US, threatening to sue if they used the Pink Floyd name. Gilmour and Mason funded the startup costs (Mason, separated from his wife, used his Ferrari 250 GTO as collateral). Some promoters were offended by Waters' threat, and several months later, tickets went on sale in Toronto (and were sold out within hours).
Storm Thorgerson was employed to design the coverwork. His finished design was of a plethora of hospital beds arranged on a beach, inspired by a phrase from "Yet Another Movie", and Gilmour's vague hint of a design that included a bed in a Mediterranean house, and the remains of dissipating relationships. The album title was chosen after careful consideration. The initial three contenders were Signs of Life, Of Promises Broken, and Delusions of Maturity.
Early rehearsals for the upcoming tour were chaotic, with Mason and Wright completely out of practice, and 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 forbidden 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. However, 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 claims that they would fail without him. The Sun printed a story about Waters, who it claimed had paid an artist to create 150 toilet rolls with Gilmour's face on every sheet. Waters later rubbished this story, but it serves to illustrate how deeply divided the two parties had now become.
The Division Bell
For several years thereafter the three members of Pink Floyd busied themselves with personal pursuits, such as filming and competing in the Carrera Panamericana (where Gilmour and O'Rourke crashed), and later recording a soundtrack for the film. Gilmour divorced Ginger Gilmour, and Mason married actress Annette Lynton. In January 1993 they began working on a new album. They returned to a now remodelled Britannia Row Studios, where for several days Gilmour, Mason and Wright worked collaboratively, ad-libbing new material with Andy Jackson engineering, and a two-track recorder running constantly. Guy Pratt was brought in to play bass, and 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. Song selection was based upon a system of points—whereby all three members would award marks out of ten to each candidate song—a system skewed somewhat by Wright's decision to award his songs ten points each, and the other songs no points.
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. By January of that year, they still had not decided upon a title for the album. Those under consideration included Pow Wow and Down to Earth. Writer Douglas Adams, spurred on by the promise of a payment to his favourite charity, suggested The Division Bell, and the name stuck. Storm Thorgerson once again provided the artwork and erected two large metal heads in a field near Ely. The two heads are designed to give the illusion of a single face. The album was released in March 1994, and went straight to #1 in the UK and US.
Thorgerson also provided six new pieces of film for the tour. The band spent three weeks rehearsing at a US airforce base in North Carolina, 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.
Waters was invited to join the band as the tour reached Europe, but declined, later expressing his annoyance that some Floyd songs were being performed again in large venues. On the first night of the European leg, a 1,200 capacity stand collapsed, but there were no serious injuries and the performance was rescheduled. The tour ended at Earls Court, and as of 2009 was the group's final performance as part of a Pink Floyd tour. They later released Pulse, and shortly after the concert video Pulse.Reunion in Live 8right|thumb|[[Roger Waters (seen on the right) rejoined his former bandmates at Live 8]]
Steve O'Rourke died on 30 October 2003. Gilmour, Mason and Wright performed "Fat Old Sun" and "The Great Gig in the Sky" at his funeral in Chichester Cathedral.
Mason had a surprise reunion with Waters while on holiday in Mustique, in January 2002. This later led to an invite from the latter to play as a special guest on Waters' 2002 tour, at Wembley Arena. There was further surprise in 2005 when Bob Geldof called Mason to discuss the band reuniting for Live 8. Geldof had already asked Gilmour, who had turned down the offer, and 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 lack of import of the band's problems, compared to the context of the Live 8 event. The setlist 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 setlist and running order was decided on the eve of the concert.
On Saturday 2 July 2005, at about eleven o'clock, Pink Floyd performed together on stage—for the first time in almost 25 years. The band performed a four-song set beginning with "Speak to Me/Breathe/Breathe (Reprise)", "Money", "Wish You Were Here", and ending with "Comfortably Numb". Gilmour and Waters shared lead vocals. Onstage, at the start of "Wish You Were Here" Waters told the audience that the event was "quite emotional, standing up here with these three guys after all these years". 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 that became one of the more notable images from Live 8.
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 1343%, 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.Recent eventsMany fans were hopeful that the band's Live 8 appearance would lead to a reunion tour. In the weeks immediately after the show the rifts between the members seemed to have mostly healed, and Gilmour confirmed that he and Waters were on "pretty amicable terms". A £136 million (then about $250 million) deal for a final tour was offered, but turned down. Waters did not rule out further performances, but only for a special occasion. Gilmour stated in a 2006 interview with La Repubblica that he is finished with Pink Floyd and wishes to focus on solo projects and his family. He mentions that he agreed to play Live 8 with Waters to support the cause, to make peace with Waters, and knowing he would regret not taking part. However, 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. Then speaking with Billboard, Gilmour changed his "finished with Pink Floyd" sentiment to "who knows".
David Gilmour released his third solo record, On an Island, on 6 March 2006. It includes contributions from ex-Jokers Wild drummer Willie Wilson, original Pink Floyd guitarist Bob Klose, and keyboardist Richard Wright. He began a tour of small concert venues in Europe, Canada and the U.S. with a band that included Wright and other musicians from the post-Waters Pink Floyd tours. Mason joined Gilmour and Wright for the final night of the tour, but was otherwise engaged in playing for Waters 2006 Europe/U.S. tour. 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.
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".
right|thumb|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."
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.
In April 2009 it was revealed that the band had initiated legal action against EMI for an alleged failure to pay royalties. The dispute is reportedly connected to an ongoing disagreement with Terra Firma Capital Partners, the private equity firm who took ownership of EMI in 2007. Legacy Acclaim and honours thumb|alt="A photo, divided into four frames, shows four men, each in a separate frame and standing alone. The frames are arranged two by two. All the men are in their older years, and have grey hair and weathered faces. The men in the top two frames are holding guitars (the top left an electric, the top right a bass), and are shown from the waist up. The men in the bottom two frames are shown from the chest/shoulders up, and appear to not be behind an instrument."|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. 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.
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 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
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