Pink Floyd

This article is about the rock band. For the fictional character, see Pink Floyd (fictional character).

Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd in January 1968 Left to right: Mason, Barrett, Gilmour (seated), Waters and Wright
Background information
Origin	London, England
Genres	Progressive rock, psychedelic rock, acid rock, space rock
Years active	1965 (1965)–1996, 2005 (reunion)
Labels	Harvest, Capitol, Columbia, EMI
Past members	Syd Barrett Roger Waters Richard Wright Nick Mason David Gilmour
Website	pinkfloyd.com

Pink Floyd were an English rock band that achieved international success with their progressive and psychedelic music. Distinguished by their use of philosophical lyrics, sonic experimentation, and elaborate live shows, they are one of the most commercially successful and musically influential groups in the history of popular music. They have sold more than 250 million records worldwide, including 74.5 million certified units in the United States. The US Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted them in 1996, and the UK Music Hall of Fame in 2005.

Founded in 1965, Pink Floyd originally consisted of university students Roger Waters, Nick Mason, Richard Wright, and Syd Barrett. They first gained popularity performing in London's underground music scene during the late 1960s, and under Barrett's creative leadership they released two charting singles, "Arnold Layne" and "See Emily Play", as well as a successful début album, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn (1967). Guitarist and vocalist David Gilmour joined as a fifth member in December 1967, and Barrett left the band in April 1968 due to his deteriorating mental health. After Barrett's departure, Waters became their primary songwriter and lyricist. With Waters, Mason, Wright, and Gilmour, Pink Floyd achieved critical and commercial success with the concept albums The Dark Side of the Moon (1973), Wish You Were Here (1975), Animals (1977), and The Wall (1979).

Wright left the group in 1979, followed by Waters in 1985. Gilmour and Mason continued as Pink Floyd and Wright subsequently rejoined. They continued to record and tour through 1994; two more albums followed, A Momentary Lapse of Reason (1987) and The Division Bell (1994). After nearly two decades of acrimony, the band reunited in 2005 for a performance at the global awareness event Live 8. Wright died in 2008. Surviving members Gilmour and Mason joined Waters at one of his The Wall Tour shows on 12 May 2011 at the O2 Arena in London; Gilmour performed "Comfortably Numb" along with Waters and "Outside the Wall" with Mason and Waters.

1963–1967: Formation and early years

The beginning

Roger Waters and Nick Mason met while they were both studying architecture at the London Polytechnic at Regent Street. They first played music together in a group formed by Keith Noble and Clive Metcalfe with Noble's sister Sheilagh. Fellow architecture student Richard Wright joined later that year and the group became a sextet named Sigma 6; the first band to include Waters, Wright and Mason. The band started performing during private functions, while rehearsing in a tearoom in the basement of the Regent Street Polytechnic. They performed songs by The Searchers and material written by their manager and songwriter, fellow student Ken Chapman.

In September 1963, Waters and Mason moved into a flat at 39 Stanhope Gardens, near Crouch End London, owned by Mike Leonard, a part-time tutor at the Regent Street Polytechnic. Mason moved out after the 1964 academic year, and guitarist Bob Klose moved in during September 1964. Sigma 6 went through a number of other transitory names, including The Meggadeaths, The Abdabs and The Screaming Abdabs, Leonard's Lodgers, and The Spectrum Five before settling on The Tea Set. In 1964, as Metcalfe and Noble left to form their own band, Syd Barrett joined Klose and Waters at Stanhope Gardens. Barrett moved to London in 1963 to study at the Camberwell College of Art. Waters and Barrett were childhood friends; Waters had often visited Barrett and watched him play guitar at Barrett's mother's house. Mason said this about Barrett: "In a period when everyone was being cool in a very adolescent, self-conscious way, Syd was unfashionably outgoing; my enduring memory of our first encounter is the fact that he bothered to come up and introduce himself to me."

Noble and Metcalfe left The Tea Set in late 1963, and Klose introduced the band to singer Chris Dennis, a technician with the Royal Air Force. When the RAF assigned Dennis a post in Bahrain in early 1964, Barrett became the band's frontman. They first recorded in a studio in December 1964, though without Wright, who was taking a break from his studies. They managed to get recording time at a studio in West Hampstead, through one of Wright's friends, who let them use some down time for free. In early 1965, they became the resident band at the Countdown Club, near Kensington High Street in London, where from late night until early morning they played three sets of ninety minutes each. During this period, spurred by the group's need to extend their sets in order to minimise song repetition, came the band's "realisation that songs could be extended with lengthy solos", wrote Mason. In early 1965, the group auditioned for ITV's Ready Steady Go!, which Mason described as "the definitive music show of the day". Despite sounding what Mason considered "too radical for the general viewer", they earned a callback for a second audition, with the caveat that they play material more familiar to the judges; they did not earn an appearance on the show. After pressure from his parents and advice from his college tutors, Klose quit the band in mid 1965 and Barrett took over on lead guitar. The group first referred to themselves as the Pink Floyd Sound in late 1965. Barrett created the name on the spur of the moment when he discovered that another band, also called the Tea Set, were to perform at one of their gigs.

A Hapshash and the Coloured Coat poster for Pink Floyd at the UFO Club

By 1966, the group's repertoire consisted mainly of rhythm and blues songs and they had began to receive paid bookings, including one for a performance at the Marquee Club, in March 1966, where they were noticed by Peter Jenner. A lecturer at the London School of Economics, Jenner was impressed by the sonic effects Barrett and Wright created, and with his business partner and friend Andrew King, became their manager. The pair had little experience in the music industry and used King's inherited money to set up Blackhill Enterprises, purchasing about £1,000 worth of new instruments and equipment for the band. It was around this time that Jenner suggested they drop the "Sound" part of their band name, thus becoming the Pink Floyd. Under Jenner and King's guidance the group became part of London's underground music scene, playing at venues including All Saints Hall and The Marquee. While performing at the Countdown Club the band had experimented with long instrumental excursions and they began to expand upon these with rudimentary but visually effective light shows, projected by coloured slides and domestic lights. To celebrate the launch of the London Free School's magazine International Times, they performed in front of 2,000 people at the opening of The Roundhouse, attended by celebrities including Paul McCartney and Marianne Faithfull. Jenner and King's social connections helped gain the band important coverage in The Financial Times and an article in the The Sunday Times which stated: "At the launching of the new magazine IT the other night a pop group called the Pink Floyd played throbbing music while a series of bizarre coloured shapes flashed on a huge screen behind them ... apparently very psychedelic."

In 1966, they strengthened their business relationship with Blackhill Enterprises, becoming equal partners with Jenner and King and the band members each holding a one-sixth share. By late 1966, their set included fewer R&B standards and more Barrett originals, many of which would eventually comprise most of their first album. While they had significantly increased the frequency of their performances, the band was not widely accepted at the time. Following a performance at a Catholic youth club, the owner refused to pay them claiming that their performance "wasn't music". When their management filed suit in a small claims court against the owner of the youth organisation, a local magistrate upheld the owner's decision. However, they were much better received at the UFO Club in London, where a small fan base began to build-up around the band. Barrett's performances were enthusiastic, "leaping around ...madness ... improvisation ... [inspired] to get past his limitations and into areas that were ... very interesting. Which none of the others could do", wrote biographer Nicholas Schaffner. As time went on, their audiences grew more responsive to the music they played, audiences that were often high on drugs whereas the band typically remained drug-free before and during performances, Mason commented: "We were out of it, not on acid, but out of the loop, stuck in the dressing room at UFO."

Signing with EMI

"[The psychedelic movement had] taken place around us—not within us".

~ Mason, in Melody Maker, 14 January 1967

Whereas Pink Floyd began their career at the vanguard of London's underground psychedelic music scene and would be classified by some as space rock, by 1967 they began to attract the attention of the mainstream music industry. While in negotiations with record companies, IT co-founder and UFO club manager Joe Boyd and Pink Floyd's booking agent Bryan Morrison arranged for and funded the recording of some songs at Sound Techniques in West Hampstead. Included were the standout track "Arnold Layne" and "Candy and a Currant Bun" as its B-side, both of which they recorded on 29 January 1967. Three days later Pink Floyd signed with EMI, receiving a £5,000 advance. EMI released the band's first single, "Arnold Layne", on 10 March 1967. The song's references to cross-dressing led to a ban by several radio stations, however, some creative manipulation by the retailers who supplied sales figures to the music business meant that the single peaked in the UK at number 20.

EMI released Pink Floyd's second single, "See Emily Play", on 16 June 1967. It fared slightly better than "Arnold Layne", peaking at number 6 in the UK. They performed on the BBC's Look of the Week, where Waters and Barrett, erudite and engaging, faced tough questioning from Hans Keller. They appeared on the BBC's Top Of The Pops, an immensely popular program which controversially required artists to mime their singing and playing. Pink Floyd returned after the single climbed to number six; however, they cancelled a scheduled third appearance when Barrett refused to perform. It was around this time that the band first noticed significant changes in Barrett's behaviour. By early 1967, he was regularly using LSD, and Mason described him as "completely distanced from everything going on".

The Piper at the Gates of Dawn

Main article: The Piper at the Gates of Dawn

Morrison and EMI producer Norman Smith negotiated Pink Floyd's first recording contract, and as part of the deal, the band agreed to record their first album at EMI's Abbey Road Studios in London. Mason recalled that the sessions were trouble-free. Smith disagreed, stating that Barrett was unresponsive to his suggestions and constructive criticism. EMI released The Piper at the Gates of Dawn in August 1967. Pink Floyd continued to draw large crowds at the UFO Club; however, Barrett's mental breakdown was by then causing serious concern. The group initially hoped that his erratic behaviour would be a passing phase, but some were less optimistic, including Jenner and his assistant, June Child, who commented: "I found [Barrett] in the dressing room and he was so ... gone. Roger Waters and I got him on his feet, [and] we got him out to the stage ... The band started to play and Syd just stood there. He had his guitar around his neck and his arms just hanging down."

Pink Floyd were forced to abandon their appearance at the prestigious National Jazz and Blues Festival, informing the music press that Barrett was suffering from nervous exhaustion. Waters arranged a meeting with psychiatrist R. D. Laing, and though Waters personally drove Barrett to the appointment, Barrett refused to come out of the car. A stay in Formentera, with Sam Hutt, a doctor well-established in the underground music scene, led to no visible improvement. The band followed a few concert dates in Europe during September with their first tour of the US in October. As the US tour went on, Barrett's condition grew steadily worse. During appearances on the Dick Clark and Pat Boone shows in November, Barrett confounded his hosts, staring off with a blunted affect and refusing to move his lips when it came time to mime "See Emily Play" on Boone's show. After these embarrassing episodes, King ended their US visit and immediately sent them home to London. Soon after their return, they supported Jimi Hendrix during a tour of England; however, Barrett's depression worsened as the tour continued, reaching a crisis point in December when the band responded by adding a new member to their lineup.

1968–1977: Transition and international success

Gilmour replaces Barrett

In December 1967, the group added David Gilmour as the fifth member of Pink Floyd. Morrison's assistant, Steve O'Rourke, set Gilmour up in a room at O'Rourke's house with a salary of £30 per week, and in January 1968 they announced Gilmour as the band's newest member. To the general public he was the second guitarist and the fifth member of Pink Floyd; the band intending to continue with Barrett as a nonperforming songwriter. Jenner commented: "The idea was that Dave would ... cover for [Barrett's] eccentricities and when that got to be not workable, Syd was just going to write. Just to try to keep him involved". Barrett felt overshadowed by Gilmour, and in an expression of his frustration, Barrett tried to teach the band a new song, "Have You Got It Yet?", intentionally changing the structure on each performance—making it impossible for them to learn.

Working with Barrett eventually proved too difficult, and matters came to a head en route to a performance in Southampton when a bandmember asked if they should collect Barrett, the response was "No, fuck it, let's not bother". Waters later admitted, "He was our friend, but most of the time we now wanted to strangle him". In early March 1968, they met with business partners Peter Jenner and Andrew King of Blackhill Enterprises, to discuss the band's future. Barrett agreed to leave, and Pink Floyd agreed to Blackhill's legal entitlement to receive royalties in perpetuity from the band's previous recordings.

Jenner and King believed Barrett to be the creative genius of the band, and decided to represent him and end their relationship with Pink Floyd. Morrison then sold his business to NEMS Enterprises, and O'Rourke became the band's personal manager. Blackhill announced Barrett's departure on 6 April 1968. After Barrett's departure, the burden of lyrical composition and creative direction fell mostly on Waters. Initially, Gilmour mimed to Barrett's voice on the group's European TV appearances; however, while playing on the university circuit, they avoided Barrett songs in favour of Waters and Wright material such as "It Would Be So Nice" and "Careful with That Axe, Eugene", a song which helped galvanise Pink Floyd's reputation as an art rock band. Road manager Peter Watts joined them before touring Europe in 1968. In July 1969, perhaps because of their space-related music and lyrics, they were part of the live BBC television coverage of the Apollo 11 moon landing, performing an instrumental piece which they called "Moonhead".

A Saucerful of Secrets

Main article: A Saucerful of Secrets

In 1968, Pink Floyd returned to Abbey Road Studios to record their second album, A Saucerful of Secrets. The LP included Barrett's final contribution to their discography, "Jugband Blues". Waters began to develop his own songwriting contributing "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun", "Let There Be More Light" and "Corporal Clegg". Wright composed "See-Saw" and "Remember a Day". Smith encouraged them to self-produce their music, and they recorded demos of new material at their houses. With Smith's instruction at Abbey Road, they learned how to use the recording studio to realise their artistic vision. However, Smith remained unconvinced by their music, and when Mason struggled to perform his drum part on "Remember a Day", Smith stepped in as his replacement. Wright recalled Smith's attitude about the sessions, "Norman gave up on the second album ... he was forever saying things like, 'You can't do twenty minutes of this ridiculous noise.'" As neither Waters nor Mason could read music, to illustrate the structure of the album's title track, they invented their own system of notation. Gilmour later described their method as looking "like an architectural diagram".

Released in June 1968, and featuring an album cover designed by Storm Thorgerson and Aubrey Powell of Hipgnosis, Record Mirror gave the album an overall favorable review, but urged listeners to "forget it as background music to a party". John Peel described a live performance of the title track as "like a religious experience", while NME described the song as "long and boring ... [with] little to warrant its monotonous direction". On the day after the album's UK release, Pink Floyd performed at the first free concert in Hyde Park. In July 1968, they returned to the US for a second visit. Accompanied by the Soft Machine and The Who, it marked Pink Floyd's first significant tour. In December of that year, they released "Point Me at the Sky", no more successful than the two singles they had released since "See Emily Play", it would be their last for several years.

Soundtracks

In 1968, Pink Floyd recorded a film score for The Committee. In 1969, they recorded the score for Barbet Schroeder's film More. The soundtrack proved beneficial; not only did it pay well but, along with A Saucerful of Secrets, the material they created became part of their live shows for some time thereafter. While composing the soundtrack for director Michelangelo Antonioni's film Zabriskie Point, the band stayed at a luxury hotel in Rome for almost a month. Waters claimed that, without Antonioni's constant changes to the music, they would have completed the work in less than a week. Eventually he used only three of their recordings. One of the pieces turned down by Antonioni, called "The Violent Sequence", later became "Us and Them", included on 1973's The Dark Side of the Moon. In 1971, the band again worked with Schroeder on the film La Vallée, for which they released a soundtrack album called Obscured by Clouds. They composed the material in about a week at the Château d'Hérouville near Paris, and upon its release, it became Pink Floyd's first album to break into the top 50 on the US Billboard chart.

Ummagumma, Atom Heart Mother and Meddle

Main articles: Ummagumma, Atom Heart Mother, and Meddle

Waters performing with Pink Floyd at Leeds University in 1970

Ummagumma represented a departure from their previous work. Released as a double-LP on EMI's Harvest label, the first two sides contained live performances recorded at Manchester College of Commerce and Mother's Club in Birmingham. The second LP contained a single experimental contribution from each band member. Ummagumma received positive reviews upon its release, in November 1969.

In October 1970, Pink Floyd released Atom Heart Mother. An early version premièred in France in January, but disagreements over the mix prompted the hiring of Ron Geesin to work out the sound issues. Geesin worked to improve the score; however, with little creative input from the band, production was troublesome. Geesin eventually completed the project with the aid of John Aldiss, who was the director of the choir hired to perform on the record. Smith earned an executive producer credit, and the album marked his final official contribution to the band's discography. Gilmour said it was "A neat way of saying that he didn't ... do anything". Waters was critical of Atom Heart Mother, claiming that he would prefer if it were "thrown into the dustbin and never listened to by anyone ever again." Gilmour was equally dismissive of the album and once described it as "a load of rubbish", stating: "I think we were scraping the barrel a bit at that period." Atom Heart Mother was hugely successful in the UK, and it premièred at the Bath Festival on 27 June 1970.

Pink Floyd toured extensively across America and Europe in 1970. In 1971, Pink Floyd took second place in a readers poll, in Melody Maker, and for the first time were making a profit. Mason and Wright became fathers and bought homes in London while Gilmour, still single, moved to a 19th-century farm in Essex. Waters installed a home recording studio at his house in Islington in a converted toolshed at the back of his garden.

Upon their return from touring Atom Heart Mother in early 1971, Pink Floyd began working on new material. Lacking a central theme they attempted several unproductive experiments; engineer John Leckie described the sessions as often beginning in the afternoon and ending early the next morning, "during which time nothing would get [accomplished]. There was no record company contact whatsoever, except when their label manager would show up now and again with a couple of bottles of wine and a couple of joints." The band spent long periods working on basic sounds, or a guitar riff. They also spent several days at Air Studios, attempting to create music using a variety of household objects, a project which would be revisited between The Dark Side of the Moon and Wish You Were Here.

Released in October 1971, "Meddle not only confirms lead guitarist David Gilmour's emergence as a real shaping force with the group, it states forcefully and accurately that the group is well into the growth track again" wrote Jean-Charles Costa of Rolling Stone. NME called it "an exceptionally good album", singling out "Echoes" as the "Zenith which the Floyd have been striving for." However, Melody Maker's Michael Watts found it underwhelming, calling the album "a soundtrack to a non-existent movie", and shrugging off Pink Floyd as "so much sound and fury, signifying nothing." Meddle is a transitional album between the Barrett-influenced group of the late 1960s and the emerging Pink Floyd.

The Dark Side of the Moon

Main article: The Dark Side of the Moon

Original album artwork by Hipgnosis and George Hardie

Pink Floyd recorded, The Dark Side of the Moon, between May 1972 and January 1973, with EMI staff engineer Alan Parsons at Abbey Road. The title is an allusion to lunacy rather than astronomy. Hipgnosis designed the album's packaging, which included George Hardie's iconic refracting prism design on the cover.

Released in March 1973, the LP became an instant chart success in the UK and throughout Western Europe, earning an enthusiastic response from critics. Melody Maker's Roy Hollingworth described side one as "utterly confused ... [and] difficult to follow", but praised side two, writing: "The songs, the sounds ... [and] the rhythms were solid ... [the] Saxophone hit the air, the band rocked and rolled". Rolling Stone's Lloyd Grossman described it as "a fine album with a textural and conceptual richness that not only invites, but demands involvement." The Dark Side of the Moon is one of the most commercially successful rock albums of all time, remaining on the Billboard 200 chart for more than fourteen years, and selling over 40 million copies worldwide.

The success of the album brought enormous wealth to the members of Pink Floyd. Waters and Wright bought large country houses while Mason became a collector of expensive cars. Disenchanted with their US record company, Capitol Records, Pink Floyd and O'Rourke negotiated a new contract with Columbia Records, who gave them a reported advance of $1,000,000 (approximately $7,000,000 today). In Britain and Europe, they continued to be represented by Harvest Records.

Wish You Were Here

Main article: Wish You Were Here (Pink Floyd album)

Two men dressed in dark grey business attire stand in the grounds of a Hollywood film studio, facing each other and shaking hands. The man on the right's hair and clothes are on fire, but he seems oblivious to the fact.

Original album artwork by Thorgerson

After a tour of the UK performing, Dark Side, Pink Floyd returned to the studio in January 1975 and began work on their seventh studio album, Wish You Were Here. Parsons declined an offer to continue working with them, becoming successful in his own right with The Alan Parsons Project, and so the band turned to Brian Humphries. Initially, they found it difficult to compose new material; the success of The Dark Side of the Moon had left Pink Floyd physically and emotionally drained. Wright later described these early sessions as "falling within a difficult period" and Waters found them "torturous". Gilmour was more interested in improving the band's existing material. Mason's failing marriage left him in a general malaise and with a sense of apathy, both of which interfered with his drumming.

Despite the lack of creative direction, Waters began to visualise a new concept after several weeks. During 1974, Pink Floyd had sketched out three original compositions and had performed them at a series of concerts in Europe. These compositions became the starting point for a new album whose opening four-note guitar phrase, composed purely by chance by Gilmour, reminded Waters of Barrett. The songs provided a fitting summary of the rise and fall of their former band mate. Waters commented: "Because I wanted to get as close as possible to what I felt ... [that] indefinable, inevitable melancholy about the disappearance of Syd."

While Pink Floyd were working on the album, Barrett made an impromptu visit to the studio, during which Thorgerson recalled that he "sat round and talked for a bit, but he wasn't really there." He had changed significantly in appearance, and the band did not initially recognise him. Waters was reportedly deeply upset by the experience. Thorgerson concealed the album cover artwork with a dark-coloured shrink-wrap. The inspiration behind the cover image is the idea that people tend to conceal their true feelings for fear of "getting burned"; therefore, it features two businessmen shown shaking hands; one of them is on fire. Most of Wish You Were Here premièred on 5 July 1975, at an open-air music festival at Knebworth before its release in September of that year, when it quickly reached number one in both the UK and the US.

Animals

Main article: Animals (Pink Floyd album)

Original album artwork by Hipgnosis

In 1975, Pink Floyd bought a three-storey block of church halls, at 35 Britannia Row in Islington, and began converting the building into a recording studio and storage facility. Construction lasted throughout most of 1975 and in 1976 they recorded their eighth album, Animals, in their newly finished studio.

Waters originated the concept of Animals, loosely based on George Orwell's political fable Animal Farm. Its lyrics described different classes of society as dogs, pigs, and sheep. Hipgnosis received credited for the packaging of Animals; however, Waters designed the final concept, choosing an image of the ageing Battersea Power Station. The band commissioned a 30 feet (9.1 m) pig-shaped balloon and photography began on 2 December. Inclement weather delayed filming, and the balloon broke free of its moorings in strong winds. It eventually landed in Kent, where a local farmer recovered it, reportedly furious that it had frightened his cows. The difficult shoot had resumed before they decided to superimpose the image of the pig onto the photograph of the power station.

The division of royalties became a sensitive topic during production of the album. Members earned royalties on a per-song basis, and although Gilmour was largely responsible for "Dogs", which took up almost the entire first side of the album yet he received less than Waters who also contributed the two-part "Pigs on the Wing", which contains references to Waters' romantic relationship with Carolyne Anne Christie. Gilmour, distracted by the birth of his first child, contributed little else toward the album. Similarly, neither Mason nor Wright contributed much toward Animals (the first Pink Floyd album not to include a writing credit for Wright); Wright had marital problems, and his relationship with Waters was also suffering.

Soldier Field Chicago, one of the largest venues Pink Floyd performed in during their In the Flesh tour in 1977

The album was released on 23 January 1977, and entered the UK charts at number two and number three in the US. NME called the album "one of the most extreme, relentless, harrowing and downright iconoclastic hunks of music to have been made available this side of the sun", and Melody Maker's Karl Dallas called it "[an] uncomfortable taste of reality in a medium that has become in recent years, increasingly soporific".

Much of the album's material was performed during the band's "In the Flesh" tour, Pink Floyd's first experience playing in large stadiums and the size of the venues was an issue. Waters began arriving at each venue alone, departing immediately after the performance was complete. On one occasion Wright flew back to England threatening to leave the band. At the Montréal Olympic Stadium a small group of noisy and excited fans in the front row of the audience irritated Waters so much that he spat at one of them. Waters was not the only person who was made depressed by playing in massive venues, as Gilmour refused to perform the band's usual twelve-bar blues encore that night. The end of the tour was a low point for Gilmour who felt that the band had by then achieved the success they sought, and that there was nothing else to look forward to.

Financial problems

In 1976, the band had become involved with financial advisers Norton Warburg Group (NWG). NWG became the band's collecting agents and handled all financial planning, for an annual fee of about £300,000. Between £1.6 million and £3.3 million of the band's money was invested in high-risk venture capital schemes, primarily to reduce the band's exposure to high UK taxes. It soon became obvious that the band 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 percent of their income. The band eventually terminated their relationship with NWG and demanded the return of any cash not yet invested, which at that time amounted to £860,000 although they received only £740,000.

1978–1985: Waters-led era

The Wall

Main articles: The Wall and Pink Floyd—The Wall

In July 1978, Waters presented the band with two new ideas. The first was a 90-minute demo with the working title, Bricks in the Wall, and the other would later become Waters' 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 and he wrote a forty-page script for the new album. The story was based on the central character of Pink—a character inspired by Waters' childhood experiences, the most notable of which was the death of his father in World War II. This first 'brick in the wall' led to more problems; Pink would become so drug-addled and worn down by the music industry that he would transform into a megalomaniac, a development inspired partly by the decline of Syd Barrett. At the end of the album the increasingly fascist audience would watch as Pink 'tore down the wall', once again becoming a normal caring person.

Engineer Brian Humphries, emotionally drained by his five years with the band, was replaced by James Guthrie for the recording of the album. In March 1979, the band's critical financial situation demanded that they leave the UK for a year or more and recording was moved to the Super Bear Studios near Nice.

During the recording of The Wall, the band became increasingly unhappy with Wright's lack of contribution to the album. Gilmour said that Wright, "hadn't contributed anything of any value whatsoever to the album—he did very, very little" and that's why he "got the boot". According to Mason, "Rick's contribution was to turn up and sit in on the sessions without doing anything, just 'being a producer'." Waters commented: "he was not prepared to cooperate in making the record ... [and] it was agreed by everybody ... either you can have a long battle or you can agree to ... finish making the album, keep your full share ... but at the end of it you leave quietly. Rick agreed." Although his name did not appear anywhere on the finished album he was employed as a paid musician on the band's subsequent The Wall tour. Production of the album continued and by August 1979 the running order was largely complete. Wright completed his duties, aided by session musicians. Toward the end of The Wall sessions, Mason left the final mix to Waters, Gilmour, Ezrin, and Guthrie, travelling to New York to record his debut solo album, Nick Mason's Fictitious Sports.

Although Pink Floyd rarely released singles, and had not done so since 1968, the album was promoted with "Another Brick in the Wall (Part II)", which topped the charts in the US and the UK. The Wall was released on 30 November 1979, topping the Billboard chart in the US for fifteen weeks, and reaching number 3 in the UK. The Wall ranks No.4 of all time on the RIAA's list of the Top 100 albums, with 23 million certified units sold in the US alone, and remains one of the band's best-selling albums. The cover is one of their most minimalist designs, with a simple white brick wall, and no logo or band name.

The band went on tour with an elaborate stage show. Gerald Scarfe was employed to produce a series of animations for the subsequent The Wall Tour, including a series of nightmarish visions of the future such as a dove of peace exploding to reveal an eagle. Large inflatable puppets were also created for the live shows. Relationships within the band were at an all-time low. Their four Winnebagos were parked in a circle, with the doors facing away from the centre. Waters used his own vehicle to arrive at the venue and stayed in separate hotels from the rest of the band. Wright returned as a paid musician and was the only 'member' of the band to profit from the venture, which lost about $600,000.

The Wall concept also spawned an eponymous film, the original plan for which was to be a mixture of live concert footage and animated scenes. The concert footage, however, proved impractical to film. Alan Parker agreed to direct and took a different approach. The animated sequences would remain, but scenes would be acted by professional actors with no dialogue. Waters was screen-tested but quickly discarded and Bob Geldof was asked to take the role of Pink. Geldof was initially disdainful, condemning The Wall's storyline as "bollocks". He was eventually won over by the prospect of being involved in a major film and receiving a large payment for his work. Waters took a six-week holiday during filming and returned to find that Parker had used his creative license to change parts of the film to his liking. Waters was irate, the two fought, and Parker threatened to walk out. Gilmour pleaded with Waters to reconsider his stance, reminding the bassist that he and the other band members were shareholders and directors and could out-vote him on such decisions. A modified soundtrack was also created for some of the film's songs. Pink Floyd—The Wall was screened at the Cannes Film Festival in May 1982, released in the UK in July 1982.

The Final Cut

Main article: The Final Cut (album)

A new musical project, with the working title Spare Bricks, was originally conceived as the soundtrack album for Pink Floyd The Wall, but with the onset of the Falklands War Waters changed direction and began writing new material. Waters saw Margaret Thatcher's response to the invasion of the Falklands as jingoistic and unnecessary, and he dedicated the new album—provisionally titled Requiem for a Post-War Dream—to his dead father. Immediately there were arguments between Waters and Gilmour, who felt that the album should contain all new material, rather than recycling a number of songs not considered good enough for The Wall. Waters felt that Gilmour had contributed little to the band's lyrical repertoire. Michael Kamen (contributor to the orchestral sections of The Wall) mediated between the two, also performing the role traditionally occupied by the then absent Wright. James Guthrie was the studio engineer and Mason was aided by two session drummers. Recording took place in eight studios, including Gilmour's home studio at Hookend Manor and Waters' home studio at East Sheen. The tension within the band grew. Waters and Gilmour worked separately (itself not unusual) but Gilmour began to feel the strain, sometimes barely maintaining his composure. Waters lost his temper and began ranting at Kamen who, out of boredom during one recording session, had started repeatedly writing "I Must Not Fuck Sheep" on a notepad in the studio's control room. After a final confrontation Gilmour's name as producer was removed from the credit list, reflecting what Waters felt was his lack of songwriting contributions. Mason's contributions were minimal, as he busied himself recording sound effects for an experimental new Holophonic system to be used on the album. With marital problems of his own, he remained a distant figure. Thorgerson was passed over for the cover design, Waters instead choosing to design it himself, and his brother-in-law, Willie Christie, was commissioned to take photographs for the album cover. The Final Cut was released in March 1983, going straight to No.1 in the UK and No.6 in the US. Waters is credited with writing all the lyrics as well as all the music on the album. Gilmour did not have any material ready for the album and asked Waters to delay the recording until he could write some songs, but Waters refused. Gilmour later commented, "I'm certainly guilty at times of being lazy ... but he wasn't right about wanting to put some duff tracks on The Final Cut." According to Mason, Gilmour's name "disappeared" from the production credits, after power struggles within the band and creative arguments about the album, though he retained his pay. "Not Now John" was released as a single, with its chorus of "Fuck all that" bowdlerised to "Stuff all that"; Melody Maker declared it to be "a milestone in the history of awfulness". Rolling Stone magazine gave the album five stars, with Kurt Loder calling it "a superlative achievement on several levels" and "art rock's crowning masterpiece". Loder viewed the album as "essentially a Roger Waters solo album"

"A spent force"

Gilmour recorded his second solo album About Face in 1984 and used it to express his feelings about a range of topics; from the murder of John Lennon to his relationship with Waters. He later stated that he also used the album to distance himself from Pink Floyd. Soon afterwards Waters began touring his new solo album The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking. Richard Wright formed Zee with Dave Harris and recorded Identity, which went almost unnoticed upon its release. Wright was also in the midst of a difficult divorce and said later that it was, "... made at a time in my life when I was lost." Mason released his second solo album Profiles in August 1985, which featured a contribution from Gilmour on "Lie for a Lie".

After Waters declared Pink Floyd "a spent force", he contacted O'Rourke to discuss settling future royalty payments. O'Rourke felt obliged to inform Mason and Gilmour. As a result, Waters was angered and wanted to dismiss him as the band's manager. Waters then went to the High Court to prevent the Pink Floyd name from ever being used again. His lawyers discovered that the partnership had never been formally confirmed and Waters returned to the High Court in an attempt to gain a veto over further use of the band's name. Gilmour's team responded by issuing a carefully worded press release affirming that Pink Floyd would continue to exist. Gilmour later told a Sunday Times reporter that "Roger is a dog in the manger and I'm going to fight him".

Waters wrote to EMI and Columbia, declared his intention to leave the group, and asked them to release him from his contractual obligations. Gilmour believed that Waters left to hasten the demise of Pink Floyd. Waters later stated that, by not making new albums, Pink Floyd would be in breach of contract—which would mean that royalty payments would be suspended—and that he was effectively forced from the band as the other members threatened to sue him. With the case still pending, Waters dismissed O'Rourke and employed Peter Rudge to manage his affairs. He went on to record the soundtrack for When the Wind Blows, as well as his second solo album, Radio K.A.O.S..

1986–1995: Gilmour-led era

A Momentary Lapse of Reason

Main article: A Momentary Lapse of Reason

The Astoria

As Radio K.A.O.S. was released in June 1987, Gilmour was recruiting musicians for what would become Pink Floyd's first album without Waters—A Momentary Lapse of Reason. There were several legal obstacles to Wright's re-admittance to the band, however, after a meeting in Hampstead with Gilmour and Mason, Wright was invited to participate in the coming sessions. Gilmour later stated that Wright's presence, "would make us stronger legally and musically"; he was employed as a paid musician on a weekly wage of $11,000. Recording sessions for the album began on Gilmour's houseboat, the Astoria, moored along the River Thames. Gilmour worked with several songwriters, including Eric Stewart and Roger McGough, eventually settling on Anthony Moore to write the album's lyrics. Gilmour would later admit that the project was difficult without Waters' presence. Mason was concerned that he was too out of practice to perform on the album and was replaced on occasion by session musicians. He instead busied himself with the album's sound effects. In a change from previous Pink Floyd albums A Momentary Lapse of Reason was recorded onto a 32-channel Mitsubishi digital recorder using MIDI synchronisation with the aid of an Apple Macintosh computer. Recording later moved to Mayfair Studios and then to Los Angeles—"It was fantastic because ... the lawyers couldn't call in the middle of recording unless they were calling in the middle of the night."

The album was released in September 1987. Storm Thorgerson, whose creative input was absent from The Wall and The Final Cut, was employed to design the cover. In order to drive home the message that Waters had left the band, a group photograph was—for the first time since Meddle—included on the inside of the cover. The album went straight to number three in the UK and the US— where it was held from the top spot by Michael Jackson's Bad and Whitesnake's eponymous album Whitesnake. Waters commented: "I think it's very facile, but a quite clever forgery ... The songs are poor in general; the lyrics I can't quite believe. Gilmour's lyrics are very third-rate." Although Gilmour initially viewed the album as a return to the band's best form, Wright would later disagree stating, "Roger's criticisms are fair. It's not a band album at all." Q Magazine's view was that the album was primarily a Gilmour solo effort.

The associated tour had a rocky start, with Waters attempting to block them by contacting promoters in the US and threatening to sue them if they used the Pink Floyd name. Gilmour and Mason funded the start-up costs with Mason, using his Ferrari 250 GTO as collateral. Early rehearsals for the upcoming tour were chaotic, with Mason and Wright completely out of practice. Realising he'd taken on too much work, Gilmour asked Bob Ezrin to assist them. As Pink Floyd toured throughout North America, Waters' Radio K.A.O.S. tour was on occasion, close by, though generally in much smaller venues than those hosting 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 Waters' design. On 23 December a legal settlement was reached between the parties; Mason and Gilmour were allowed use of the Pink Floyd name in perpetuity and Waters was granted exclusive rights to, amongst other things, The Wall.

The Division Bell

Main article: The Division Bell

For several years the three members of Pink Floyd busied themselves with personal pursuits, such as filming and competing in the Carrera Panamericana (where Gilmour and O'Rourke crashed) and later recording a soundtrack for the film. Gilmour divorced Ginger and Mason married actress Annette Lynton. In January 1993 the band began working on a new album. They returned to a then remodelled Britannia Row Studios, where for several days Gilmour, Mason, and Wright worked collaboratively, ad-libbing new material. After about two weeks the band had enough ideas to start creating new songs. Bob Ezrin returned to work on the album and production moved to Astoria, where from February to May 1993 the band worked on about twenty-five ideas. Contractually, Wright was still not a full member of the band: "It came very close to a point where I wasn't going to do the album", a situation which clearly upset the keyboardist; however, he was given his first songwriting credit on a Pink Floyd album since 1975's Wish You Were Here. Another songwriter credited on the album was Gilmour's new girlfriend, Polly Samson. She helped write "High Hopes" with Gilmour—along with several other tracks—a situation which, though initially tense, Ezrin said, "pulled the whole album together". She also helped Gilmour who had developed a cocaine habit following his divorce. Michael Kamen was brought in to work on the album's various string arrangements and Dick Parry and Chris Thomas also returned. Keen to avoid competing against other album releases (as had happened with A Momentary Lapse) the band set a deadline of April 1994, at which point they would begin touring again. The album title was chosen by writer Douglas Adams and Storm Thorgerson once again provided the cover artwork. Thorgerson also provided six new pieces of film for the upcoming tour.

The band spent over two weeks rehearsing in a hangar at Norton Air Force Base in San Bernardino, California, before opening on 29 March 1994, in Miami with an almost identical crew to that used for their Momentary Lapse of Reason tour. They played a mixture of Pink Floyd favourites, but later changed their setlist to include The Dark Side of the Moon in its entirety. The band also renewed their acquaintance with Peter Wynne Willson. Waters declined the band's invitation to join them as the tour reached Europe, later expressing his annoyance that some Pink Floyd songs were again being performed in large venues. A 1,200 capacity stand collapsed at Earls Court during the European leg of the tour, but with no serious injuries, and the performance was rescheduled. The tour ended on 29 October 1994, with what was the last performance of the final Pink Floyd tour. A live album Pulse and a concert video, also called Pulse, were released in 1995.

2005–present

See also: Live 8

Roger Waters (seen on the right) rejoined his former bandmates at Live 8

On Saturday 2 July 2005, the classic line-up of Pink Floyd performed together on stage for the first time in over 24 years at the Live 8 concert. The reunion had been arranged by Live 8 organiser Bob Geldof who had called Mason earlier in the year to discuss the band reuniting for the event. Geldof asked Gilmour, who turned down the offer, and then asked Mason to intercede on his behalf. Mason declined, but contacted Waters who was immediately enthusiastic. Waters then called Geldof to discuss the event, which was at that time only a month away. About two weeks later Waters called Gilmour, their first conversation for about two years, and the next day the latter agreed. Wright was contacted and immediately agreed. Statements were issued to the press which stressed the unimportance of the band's problems, compared to the context of the Live 8 event.

The set-list was planned at the Connaught Hotel in London, followed by three days of rehearsals at Black Island Studios. The sessions were troublesome, with minor disagreements over the style and pace of the songs they were practising. The final set-list and running order was decided on the eve of the performance. Gilmour and Waters shared lead vocals on "Wish You Were Here", and at the start of their performance, Waters told the audience: "It's actually quite emotional, standing up here with these three guys after all these years, standing to be counted with the rest of you. Anyway, we're doing this for everyone who's not here, and particularly of course for Syd." At the end of their performance Gilmour thanked the audience and started to walk off the stage but Waters called him back and the band shared a group hug. Images of that hug were a favourite amongst Sunday newspapers after Live 8. Waters commented on their almost twenty-year period of animosity: "I don't think any of us came out of the years from 1985 with any credit ... It was a bad, negative time. And I regret my part in that negativity."

In the week following their performance there was a revival of interest in Pink Floyd. According to HMV, in the week following sales of Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd rose by 1,343 per cent, while Amazon.com reported a significant increase in sales of The Wall. Gilmour subsequently declared that he would donate his share of profits from this sales boom to charity and urged other artists and record companies profiting from Live 8 to do the same. Pink Floyd turned down a £136 million (then about $250 million) deal for a final tour. Waters did not rule out further performances, however he suggested it ought to be only for a special occasion. Gilmour told the Associated Press that a reunion would not happen, stating: "The [Live 8] 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 ... I've been there, I've done it."

In 2006, Gilmour began a tour of small concert venues with contributions from Wright and other musicians from the post-Waters Pink Floyd tours. Gilmour, Wright, and Mason's encore performance of "Wish You Were Here" and "Comfortably Numb" marked the only appearance by Pink Floyd since Live 8 as of 2012.

Barrett died on 7 July 2006, at his home in Cambridgeshire aged 60. He was interred at Cambridge Crematorium on 18 July 2006. No Pink Floyd members attended. After Barrett's death Wright said, "The band are very naturally upset and sad to hear of Syd Barrett's death. Syd was the guiding light of the early band line-up and leaves a legacy which continues to inspire." Although Barrett had faded into obscurity over the previous 35 years, he was lauded in the national press for his contributions to music. He left over £1.25M in his will, to be divided among his immediate family, and some of his possessions and artwork were auctioned. On 10 May 2007, Waters and Pink Floyd performed separately a Barrett tribute concert at the Barbican Centre in London. The band performed some of Barrett's hits, such as "Bike" and "Arnold Layne", at the event which was organised by Joe Boyd and Nick Laird-Clowes.

Wright died of cancer on 15 September 2008, aged 65. He was praised by his surviving band mates for his influence on the overall sound of Pink Floyd. On 10 July 2010, Roger Waters and David Gilmour performed together at a charity event for the Hoping Foundation. The event took place at Kiddington Hall in Oxfordshire, England. The pair played to an audience of approximately 200. The event raised money for Palestinian children in order to give them a better life. In return for Waters' appearance at the event, Gilmour agreed to perform "Comfortably Numb" at one of Waters' upcoming performances of The Wall. On 4 January 2011, Pink Floyd signed a five-year record deal with EMI, ending the legal dispute regarding how their material is distributed in the era of individual track downloads. They defended their vision to keep their albums as a cohesive unit and not just individual tracks.

On 12 May 2011, at the O2 Arena in London, Gilmour made good on his promise to play "Comfortably Numb" at one of Waters' performances of The Wall. Gilmour sang the first and second chorus, and played the two guitar solos. After the wall fell down near the end of the show Waters said to the crowd, "So now we know tonight was the night when David did me the enormous honour of coming to play Comfortably Numb. So please welcome David Gilmour! By a strange and extraordinary happy coincidence, there is another remnant of our old band here tonight. Please welcome Mr. Nick Mason to the stage!" Gilmour and Mason, with respectively a mandolin and a tambourine, joined Waters and the rest of his band for "Outside The Wall", effectively representing a full reunion of all living Pink Floyd members. It was the first time since Live 8 that the three members shared the same stage and the first time that the line-up from the album The Final Cut appeared in concert.

On 26 September 2011, Pink Floyd and EMI launched an exhaustive re-release campaign under the title Why Pink Floyd...?, reissuing the band's back catalogue in newly remastered versions, including special "Immersion" multi-disc multi-format editions. All the albums have been remastered by James Guthrie, the co-producer of The Wall.

Legacy

Influence and awards

A colour collage of Waters (playing bass), Gilmour (playing guitar), Wright (playing a keyboard) and Mason, who is standing on a stage. Waters and Gilmour are wearing black t-shirts, Wright is wearing a white shirt and Mason a blue one. All four men are in their mid 60s.

Pink Floyd's classic line-up. Clockwise (from top left): Waters, Gilmour, Wright, and Mason in 2008.

Pink Floyd are one of the most commercially successful and influential rock music groups of all time. They have sold over 250 million records worldwide, including 74.5 million certified units in the United States, of which 37.2 million albums have been sold since 1991.

In 2004, Pink Floyd were ranked number 7 on MSNBC's list of "The 10 Best Rock Bands Ever", and number 51 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of "The 100 Greatest Artists of All Time", with David Gilmour ranking 14th in the greatest guitarists list, and were named by Q Magazine as the biggest band of all time. The band were ranked number 18 in the VH1 list of the "100 Greatest Artists of All Time", and number 15 on VH1's list of the "100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock". Largely due to the success of their albums the band was ranked number 3 in Colin Larkin’s the 'Top 50 Artists Of All Time', a ranking based on the cumulative votes for each artist’s albums that appear in the All Time Top 1000 Albums. The Sunday Times Rich List Music Millionaires 2012 ranked Waters at No.22 with an estimated wealth of £120m, Gilmour at No.32 with £85m and Mason at No.46 with £50m.

Numerous artists have been influenced by the music of Pink Floyd; David Bowie has called Barrett a major inspiration, and The Edge from U2 bought his first delay pedal after hearing the opening guitar chords to "Dogs" from Animals. Other bands who cite Pink Floyd as an influence include: Queen, Tool, Radiohead, Kraftwerk, Yes, Queensryche, Nine Inch Nails, The Orb, and The Smashing Pumpkins.

Pink Floyd have been nominated for and won multiple awards, including a "Best Engineered Non-Classical Album" Grammy in 1980 for The Wall and BAFTAs award for 'Best Original Song' (awarded to Waters) and 'Best Sound' (awarded to James Guthrie, Eddy Joseph, Clive Winter, Graham Hartstone and Nicholas Le Messurier) in 1982 for the The Wall film. In 1995, they won a Grammy for best "Rock Instrumental Performance" for "Marooned". In 2008, Pink Floyd were awarded the Polar Music Prize for their contribution to contemporary music; Waters and Mason accepted the prize from King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996, the UK Music Hall of Fame in 2005, and the Hit Parade Hall of Fame in 2010.

Live performances

Main article: Pink Floyd 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. Pink Floyd also set high standards in sound quality, making use of innovative sound effects and quadraphonic speaker systems. From their earliest days they were well known for their use of visual effects, which accompanied the psychedelic rock pieces performed at venues such as the UFO Club in London. The quality of their live performances, even when pre-recorded, was considered by the band to be extremely important; they boycotted the press release of The Dark Side of the Moon as they felt presenting the album through a poor-quality PA system was not good enough. The album had been composed and refined mostly while the band toured the UK, Japan, North America, and Europe. An inflatable floating pig named "Algie" became the inspiration for a number of pig themes used throughout the "In the Flesh Tour", which began in Dortmund and continued through Europe to the UK, and then the US.

Although Pink Floyd were experienced live performers the behaviour of the audience on their "In the Flesh" tour, and the sizes of the venues they played, were a powerful influence on their concept album The Wall. The subsequent The Wall Tour featured a 40 feet (12 m) high wall, built from cardboard bricks, constructed between the band and the audience. Animations were projected onto the wall, and gaps allowed the audience to view various scenes in the story. Several characters from the story were realised as giant inflatables. One of the more notable elements of the tour was the performance of "Comfortably Numb". While Waters sang his opening verse, Gilmour waited for his cue on top of the wall in darkness. When it came, bright blue and white lights would suddenly illuminate him. Gilmour stood on a flight case on castors, a dangerous set-up supported from behind by a technician, both supported by a tall hydraulic platform.

In 1987 Pink Floyd embarked on their A Momentary Lapse of Reason Tour. Starting in Ottawa on 9 September they spent about two years touring the US, Japan, Europe, and Central Asia. In Venice, Italy, the band played to an audience of 200,000 fans at the Piazza San Marco. The resulting storm of protest over the city's lack of toilet provision, first aid, and accommodation resulted in the resignation of Mayor Antonio Casellati and his government. At the end of the tour Pink Floyd released Delicate Sound of Thunder, and in 1989 released the Delicate Sound of Thunder concert video.

During the band's "Division Bell" tour, an unidentified person using the name Publius posted a message on an internet newsgroup, inviting fans to solve a riddle supposedly concealed in the new album. The veracity of the user was demonstrated when white lights in front of the stage at the Pink Floyd concert in East Rutherford spelled out the words Enigma Publius. During a televised concert at Earls Court in October 1994 the word enigma was projected in large letters on to the backdrop of the stage. Mason later acknowledged that the Publius Enigma did exist, and that it had been instigated by the record company rather than the band. As of 2024 the puzzle remains unsolved.

Discography

Main article: Pink Floyd discography

Studio albums

• The Piper at the Gates of Dawn (1967)
• A Saucerful of Secrets (1968)
• Soundtrack from the Film More (1969)
• Ummagumma (studio and live) (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)

Live albums

• Delicate Sound of Thunder (1988)
• Pulse (1995)
• Is There Anybody Out There? The Wall Live 1980–81 (2000)

Compilations

• The Best of the Pink Floyd (1970)
• Relics (1971)
• A Nice Pair (1973)
• A Collection of Great Dance Songs (1981)
• Works (1983)
• 1967: The First Three Singles (1997)
• Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd (2001)
• A Foot in the Door – The Best of Pink Floyd (2011)

Tours

Main article: Pink Floyd live performances

• 1968: Pink Floyd World Tour 1968
• 1969: The Man and the Journey Tour
• 1970: Atom Heart Mother World Tour
• 1971: Meddle Tour
• 1972–1973: Dark Side of the Moon Tour
• 1974: French Summer Tour 1974
• 1974: British Winter Tour 1974
• 1975: Wish You Were Here Tour
• 1977: In the Flesh Tour
• 1980–1981: The Wall Tour
• 1987–1990: A Momentary Lapse of Reason Tour
• 1994: The Division Bell Tour

Band members

Former members

• Syd Barrett – lead vocals, lead guitar (1965–1968; died 2006)
• David Gilmour – lead vocals, lead guitar, bass guitar, keyboards, drums, harmonica, special effects (December 1967–1996, 2005)
• Nick Mason – drums, percussion, tape effects, programming (1965–1996, 2005)
• Roger Waters – bass guitar, lead vocals, guitars, percussion, synthesizers, programming (1965–1985, 2005)
• Richard Wright – keyboards, vocals (occasionally lead), organ, piano, synthesisers, mellotron, trombone (1965–1981, 1990–1996, 2005; died 2008)

Timeline

Sources

• Blake, Mark (2008). Comfortably Numb—The Inside Story of Pink Floyd. Da Capo Press. ISBN 978-0-306-81752-6. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• di Perna, Alan (2002). "Mysterious Ways". In Kitts, Jeff; Tolinski, Brad (eds.). Guitar World Presents: Pink Floyd. Hal Leonard. ISBN 978-0-754-66708-7. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Fitch, Vernon (2005). The Pink Floyd Encyclopedia (Third ed.). Collector's Guide Publishing. ISBN 978-1-894-95924-7. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Harris, John (2005). The Dark Side of the Moon (First Hardcover ed.). Da Capo. ISBN 978-0-306-81342-9. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Manning, Toby (2006). The Rough Guide to Pink Floyd (First ed.). Rough Guides. ISBN 978-1-84353-575-1. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Mason, Nick (2005) [2004]. Philip Dodd (ed.). Inside Out – A Personal History of Pink Floyd (Paperback ed.). Phoenix. ISBN 978-0-7538-1906-7. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Povey, Glenn (2008) [2007]. Echoes: The Complete History of Pink Floyd. Mind Head Publishing. ISBN 978-0-9554624-1-2. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Povey, Glen; Russell, Ian (1997). Pink Floyd: in the flesh, the complete performance history (1st US paperback ed.). St. Martin's Press. ISBN 978-0-9554624-0-5. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Reising, Russell (2005). Speak to Me. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. ISBN 0-7546-4019-1. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Ruhlmann, William (2004). Breaking Records. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-94305-5. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Schaffner, Nicholas (1991). Saucerful of Secrets (First ed.). Sidgwick & Jackson. ISBN 978-0-283-06127-1. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Scarfe, Gerald (2010). The Making of Pink Floyd: The Wall (1st US paperback ed.). Da Capo Press. ISBN 978-0-306-81997-1. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Simmons, Sylvie (December 1999). "Pink Floyd: The Making of The Wall". Mojo Magazine. 73. London: Emap Metro. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Watkinson, Mike; Anderson, Pete (2001). Crazy Diamond: Syd Barrett & the Dawn of Pink Floyd (First ed.). Omnibus Press. ISBN 978-0-7119-2397-3. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Watts, Michael (1996) [1971]. "Pink's muddled Meddle". In MacDonald, Bruno (ed.). Pink Floyd: through the eyes of ... the band, its fans, friends, and foes. Da Capo Press. ISBN 978-0-306-80780-0. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

Further reading

• Bench, Jeff; O'Brien, Daniel (2004). Pink Floyd's The Wall: In the Studio, On Stage and On Screen (First UK paperback ed.). Reynolds and Hearn. ISBN 978-1-903111-82-6. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Fitch, Vernon (2001). Pink Floyd: The Press Reports 1966–1983. Ontario: Collector's Guide Publishing Inc. ISBN 978-1-896522-72-2.
• Hearn, Marcus (2012). Pink Floyd. Titan Books. ISBN 978-0-857-68664-0.
• Jones, Cliff (1996). Another Brick in the Wall: The Stories Behind Every Pink Floyd Song. ISBN 978-0-553-06733-0.
• Mabbett, Andy (2010). Pink Floyd - The Music and the Mystery. Omnibus Press. ISBN 978-1-84938-370-7.
• Mabbett, Andy; Mabbett, Miles (1988). Pink Floyd: 25th Anniversary Edition (Visual Documentary). ISBN 978-0-711-94109-0.
• Miles, Barry (2007). Pink Floyd. Omnibus Press. ISBN 978-1-846-09444-6.
• Palacios, Julian (2001). Lost in the Woods: Syd Barrett and the Pink Floyd. ISBN 978-0-752-22328-5.
• Reisch, George A, ed. (2007). Pink Floyd and Philosophy: Careful with that Axiom, Eugene!. Open Court. ISBN 978-0-812-69636-3.
• Ruhlmann, William (1993). Pink Floyd. Smithmark. ISBN 978-0-831-76912-3.
• Snider, Charles (2008). The Strawberry Bricks Guide to Progressive Rock. Strawberry Bricks. ISBN 978-0-615-17566-9.

External links

• Quotations related to Pink Floyd at Wikiquote
• Media related to Pink Floyd at Wikimedia Commons
• Pink Floyd's official website
• Pink Floyd companies grouped at OpenCorporates