Pink Floyd

Ummagumma album cover

Pink Floyd is a British progressive band famous for its songwriting, harmonic classical rock compositions, bombastic style, striking album art and elaborate live shows. Pink Floyd is one of rock's most successful acts, ranking seventh in number of albums sold worldwide.

History

Pink Floyd formed in 1964 from earlier bands whose names included Sigma 6, T-Set, Meggadeaths, The Screaming Abdabs, The Architectural Abdabs, and The Abdabs. The band was again renamed The Pink Floyd Sound and then simply The Pink Floyd (after two blues musicians, Pink Anderson and Floyd Council). The definite article was dropped by the time their debut album was released.

Pink Floyd originally consisted of Bob Klose (lead guitar), Syd Barrett (vocals, rhythm guitar), Richard Wright (keyboards, vocals), Roger Waters (bass, vocals) and Nick Mason (drums). They covered rhythm and blues staples such as "Louie, Louie". As Barrett started writing tunes more influenced by American surf music, psychedelic rock, and British whimsy, humour and literature, the heavily jazz-oriented Klose departed and left a rather stable foursome. The band formed Blackhill Enterprises, a six-way business partnership with their managers, Peter Jenner and Andrew King.

The Piper at the Gates of Dawn

Released in 1967, the band's debut The Piper at the Gates of Dawn is considered to be a prime example of English psychedelic music. The album's tracks showcase an eclectic mixture of music, from the avant garde free form piece 'Interstellar Overdrive' to whimsical songs, such as 'Scarecrow', a melancholic song inspired by the Fenlands, the rural region surrounding Barrett's home town of Cambridge.

In 1968, guitarist David Gilmour joined the band to carry out the playing and singing duties of Barrett, whose mental health was deteriorating, but nevertheless was intended to remain as the band's figurehead and songwriter. With Barrett's behaviour becoming less and less predictable, and use of LSD almost constant, he became very unstable, often staring into space while the rest of the band performed. The band's live shows became increasingly ramshackle until, eventually, the other band members simply stopped taking him to the concerts.

Once Barrett's departure was formalised, Jenner and King decided to remain with him, and the six-way Blackhill partnership was dissolved.

Whilst Barrett had written the bulk of the first record, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn (1967), he contributed just one song 'Jugband Blues' to the second A Saucerful of Secrets (1968).

After the film soundtrack More, the next record, the double album Ummagumma (part recorded at Mothers Rock Club, Birmingham, and in Manchester in 1969), was a mix of live recordings and unchecked studio experimentation by the band members, with each recording half a side of vinyl as a solo project (Mason's wife makes an uncredited contribution as a flautist).

1970's Atom Heart Mother, a UK number one album, is somewhat dated and has been described by Gilmour as the sound of a band "blundering about in the dark". The title piece owes much to orchestration by Ron Geesin.

Meddle

The band's sound was considerably more focused on Meddle (1971), with the 23-minute epic "Echoes" (in this track the band used the Zinovieff's VCS3 synth for the first time) . This album also included the atmospheric "One of These Days" (a concert classic, with a distorted, disembodied one-line vocal, "One of these days, I'm going to cut you into little pieces"-courtesy of drummer Nick Mason, his only released vocal performance) and the pop-jazz stylings of "San Tropez". Their taste for experimentation was expressed on "Seamus" (earlier, "Mademoiselle Nobs"), a pure-blues number featuring lead vocals by a Russian wolfhound.

A less-well-known album, Obscured By Clouds, was released in 1972, as the soundtrack for the film "La Vallee" and was the band's first US Top 50 album.

Despite their never having been a hit-single-driven group, their massively successful 1973 album, Dark Side of the Moon, featured a US number Top 20 track ("Money"), and more importantly remained in the top 100 for over a decade, breaking many records on the way, and making it one of the top selling albums of all time. Dark Side of the Moon was a concept album dealing with themes of insanity, neurosis and fame. Thanks to the use of new 16-track recording equipment at Abbey Road Studios and the investment of an enormous amount of time by engineer Alan Parsons, the album set new standards for sound fidelity.

Dark Side of the Moon

Dark Side of the Moon and the three following albums (Wish You Were Here, Animals and The Wall) are held up by some fans as the peak of Pink Floyd's career. The first of those, Wish You Were Here, released in 1975, is a theme album about absence. In addition to the classic title track, "Wish You Were Here" includes the critically acclaimed, mostly instrumental nine-part "Shine On You Crazy Diamond", a tribute to Barrett in which the lyrics deal explicitly with the aftermath of his breakdown. The album also includes the epics "Welcome to the Machine" and "Have a Cigar."

By 1977, and the release of Animals, the band's music came under increasing criticism from some quarters in the new punk rock sphere as being too flabby and pretentious, having lost its way from the simplicity of early rock and roll. Animals contained more lengthy songs tied to a theme, taken in part from George Orwell's Animal Farm, using pigs, dogs and sheep as metaphors for members of contemporary society. Animals was a lot more guitar-driven than the previous albums and marked the start of tensions between Waters and Wright.

The Wall

1979's epic rock opera, The Wall, conceived mainly by Waters, gave Pink Floyd renewed acclaim and another hit single with their foray into critical pedagogy - "Another Brick in the Wall, Part II." It also included "Comfortably Numb," which, though never released as a single, became a cornerstone of AOR and classic-rock radio playlists and is today one of the group's best-known songs. It is also one of a very small number of songs on Pink Floyd's first four concept albums not to segue at either the beginning or end. The album also became a vastly expensive and money-losing tour/stage show, although the album's sales got the band out of the financial hole they were in. During this time, Waters increased his artistic influence and leadership over the band, prompting frequent conflicts with the other members and even leading to the firing of Wright from the band. Wright returned, on a fixed wage, for the album's few live concerts. Ironically, he was the only member of Pink Floyd to make any money from the "Wall" shows, the rest having to cover the excessive costs. The album was co-produced by Bob Ezrin, a friend of Waters who shared songwriting credits on "The Trial" and whom Waters then kicked out of the Floyd camp after Ezrin inadvertently talked about the album to a journalist relative.

The Wall remained on best-selling-album lists for 14 years. A film entitled Pink Floyd The Wall starring Boomtown Rats founder Bob Geldof was adapted from it in 1982, written by Waters and directed by Alan Parker, and featuring striking animation by noted British cartoonist Gerald Scarfe. The creation of the film saw a further deterioration of the Waters/Gilmour relationship, as Waters came to completely dominate the band.

1983 saw the release of The Final Cut. Even darker in tone than The Wall, this album re-examined many of the themes of that album while also addressing then-current events, including Waters' anger at Britain's participation in the Falklands War ("The Fletcher Memorial Home") and his cynicism toward, and fear of, nuclear war ("Two Suns in the Sunset"). Wright's absence meant this album lacked the keyboard effects seen in previous Floyd works, although guests Michael Kamen and Andy Bown both contributed keyboard work. Though released as a Pink Floyd album, the project was clearly dominated by Waters and became a prototype in sound and form for later Waters solo projects. Only moderately successful by Floyd standards, the album yielded only one rock radio hit, "Not Now John". The arguing between Waters and Gilmour by this stage was rumoured to be so bad that they were never seen in the recording studio simultaneously. There was no tour, and the band unofficially disbanded in 1983.

The Division Bell

After The Final Cut, the band members went their separate ways, each releasing solo albums, until 1987, when Gilmour and Mason began to revive the band. A bitter legal dispute with Roger Waters (who left the band in 1985) ensued, but Gilmour and Mason were upheld in their contention that they had the legal right to continue as Pink Floyd (Waters, however, gained the rights to some traditional Pink Floyd imagery, including almost all of the Wall props and characters and all of the rights to "The Final Cut"). The band under Gilmour returned to the studio with producer Bob Ezrin. Richard Wright re-joined during the recording sessions of A Momentary Lapse of Reason first as a session musician, paid a weekly salary, and later reinstated as a full-fledged member of the band for the 1994 release of The Division Bell and its subsequent tour, which was promoted by legendary Canadian concert impressario Michael Cohl and became the highest-grossing tour in rock history to that date.

All of the members of Pink Floyd have released solo albums which have met with varying degrees of commercial and critical success. Waters' Amused To Death was the most praised of these albums, though it was met with mixed reviews.

Live performances

Pink Floyd are renowned for their lavish stage shows, combining over-the-top visual experiences with their music to create a show in which the artists themselves are almost secondary. In their early days, Pink Floyd were among the first bands to use a dedicated traveling light show in conjunction with their performances, projecting slides, film clips, and psychedelic patterns onto a large circular screen (dubbed "Mr. Screen"). Later, additional special effects were added to the show, including lasers, pyrotechnics, and oversized balloons, notably a giant pig balloon which floated over the audience during performances of "Pigs" from the Animals album.

Pink Floyd mounted their most elaborate stage show in conjunction with the tour of The Wall, in which a band of session musicians played the first song, wearing rubber face masks (proving successfully that the members of the band were not known for their individual personalities). Later in the show, a huge wall was built between the audience and the band, being demolished, explosively, as the finale. This show was re-created (by Waters) and a number of guest artists (including Bryan Adams, The Scorpions, and Van Morrison) assembled around Roger Waters in 1990 amid the ruins of the Berlin Wall.

The lavish stage shows were also the basis for Douglas Adams' fictional rock group "Disaster Area" (creators of the loudest noise in the universe, and making use of solar-flares in their stage show) in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series. Douglas Adams was a personal friend of David Gilmour and made a one-off guest appearance, on guitar, on The Division Bell tour (October 28, 1994).

Recent activity

Pink Floyd have not released any new studio material since 1994's The Division Bell, and while they have not officially broken up, neither is there any sign of a new album. The only band activity since The Division Bell have been the 1995 live album P-U-L-S-E; a live version of The Wall, compiled from their 1980 and 1981 concerts, titled Is There Anybody Out There? The Wall Live 2000; a two-disc set of their greatest hits called Echoes, in 2001; the 30th Anniversary Hybrid SACD reissue of "The Dark Side of the Moon" (2003); and a re-release of The Final Cut with the single "When the Tigers Broke Free" added (2004). Although rumours are spreading that the threesome Floyd have returned to the studio to make new material, there is no official news to back up any claims to date. Because the band members have gone on to work on various projects (drummer Nick Mason has written a book on his days with the band named "Inside Out" A Personal History of Pink Floyd), and because of the death of longtime manager Steve O' Rourke on October 30, 2003, the future of the band is uncertain.

The album Echoes caused some controversy because, on the album, songs segue into each other continuously in a different order than on their original albums and have sometimes had substantial parts removed from them; parts of the songs "Echoes", "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" and "Marooned" have been removed.

David Gilmour released a solo concert DVD, called David Gilmour in Concert, released in November 2002 and compiled from shows from June 22, 2001, and January 17, 2002, at The Royal Festival Hall in London. Rick Wright and Bob Geldof (Pink in The Wall film) make guest appearances.

In 2002 Q magazine named Pink Floyd as one of the "50 Bands To See Before You Die".

In 2004, it was announced that contracts had been signed for a Broadway musical version of The Wall, with extra music to be written by Waters. The broadway version will feature all of the music written by Waters. It is, however, unknown what will be done with the songs co-written by Gilmour (Young Lust, Comfortably Numb, and Run Like Hell). The show is estimated to be complete by mid 2005.

The images of Pink Floyd

Rolling Stone Magazine has called the cover to Wish You Were Here one of the best album covers ever created.

Integral to the music is the artwork which comes with it. The album covers and sleeve artwork add the emotional impact of the music with vivid and meaningful imagery. Throughout the band's career, this aspect was mainly provided by the talents of photographer and graphic artist Storm Thorgerson. Many of these images have acquired fame in their own right; notably the famous picture of a man shaking the hand of his burning alter-ego for Wish You Were Here and the refracting prism for Dark Side of the Moon. In fact, Thorgerson was involved in all the artwork for every album except for The Wall, for which the band employed Gerald Scarfe, and The Final Cut, the cover of which was designed by Waters himself, using photography made by his then brother-in-law, Willie Christie.

Discography

Studio Albums

  1. The Piper at the Gates of Dawn (1967)
  2. A Saucerful of Secrets (1968)
  3. Ummagumma (1969) (2LP, live and studio)
  4. Atom Heart Mother (1970)
  5. Meddle (1971)
  6. Relics (1971) (out-takes and b-sides)
  7. Dark Side of the Moon (1973)
  8. Wish You Were Here (1975)
  9. Animals (1977)
  10. The Wall (1979) (2LP)
  11. The Final Cut (1983)
  12. A Momentary Lapse of Reason (1987)
  13. The Division Bell (1994)
  14. Dark Side of the Moon (30th anniversary edition) (2003)
  15. The Final Cut - Reissue (2004)

Soundtack albums

  • Music From the Film More (1969)
  • Zabriskie Point (1970) (soundtrack; various artists)]
  • Obscured By Clouds (1972)

Compilations

  • Masters of Rock (1973 or 1974) (compilation)
  • A Nice Pair (1973) (compilation)
  • A Collection of Great Dance Songs (1981) (compilation)
  • Works (1983) (compilation)
  • Shine On (1992) (compilation, CD box set)
  • Echoes (2001) (2CD best-of compilation)

Lives and Concerts

  • Tonite Let's all make Love in London (1967)
  • Delicate Sound of Thunder (1988) (live, also on VHS)
  • London '66-'67 (1995, not sanctioned by the band)
  • P-U-L-S-E (1995) (2CD, live, also on VHS)
  • Is There Anybody Out There? The Wall Live 1980-81 (2000) (live)
  • Live at Pompeii: Directors Cut (2003) (DVD with live performance pre-DSOTM; previously available on video cassette, laserdisc, and video CD)

In the mid-Nineties, several people (supposedly including Trent Reznor and Jim Cauty of the KLF) released bootleg trance remixes of More, Atom Heart Mother, Meddle, Obscured By Clouds, Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here (which was later reissued), Animals, The Wall, A Collection of Great Dance Songs, The Final Cut, A Momentary Lapse of Reason, and The Division Bell.

Bibliography

  • For about ten years from 1982, a fanzine, "The Amazing Pudding" documented the band's activities.

Tribute bands

A multitude of tribute bands for Pink Floyd appeared in the 1990s. They include:

  • Pig Floyd http://pigfloyd.com
  • Which One's Pink? (http://whichonespink.com/)
  • The Australian Pink Floyd Show
  • The Machine
  • The Great Gig in the Sky
  • The Pink Floyd Experience
  • Think Floyd
  • Pink Void
  • Off The Wall (http://offthewall.info/)
  • Pink Froyd
  • Final Cut (German Band)
  • Floydian Slip

In addition, Easy Star All-Stars have recorded a reggae/trip hop 'tribute' to Dark Side of the Moon entitled Dub Side of the Moon [1] (http://www.easystar.com/dubsidemain.html)

Also Colonel Les Claypool's Fearless Flying Frog Brigade recorded a complete live performance of the Pink Floyd classic album, Animals on a CD titled Live Frogs Set 2 [2] (http://www.clubbastardo.com/music.html)

Luther Wright and the Wrongs made a country/bluegrass version of The Wall titled Rebuild the Wall (http://www.lutherwright.com/thewall.php)

Other bands like KoRn, Dream Theater, Velvet Revolver, PROBOT, Kittie, Mushroomhead, Type O Negative, System of a Down, Stone Temple Pilots, David Bowie, Unified Theory, Class of 99 and Wyclef Jean have recorded covers of Pink Floyd


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Other bands like KoRn, Dream Theater, Velvet Revolver, PROBOT, Kittie, Mushroomhead, Type O Negative, System of a Down, Stone Temple Pilots, David Bowie, Unified Theory, Class of 99 and Wyclef Jean have recorded covers of Pink Floyd. Reddy currently lives on Norfolk Island. Luther Wright and the Wrongs made a country/bluegrass version of The Wall titled Rebuild the Wall (http://www.lutherwright.com/thewall.php). She is also known for her appearances in works by British playwright Willy Russell and has performed both on Broadway and in the West End of London in the musical Blood Brothers and four productions of Shirley Valentine. Also Colonel Les Claypool's Fearless Flying Frog Brigade recorded a complete live performance of the Pink Floyd classic album, Animals on a CD titled Live Frogs Set 2 [2] (http://www.clubbastardo.com/music.html). She has also hosted two television series, including her own show and the late-night music series The Midnight Special. She has also appeared in a number of musical stage productions including Anything Goes, Call Me Madam, and The Mystery of Edwin Drood. In addition, Easy Star All-Stars have recorded a reggae/trip hop 'tribute' to Dark Side of the Moon entitled Dub Side of the Moon [1] (http://www.easystar.com/dubsidemain.html). Reddy has also worked extensively both on stage and the screen, with roles in movies such as Airport 1975 and Walt Disney's Pete's Dragon, and numerous television series.

They include:. (Cher was similarly unlucky with the song The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia -- after she turned it down, it was recorded by Vicki Lawrence, who scored a #1 hit with it.). A multitude of tribute bands for Pink Floyd appeared in the 1990s. #1 single. In the mid-Nineties, several people (supposedly including Trent Reznor and Jim Cauty of the KLF) released bootleg trance remixes of More, Atom Heart Mother, Meddle, Obscured By Clouds, Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here (which was later reissued), Animals, The Wall, A Collection of Great Dance Songs, The Final Cut, A Momentary Lapse of Reason, and The Division Bell. She was equally fortunate with Angie Baby (written by Alan O'Day) -- it was first offered to Cher, who turned it down, so it was then offered to Reddy, who snapped it up, and it became her third U.S. In fact, Thorgerson was involved in all the artwork for every album except for The Wall, for which the band employed Gerald Scarfe, and The Final Cut, the cover of which was designed by Waters himself, using photography made by his then brother-in-law, Willie Christie. charts and was a hit in several other countries including Australia. Ironcically, the DJs then began playing the other side of Midler's record, and this made a hit out that B-side, which was her version of the Andrew Sisters' classic Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy.

Many of these images have acquired fame in their own right; notably the famous picture of a man shaking the hand of his burning alter-ego for Wish You Were Here and the refracting prism for Dark Side of the Moon. Reddy's version was released in the summer of 1973, just two days ahead Midler's version, but disc-jockeys preferred Reddy's rendition and it eventually went to #1 on the U.S. Throughout the band's career, this aspect was mainly provided by the talents of photographer and graphic artist Storm Thorgerson. Fortunately for Reddy, Streisand refused to sing the song, so United Artists song plugger Wally Schuster called Jeff Wald and offered the song and the completed backing track to Reddy, who put her own vocal on it. The album covers and sleeve artwork add the emotional impact of the music with vivid and meaningful imagery. When the song started to get airplay, Barbra Streisand's producer Tom Catalano decided that Streisand could have a pop hit with it, so he had an instrumental backing track recorded. Integral to the music is the artwork which comes with it. Both Bette Midler and the young Tanya Tucker recorded their own versions of Delta Dawn just before Reddy recorded hers.

The show is estimated to be complete by mid 2005. The stories behind two of Reddy's biggest hits illustrate the often fickle nature of success in the music business. It is, however, unknown what will be done with the songs co-written by Gilmour (Young Lust, Comfortably Numb, and Run Like Hell). Her last Top 20 record was a revival of Cilla Black's 1964 hit You're My World, co-produced by Kim Fowley. The broadway version will feature all of the music written by Waters. These included the Alex Harvey country ballad Delta Dawn ( #1, 1973), Leave Me Alone (Ruby Red Dress), Keep On Singing (#15, 1974), 'You And Me Against The World' (written by Paul Williams and featuring daughter Traci daughter Traci reciting the spoken bookends), Emotion, Peaceful (#15), Angie Baby (#1, 1974), the Carole King - Gerry Goffin song I Can't Hear You No More (1976). In 2004, it was announced that contracts had been signed for a Broadway musical version of The Wall, with extra music to be written by Waters. Top 40 hits including two more #1 hits.

In 2002 Q magazine named Pink Floyd as one of the "50 Bands To See Before You Die". Over the next five years, she had more than a dozen other U.S. Rick Wright and Bob Geldof (Pink in The Wall film) make guest appearances. The single earned a Grammy Award and at the awards ceremony she concluded her acceptance speech by famously thanking God "because She makes everything possible". David Gilmour released a solo concert DVD, called David Gilmour in Concert, released in November 2002 and compiled from shows from June 22, 2001, and January 17, 2002, at The Royal Festival Hall in London. Reddy has attributed the impetus for writing I Am Woman and her early awareness of the women's movement to expatriate Australian rock critic and pioneer feminist Lillian Roxon. The album Echoes caused some controversy because, on the album, songs segue into each other continuously in a different order than on their original albums and have sometimes had substantial parts removed from them; parts of the songs "Echoes", "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" and "Marooned" have been removed. She scored an international hit in 1972 with a re-recorded version of a song she co-wrote with Australian musician Ray Burton, the feminist anthem "I Am Woman", which became her first U.S #1.

Because the band members have gone on to work on various projects (drummer Nick Mason has written a book on his days with the band named "Inside Out" A Personal History of Pink Floyd), and because of the death of longtime manager Steve O' Rourke on October 30, 2003, the future of the band is uncertain. hit (1971) was a cover of I Don't Know How To Love Him (from Jesus Christ Superstar. Although rumours are spreading that the threesome Floyd have returned to the studio to make new material, there is no official news to back up any claims to date. Reddy's first Top 40 U.S. The only band activity since The Division Bell have been the 1995 live album P-U-L-S-E; a live version of The Wall, compiled from their 1980 and 1981 concerts, titled Is There Anybody Out There? The Wall Live 2000; a two-disc set of their greatest hits called Echoes, in 2001; the 30th Anniversary Hybrid SACD reissue of "The Dark Side of the Moon" (2003); and a re-release of The Final Cut with the single "When the Tigers Broke Free" added (2004). Reddy was also instrumental in furthering Newton-John's career -- she encouraged her friend to move from Britain to the United States in the early 1970s, and Olivia won the starring role of Sandy in the hit film version of the musical Grease after a chance meeting with the film's producer Alan Carr at a party at Reddy's house. Pink Floyd have not released any new studio material since 1994's The Division Bell, and while they have not officially broken up, neither is there any sign of a new album. Top 40 singles between 1971 and 1978.

Douglas Adams was a personal friend of David Gilmour and made a one-off guest appearance, on guitar, on The Division Bell tour (October 28, 1994). Alongside her friend (and fellow Australian expatriate) Olivia Newton-John, Reddy became one of the most successful female recording artists of the Seventies, with fourteen U.S. The lavish stage shows were also the basis for Douglas Adams' fictional rock group "Disaster Area" (creators of the loudest noise in the universe, and making use of solar-flares in their stage show) in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series. Twenty-seven labels rejected her before she was finally signed to a contract with Capitol Records in 1970. This show was re-created (by Waters) and a number of guest artists (including Bryan Adams, The Scorpions, and Van Morrison) assembled around Roger Waters in 1990 amid the ruins of the Berlin Wall. After a stint in Chicago, the family moved to Los Angeles where Reddy tried to established herself as a recording artist. Later in the show, a huge wall was built between the audience and the band, being demolished, explosively, as the finale. Settling initially in New York, she met Jeff Wald, then an agent with the William Morris Agency; the couple began living together four days later and she and Wald (who became her manager) subsequently married.

Pink Floyd mounted their most elaborate stage show in conjunction with the tour of The Wall, in which a band of session musicians played the first song, wearing rubber face masks (proving successfully that the members of the band were not known for their individual personalities). After beginning her career in radio and television in Australia, she won a talent contest on the Australian pop music TV show Bandstand which enabled her to move to the United States in 1966. Later, additional special effects were added to the show, including lasers, pyrotechnics, and oversized balloons, notably a giant pig balloon which floated over the audience during performances of "Pigs" from the Animals album. In her late teens she was briefly married an older musician, with whom she had a daughter, Traci, but they divorced soon afterwards. Screen"). Reddy began performing on stage with her parents at four years of age. In their early days, Pink Floyd were among the first bands to use a dedicated traveling light show in conjunction with their performances, projecting slides, film clips, and psychedelic patterns onto a large circular screen (dubbed "Mr. Reddy was born into a well-known Australian show business family -- her parents, well-known performers on the Australian vaudeville circuit, were actress and singer Stella Lamond and writer-actor-comedian Max Reddy; her older sister is actress-singer Toni Lamond and her nephew is actor-singer Tony Sheldon.

Pink Floyd are renowned for their lavish stage shows, combining over-the-top visual experiences with their music to create a show in which the artists themselves are almost secondary. She has sold more than 15 million albums and 10 million singles, and was the first Australian-born performer to win a Grammy award. Waters' Amused To Death was the most praised of these albums, though it was met with mixed reviews. #1 singles. All of the members of Pink Floyd have released solo albums which have met with varying degrees of commercial and critical success. Melbourne, Australia, October 25, 1942 is an Australian-born pop singer who was immensely successful in the 1970s with numerous hit records including three U.S. Richard Wright re-joined during the recording sessions of A Momentary Lapse of Reason first as a session musician, paid a weekly salary, and later reinstated as a full-fledged member of the band for the 1994 release of The Division Bell and its subsequent tour, which was promoted by legendary Canadian concert impressario Michael Cohl and became the highest-grossing tour in rock history to that date. Helen Reddy (b.

The band under Gilmour returned to the studio with producer Bob Ezrin. A bitter legal dispute with Roger Waters (who left the band in 1985) ensued, but Gilmour and Mason were upheld in their contention that they had the legal right to continue as Pink Floyd (Waters, however, gained the rights to some traditional Pink Floyd imagery, including almost all of the Wall props and characters and all of the rights to "The Final Cut"). After The Final Cut, the band members went their separate ways, each releasing solo albums, until 1987, when Gilmour and Mason began to revive the band. There was no tour, and the band unofficially disbanded in 1983.

The arguing between Waters and Gilmour by this stage was rumoured to be so bad that they were never seen in the recording studio simultaneously. Only moderately successful by Floyd standards, the album yielded only one rock radio hit, "Not Now John". Though released as a Pink Floyd album, the project was clearly dominated by Waters and became a prototype in sound and form for later Waters solo projects. Wright's absence meant this album lacked the keyboard effects seen in previous Floyd works, although guests Michael Kamen and Andy Bown both contributed keyboard work.

Even darker in tone than The Wall, this album re-examined many of the themes of that album while also addressing then-current events, including Waters' anger at Britain's participation in the Falklands War ("The Fletcher Memorial Home") and his cynicism toward, and fear of, nuclear war ("Two Suns in the Sunset"). 1983 saw the release of The Final Cut. The creation of the film saw a further deterioration of the Waters/Gilmour relationship, as Waters came to completely dominate the band. A film entitled Pink Floyd The Wall starring Boomtown Rats founder Bob Geldof was adapted from it in 1982, written by Waters and directed by Alan Parker, and featuring striking animation by noted British cartoonist Gerald Scarfe.

The Wall remained on best-selling-album lists for 14 years. The album was co-produced by Bob Ezrin, a friend of Waters who shared songwriting credits on "The Trial" and whom Waters then kicked out of the Floyd camp after Ezrin inadvertently talked about the album to a journalist relative. Ironically, he was the only member of Pink Floyd to make any money from the "Wall" shows, the rest having to cover the excessive costs. Wright returned, on a fixed wage, for the album's few live concerts.

During this time, Waters increased his artistic influence and leadership over the band, prompting frequent conflicts with the other members and even leading to the firing of Wright from the band. The album also became a vastly expensive and money-losing tour/stage show, although the album's sales got the band out of the financial hole they were in. It is also one of a very small number of songs on Pink Floyd's first four concept albums not to segue at either the beginning or end. 1979's epic rock opera, The Wall, conceived mainly by Waters, gave Pink Floyd renewed acclaim and another hit single with their foray into critical pedagogy - "Another Brick in the Wall, Part II." It also included "Comfortably Numb," which, though never released as a single, became a cornerstone of AOR and classic-rock radio playlists and is today one of the group's best-known songs.

Animals was a lot more guitar-driven than the previous albums and marked the start of tensions between Waters and Wright. Animals contained more lengthy songs tied to a theme, taken in part from George Orwell's Animal Farm, using pigs, dogs and sheep as metaphors for members of contemporary society. By 1977, and the release of Animals, the band's music came under increasing criticism from some quarters in the new punk rock sphere as being too flabby and pretentious, having lost its way from the simplicity of early rock and roll. The album also includes the epics "Welcome to the Machine" and "Have a Cigar.".

In addition to the classic title track, "Wish You Were Here" includes the critically acclaimed, mostly instrumental nine-part "Shine On You Crazy Diamond", a tribute to Barrett in which the lyrics deal explicitly with the aftermath of his breakdown. The first of those, Wish You Were Here, released in 1975, is a theme album about absence. Dark Side of the Moon and the three following albums (Wish You Were Here, Animals and The Wall) are held up by some fans as the peak of Pink Floyd's career. Thanks to the use of new 16-track recording equipment at Abbey Road Studios and the investment of an enormous amount of time by engineer Alan Parsons, the album set new standards for sound fidelity.

Dark Side of the Moon was a concept album dealing with themes of insanity, neurosis and fame. Despite their never having been a hit-single-driven group, their massively successful 1973 album, Dark Side of the Moon, featured a US number Top 20 track ("Money"), and more importantly remained in the top 100 for over a decade, breaking many records on the way, and making it one of the top selling albums of all time. A less-well-known album, Obscured By Clouds, was released in 1972, as the soundtrack for the film "La Vallee" and was the band's first US Top 50 album. Their taste for experimentation was expressed on "Seamus" (earlier, "Mademoiselle Nobs"), a pure-blues number featuring lead vocals by a Russian wolfhound.

This album also included the atmospheric "One of These Days" (a concert classic, with a distorted, disembodied one-line vocal, "One of these days, I'm going to cut you into little pieces"-courtesy of drummer Nick Mason, his only released vocal performance) and the pop-jazz stylings of "San Tropez". The band's sound was considerably more focused on Meddle (1971), with the 23-minute epic "Echoes" (in this track the band used the Zinovieff's VCS3 synth for the first time) . The title piece owes much to orchestration by Ron Geesin. 1970's Atom Heart Mother, a UK number one album, is somewhat dated and has been described by Gilmour as the sound of a band "blundering about in the dark".

After the film soundtrack More, the next record, the double album Ummagumma (part recorded at Mothers Rock Club, Birmingham, and in Manchester in 1969), was a mix of live recordings and unchecked studio experimentation by the band members, with each recording half a side of vinyl as a solo project (Mason's wife makes an uncredited contribution as a flautist). Whilst Barrett had written the bulk of the first record, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn (1967), he contributed just one song 'Jugband Blues' to the second A Saucerful of Secrets (1968). Once Barrett's departure was formalised, Jenner and King decided to remain with him, and the six-way Blackhill partnership was dissolved. The band's live shows became increasingly ramshackle until, eventually, the other band members simply stopped taking him to the concerts.

With Barrett's behaviour becoming less and less predictable, and use of LSD almost constant, he became very unstable, often staring into space while the rest of the band performed. In 1968, guitarist David Gilmour joined the band to carry out the playing and singing duties of Barrett, whose mental health was deteriorating, but nevertheless was intended to remain as the band's figurehead and songwriter. The album's tracks showcase an eclectic mixture of music, from the avant garde free form piece 'Interstellar Overdrive' to whimsical songs, such as 'Scarecrow', a melancholic song inspired by the Fenlands, the rural region surrounding Barrett's home town of Cambridge. Released in 1967, the band's debut The Piper at the Gates of Dawn is considered to be a prime example of English psychedelic music.

The band formed Blackhill Enterprises, a six-way business partnership with their managers, Peter Jenner and Andrew King. They covered rhythm and blues staples such as "Louie, Louie". As Barrett started writing tunes more influenced by American surf music, psychedelic rock, and British whimsy, humour and literature, the heavily jazz-oriented Klose departed and left a rather stable foursome. Pink Floyd originally consisted of Bob Klose (lead guitar), Syd Barrett (vocals, rhythm guitar), Richard Wright (keyboards, vocals), Roger Waters (bass, vocals) and Nick Mason (drums). The definite article was dropped by the time their debut album was released.

The band was again renamed The Pink Floyd Sound and then simply The Pink Floyd (after two blues musicians, Pink Anderson and Floyd Council). Pink Floyd formed in 1964 from earlier bands whose names included Sigma 6, T-Set, Meggadeaths, The Screaming Abdabs, The Architectural Abdabs, and The Abdabs. Pink Floyd is one of rock's most successful acts, ranking seventh in number of albums sold worldwide. Pink Floyd is a British progressive band famous for its songwriting, harmonic classical rock compositions, bombastic style, striking album art and elaborate live shows.

Floydian Slip. Final Cut (German Band). Pink Froyd. Off The Wall (http://offthewall.info/).

Pink Void. Think Floyd. The Pink Floyd Experience. The Great Gig in the Sky.

The Machine. The Australian Pink Floyd Show. Which One's Pink? (http://whichonespink.com/). Pig Floyd http://pigfloyd.com.

For about ten years from 1982, a fanzine, "The Amazing Pudding" documented the band's activities. Live at Pompeii: Directors Cut (2003) (DVD with live performance pre-DSOTM; previously available on video cassette, laserdisc, and video CD). Is There Anybody Out There? The Wall Live 1980-81 (2000) (live). P-U-L-S-E (1995) (2CD, live, also on VHS).

London '66-'67 (1995, not sanctioned by the band). Delicate Sound of Thunder (1988) (live, also on VHS). Tonite Let's all make Love in London (1967). Echoes (2001) (2CD best-of compilation).

Shine On (1992) (compilation, CD box set). Works (1983) (compilation). A Collection of Great Dance Songs (1981) (compilation). A Nice Pair (1973) (compilation).

Masters of Rock (1973 or 1974) (compilation). Obscured By Clouds (1972). Zabriskie Point (1970) (soundtrack; various artists)]. Music From the Film More (1969).

The Final Cut - Reissue (2004). Dark Side of the Moon (30th anniversary edition) (2003). The Division Bell (1994). A Momentary Lapse of Reason (1987).

The Final Cut (1983). The Wall (1979) (2LP). Animals (1977). Wish You Were Here (1975).

Dark Side of the Moon (1973). Relics (1971) (out-takes and b-sides). Meddle (1971). Atom Heart Mother (1970).

Ummagumma (1969) (2LP, live and studio). A Saucerful of Secrets (1968). The Piper at the Gates of Dawn (1967).