Pink Floyd Ummagumma 2011 RARE

Sep 29, 2011. Nobody ever mistook Pink Floyd for modest, but their fourth album is rock excess of the worst kind. Ummagumma is a double, of course, with the first disc comprised of live cuts recorded in Birmingham and Manchester and the second devoted to one composition from each member. Grandchester meadows is really the line moment of genius (well several species is just so bizarre that it's always interesting) but really the others have bits that are interesting but the studio LP is pretty much a mess. Joined Nov 2003. Friday Oct 28, 2011, 03:35 AM GMT.

Nobody ever mistook for modest, but their fourth album is rock excess of the worst kind. Ummagumma is a double, of course, with the first disc comprised of live cuts recorded in Birmingham and Manchester and the second devoted to one composition from each member. The live material represents a typical setlist from the late ‘60s and therefore bears some historical curiosity.

They draw out “Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun” nicely, toying with that understated tension as they race toward their destination, but of these four tracks, only “Careful With That Axe, Eugene” sounds truly definitive, although that has the benefit of being a previously unrecorded live staple. The studio material on the second disc corrals some convoluted suites by drummer—excuse me, percussionist Nick Mason and keyboard player Richard Wright, who aren’t frontmen for a very good reason. Their multi-section compositions meander noisily and pointlessly, with none of the kinetic din of their previous material. Only Roger Waters’ “Grantchester Meadows” strives toward any sort of traditional song structure, yet it segues smoothly into five minutes of animal sounds. Ummagumma is at their most bloated, although at this point in their careers it’s a very different kind of bloated than The Wall (thematically overstuffed) or A Momentary Lapse of Reason (sonically swollen).

Looking for transcendence in synthobirds and what sounds like monkeys cavorting in a Steinway showroom, they mistake aimlessness for import, in the process creating a towering monument to rock self-indulgence.

• • • • • • • • Website Past members • • • • • Pink Floyd were an English band formed in London in 1965. They achieved international acclaim with their and music. Distinguished by their use of philosophical lyrics, sonic experimentation, extended compositions, and elaborate, they are one of the and influential groups in popular music history. Pink Floyd were founded by students on guitar and lead vocals, on drums, on bass and vocals, and on keyboards and vocals.

They gained popularity performing in London's underground music scene during the late 1960s, and under Barrett's leadership released two charting singles and a successful debut album, (1967). Guitarist and vocalist joined in December 1967; Barrett left in April 1968 due to deteriorating. Waters became the band's primary lyricist and conceptual leader, devising the behind their albums (1973), (1975), (1977), (1979) and (1983). The Dark Side of the Moon and The Wall became two of the. Following creative tensions, Wright left Pink Floyd in 1979, followed by Waters in 1985. Gilmour and Mason continued as Pink Floyd; Wright rejoined them as a session musician and, later, a band member. The three produced two more albums— (1987) and (1994)—and toured through 1994.

After nearly two decades of enmity, Gilmour, Wright, and Mason reunited with Waters in 2005 to perform as Pink Floyd in London as part of the global awareness event; Gilmour and Waters later stated they had no plans to reunite as a band again. Barrett died in 2006, and Wright in 2008. The final Pink Floyd studio album, (2014), was recorded without Waters and based almost entirely on unreleased material. Pink Floyd were inducted into the American in 1996 and the in 2005. By 2013, the band had sold more than 250 million records worldwide.

Contents • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • History 1963–1967: Early years Formation met while they were both studying architecture at the. They first played music together in a group formed by Keith Noble and Clive Metcalfe with Noble's sister Sheilagh., a fellow architecture student, joined later that year, and the group became a sextet named Sigma 6. Waters played lead guitar, Mason drums, and Wright rhythm guitar (since there was rarely an available keyboard).

The band performed at private functions and rehearsed in a in the basement of the Regent Street Polytechnic. They performed songs by the 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 in London, owned by Mike Leonard, a part-time tutor at the nearby and the Regent Street Polytechnic. Mason moved out after the 1964 academic year, and guitarist moved in during September 1964, prompting Waters' switch to bass. Sigma 6 went through several 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, guitarist joined Klose and Waters at Stanhope Gardens.

Barrett, two years younger, had moved to London in 1962 to study at the. Waters and Barrett were childhood friends; Waters had often visited Barrett and watched him play guitar at Barrett's mother's house. Mason said 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 (RAF). In December 1964, they secured their first recording time, at a studio in West Hampstead, through one of Wright's friends, who let them use some down time free.

Wright, who was taking a break from his studies, did not participate in the session. When the RAF assigned Dennis a post in Bahrain in early 1965, Barrett became the band's frontman. Later that year, they became the resident band at the Countdown Club near in London, where from late night until early morning they played three sets of 90 minutes each. During this period, spurred by the group's need to extend their sets to minimise song repetition, the band realised that 'songs could be extended with lengthy solos', wrote Mason. After pressure from his parents and advice from his college tutors, Klose quit the band in mid-1965 and Barrett took over 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. The name is derived from the given names of two musicians whose records Barrett had in his collection, and. By 1966, the group's repertoire consisted mainly of songs and they had begun to receive paid bookings, including a performance at the in March 1966, where, a lecturer at the, noticed them. Jenner was impressed by the sonic effects Barrett and Wright created, and with his business partner and friend became their manager. The pair had little experience in the and used King's inheritance to set up, purchasing about £1,000 (equivalent to £17,100 in 2016 ) 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 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 them with rudimentary but effective light shows, projected by coloured slides and domestic lights. Jenner and King's social connections helped gain the band prominent coverage in the and an article in the which stated: 'At the launching of the new magazine 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, the band 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 be included on their first album. While they had significantly increased the frequency of their performances, the band were still not widely accepted.

Following a performance at a Catholic youth club, the owner refused to pay them, claiming that their performance was not 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. The band was much better received at the in London, where they began to build a fan base. Barrett's performances were enthusiastic, 'leaping around.

[inspired] to get past his limitations and into areas that were. Very interesting. Which none of the others could do', wrote biographer. Signing with EMI In 1967, Pink Floyd began to attract the attention of the music industry. While in negotiations with record companies, IT co-founder and UFO club manager and Pink Floyd's booking agent arranged and funded a recording session at Sound Techniques in. Three days later, Pink Floyd signed with EMI, receiving a £5,000 advance (equivalent to £83,300 in 2016 ).

EMI released the band's first single, ', with the B-side ', on 10 March 1967 on its label. Both tracks were recorded on 29 January 1967. 'Arnold Layne's references to led to a ban by several radio stations; however, 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-Columbia released Pink Floyd's second single, ', on 16 June 1967.

It fared slightly better than 'Arnold Layne', peaking at number 6 in the UK. The band performed on the BBC's Look of the Week, where Waters and Barrett, erudite and engaging, faced tough questioning from.

They appeared on the BBC's, a popular programme that controversially required artists to mime their singing and playing. Though Pink Floyd returned for two more performances, by the third, Barrett had begun to unravel, and it was around this time that the band first noticed significant changes in his behaviour.

By early 1967, he was regularly using, and Mason described him as 'completely distanced from everything going on'. The Piper at the Gates of Dawn. Main article: Morrison and EMI producer negotiated Pink Floyd's first recording contract, and as part of the deal, the band agreed to record their first album at in London. Mason recalled that the sessions were trouble-free. Smith disagreed, stating that Barrett was unresponsive to his suggestions and constructive criticism. EMI-Columbia released in August 1967. The album peaked at number 6, spending 14 weeks on the UK charts.

One month later, it was released under the label. 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,, who commented: 'I found [Barrett] in the dressing room and he was so. 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'. Forced to cancel Pink Floyd's appearance at the prestigious National Jazz and Blues Festival, as well as several other shows, King informed the music press that Barrett was suffering from nervous exhaustion. Waters arranged a meeting with psychiatrist, and though Waters personally drove Barrett to the appointment, Barrett refused to come out of the car. A stay in with, 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 and shows in November, Barrett confounded his hosts by not responding to questions and staring off into space. He refused to move his lips when it came time to '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 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 line-up. 1967–1978: Transition and international success Replacement of Barrett by Gilmour In December 1967, the group added guitarist as the fifth member of Pink Floyd.

Gilmour already knew Barrett, having studied with him at Cambridge Tech in the early 1960s. The two had performed at lunchtimes together with guitars and harmonicas, and later hitch-hiked and their way around the south of France. In 1965, while a member of, Gilmour had watched the Tea Set. Morrison's assistant,, set Gilmour up in a room at O'Rourke's house with a salary of £30 per week (equivalent to £500 in 2016 ), and in January 1968, Blackhill Enterprises announced Gilmour as the band's newest member; the second guitarist and its fifth member, 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'.

In an expression of his frustration, Barrett, who was expected to write additional hit singles to follow up 'Arnold Layne' and 'See Emily Play', instead introduced ' to the band, intentionally changing the structure on each performance so as to make the song impossible to follow and learn. In a January 1968 photo-shoot of the five-man Pink Floyd, the photographs show Barrett looking detached from the others, staring into the distance. Working with Barrett eventually proved too difficult, and matters came to a conclusion in January while en route to a performance in when a band member asked if they should collect Barrett. According to Gilmour, the answer was 'Nah, let's not bother', signalling the end of Barrett's tenure with Pink Floyd.

Waters later admitted, 'He was our friend, but most of the time we now wanted to strangle him'. In early March 1968, Pink Floyd met with business partners Jenner and King to discuss the band's future; Barrett agreed to leave. 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, 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 ' and '. A Saucerful of Secrets. The psychedelic artwork for was the first of many Pink Floyd covers designed by In 1968, Pink Floyd returned to Abbey Road Studios to record their second album, A Saucerful of Secrets. The album included Barrett's final contribution to their discography, '. Waters began to develop his own songwriting, contributing ', ' and '. Wright composed ' and '.

Norman 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, they invented their own system of notation. Gilmour later described their method as looking 'like an architectural diagram'.

Released in June 1968, the album featured a cover designed by and of. The first of several Pink Floyd album covers designed by Hipgnosis, it was the second time that EMI permitted one of their groups to contract designers for an album jacket. The release peaked at number 9, spending 11 weeks on the UK chart.

Gave the album an overall favourable review, but urged listeners to 'forget it as background music to a party'. Described a live performance of the title track as 'like a religious experience', while 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 ever free. In July 1968, they returned to the US for a second visit. Accompanied by the and, it marked Pink Floyd's first significant tour. In December of that year, they released '; no more successful than the two singles they had released since 'See Emily Play', it would be the band's last until their 1973 release, '.

Ummagumma, Atom Heart Mother, and Meddle. Pink Floyd in 1971; this picture was used on the inside cover of the album Meddle In January 1971, upon their return from touring Atom Heart Mother, 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.

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. NME called Meddle 'an exceptionally good album', singling out ' 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. Lenovo 3000 C100 Drivers For Windows Xp Free Download.

The LP peaked at number 3, spending 82 weeks on the UK chart. The Dark Side of the Moon. The iconic artwork for was designed by Hipgnosis and. Pink Floyd recorded The Dark Side of the Moon between May 1972 and January 1973, with EMI staff engineer at Abbey Road.

The title is an allusion to lunacy rather than astronomy. The band had composed and refined the material on Dark Side while touring the UK, Japan, North America and Europe. Producer assisted Parsons. Hipgnosis designed the album's packaging, which included 's iconic refracting design on the cover. Thorgerson's Dark Side album cover features a beam of white light, representing unity, passing through a prism, which represents society. The resulting refracted beam of coloured light symbolises unity diffracted, leaving an absence of unity. Waters is the sole author of the album's lyrics.

Pink Floyd performing on their early 1973 US tour, shortly before the release of The Dark Side of the Moon Released in March 1973, the LP became an instant chart success in the UK and throughout Western Europe, earning an enthusiastic response from critics. Each member of Pink Floyd except Wright boycotted the press release of The Dark Side of the Moon because a quadraphonic mix had not yet been completed, and they felt presenting the album through a poor-quality stereo was insufficient. '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 described it as 'a fine album with a textural and conceptual richness that not only invites, but demands involvement.' Throughout March 1973, The Dark Side of the Moon featured as part of Pink Floyd's US tour. The album is one of the most commercially successful rock albums of all time; a US number 1, it remained on the chart for more than fourteen years, selling more than 45 million copies worldwide. In Britain, the album peaked at number 2, spending 364 weeks on the UK chart.

Dark Side is the world's third best-selling album, and the twenty-first best-selling album of all time in the US. 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,, Pink Floyd and O'Rourke negotiated a new contract with, who gave them a reported advance of $1,000,000 (US$4,856,275 in 2016 dollars ). In Europe, they continued to be represented by Harvest Records. Wish You Were Here. Main article: After a tour of the UK performing Dark Side, Pink Floyd returned to the studio in January 1975 and began work on their ninth studio album, Wish You Were Here. Parsons declined an offer to continue working with them, becoming successful in his own right with, 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 'tortuous'.

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 bandmate. 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, so much so that the band did not initially recognise him. Waters was reportedly deeply upset by the experience. Most of Wish You Were Here premiered on 5 July 1975, at an open-air music festival.

Released in September, it reached number one in both the UK and the US. Features in the cover image for In 1975, Pink Floyd bought a three-storey group of church halls at in Islington and began converting the building into a recording studio and storage space. In 1976, they recorded their tenth album, Animals, in their newly finished 24-track studio.

The concept of Animals originated with Waters, loosely based on 's political fable,. The album's lyrics described different classes of society as dogs, pigs, and sheep.

Hipgnosis received credit for the packaging of Animals; however, Waters designed the final concept, choosing an image of the ageing, over which they superimposed an image of a pig. The division of royalties was a source of conflict between band members, who earned royalties on a per-song basis. Although Gilmour was largely responsible for 'Dogs', which took up almost the entire first side of the album, he received less than Waters, who contributed the much shorter two-part '.

Wright commented: 'It was partly my fault because I didn't push my material. But Dave did have something to offer, and only managed to get a couple of things on there.'

Mason recalled: 'Roger was in full flow with the ideas, but he was really keeping Dave down, and frustrating him deliberately.' Gilmour, distracted by the birth of his first child, contributed little else toward the album. Similarly, neither Mason nor Wright contributed much toward Animals; Wright had marital problems, and his relationship with Waters was also suffering. Animals is the first Pink Floyd album that does not include a writing credit for Wright, who commented: ' Animals. wasn't a fun record to make. This was when Roger really started to believe that he was the sole writer for the band. That it was only because of him that [we] were still going. When he started to develop his ego trips, the person he would have his conflicts with would be me.'

Released in January 1977, the album peaked on the UK chart at number two, and the US chart at number three. Described the album as 'one of the most extreme, relentless, harrowing and downright iconoclastic hunks of music', and Melody Maker 's called it '[an] uncomfortable taste of reality in a medium that has become in recent years, increasingly soporific'.

Pink Floyd performed much of the album's material during their ' tour. It was the band's first experience playing large stadiums, whose size caused unease in the band.

Waters began arriving at each venue alone, departing immediately after the performance. On one occasion, Wright flew back to England, threatening to leave the band. At the, a group of noisy and enthusiastic fans in the front row of the audience irritated Waters so much that he spat at one of them. The end of the tour marked a low point for Gilmour, who felt that the band achieved the success they had sought, with nothing left for them to accomplish.

1978–1985: Waters-led era The Wall. Main article: In 1982, Waters suggested a new musical project with the working title Spare Bricks, originally conceived as the soundtrack album for Pink Floyd – The Wall. With the onset of the, Waters changed direction and began writing new material. He saw 's response to the invasion of the Falklands as and unnecessary, and dedicated the album to his late father. Immediately arguments arose between Waters and Gilmour, who felt that the album should include all new material, rather than recycle songs passed over for The Wall. Waters felt that Gilmour had contributed little to the band's lyrical repertoire., a contributor to the orchestral arrangements of The Wall, mediated between the two, also performing the role traditionally occupied by the then-absent Wright.

The tension within the band grew. Waters and Gilmour worked independently; however, Gilmour began to feel the strain, sometimes barely maintaining his composure. After a final confrontation, Gilmour's name disappeared from the credit list, reflecting what Waters felt was his lack of songwriting contributions. Though Mason's musical contributions were minimal, he stayed busy recording sound effects for an experimental Holophonic system to be used on the album. With marital problems of his own, he remained a distant figure. Pink Floyd did not use Thorgerson for the cover design, Waters choosing to design the cover himself.

Released in March 1983, went straight to number one in the UK and number six in the US. Waters wrote 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.' Rolling Stone magazine gave the album five stars, with calling it 'a superlative achievement. Art rock's crowning masterpiece'.

Loder viewed The Final Cut as 'essentially a Roger Waters solo album'. 'A spent force', Waters' departure and legal battles Gilmour had recorded his second solo album,, in 1984, and he used it to express his feelings about a variety of topics, from the murder of to his relationship with Waters. He later stated that he used the album to distance himself from Pink Floyd. Soon afterwards, Waters began touring his first solo album,.

Wright formed Zee with Dave Harris and recorded, which went almost unnoticed upon its release. Mason released his second solo album,, in August 1985. Following the release of The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking, Waters publicly insisted that Pink Floyd would not reunite. He contacted O'Rourke to discuss settling future royalty payments. O'Rourke felt obliged to inform Mason and Gilmour, which angered Waters, who wanted to dismiss him as the band's manager.

He terminated his management contract with O'Rourke and employed Peter Rudge to manage his affairs. Waters wrote to and announcing he had left the band, 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 suggest that royalty payments would be suspended—and that the other band members had forced him from the group by threatening to sue him. He then went to the in an effort to dissolve the band and prevent the use of the Pink Floyd name, declaring Pink Floyd 'a spent force creatively.' When his lawyers discovered that the partnership had never been formally confirmed, Waters returned to the High Court in an attempt to obtain a veto over further use of the band's name.

Gilmour responded by issuing a carefully worded press release affirming that Pink Floyd would continue to exist. He later told The Sunday Times: 'Roger is a dog in the manger and I'm going to fight him'. In 2013, Waters stated that he regretted the lawsuit, saying: 'I was wrong. Of course I was.' 1985–1994: Gilmour-led era A Momentary Lapse of Reason. The recording studio In 1986, Gilmour began recruiting musicians for what would become Pink Floyd's first album without Waters,. There were legal obstacles to Wright's re-admittance to the band, but after a meeting in Hampstead, Pink Floyd invited Wright to participate in the coming sessions.

Gilmour later stated that Wright's presence 'would make us stronger legally and musically', and Pink Floyd employed him as a musician with weekly earnings of $11,000. Recording sessions for the album began on Gilmour's houseboat, the, moored along the. Gilmour worked with several songwriters, including and, eventually choosing to write the album's lyrics. Gilmour would later admit that the project was difficult without Waters' creative direction. Mason, concerned that he was too out-of-practice to perform on the album, made use of session musicians to complete many of the drum parts. He instead busied himself with the album's sound effects. A Momentary Lapse of Reason was released in September 1987.

Storm Thorgerson, whose creative input was absent from The Wall and The Final Cut, designed the album cover. To drive home the point that Waters had left the band, they included a group photograph on the inside cover, the first since Meddle. The album went straight to number three in the UK and the US. Waters commented: 'I think it's facile, but a quite clever forgery.

The songs are poor in general. [and] Gilmour's lyrics are third-rate.' Although Gilmour initially viewed the album as a return to the band's top form, Wright disagreed, stating: 'Roger's criticisms are fair. It's not a band album at all.' Q Magazine described the album as essentially a Gilmour solo effort.

Waters attempted to subvert the Momentary Lapse of Reason tour 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 as collateral. Early rehearsals for the upcoming tour were chaotic, with Mason and Wright entirely out of practice. Realising he had taken on too much work, Gilmour asked Bob Ezrin to assist them.

As Pink Floyd toured throughout North America, Waters' tour was on occasion, close by, though 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. Pink Floyd responded by attaching a large set of male genitalia to its underside to distinguish it from Waters' design. The parties reached a legal agreement on 23 December; Mason and Gilmour retained the right to use the Pink Floyd name in perpetuity and Waters received exclusive rights to, among other things, The Wall. The Division Bell. The album artwork for, designed by, was intended to represent the absence of Barrett and Waters from the band.

For several years Pink Floyd had busied themselves with personal pursuits, such as filming and competing in the and recording a soundtrack for a film based on the event. In January 1993, they began working on a new album, returning to Britannia Row Studios, where for several days, Gilmour, Mason and Wright worked collaboratively, improvising material. After about two weeks, the band had enough ideas to begin creating songs. Ezrin returned to co-produce the album and production moved to the Astoria, where from February to May 1993, they worked on about 25 ideas.

Contractually, Wright was not a member of the band, and said 'It came close to a point where I wasn't going to do the album.' However, he earned five co-writing credits on the album, his first on a Pink Floyd album since 1975's Wish You Were Here. Another songwriter credited on the album was Gilmour's future wife,. She helped him write several tracks, including, ', a collaborative arrangement which, though initially tense, 'pulled the whole album together,' according to Ezrin. They hired Michael Kamen to arrange the album's orchestral parts; and Chris Thomas also returned. Writer provided the album title and Thorgerson the cover artwork.

Thorgerson drew inspiration for the album cover from the monoliths of; two opposing faces forming an implied third face about which he commented: 'the absent face—the ghost of Pink Floyd's past, Syd and Roger'. Eager to avoid competing against other album releases, as had happened with A Momentary Lapse, Pink Floyd set a deadline of April 1994, at which point they would resume touring. The album reached number 1 in both the UK and the US. It spent 51 weeks on the UK chart. Pink Floyd spent more than two weeks rehearsing in a hangar at in, before opening on 29 March 1994, in Miami, with an almost identical road crew to that used for their Momentary Lapse of Reason tour. They played a variety of Pink Floyd favourites, and later changed their setlist to include The Dark Side of the Moon in its entirety.

The tour, Pink Floyd's last, ended on 29 October 1994. 2005–2014: Reunion, deaths, and final album Live 8 reunion.

Waters (right) rejoined his former bandmates. On 2 July 2005, Waters, Gilmour, Mason and Wright performed together as Pink Floyd for the first time in more than 24 years, at the concert in London's. Organiser Bob Geldof arranged the reunion, having called Mason earlier in the year to explore the possibility of their 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, scheduled to take place in one month. About two weeks later Waters called Gilmour, their first conversation in two years, and the next day the latter agreed.

Gilmour then contacted Wright who immediately agreed. In their statement to the press, they stressed the unimportance of the band's problems in the context of the Live 8 event. They planned their setlist at the in London, followed by three days of rehearsals at Black Island Studios. The sessions were problematic, with minor disagreements over the style and pace of the songs they were practising; the running order decided on the eve of the event. At the beginning of their performance of 'Wish You Were Here', Waters told the audience: '[It is] quite emotional, standing up here with these three guys after all these years, standing to be counted with the rest of you. We're doing this for everyone who's not here, and particularly of course for Syd.' At the end, Gilmour thanked the audience and started to walk off the stage.

Waters then called him back, and the band shared a group hug. Images of that hug were a favourite among Sunday newspapers after Live 8. Waters commented on their almost twenty years 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.' Though Pink Floyd turned down a contract worth £136 million for a final tour, Waters did not rule out more performances, suggesting it ought to be for a charity event only. However, Gilmour told the that a reunion would not happen, stating: 'The [Live 8] rehearsals convinced me [that] 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. I've been there, I've done it.' In February 2006, Gilmour was interviewed by Gino Castaldo from the Italian newspaper; the resulting article declared: 'Patience for fans in mourning. The news is official. Pink Floyd the brand is dissolved, finished, definitely deceased.'

Asked about the future of Pink Floyd, Gilmour responded: 'It's over. I've had enough. I'm 60 years old.it is much more comfortable to work on my own.' Gilmour and Waters repeatedly said that they had no plans to reunite with the surviving former members. Deaths of Barrett and Wright Barrett died on 7 July 2006, at his home in Cambridge, aged 60.

His family interred him at Cambridge Crematorium on 18 July 2006; no Pink Floyd members attended. After Barrett's death, Wright commented: '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, the national press praised him for his contributions to music. On 10 May 2007, Waters, Gilmour, Wright and Mason performed during a Barrett tribute concert at the in London. Gilmour, Wright and Mason performed the Barrett compositions, ' and 'Arnold Layne', and Waters performed a solo version of his song 'Flickering Flame'.

Wright died of an undisclosed form of cancer on 15 September 2008, aged 65. His former bandmates paid tributes to his life and work; Gilmour said 'In the welter of arguments about who or what was Pink Floyd, Rick's enormous input was frequently forgotten. He was gentle, unassuming and private but his soulful voice and playing were vital, magical components of our most recognised Pink Floyd sound.' A week after Wright's death, Gilmour performed 'Remember a Day' from A Saucerful of Secrets, written and originally sung by Wright, in tribute to him. Keyboardist released a statement praising Wright as the 'backbone' of Pink Floyd. Further performances and re-releases On 10 July 2010, Waters and Gilmour performed together at a charity event for the Hoping Foundation. The event, which raised money for Palestinian children, took place at Kiddington Hall in Oxfordshire, England, with an audience of approximately 200.

In return for Waters' appearance at the event, Gilmour performed 'Comfortably Numb' at Waters' at the London on 12 May 2011, singing the choruses and playing the two guitar solos. Mason also joined, playing tambourine for ' with Gilmour on mandolin. On 26 September 2011, Pink Floyd and EMI launched an exhaustive re-release campaign under the title, reissuing the band's back catalogue in newly versions, including 'Experience' and 'Immersion' multi-disc multi-format editions. The albums were remastered by, co-producer of The Wall. In November 2015, Pink Floyd released a limited edition EP,, comprising six songs recorded prior to The Piper at the Gates of Dawn. The Endless River. Advertising for The Endless River in, London In 2012, Gilmour and Mason decided to revisit recordings made with Wright, mainly during the Division Bell sessions, to create a new Pink Floyd album.

They recruited session musicians to help record new parts and 'generally harness studio technology'. Waters was not involved. Mason described the album as a tribute to Wright: 'I think this record is a good way of recognising a lot of what he does and how his playing was at the heart of the Pink Floyd sound. Listening back to the sessions, it really brought home to me what a special player he was.' Samson announced in July 2014 on. D etails were announced on Pink Floyd's website on 7 July, describing it as comprising 'mainly ambient' and instrumental music. It was released 7 November 2014, the second Pink Floyd album distributed by following the release of the 20th anniversary editions of The Division Bell earlier in 2014.

Though The Endless River received mixed reviews, it became the most pre-ordered album of all time on, and debuted at number one in several countries. The vinyl edition was the fastest-selling UK vinyl release of 2014 and the fastest-selling since 1997. Gilmour stated that The Endless River is Pink Floyd's last album, saying: 'I think we have successfully commandeered the best of what there is. It's a shame, but this is the end.' There was no tour to support the album, as Gilmour felt it was 'kind of impossible' without Wright. In August 2015, Gilmour reiterated that Pink Floyd were 'done' and that to reunite without Wright 'would just be wrong'. In July 2016, the band announced a forthcoming box set,, containing 27 discs comprising CDs, DVDs and Blu-rays of outtakes, live recordings, new mixes and feature films.

Musicianship Genres Considered one of the UK's first groups, Pink Floyd began their career at the vanguard of London's underground music scene. Some categorise their work from that era as. According to Rolling Stone: 'By 1967, they had developed an unmistakably psychedelic sound, performing long, loud suitelike compositions that touched on, blues,,, and.'

Released in 1968, the song 'Careful with That Axe, Eugene' helped galvanise their reputation as an group. Other genres attributed to the band are,,, (while under Barrett). [ ] and, [ ] By the late 1960s, the press had begun to label their music. O'Neill Surber comments on the music of Pink Floyd: Rarely will you find Floyd dishing up catchy hooks, tunes short enough for air-play, or predictable three-chord blues progressions; and never will you find them spending much time on the usual pop album of romance, partying, or self-hype. Their sonic universe is expansive, intense, and challenging.

Where most other bands neatly fit the songs to the music, the two forming a sort of autonomous and seamless whole complete with memorable hooks, Pink Floyd tends to set lyrics within a broader soundscape that often seems to have a life of its own. Pink Floyd employs extended, stand-alone instrumentals which are never mere vehicles for showing off virtuoso but are planned and integral parts of the performance. In 1968, Wright commented on Pink Floyd's sonic reputation: 'It's hard to see why we were cast as the first British psychedelic group. We never saw ourselves that way.

We realised that we were, after all, only playing for fun. Tied to no particular form of music, we could do whatever we wanted. The emphasis. [is] firmly on spontaneity and improvisation.' Waters gave a less enthusiastic assessment of the band's early sound: 'There wasn't anything 'grand' about it.

We were laughable. We were useless. We couldn't play at all so we had to do something stupid and 'experimental'. Syd was a genius, but I wouldn't want to go back to playing ' for hours and hours.' Unconstrained by conventional pop formats, Pink Floyd were innovators of progressive rock during the 1970s and during the 1980s. Gilmour's guitar work. 'While Waters was Floyd's lyricist and conceptualist, Gilmour was the band's voice and its main instrumental focus.' —Alan di Perna, in Guitar World, May 2006 Critic Alan di Perna praised Gilmour's guitar work as an integral element of Pink Floyd's sound.

Rolling Stone ranked Gilmour number 14 in their '100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time' list and di Perna described him as the most important guitarist of the 1970s, calling him 'the missing link between Hendrix and.' In 2006, Gilmour commented on his playing technique: '[My] fingers make a distinctive sound. [they] aren't very fast, but I think I am instantly recognisable. The way I play melodies is connected to things like and '. Gilmour's ability to use fewer notes than most to express himself without sacrificing strength or beauty drew a favourable comparison to trumpeter. In 2006, Guitar World writer Jimmy Brown described Gilmour's guitar style as 'characterised by simple, huge-sounding riffs; gutsy, well-paced solos; and rich, ambient chordal textures.'

According to Brown, Gilmour's solos on 'Money', ' and ' 'cut through the mix like a laser beam through fog.' Brown described the 'Time' solo as 'a masterpiece of phrasing and motivic development. Gilmour paces himself throughout and builds upon his initial idea by leaping into the upper register with gut-wrenching one-and-one-half-step 'over bends', soulful triplet arpeggios and a typically impeccable bar vibrato.' Brown described Gilmour's sense of phrasing as intuitive, singling it out as perhaps his best asset as a lead guitarist.

Gilmour explained how he achieved his signature tone: 'I usually use a fuzz box, a delay and a bright EQ setting. [to get] singing sustain. You need to play loud — at or near the feedback threshold. It's just so much more fun to play.

When bent notes slice right through you like a razor blade.' Sonic experimentation Throughout their career, Pink Floyd experimented with their sound.

Their second single, 'See Emily Play' premiered at the in London, on 12 May 1967. During the performance, the group first used an early called an. The device enabled the controller, usually Wright, to manipulate the band's amplified sound, combined with recorded tapes, projecting the sounds 270 degrees around a venue, achieving a sonic swirling effect.

In 1972, they purchased a custom-built PA which featured an upgraded four-channel, 360-degree system. Waters experimented with the and synthesisers on Pink Floyd pieces such as ', ', and '. He used a Binson Echorec 2 delay effect on his bass-guitar track for '. Pink Floyd used innovative sound effects and state of the art audio recording technology during the recording of The Final Cut. Mason's contributions to the album were almost entirely limited to work with the experimental system, an audio processing technique used to simulate a three-dimensional effect. The system used a conventional stereo tape to produce an effect that seemed to move the sound around the listener's head when they were wearing headphones.

The process enabled an engineer to simulate moving the sound to behind, above or beside the listener's ears. Film scores Pink Floyd also composed several film scores, starting in 1968, with.

In 1969, they recorded the score for 's film. 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 's film, 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, for which they released a soundtrack album called.

They composed the material in about a week at the near Paris, and upon its release, it became Pink Floyd's first album to break into the top 50 on the US Billboard chart. Live performances. A live performance of The Dark Side of the Moon at, shortly after its release in 1973: (l-r) Gilmour, Mason,, Waters Regarded as pioneers of performance and renowned for their lavish stage shows, Pink Floyd also set high standards in sound quality, making use of innovative sound effects and quadraphonic speaker systems.

From their earliest days, they employed visual effects to accompany their psychedelic rock music while performing at venues such as the UFO Club in London. Their slide-and-light show was one of the first in British rock, and it helped them become popular among London's underground. To celebrate the launch of the 's magazine International Times in 1966, they performed in front of 2,000 people at the opening of, attended by celebrities including and. In mid-1966, road manager Peter Wynne-Willson joined their road crew, and updated the band's lighting rig with some innovative ideas including the use of, mirrors and stretched. After their record deal with EMI, Pink Floyd purchased a van, then considered extravagant band transportation. On 29 April 1967, they headlined an all-night event called at the, London. Pink Floyd arrived at the festival at around three o'clock in the morning after a long journey by van and ferry from the Netherlands, taking the stage just as the sun was beginning to rise.

In July 1969, precipitated by their space-related music and lyrics, they took part in the live BBC television coverage of the moon landing, performing an instrumental piece which they called '. In November 1974, they employed for the first time the large circular screen that would become a staple of their live shows. In 1977, they employed the use of a large inflatable floating pig named 'Algie'. Filled with helium and propane, Algie, while floating above the audience, would explode with a loud noise during the In the Flesh Tour.

The behaviour of the audience during the tour, as well as the large size of the venues, proved a strong influence on their concept album. The subsequent featured a 40 feet (12 m) high wall, built from cardboard bricks, constructed between the band and the audience. They projected animations onto the wall, while gaps allowed the audience to view various scenes from the story. They commissioned the creation of several giant inflatables to represent characters from the story. One striking feature of the tour was the performance of 'Comfortably Numb'. While Waters sang his opening verse, in darkness, Gilmour waited for his cue on top of the wall.

When it came, bright blue and white lights would suddenly reveal him. Gilmour stood on a on castors, an insecure setup supported from behind by a technician. A large hydraulic platform supported both Gilmour and the tech. During the, an unknown person using the name posted a message on an internet newsgroup inviting fans to solve a riddle supposedly concealed in the new album.

White lights in front of the stage at the Pink Floyd concert in spelled out the words Enigma Publius. During a televised concert at Earls Court on 20 October 1994, someone projected the word 'enigma' in large letters on to the backdrop of the stage. Mason later acknowledged that their record company had instigated the Publius Enigma mystery, rather than the band.

Lyrical themes Marked by Waters' philosophical lyrics, Rolling Stone described Pink Floyd as 'purveyors of a distinctively dark vision'. Author Jere O'Neill Surber wrote: 'their interests are truth and illusion, life and death, time and space, causality and chance, compassion and indifference.' Waters identified as a central theme in the lyrics of Pink Floyd.

Author George Reisch described Meddle 's psychedelic opus, 'Echoes', as 'built around the core idea of genuine communication,, and collaboration with others.' Despite having been labelled 'the gloomiest man in rock', author Deena Weinstein described Waters as an, dismissing the unfavourable moniker as the result of misinterpretation by music critics. Disillusionment, absence, and non-being Waters' lyrics to Wish You Were Here 's ' deal with a perceived lack of sincerity on the part of music industry representatives. The song illustrates a dysfunctional dynamic between the band and a record label executive who congratulates the group on their current sales success, implying that they are on the same team while revealing that he erroneously believes 'Pink' is the name of one of the band members. According to author David Detmer, the album's lyrics deal with the 'dehumanising aspects of the world of commerce', a situation the artist must endure to reach their audience. Absence as a lyrical theme is common in the music of Pink Floyd. Examples include the absence of Barrett after 1968, and that of Waters' father, who died during the.

Waters' lyrics also explored unrealised political goals and unsuccessful endeavours. Their film score, Obscured by Clouds, dealt with the loss of youthful exuberance that sometimes comes with ageing. Longtime Pink Floyd album cover designer, Storm Thorgerson, described the lyrics of Wish You Were Here: 'The idea of presence withheld, of the ways that people pretend to be present while their minds are really elsewhere, and the devices and motivations employed psychologically by people to suppress the full force of their presence, eventually boiled down to a single theme, absence: The absence of a person, the absence of a feeling.' Waters commented: 'it's about none of us really being there.

[it] should have been called Wish We Were Here'. O'Neill Surber explored the lyrics of Pink Floyd and declared the issue of a common theme in their music. Waters invoked non-being or non-existence in The Wall, with the lyrics to 'Comfortably Numb': 'I caught a fleeting glimpse, out of the corner of my eye. I turned to look, but it was gone, I cannot put my finger on it now, the child is grown, the dream is gone.' Barrett referred to non-being in his final contribution to the band's catalogue, 'Jugband Blues': 'I'm most obliged to you for making it clear that I'm not here.'

Exploitation and oppression Author Patrick Croskery described Animals as a unique blend of the 'powerful sounds and suggestive themes' of Dark Side with The Wall 's portrayal of artistic alienation. He drew a parallel between the album's political themes and that of Orwell's Animal Farm.

Animals begins with a thought experiment, which asks: 'If you didn't care what happened to me. And I didn't care for you', then develops a based on anthropomorphised characters using music to reflect the individual states of mind of each.

The lyrics ultimately paint a picture of, the inevitable result of a world devoid of empathy and compassion, answering the question posed in the opening lines. The album's characters include the 'Dogs', representing fervent capitalists, the 'Pigs', symbolising political corruption, and the 'Sheep', who represent the exploited.

Croskery described the 'Sheep' as being in a 'state of delusion created by a misleading cultural identity', a. The 'Dog', in his tireless pursuit of self-interest and success, ends up depressed and alone with no one to trust, utterly lacking emotional satisfaction after a life of exploitation. Waters used as an example of a 'Pig'; being someone who in his estimation, used the power of the government to impose her values on society. At the album's conclusion, Waters returns to empathy with the lyrical statement: 'You know that I care what happens to you.

And I know that you care for me too.' However, he also acknowledges that the 'Pigs' are a continuing threat and reveals that he is a 'Dog' who requires shelter, suggesting the need for a balance between state, commerce and community, versus an ongoing battle between them. Alienation, war, and insanity. 'When I say, 'I'll see you on the dark side of the moon'. what I mean [is]. If you feel that you're the only one. That you seem crazy [because] you think everything is crazy, you're not alone.'

—Waters, quoted in Harris, 2005 O'Neill Surber compared the lyrics of Dark Side of the Moon 's ' with 's theory of; 'there's someone in my head, but it's not me.' The lyrics to Wish You Were Here 's 'Welcome to the Machine' suggest what Marx called the; the song's protagonist preoccupied with material possessions to the point that he becomes estranged from himself and others. Allusions to the can be found in Animals; the 'Dog' reduced to living instinctively as a non-human.

The 'Dogs' become alienated from themselves to the extent that they justify their lack of integrity as a 'necessary and defensible' position in 'a cutthroat world with no room for empathy or moral principle' wrote Detmer. Is a consistent theme in the lyrics of Pink Floyd, and it is a core element of The Wall. War, viewed as the most severe consequence of the manifestation of alienation from others, is also a core element of The Wall, and a recurring theme in the band's music. Waters' father died in combat during the Second World War, and his lyrics often alluded to the cost of war, including those from 'Corporal Clegg' (1968), ' (1972), ' (1973), ' and ' from The Final Cut (1983), an album dedicated to his late father and subtitled A Requiem for the Postwar Dream. The themes and composition of The Wall express Waters' upbringing in an English society depleted of men after the Second World War, a condition that negatively affected his personal relationships with women. Waters' lyrics to The Dark Side of the Moon dealt with the pressures of modern life and how those pressures can sometimes cause insanity. He viewed the album's explication of mental illness as illuminating a universal condition.

However, Waters also wanted the album to communicate positivity, calling it 'an exhortation. To embrace the positive and reject the negative.'

Reisch described The Wall as 'less about the experience of madness than the habits, institutions, and social structures that create or cause madness.' The Wall 's protagonist, Pink, is unable to deal with the circumstances of his life, and overcome by feelings of guilt, slowly closes himself off from the outside world inside a barrier of his own making. After he completes his estrangement from the world, Pink realises that he is 'crazy, over the rainbow'. He then considers the possibility that his condition may be his own fault: 'have I been guilty all this time?' Realising his greatest fear, Pink believes that he has let everyone down, his overbearing mother wisely choosing to smother him, the teachers rightly criticising his poetic aspirations, and his wife justified in leaving him.

He then stands trial for 'showing feelings of an almost human nature', further exacerbating his alienation of species being. As with the writings of philosopher, Waters' lyrics suggest Pink's insanity is a product of modern life, the elements of which, 'custom, codependancies, and psychopathologies', contribute to his angst, according to Reisch. Recognition and influence. Clockwise (from top left): Waters, Gilmour, Wright and Mason Pink Floyd are one of the and influential rock bands of all time. They have sold more than 250 million records worldwide, including 75 million certified units in the United States, and 37.9 million albums sold in the US since 1993.

The, Music Millionaires 2013 (UK), ranked Waters at number 12 with an estimated fortune of £150 million, Gilmour at number 27 with £85 million and Mason at number 37 with £50 million. In 2004, ranked Pink Floyd number 8 on their list of 'The 10 Best Rock Bands Ever'. Rolling Stone ranked them number 51 on their list of 'The 100 Greatest Artists of All Time'. Named Pink Floyd as the biggest band of all time. Ranked them number 18 in the list of the '100 Greatest Artists of All Time'. Ranked Pink Floyd number 3 in his list of the 'Top 50 Artists of All Time', a ranking based on the cumulative votes for each artist's albums included in his.

Pink Floyd have won several awards. In 1981 won the for 'Best Engineered Non-Classical Album' for The Wall, and Roger Waters won the award for 'Best Original Song Written for a Film' in 1983 for 'Another Brick in the Wall' from. In 1995, Pink Floyd won the Grammy for 'Best Rock Instrumental Performance' for '. In 2008, of Sweden presented Pink Floyd with the for their contribution to modern music; Waters and Mason attended the ceremony and accepted the award.

They were inducted into the in 1996, the in 2005, and the in 2010. Pink Floyd's The Wall exhibit at the The music of Pink Floyd influenced numerous artists; called Barrett a significant inspiration, and of bought his first after hearing the opening guitar chords to ' from Animals. Other bands who cite them as an influence include,,,,,,, and.

Pink Floyd were an influence on the subgenre which emerged in the 1980s. Pink Floyd were also admirers of the comedy group. They helped to finance their 1975 film. In 2016, a major retrospective of the band's work was announced to take place at the in London the following year to mark the 50th anniversary of their first single. The audio-visual exhibition, titled Their Mortal Remains, featuring analysis of the album cover art, conceptual props from the stage shows and photographs from Nick Mason's personal archive, opened in May 2017; due to its popularity, it was extended for two weeks beyond its original closing date of 1 October.

• Wright studied architecture until 1963, when he began studying music at London's. • Leonard designed light machines, which used electric motors to spin perforated discs, casting patterns of lights on the walls. These would be demonstrated in an early edition of. For a brief time, Leonard played keyboard with them using the front room of his flat for rehearsals. • Wright also briefly lived at Leonard's. • Povey spelled it Meggadeaths but Blake spelled it Megadeaths. Architectural Abdabs is sometimes suggested as another variation; Povey dismisses it as a misreading of in the Polytechnic's student newspaper.

Povey used the Tea Set throughout whereas Blake's claim of the alternative spelling, the T-Set, remains unsubstantiated. • The four-song session became the band's first demo and included the R&B classic ', and three Syd Barrett originals, 'Butterfly', 'Lucy Leave' and 'Double O Bo', a song Mason described as 'Bo Diddley meets the 007 theme'. • According to Povey, by 1964 the group began calling itself the Abdabs. • Soon after, someone stole the equipment, and the group resorted to purchasing new gear on a payment plan. • They dropped the definite article from the band's name at some point in early 1967.

• Schaffner described the £5,000 advance as generous; however, Povey suggested it was an inadequate agreement which required that the money be disbursed over five years. • Previous to this session, on 11 and 12 January, they recorded a long take of '. Sometime around the sessions on 29 January, they produced a short music film for 'Arnold Layne' in Sussex. • At EMI, Pink Floyd experimented with and watched record '. • Blackhill's late application for work permits forced Pink Floyd to cancel several of the US dates. • Pink Floyd released the single ' in November 1967 in the UK.

• Barrett's absence on more than one occasion forced the band to book as his replacement. Wynne-Willson left his position as lighting director and assisted the guitarist with his daily activities. • In late 1967, Barrett suggested adding four new members; in the words of Waters: 'two freaks he'd met somewhere.

One of them played the banjo, the other the saxophone. [and] a couple of chick singers'. • One of Gilmour's first tasks was to mime Barrett's guitar playing on an 'Apples and Oranges' promotional film. • Mason is unsure which member of Pink Floyd said 'let's not bother'. • For a short period after, Barrett turned up at occasional performances, apparently confused about his standing with the band. • Thorgerson had attended with Waters and Barrett. • The band recorded their previous LPs using a system; Atom Heart Mother was their first album recorded on an eight-track machine.

• A theft of the band's equipment, worth about $40,000, after a May 1970 show at the Warehouse in New Orleans, nearly crippled their finances. However, hours after the band notified the they had recovered most of the stolen equipment. • Povey states that the UK release date was 5 November, but Pink Floyd's official website states 13 November. All sources agree on the US release date of 30 October. • Meddle 's production consisted of sessions spread over several months; the band recorded in the first half of April, but in the latter half played at Doncaster and Norwich before returning to record at the end of the month.

In May, they split their time between sessions at Abbey Road, rehearsals and concerts across Great Britain. They spent June and July performing at venues across Europe, and August in the far east and Australia, returning to Europe in September. In October, they made the, before touring the US in November. • Immediately after the session, Barrett attended a pre-party held for Gilmour's upcoming first wedding, but eventually left without saying goodbye and none of the band members ever saw him again, apart from a run-in between Waters and Barrett a couple of years later.

The inspiration behind the cover image, designed by Thorgerson, is the idea that people tend to conceal their true feelings for fear of 'getting burned', wrote Pink Floyd biographer Glen Povey. Therefore, it features two businessmen shown shaking hands; one of them is on fire. • Brian Humphries engineered the album, which was completed in December 1976.

• 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, 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. • 'Pigs on the Wing' contained references to Waters' romantic relationship with Carolyne Anne Christie. Christie and, manager of the Grateful Dead, were married at the time.

Waters' marriage to Judy had produced no children, but he became a father with Christie in November 1976. • Waters was not the only person depressed by playing in large venues, as Gilmour refused to perform the band's usual encore that night.

• In 1976, Pink Floyd 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 (equivalent to £1,579,500 in 2016 ). NWG invested between £1.6 million and £3.3 million of the band's money in high-risk venture capital schemes, primarily to reduce their exposure to UK taxes. It soon became apparent 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 per cent of their income. The band eventually terminated their relationship with NWG and demanded the return of any funds not yet invested, which at that time amounted to £860,000; they received only £740,000. Pink Floyd eventually sued NWG for £1M, accusing them of fraud and negligence. NWG collapsed in 1981: Andrew Warburg fled to Spain; Waterbrook purchased Norton Warburg Investments, and many of its holdings sold at a significant loss. Andrew Warburg began serving a three-year jail sentence upon his return to the UK in 1987. • replaced engineer Brian Humphries, emotionally drained by his five years with the band, for the recording of the album.

In March 1979, the band's dire financial situation demanded that they leave the UK for a year, or more and recording moved to the Super Bear Studios near. • Although Wright's name did not appear anywhere on the finished album, Pink Floyd employed him as a paid musician on their subsequent The Wall tour.

Towards 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,. • Waters took a six-week leave during filming and returned to find that Parker had used his artistic license to modify parts of the film to his liking.

Waters became incensed; the two fought, and Parker threatened to walk out. Gilmour urged Waters to reconsider his stance, reminding the bassist that he and the other band members were shareholders and directors and could outvote him on such decisions. • Pink Floyd created a modified soundtrack for some of the film's songs. • Recording took place in eight studios, including Gilmour's home studio at and Waters' home studio.

• During the sessions, Waters lost his temper and began ranting at Kamen who, out of frustration during one recording session, had started repeatedly writing 'I Must Not Fuck Sheep' on a notepad in the studio's control room. • Waters commissioned his brother-in-law, Willie Christie, to take photographs for the album cover. • Though Gilmour's name did not appear on the production credits, he retained his pay as musician and producer. • Released as a single, ', with its chorus of 'Fuck all that' bowdlerised to 'Stuff all that'; Melody Maker declared it 'a milestone in the history of awfulness'. • Wright was also in the midst of a difficult divorce and later said that the album was, 'made at a time in my life when I was lost.'

• Waters went on to record the soundtrack for, as well as his second solo album,. • Artists such as and worked on the album, joined by Bob Ezrin. • engineered the album. • In a departure from previous Pink Floyd albums, they recorded A Momentary Lapse of Reason using a 32-channel Mitsubishi digital recorder using synchronisation with the aid of an computer. Recording later moved to and then to Los Angeles.

• Wright's name appears only on the credit list. • Gilmour divorced his wife Ginger and Mason married actress Annette Lynton. • Thorgerson also provided six new pieces of film for the upcoming tour. • Waters declined their invitation to join them as the tour reached Europe. • In 1995, Pink Floyd released the live album,, and an accompanying. • In the week following their performance, there was a resurgence of commercial interest in Pink Floyd's music, when according to, sales of Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd rose more than one thousand per cent, while reported a significant increase in sales of The Wall. Gilmour subsequently declared that he would give his share of profits from this sales boost to charity, urging other associated artists and to do the same.

• 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 left more than £1.25M in his will, to be divided among his immediate family, who then auctioned some of his possessions and artwork. • On 4 January 2011, Pink Floyd signed a five-year record deal with EMI, ending the legal dispute regarding the distribution of their catalogue. They successfully defended their vision to support their albums as cohesive units versus individual tracks. • It was the first time since Live 8 that the three men shared a stage and the first time that the line-up from The Final Cut appeared in concert.

• In early 1965, Pink Floyd auditioned for 's, 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. Also in 1965, they auditioned for the Beat Contest, losing to the eventual national winners. • Road manager joined them before touring Europe in 1968. • Thorgerson's design for Wish You Were Here 's cover included four sides, counting the inner jacket, which represented four absences related to the classical: earth, air, fire and water. His Dark Side album cover features a beam of white light, representing unity, passing through a prism, which represents society. The resulting refracted beam of coloured light symbolises unity diffracted, leaving an absence of unity.

Absence is a key element in the existentialism of, who defined absurdity as the absence of a response to the individual's need for unity. • Philosophy originated from the Greek poet,, who wrote a poem in which the protagonist takes a cosmic chariot ride guided by a goddess who shows him that there are only two paths in life, being, which leads to truth, and non-being, which leads to confusion and discontent. The goddess also told Parmenides: 'thought and being are one'. • Marx considered insanity the ultimate form of self-alienation.

Da Capo Press.. • Bronson, Fred (1992). Weiler, Fred, ed.. Billboard Books (3rd revised ed.).. • Brown, Jimmy (May 2006).

'Sorcerer Full of Secrets'. Guitar World. • di Perna, Alan (May 2006). Guitar World. • di Perna, Alan (2002). 'Mysterious Ways'. In Kitts, Jeff; Tolinski, Brad..

Hal Leonard.. • Croskery, Patrick (2007). 'Pigs Training Dogs to Exploit Sheep: Animals as a Beast Fable Dystopia'.

In Reisch, George A.. • Detmer, David (2007). 'Dragged Down by the Stone: Pink Floyd, Alienation, and the Pressures of Life'. In Reisch, George A.. • Fitch, Vernon (2005). The Pink Floyd Encyclopedia (Third ed.).

Collector's Guide Publishing.. • Fitch, Vernon (2001).

Pink Floyd: The Press Reports 1966–1983. Collector's Guide Publishing Inc.. • Fitch, Vernon; Mahon, Richard (2006).

Comfortably Numb: A History of 'The Wall', Pink Floyd, 1978–1981 (1st ed.). PFA Publishing, Inc..

• George-Warren, Holly, ed. The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll (2005 revised and updated ed.).

• Harris, John (2005). The Dark Side of the Moon (First Hardcover ed.). • Hibbert, Tom (1996) [1971]. 'Who the hell does Roger Waters think he is?' In MacDonald, Bruno..

• Kitts, Jeff; Tolinski, Brad, eds. Hal Leonard.. • Mabbett, Andy (1995).

The Complete Guide to the Music of Pink Floyd (1st UK paperback ed.). Omnibus Press.. • Manning, Toby (2006). The Rough Guide to Pink Floyd (First ed.). Rough Guides.. • (2005) [2004].

Dodd, Philip, ed. Inside Out: A Personal History of Pink Floyd (Paperback ed.). • Povey, Glenn (2008) [2007].. Mind Head Publishing.. • Reisch, George A (2007).

'The Worms and the Wall: Michael Foucault on Syd Barrett'. In Reisch, George A.. • Roberts, David, ed. British Hit Singles & Albums (18 ed.). Guinness World Records Limited.. • Rosen, Craig (1996). Lukas, Paul, ed.

The Billboard Book of Number One Albums. • Schaffner, Nicholas (1991). Saucerful of Secrets (First ed.). Sidgwick & Jackson.. • Scarfe, Gerald (2010). The Making of Pink Floyd: The Wall (1st US paperback ed.).

Da Capo Press.. • Simmons, Sylvie (December 1999). 'Pink Floyd: The Making of The Wall'. Mojo Magazine. • O'Neill Surber, Jere (2007). 'Wish You Were Here (But You Aren't): Pink Floyd and Non-Being'. In Reisch, George A..

• Watkinson, Mike; Anderson, Pete (2001). Omnibus Press.. • Watts, Michael (1996) [1971]. 'Pink's muddled Meddle'.

In MacDonald, Bruno. Pink Floyd: Through the Eyes of the Band, Its Fans and Foes. Da Capo Press.. • Weinstein, Deena (2007). 'Roger Waters: Artist of the Absurd'. In Reisch, George A.. 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.. • Hearn, Marcus (2012). Titan Books.. • Jones, Cliff (1996). Another Brick in the Wall: The Stories Behind Every Pink Floyd Song..

• Mabbett, Andy (2010). Pink Floyd: The Music and the Mystery. Omnibus Press.. • Mabbett, Andy; Miles (1988). Pink Floyd: 25th Anniversary Edition (Visual Documentary).. • Miles, Barry (2007). Omnibus Press..

• Palacios, Julian (2001). Lost in the Woods: Syd Barrett and the Pink Floyd..

• Povey, Glen; Russell, Ian (1997). (1st US paperback ed.). Martin's Press.. • Reising, Russell (2005). Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.. • Ruhlmann, William (2004). Easy Eeg Software Download.

Breaking Records. • Ruhlmann, William (1993). • Snider, Charles (2008).

The Strawberry Bricks Guide to Progressive Rock. Strawberry Bricks..

Documentaries • CreateSpace (2009). Pink Floyd: Meddle (Streaming video). Sexy Intellectual.. • John Edginton (Director) (2012). Pink Floyd: The Story of Wish You Were Here (Colour, NTSC, DVD). Eagle Rock Entertainment.. • Matthew Longfellow (Director) (2003).

Classic Albums: The Making of The Dark Side of the Moon (Colour, Dolby, NTSC, DVD). Eagle Rock Entertainment.. • Pink Floyd (2007). Pink Floyd – Then and Now (Colour, NTSC DVD). • Pink Floyd (2010). Pink Floyd – Whatever Happened to Pink Floyd? (Colour, NTSC, DVD).

Sexy Intellectual.. External links.