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History of Pink Floyd, Roger Waters, Richard Wright, David Gilmour, Nick Mason, Syd Barrett, Bob Klose. Pink Floyd band - composition, photos, videos, listen to songs

Pink Floyd - legendary British music group, whose creativity is different periods can be classified as psychedelic, progressive and art rock, but any Pink Floyd record is much broader than any genre definition.

Starting out as an acid band in the 60s, Pink Floyd quickly became stars of the rock scene and influenced many musicians - from David Bowie to Queen and Radiohead. In each of their albums they experimented with sound, while at the same time emphasizing a strong guitar solo. Most of Pink Floyd's records are united by a single concept; they have toured the whole world more than once with large-scale shows for their albums.

The history of the creation of Pink Floyd

In 1965, university friends Nick Mason, Roger Waters and Richard Wright, passionate about music, formed a group called T-set. The guys studied architecture at the London Polytechnic Institute, which did not stop them from devoting all their free time to music. For several months (until July 1965), the band's rhythm guitarist was Rado "Bob" Klose. A little later, they were joined by their Cambridge friend Sid Barrett, who became the author of most of the compositions of the newly formed group and the frontman of the group. It was he who proposed changing the name to Pink Floyd, combining the names of his favorite bluesmen Pink Anderson and Floyd Council.


At first, the group played classic rhythm and blues, but Barrett was a great hunter of creative experiments, which was clearly felt in the pronounced psychedelic sound of some of his compositions. Sometimes some extraneous sounds were added to the songs, the composition could suddenly be interrupted in the middle, and the audience sat in bewilderment for several seconds in complete silence.


The band's first album, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, was written entirely by Syd Barrett and was released in 1967. It is still considered one of the best examples of psychedelic music, and in the year of release it immediately took sixth position in the English charts. But not everyone coped with the unexpected popularity - Steve Barrett, whose psyche was already too vulnerable from the regular use of mind-expanding drugs and mild schizophrenia, began to behave inappropriately at concerts and terribly irritate other musicians with his behavior.

Pink Floyd without Syd Barrett

The following year, he was replaced by David Gilmour, although the other musicians still hoped that Sid would continue to write songs for the group. But all his new compositions, written under the influence of drugs, increasingly resembled a random set of sounds and were perceived by an unprepared public simply as some kind of crazy cacophony. In April 1968, Barrett left the group for good, after which he tried unsuccessfully to start solo career and organize your own team. After that, he returned to his mother in his native Cambridge, where he lived as a hermit until he died of cancer in 2006.


In the summer of 1968, the group’s second album, “A Saucerful of Secrets,” was released, which the musicians began recording under Sid, but the resulting album had a completely different sound. Most of the tracks on the disc were written by Waters and Wright, and only one – “Jugband Blues” – by Syd Barrett. The group's second album was also warmly received by the British public and took ninth place in the local charts.


The following year, the musicians recorded the soundtrack to the film More by Barbe Schroeder and released the double album Ummagumma, which reached number five in the British charts and number seventy in the US.


The highest achievement of Pink Floyd at this stage of creativity was the album “Atom Heart Mother” in 1970 - it confidently took first place in the British chart, and to realize its creative ideas The musicians turned to the symphony orchestra and arranger Ron Gisin for help.

Pink Floyd – Live in Pompeii (1972)

Career blossoming

But the real breakthrough in creative career Pink Floyd's eighth album, The Dark Side of the Moon, was released at the end of March 1973. Even those who have managed to never hear the songs from this record are certainly familiar with its legendary cover, created by designer Storm Thorgerson, who later collaborated with Pink Floyd more than once.


“The Dark Side of the Moon” became the second highest-selling album of all time and has still not lost this position, approaching total number copies sold have already reached 50 million. Above it is only “Thriller” by Michael Jackson.

This is the group's first concept album: each song raises some problem of our time or a philosophical question, be it the inexorable approach of old age, the exaggerated importance of money in the world, the pressure on people from religious and state institutions.

It feels like a very meditative album with the improvisational sound characteristic of the group - the musicians themselves admitted that many motives were born right in the studio. The tracks “Time” and “Money” are especially worth highlighting.

With this disc, Pink Floyd turned from a psychedelic band for music lovers into one of best rock bands of their time and have not left this pedestal. It would seem difficult to repeat the success of “The Dark Side of the Moon,” but the next album became a worthy successor to its predecessor. Thus, Gilmour and Wright generally considered “Wish You Were Here” (1975) to be Pink Floyd’s best creation. The album consists of only 5 tracks - Pink Floyd have always been distinguished by their attraction to large forms. The musicians dedicated the title track “Shine On You Crazy Diamond”, divided into two tracks with a total duration of almost half an hour, to Syd Barrett.

In the next record, “Animals” (1977), the musicians tried, in the spirit of George Orwell, to compare people with animals and staged a show with inflatable animals, the pig from which migrated to all subsequent performances of the group.

Pink Floyd – Another Brick in the Wall (part 1)

In the fall of 1979, another super-successful album by the group, “The Wall,” was released, which in its structure resembled a rock opera, and the single “Another Brick in the Wall” became the most famous Pink Floyd composition and was included in the list of the greatest songs of all times. The wall on the album is a symbol of the alienation that a person may be subjected to. The two discs contain such diamonds of progressive rock as “Hey You”, “Nobody Home” and, of course, “Comfortably Numb”. Three years later, based on the album, director Alan Parker made a film of the same name, similar to a huge video clip with unusual animated inserts.

Pink Floyd – Another Brick in the Wall (part 2)

Pink Floyd breakup

Meanwhile, disagreements gradually accumulated between the team members. During the recording of “The Wall” and the subsequent even darker album “Final Cut,” Roger Waters often pulled the plug on himself and even got Gilmour removed from production, which is why he practically turned into a session musician. This state of affairs did not suit the ambitious David, serious conflicts began between them, as a result of which Waters himself left the group in 1985, announcing the end of Pink Floyd.


In 2008, Richard Wright died of lung cancer, after which the remaining band members stated that a reunion would be impossible without him. In 2014, the album “The Endless River” was released, based on unreleased recordings from the 90s. In 2015, David Gilmour announced the final breakup of Pink Floyd.

Discography

  • The Piper at the Gate of Dawn (1967)
  • A Saucerful of Secrets (1968)
  • Music from the film More (1969)
  • Ummagumma (1969)
  • Atom Heart Mother (1970)
  • Meddle (1971)
  • Obscured by Clouds (1972)
  • The Dark Side of the Moon (1973)
  • Wish You Were Here (1975)
  • Animals (1977)
  • The Wall (1979)
  • The Final Cut (1983)
  • A Momentary Lapse of Reason (1987)
  • The Division Bell (1994)
  • The Endless River (2014)

Pink Floyd now

Pink Floyd no longer exists, but its members continue to work on solo projects. Roger Waters tours with the program “The Wall” around the world (in 2011 he was in Russia), David Gilmour released his solo album “Rattle That Lock” in 2015.


The history of this leading psychedelic band of all time began in the first half of the 60s, when bassist Roger Waters, drummer Nick Mason and keyboardist Richard Wright united under the guise of "Sigma 6". The team had to change a number of names ("Megadeaths", "Leonard's Lodgers", "The Tea Set", "The Abdabs", "The Architectural Abdabs", "The Screaming Abdabs", "The Pink Floyd Sound"), before than the musicians settled on the “Pink Floyd” version, composed of the names of two bluesmen, Pink Anderson and Floyd Council. By that time, some personnel changes had occurred in the group, the most important of which was the appearance of the singing guitarist and extraordinary composer “Pink Floyd”. "Quite quickly stepped beyond the traditional rhythm and blues of that time and began experimenting with sound. Feedback, reverberation and other tricks were used, as a result of which music that was unusual for the ear was born, and to enhance the psychedelic effect at concerts the group used a light show Having made a name for themselves in the underground, the band signed a contract with EMI in 1967 and immediately pushed their debut single “Arnold Layne” with a story about a transvestite into the British Top 20.

The second EP, "See Emily Play", broke the top ten, followed by the album "The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn". Most of the compositions on this record were written by Barrett, but Sid managed to make strong friends with drugs and quickly left the game. He often flew away right on stage, so already in 1968 he was kicked out of the group, and the resulting vacancy was filled by Sid's longtime acquaintance, David Gilmour. With the departure of Barrett, Waters took over the dominant position, and most of the material on "A Saucerful Of Secrets" belonged to him.

Despite the change of leader, the team not only easily stayed afloat, but also managed to significantly increase its status. Gradually, Pink Floyd developed its own easily recognizable sound, and all of their albums were invariably in the top ten. In addition to "A Saucerful Of Secrets", the late 60s also saw the release of the soundtrack to the film "More" and the double "Ummagumma", divided into concert numbers and experimental developments of each of the band members. The highest achievement of the transition period was the work "Atom Heart Mother", which reached the very top of the national chart and was remembered as the first collaboration between the musicians and the orchestra. The “Meddle” program, famous for its 23-minute epic “Echoes,” was also successful, but the appearance of the relatively weak record “Obscured By Clouds” did not at all foreshadow the subsequent surge in productivity and a sharp rise in the group’s popularity. The first sign of global success was the album "Dark Side Of The Moon". This true masterpiece of psychedelia took Pink Floyd to the very top of Billboard and spent 591 weeks on the overseas charts.

It seemed that after "Dark Side" it was difficult to produce something similarly grandiose, but the band coped with this task and two years later offered listeners no less exciting material called "Wish You Were Here", one of the highlights of which was a dedication to Barrett " Shine On You Crazy Diamond." Compared to the two previous works, the “Animals” disc looked a little less attractive, but in 1979, “Pink Floyd” dealt a new powerful blow to the charts with the super-ambitious double album “The Wall”.

However, multimillion-dollar sales and successful tours in support of the release did not save the team from an internal split. Waters finally concentrated all power in his hands, and at his instigation, Wright was removed from the official composition. Roger's relationships with other colleagues were also far from ideal and, in the end, this affected the quality of the material. The album "The Final Cut" (especially compared to previous masterpieces) turned out to be a failure, and after its release Waters announced the dissolution of the team. While he was establishing a solo career, Gilmour and Mason decided to revive Pink Floyd and brought Wright back to the staff. The first attempt of the restored group in the form of the disc "A Momentary Lapse Of Reason" turned out to be rather weak, but after marking time for several years, the band released a worthy album "The Division Bell", quite comparable in quality to their early works. The release was accompanied by a global tour and the release of the live album "Pulse", and in subsequent years, Pink Floyd's activity decreased significantly. A remarkable event happened in the summer of 2005, when all four members of the classic line-up took the stage at the London Live 8 concert. Unfortunately, the hotly anticipated reunion tour did not follow, and Richard Wright died in September 2008.

It seemed that this was the end of the band's story, but in 2011 Waters, Gilmour and Mason again found themselves on the same stage together, and in the same year a powerful campaign was launched to re-release early material, called "Why Pink Floyd?". A few years later, even more unexpected was the statement by David's wife that Pink Floyd was preparing new album. Subsequently, however, it turned out that “The Endless River” was assembled from illiquid stock from 20 years ago, but despite the fact that this almost instrumental work bore little resemblance to the classic “Floyds” and caused a lot of criticism for its ambient mood, it entered the charts of a number of countries took first place.

Last update 12/20/14

rock band from Cambridge. Famous for its philosophical texts, acoustic experiments, innovations in album design and grandiose shows. Is one of the most successful groups in rock music - about 70 million albums sold in the USA (seventh place), about 200 million were sold in the world. It was founded in the year, the last album (“The Division Bell”) and tour took place in the year. Last performance- July 2005.

Story

The name "Pink Floyd" (hereinafter referred to as "Pink Floyd") arose after a series of renamings of the groups "Sigma 6", "T-Set", "Meggadeaths", "The Screaming Abdabs", "The Architectural Abdabs" and "The Abdabs". Moreover, at first the group was called “The Pink Floyd Sound”, and only then simply “The Pink Floyd” in honor of two blues musicians from Georgia - Pink Anderson and Floyd Council (Floyd Council). Definite article“The” was dropped from the title only after 1970 (see, for example, the cover of the record with the music for “Zabriskie Point”).

Period with Syd Barrett

The first Pink Floyd lineup included fellow Regent Str. Polytechnic architecture students Richard Wright (keyboards, vocals), Roger Waters (bass guitar, vocals) and Nick Mason (drums) and their Cambridge friend Syd Barrett (vocals, guitar). The band also briefly included guitarist Bob Close, who left the band due to creative differences. At the beginning of their career, Pink Floyd was reworking rhythm and blues hits such as “Louie, Louie” (“Louie, Louie”). The group formed Blackhill Enterprises, a six-party business venture involving the four musicians and their managers, Peter Jenner and Andrew King.

However, not all band members withstood the burden of success that fell on them. Drug use and constant performances broke the band's leader, Syd Barrett. His behavior became more and more unbearable, nervous breakdowns and psychoses were repeated more and more often, enraging the rest of the group (especially Roger). It happened more than once that Sid simply “switched off”, “withdrew into himself” right at the concert. In January 1968, longtime Roger and Syd acquaintance guitarist David Gilmour joined the band to replace Barrett. However, it was planned that Sid, although not performing, would continue to write songs for the group. Unfortunately, nothing came of this venture.

In April 1968, Barrett's "retirement" was formalized, but Jenner and King decided to stay with him. The six-party company Blackhill Enterprises has ceased operations.

Although Barrett wrote most of the material on the first album, the second album, A Saucerful of Secrets, released in June 1968, featured only one song he wrote, "Jugband Blues" ( "Blues for noise orchestra"). "A Saucerful of Secrets" peaked at number nine in the UK.

Without Barrett

Wish You Were Here

Later activities of the group

The biggest stage performance was for The Wall, where several session musicians played the first song while wearing rubber masks (revealing that the band members were unknown as individuals); Then, during the first part of the show, workers gradually built a huge wall of cardboard boxes between the audience and the band, onto which Gerald Scarfe's cartoons were then projected, and at the end of the performance the wall collapsed. This show was later recreated by Waters with the help of many guest musicians, including Bryan Adams, Van Morrison's band, among the ruins of the Berlin Wall. One of the participants in the show was the GSVG (Group of Soviet Forces in Germany) brass band.

Album illustrations

An integral part of the band's creativity for fans is album illustrations. Album covers and record sleeves provide an emotional boost to music through vibrant, meaningful visuals. Throughout the band's career, this aspect was primarily supported by the talent of photographer and designer Storm Thorgerson and his studio Hipgnosis. Suffice it to mention the famous images of a man shaking hands with his burning double () and a prism with light passing through it (“Dark Side of the Moon”). Torgerson was involved in the design of all albums except "The Wall" (which the band hired Gerald Scarfe to design) and "The Final Cut" (cover designed by Waters himself, using a photograph taken by his son-in-law Willie Christie).

Band members

Original composition:

  • Syd Barrett (ur. Syd Barrett ) - guitarist, vocalist (1964-1968)
  • Roger Waters (ur. Roger Waters) - bass guitarist, vocalist (1964-1985, 2005)
  • Richard Wright (ur. Richard Wright) - keyboardist, vocalist (1964-1981, 1987-2005)
  • Nick Mason (English) Nick Mason) - drummer (1964-2005)

Joined later:

  • David Gilmour (ur. David Gilmour) - vocalist, guitarist (1968-2005)

Discography

Studio albums

  • The Piper at the Gates of Dawn (August 5 Barrett/Wright/Waters/Mason)
  • A Saucerful of Secrets (June 29; Barrett/Gilmore/Wright/Waters/Mason)
  • More (July 27; Gilmour/Wright/Waters/Mason)
  • October 25, studio and live recordings; Gilmour/Wright/Waters/Mason)
  • Atom Heart Mother (October 10; Gilmour/Wright/Waters/Mason)
  • October 30; Gilmour/Wright/Waters/Mason)
  • Obscured by Clouds (June 3; Gilmour/Wright/Waters/Mason)
  • The Dark Side of the Moon (March 24; Gilmore/Wright/Waters/Mason)
  • (September 15; Gilmour/Wright/Waters/Mason)
  • Animals (January 23; Waters/Gilmour/Mason/Wright)
  • The Wall (November 30, 2; Waters/Gilmour/Mason/Wright)
  • The Final Cut (March 21; Waters/Mason/Gilmour)
  • A Momentary Lapse of Reason (September 7; Gilmour/Mason/Wright)
  • The Division Bell (; March 30; Gilmore/Wright/Mason)

Notes

Links

Pink Floyd Odyssey

  • Andy Mabbett The Complete Guide to the Music of Pink Floyd
  • V. Slobrzhin, S. Klimovitsky, S. Sitnikov Pink Floyd: Architects of Sound
  • Evgeny Bychkov Rock legends: Pink Floyd
  • Seva Novgorodtsev. "Rock crops". Pink Floyd

English-language resources

  • Spare Bricks - Quarterly fanzine
  • George Starostin’s Reviews - A critical review of the work of the group by George Starostin
  • Brain-Damage.co.uk - Famous British site about the group
  • Pink-Floyd.org - Fan club of the group. Lots of information
  • Pink Floyd Archives.com - Large site from the author of the Pink Floyd encyclopedia
  • The Pink Floyd Concert Database - Pink Floyd concert catalog
  • The Pink Floyd RoIO Database - Catalog of bootlegs released on CD, LP and other media.

Russian-language resources

Pink Floyd English rock band. Formed in 1965 in London. The core of the group was Cambridge school classmates Syd Barrett (real name Roger Keith Barrett; b. January 6, 1946; guitar, vocals) and Roger Waters (b. September 6, 1944; guitar, vocals).
In 1965, the group's first performance took place under the name Pink Floyd, along with drummer Nick Mason (b. January 27, 1945) and keyboardist Rick Wright. (Rick Wright; b. July 28, 1945 - September 5, 2008). The name was borrowed from Georgia blues musicians Pink Anderson and Floyd Counsell. Pink Floyd's performance at the opening of the London underground newspaper International Times on October 15, 1966 can be considered a real debut.
Pink Floyd's performance attracted attention not only with its bizarre melodies, but also with its unusual lyrics. The song "Arnold Lane", for example, was about a transvestite who stole women's clothing from clotheslines. Despite a BBC ban on broadcasting the song, it became one of the top twenty English singles. Innovative in the field of rock music was the debut album of the group “Piper At The Gates Of Dawn” (05 August 1967) - mysterious “cosmic” music with many different effects and tension-building guitar solos, which reflected state of mind person in the modern world.
The music and lyrics written by Barrett were captivating in their almost apocalyptic cosmism, and each of his performances was on the verge of the real and the otherworldly. There was a danger of a shift in his psyche, which was already broken constant use LSD. In order to retain Barrett as a songwriter, he was asked to give up performing during the grueling tours and focus only on creativity. To this end, in February 1968, Waters' longtime friend David Gilmour (b. March 6, 1947; guitar, vocals) was introduced into the group, but Barrett rejected this offer and left the team in April, starting his own solo career, which turned out to be very short-lived.
Despite the fact that Pink Floyd lost its leader, the musicians released the next album, “A Saucerful Of Secrets” (June 29, 1968), which included only one composition by Barrett. The other two - "A Saucerful Of Secrets" and "Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun" - became indispensable parts of Pink Floyd's live concerts. This album began a long period of art-rock creativity for the group (Pink Floyd's music until 1973 can be classified as psychedelic art-rock).
With the arrival of Gilmour, the group became less “strange”, but more efficient. The musicians began to release at least an album a year: “More” (July 27, 1969) and “Ummagumma” (October 25, 1969), the soundtrack to M. Antonioni’s film “Zabriskie Point” (March 1970) and “Atom Heart Mother” (October 10 1970), "Meddle" (October 30, 1971), "Obscured By Clouds" (June 03, 1972). The albums' soundtracks were filled with multi-part compositions, multi-style exercises, electronic experiments... Philosophically, the group's music tried to embrace the entire universe in all its perfection and simultaneous disharmony. The popularity grew by leaps and bounds: in 1969, the group held a concert in London, which attracted 100 thousand spectators. Another important event in the life of Pink Floyd was a performance in a volcanic crater near Pompeii (1971), which was recorded on film and released as a concert film.
In the 1970s the group reached the peak of popularity and skill. One of the most famous albums, “Dark Side Of The Moon” (March 24, 1973), truly became a bestseller in the history of rock music (more than 30 million copies were officially sold). It was during the recording of this album that the talent of lyricist Waters and the unsurpassed skill of guitarist Gilmour truly emerged. The album represents a complete narrative about a person’s life on this earth: birth (“Breathe”), entry into modern life and acquaintance with her basic values ​​(“Time” and “Money”) and, finally, the gradual loss of reason and departure to “ dark side Moons" ("Brain Damage" and "Eclipse").
1975 was the year of the zenith of glory for the group. The song “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” (dedicated to Syd Barrett) from the new album “Wish You Were Here” (September 15, 1975) was unanimously recognized as a masterpiece, and the album itself set a record for being on the charts. Also very strong was the work of Pink Floyd - “Animals” (January 23, 1977), composed based on George Orwell’s parable story “Animal Farm”. The album uses dogs, pigs and sheep as metaphors to describe or denounce members of modern society. The music on Animals is significantly more guitar-based than previous albums, possibly due to the increasing tension between Waters and Richard Wright, who did not contribute much to the album.
In 1978, Wright and Gilmour released their solo albums, rumors arose about the possible breakup of the group. But in 1979, Pink Floyd recorded its, one might say, cult album in the genre of rock opera “The Wall” (November 30, 1979), which was second only to the album “Dark Side Of The Moon” in sales. The rock opera "The Wall" was created almost entirely by Roger Waters and received an enthusiastic reception from the public. The song "Another Brick In The Wall" from this album, a sharp denunciation of the education system, became a number one hit. "The Wall" remained on the best-selling album list for 14 years.
In 1982, film director Alan Parker created a wonderful film of the same name based on this work (famous rock musician Bob Geldof starred as Pink). The film can be called provocative, since one of the main ideas was a protest against established ideals and the English passion for order. The film was also a definite manifesto in defense of rockers. The movie "The Wall" doesn't show any of the problems directly. The entire film is woven from allegories and symbols, for example, faceless teenagers who, one after another, fall into a meat grinder and turn into a homogeneous mass.
In 1979, due to disagreements with Waters, the wonderful keyboardist Wright left the group. Relations between the group members did not improve. When asked why the musicians were still together, Gilmore answered, not without black humor: “Because we haven’t figured it out with each other yet.” The album “The Final Cut” (March 21, 1983), dedicated to the problems of modern politics, went almost unnoticed, and only the single “Not Now John” entered the top thirty. In 1984, Waters decided to launch a solo career, followed by Mason and Gilmour, but none of these musicians managed to even come close to the achievements of their joint performances. The greatest success was achieved by the album “Amused to Death” by Roger Waters.
In 1987, Mason and Gilmour, who had sued Waters for the rights to the band's name as a result of a lengthy battle, decided to return to the Pink Floyd banner; Wright followed suit. Soon many months of tours abroad took place. The Pink Floyd reunion resulted in the release of three albums: A Momentary Lapse of Reason (September 8, 1987), Delicate Sounds Of Thunder (November 22, 1988), and Division Bell (March 30, 1994).
Pink Floyd have not released studio material since 1994. The only results of the group's work were the 1995 live album “P*U*L*S*E” (June 1995); live recording of "The Wall", compiled from the 1980 and 1981 concerts "Is There Anybody out There?" The Wall Live 1980-81" ("Is There Anyone Out There? The Wall Live, 1980-81") in March 2000; a two-disc set containing the group’s most significant hits “Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd” (November 05, 2001); a 30th anniversary reissue of "Dark Side of the Moon" in 2003 (remixed on SACD by James Guthrie); re-release of "The Final Cut" (March 22, 2004) with added single "When the Tigers Broke Free"; re-release of the band's debut album in mono and stereo versions, with added songs, some of which have never been released anywhere before; anniversary box set “Oh By The Way” (December 4, 2007; “By the way”), which includes reproductions of all the band's studio albums in the form of mini-vinyls.
July 02, 2005, putting past differences aside for one evening, Pink Floyd last time performed with their classic line-up (Waters, Gilmour, Mason, Wright) at the worldwide show “Live 8”, dedicated to the fight against poverty. This performance temporarily increased sales of Pink Floyd's album Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd by 1,343%. Gilmour donated all proceeds to charities, reflecting Live 8's goals.
After the Live 8 concert, Pink Floyd was offered £150 million to tour the US, but the band rejected the offer. David Gilmour later admitted that by agreeing to perform at Live 8, he did not allow the band's story to end on a "false note".
The members of the group are mostly engaged in their own projects - for example, Mason wrote the book “Inside Out: A Personal History of Pink Floyd”, David Gilmour - solo work, the result of the album “On an Island” "and a concert tour of the same name. The band's longtime manager, Steve O'Rourke, died on October 30, 2003; five years later, on September 15, 2008, Richard Wright died.
David Gilmour and Roger Waters performed together at a charity event on July 10, 2010 to benefit The Hoping Foundation. The organizer of the charity evening, Bella Freud, shared her impressions of the main result of this event - the reunion of David Gilmour and Roger Waters. “David appeared first, followed by Roger, and I saw Roger take David into his arms. It was wonderful! " - Bella said.

Pink Floyd are a progressive/psychedelic rock band formed in London in 1965 by fellow students Richard Wright, Roger Waters, Nick Mason and their friend Syd Barrett. One of the most successful projects in rock and roll. Famous for its thoughtful and ideological works, powerful stage productions and is one of the top best-selling groups in the world (more than 300 million copies).

The group changed many names, settling on “The Pink Floyd Sound”, gradually shortening it to “Pink Floyd”, after the names of two Carolina bluesmen who were dearly loved by Sid. After playing the standards of jazz and rhythm and blues for some time, the musicians began to write their own songs and in 1967 they published their first album, “The Piper at the Gates of Dawn,” full of bizarre psychedelia both in the music and in Sid’s lyrics. Barrett. The result is an eclectic collection, combining the avant-garde "Interstellar Overdrive" and the whimsically pastoral "Scarecrow", the debut album immediately hits the British charts. Syd Barrett cannot withstand the success that has fallen: drug use and worsening schizophrenia finally break the musician, and in 1968 he was replaced by David Gilmour.

On the wave of popularity, the group wrote soundtracks for the films “More” (1969) and “Zabriskie Point” (1970), with the first being published as a separate release with minor musical editing. The group developed rapidly and to record the monumental “Atom Heart Mother” in 1970, it already needed a choir, a symphony orchestra and sound engineer Ron Gisin. A year later, the release “Meddle” was released, repeating the structure of the previous one: the long composition “Echoes” on one side and several regular-length songs on the other side of the record. To record this album, the musicians use advanced equipment: 16-channel tape recorders, a VCS3 synthesizer, a vocoder for “One Of These Days” and for a short hooligan sketch “Seamus” they brought a Russian greyhound into the studio.

The band's real success was 1973's The Dark Side of the Moon, which, along with the Beatles' Lonely Hearts Club, is one of the earliest concept albums. Sound engineer Alan Parsons and the latest equipment from the Abbey Road studio, where the group worked for 9 months, helped the group realize their musical ideas. To consolidate commercial success, the single “Money” was released after the album, which entered the top twenty of the US hit parade and was warmly received by Western listeners despite its non-standard, difficult-to-understand size (7/8). The album itself stayed at the top of the world charts for more than 700 weeks (from 1973 to 1988). It is one of the best-selling songs in recording history.

In 1975, “Wish You Were Here” was released, dedicated to the untimely extinction of the mind of Syd Barrett. The album turned out to be less successful than its predecessor, however, the title song from it becomes a true classic of the group. In the winter of ’77, the group released another concept album, “Animals,” dedicated to the work “Animal Farm” by George Orwell, and in ’79, the cult “The Wall” was released. Created almost entirely by Waters, The Wall was received enthusiastically by fans, and the single "Another Brick in the Wall, Part II" immediately rose to the top of the UK singles chart. Large-scale show programs in support of the album almost ruined the group, but in the end, record sales helped them overcome the crisis. Over time, discord brews in the team between Waters and Wright, and a little later between Waters and Gilmour. The group's imminent disintegration became obvious.

In the 80s Following the release of The Final Cut, a series of legal battles took place between Waters and Gilmour. The reason was the issue of copyright for the very name “Pink Floyd”, lyrics and music of songs, images of the group, etc. In 1994, the last studio album “The Division Bell” was released and the group’s last tour took place. After this, except for collections and compilations, the group ceases to publish new music.
In July 2005, as part of the Live 8 show, Pink Floyd performed in their in full force, putting aside previous disagreements to put a final point. To date, despite still receiving offers from various labels and companies, the group does not perform, record music or publish.