Pink Floyd Biography
The following biography
is from
Wikipedia.org
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Free Encyclopedia.
Pink Floyd is a British progressive rock band
famous for its songwriting, harmonic classic rock compositions, bombastic style,
striking album art and elaborate live shows. Pink Floyd is one of rock's most
successful acts, ranking seventh in number of albums sold worldwide (180 million
albums). Pink Floyd formed in 1965 and last recorded and toured in 1994,
although they reformed for one night only at the London Live 8 concert on July
2, 2005, playing to their biggest audience ever.
* * * *
History
Pink Floyd originally stemmed from earlier bands
whose names included Sigma 6, T-Set, Meggadeaths, The Screaming Abdabs, and The
Abdabs. The band was again renamed The Pink Floyd Sound and then simply The Pink
Floyd (after two blues musicians, Pink Anderson and Floyd Council). The definite
article was dropped by the time their debut album was released.
Pink Floyd originally consisted of Syd Barrett
(vocals, guitar), Richard Wright (keyboards, vocals), Roger Waters (bass,
vocals) and Nick Mason (drums). Bob Klose was also an early member of the band
but left shortly after he joined, before Pink Floyd started recording. They
covered rhythm and blues staples such as "Louie, Louie". As Barrett started
writing tunes more influenced by American surf music, psychedelic rock, and
British whimsy, humour and literature, the heavily jazz-oriented Klose departed
in 1965 and left a rather stable foursome. The band formed Blackhill
Enterprises, a six-way business partnership with their managers, Peter Jenner
and Andrew King.
Released in August 1967, the band's debut The Piper
at the Gates of Dawn is considered to be a prime example of English psychedelic
music. The album's tracks showcase an eclectic mixture of music, from the avant
garde free form piece "Interstellar Overdrive" to whimsical songs, such as
"Scarecrow", a melancholic song inspired by the Fenlands, the rural region north
of Barrett, Gilmour and Water's home town of Cambridge. The album was a hit,
peaking at #6 in the UK charts.
In January 1968, guitarist David Gilmour joined the
band to carry out the playing and singing duties of Barrett, whose mental health
had been deteriorating for several months, but nevertheless was intended to
remain as the band's figurehead and songwriter. With Barrett's behaviour
becoming less and less predictable, and use of LSD almost constant, he became
very unstable, often staring into space while the rest of the band performed.
The band's live shows became increasingly ramshackle until, eventually, the
other band members simply stopped taking him to the concerts.
Once Barrett's departure was formalised in April
1968, Jenner and King decided to remain with him, and the six-way Blackhill
partnership was dissolved.
Whilst Barrett had written the bulk of the first
record, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, he contributed just one song "Jugband
Blues" to the second A Saucerful of Secrets, released in June 1968, reaching #9
at home.
After the film soundtrack More, the next record,
the double album Ummagumma (part recorded at Mothers Rock Club, Birmingham, and
in Manchester in 1969), was a mix of live recordings and unchecked studio
experimentation by the band members, with each recording half a side of vinyl as
a solo project (Mason's wife makes an uncredited contribution as a flutist). The
album was Pink Floyd's best performing release yet, hitting UK #5 and making the
US charts at #70.
1970's Atom Heart Mother, is a UK #1 album that is
often overlooked today, sounding somewhat dated, and has been described by
Gilmour as the sound of a band "blundering about in the dark". However, the
album was a transitional piece for the group, and it hints at future musical
territory. The title piece, a 23-minute long work with symphonic leanings, owes
much to orchestration by Ron Geesin.
The band's sound was considerably more focused on
Meddle (1971), with the 23-minute epic "Echoes" (in this track the band used the
Zinovieff's VCS3 synth for the first time, as well as a theremin in the spacey
middle part). This album also included the atmospheric "One of These Days" (a
concert classic, with a distorted, disembodied one-line vocal, "One of these
days, I'm going to cut you into little pieces" courtesy of drummer Nick Mason
and a melody that at one point segues into a throbbing synthetic pulse
reminisicent of the theme tune of the cult classic sci-fi TV show Doctor Who)
and the pop-jazz stylings of "San Tropez". Their taste for experimentation was
expressed on "Seamus" (earlier, "Mademoiselle Nobs"), a pure-blues number
featuring lead vocals by a Russian wolfhound. It was about this time that Roger
Waters started to lead the musical direction of the band, in both lyrical and
musical content. Indeed, "San Tropez" was the first song that Waters brought to
the band in a completed state, requiring little work from the other band
members. Pink Floyd were rewarded with a #3 peak in the UK for Meddle.
A less-well-known album, Obscured By Clouds, was
released in 1972, as the soundtrack for the film La Vallee and was the band's
first US Top 50 album, hitting #6 at home.
Despite their never having been a hit-single-driven
group, their massively successful 1973 album, Dark Side of the Moon, featured a
US Top 20 track ("Money"), and more importantly remained in the US Top 200
(where it hit #1) for 741 weeks (including 591 consecutive weeks from 1973 to
1988), breaking many records on the way, and making it one of the top selling
albums of all time. Dark Side of the Moon was a concept album originally
intended to be about the different pressures applying in modern life. It proved
a powerful catalyst for the band and together they drew up a list of themes: "On
The Run" was dedicated to travel; "Time" depicted the encroachment of old age;
"The Great Gig In The Sky" (originally named "Mortality Sequence" and "Religious
Theme" during development) dealt with death and religion; "Money" naturally
spoke of the money that often comes with fame; "Us And Them" entailed violent
conflicts within society; and "Brain Damage" touched on themes of insanity and
neurosis. Thanks to the use of new 16-track recording equipment at Abbey Road
Studios and the investment of an enormous amount of time by engineer Alan
Parsons, the album set new standards for sound fidelity.
Dark Side of the Moon and the three following
albums (Wish You Were Here, Animals and The Wall) are held up by most fans as
the peak of Pink Floyd's career. The first of those, Wish You Were Here,
released in 1975, is a theme album about absence. In addition to the classic
title track, "Wish You Were Here" includes the critically acclaimed, mostly
instrumental nine-part "Shine On You Crazy Diamond", a tribute to Barrett in
which the lyrics deal explicitly with the aftermath of his breakdown. The album
also includes the epics "Welcome to the Machine" and "Have a Cigar." Pink Floyd
achieved their first transatlantic #1 album with "Wish You Were Here".
By January 1977, and the release of Animals (UK #2,
US #3), the band's music came under increasing criticism from some quarters in
the new punk rock sphere as being too flabby and pretentious, having lost its
way from the simplicity of early rock and roll. Animals contained more lengthy
songs tied to a theme, taken in part from George Orwell's Animal Farm, using
pigs, dogs and sheep as metaphors for members of contemporary society. However,
Animals was considerably more guitar-driven than the previous albums (perhaps as
a response to the growing punk movement) as it substantially furthered existing
tensions between Waters and keyboardist Rick Wright, who did not contribute any
songs to Animals.
1979's epic rock opera, The Wall, conceived mainly
by Waters, gave Pink Floyd renewed acclaim and another hit single with their
foray into critical pedagogy - "Another Brick in the Wall, Part II" (which took
the coveted Christmas Number One slot in the UK singles chart). In addition,
while making #3 at home, The Wall spent an astounding 15 weeks atop the US
charts during 1980. It also included "Comfortably Numb", which, though never
released as a single, became a cornerstone of AOR and classic-rock radio
playlists and is today one of the group's best-known songs. The album also
became a vastly expensive and money-losing tour/stage show, although the album's
sales got the band out of the financial hole they were in. During this time,
Waters increased his artistic influence and leadership over the band, prompting
frequent conflicts with the other members and even leading to the firing of
Wright from the band. Wright returned, on a fixed wage, for the album's few live
concerts. Ironically, he was the only member of Pink Floyd to make any money
from the Wall shows, the rest having to cover the excessive costs. The album was
co-produced by Bob Ezrin, a friend of Waters who shared songwriting credits on
"The Trial" and whom Waters then kicked out of the Floyd camp after Ezrin
inadvertently talked about the album to a journalist relative.
The Wall remained on best-selling-album lists for
14 years. A film entitled Pink Floyd The Wall starring Boomtown Rats founder Bob
Geldof was adapted from it in 1982, written by Waters and directed by Alan
Parker, and featuring striking animation by noted British cartoonist Gerald
Scarfe. The creation of the film saw a further deterioration of the
Waters/Gilmour relationship, as Waters came to completely dominate the band.
1983 saw the release of The Final Cut. Even darker
in tone than The Wall, this album re-examined many of the themes of that album
while also addressing then-current events, including Waters' anger at Britain's
participation in the Falklands War ("The Fletcher Memorial Home") and his
cynicism toward, and fear of, nuclear war ("Two Suns in the Sunset"). Wright's
absence meant this album lacked the keyboard effects seen in previous Floyd
works, although guests Michael Kamen and Andy Bown both contributed keyboard
work. Also featuring on the album is Raphael Ravenscroft on saxophone who is
perhaps better known for the sax solo on Gerry Rafferty's "Baker Street". Though
released as a Pink Floyd album, the interior sleeve specified "A requiem for the
post war dream by Roger Waters, performed by Pink Floyd": the project was
clearly dominated by Waters and became a prototype in sound and form for later
Waters solo projects. Only moderately successful by Floyd standards (UK #1, US
#6), the album yielded only one rock radio hit, "Not Now John". The arguing
between Waters and Gilmour by this stage was rumoured to be so bad that they
were never seen in the recording studio simultaneously. There was no tour, and
the band unofficially disbanded in 1983.
After The Final Cut, the band members went their
separate ways, each releasing solo albums, until 1987, when Gilmour and Mason
began to revive the band. A bitter legal dispute with Roger Waters (who left the
band in 1985, or claimed he dissolved it) ensued, but Gilmour and Mason were
upheld in their contention that they had the legal right to continue as Pink
Floyd (Waters, however, gained the rights to some traditional Pink Floyd
imagery, including most of The Wall props and characters and all of the rights
to The Final Cut). The band under Gilmour returned to the studio with producer
Bob Ezrin. Richard Wright re-joined during the recording sessions of A Momentary
Lapse of Reason (UK #3/US #3) first as a session musician, paid a weekly salary,
and later reinstated as a full-fledged member of the band for the 1994 release
of The Division Bell (UK #1/US #1) and its subsequent tour, which was promoted
by legendary Canadian concert impressario Michael Cohl and became the
highest-grossing tour in rock history to that date.
All of the members of Pink Floyd have released solo
albums which have met with varying degrees of commercial and critical success.
Live
performances
Pink Floyd are renowned for their lavish stage
shows, combining over-the-top visual experiences with their music to create a
show in which the artists themselves are almost secondary. In their early days,
Pink Floyd were among the first bands to use a dedicated traveling light show in
conjunction with their performances, projecting slides, film clips, and
psychedelic patterns onto a large circular screen (dubbed "Mr. Screen"). Later,
additional special effects were added to the show, including lasers,
pyrotechnics, and oversized balloons, notably a giant pig balloon which floated
over the audience during performances of "Pigs" from the Animals album.
Pink Floyd mounted their most elaborate stage show
in conjunction with the tour of The Wall, in which a band of session musicians
played the first song, wearing rubber face masks (proving successfully that the
members of the band were not known for their individual personalities). Later in
the show, a huge wall was built between the audience and the band, being
demolished, explosively, as the finale. This show was re-created (by Waters) and
a number of guest artists (including Bryan Adams, The Scorpions, and Van
Morrison) assembled around Roger Waters in 1990 amid the ruins of the Berlin
Wall.
The lavish stage shows were also the basis for
Douglas Adams' fictional rock group "Disaster Area" (creators of the loudest
noise in the universe, and making use of solar-flares in their stage show) in
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series. Douglas Adams was a personal friend
of David Gilmour and made a one-off guest appearance, on guitar, on the Division
Bell tour (October 28, 1994).
Band
members
Pink Floyd retired in 1995 (although the classic
lineup played one reunion show on 7-2-05)
Syd Barrett - guitar, vocals (1965-1968)
David Gilmour - guitar, vocals (1968 - 2005)
Bob Klose - guitar, vocals (1965 - 1966)
Nick Mason - drums (1965 - 2005)
Roger Waters - bass, vocals (1965 - 1985; 2005)
Richard Wright - keyboards, vocals (1965 - 1981,
1987 - 2005)
Recent activity
Pink Floyd have not released any new studio
material since 1994's The Division Bell, nor is there a sign of any forthcoming.
The only band activity since The Division Bell has been the 1995 live album
P*U*L*S*E; a live recording of The Wall, compiled from their 1980/1981 concerts,
titled Is There Anybody Out There? The Wall Live 2000; a two-disc set of their
greatest hits called Echoes, in 2001; the 30th Anniversary reissue of Dark Side
of the Moon (2003); a re-release of The Final Cut with the single "When the
Tigers Broke Free" added (2004); and their 2005 Live 8 performance.
Longtime manager Steve O' Rourke died on October
30, 2003. All band members apart from Roger Waters performed Wish You Were Here
at his funeral at Chichester Cathedral.
The future of the band is uncertain despite their
temporary return to performance. The band have said that they will never reunite
to perform again as they are too old now. [1] The compilation album Echoes
caused some controversy because, on the album, songs segue into each other
continuously in a different order than on their original albums and some
("Echoes", "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" "Marooned" and "High Hopes") have had
substantial parts removed from them.
David Gilmour released a solo concert DVD called
David Gilmour in Concert in November 2002 which was compiled from shows on June
22, 2001, and January 17, 2002, at The Royal Festival Hall in London. Richard
Wright and Bob Geldof (Pink in The Wall film) make guest appearances.
In 2002 Q magazine named Pink Floyd as one of the
"50 Bands To See Before You Die".
In 2004, it was announced that contracts had been
signed for a Broadway musical version of The Wall, with extra music to be
written by Waters. The broadway version will feature all of the music written by
Waters. It is not known whether the songs co-written by Gilmour ("Young Lust",
"Comfortably Numb", and "Run Like Hell") will feature. The show is scheduled to
be completed by mid 2005.
Mason's book, Inside Out: A Personal History of
Pink Floyd, was published in 2004. To promote it, Mason made public appearances
in a few European and American cities, giving interviews and meeting large
crowds at book signings. The book is not a definitive biography of the band,
rather a personal view of Mason's experiences.
Live
8
On July 2, 2005 Pink Floyd performed at the London
Live 8 concert with Roger Waters rejoining David Gilmour, Nick Mason and Richard
Wright.
David Gilmour announced the Live 8 reunion on June
12, 2005:
Like most people I want to do everything I can to
persuade the G8 leaders to make huge commitments to the relief of poverty and
increased aid to the third world. It's crazy that America gives such a paltry
percentage of its GNP to the starving nations. Any squabbles Roger and the band
have had in the past are so petty in this context, and if re-forming for this
concert will help focus attention then it's got to be worthwhile.
The band's set consisted of "Breathe/Breathe
Reprise," "Money," "Wish You Were Here" and "Comfortably Numb". David sang the
lead vocals on the first two songs, and he shared them with Roger on the latter
two. During the guitar introduction of Wish You Were Here, Roger said:
It's actually quite emotional standing up here with
these three guys after all these years. Standing to be counted with the rest of
you. Anyway, we're doing this for everyone who's not here, but particularly of
course for Syd.
It was the band's first concert together in over 24
years -- the band's last show with Waters was at Earls Court in London in on
June 17, 1981.
They were augmented by guitarist Tim Renwick (who
toured with them in 1987-89 and 1994), keyboard player Jon Carin, saxophonist
Dick Parry during "Money" (who played on the original recording and "Shine on
You Crazy Diamond"), and backing singer Carol Kenyon during "Comfortably Numb".
While fans hoped that the Live 8 appearance would
lead to a reunion tour, the band made it very clear that there were no such
plans. Apparently the rifts that separated the members during the breakup have
not gone away; in describing the feeling of performing together again after so
many years, David Gilmour stated that it was "like sleeping with your ex-wife."
However, Nick Mason said that the band would be willing to perform for a concert
"that would support Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts".
The
images of Pink Floyd
Integral to the music is the artwork that comes
with it. The album covers and sleeve artwork add to the emotional impact of the
music with vivid and meaningful imagery. Throughout the band's career, this
aspect was mainly provided by the talents of photographer and graphic artist
Storm Thorgerson and his erstwhile graphic studio Hipgnosis. Many of these
images have acquired fame in their own right; notably the famous picture of a
man shaking the hand of his burning alter-ego for Wish You Were Here and the
refracting prism for Dark Side of the Moon. In fact, Thorgerson was involved in
all the artwork for every album except The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, the front
cover of which was a photograph by Vic Singh and the back cover a drawing by Syd
Barrett; The Wall, for which the band employed Gerald Scarfe; and The Final Cut,
the cover of which was designed by Waters himself, using photography made by his
then brother-in-law, Willie Christie.
* * * *
Awards list
Pink Floyd have received several awards during
their career.
Silver Clef awards
Pink Floyd was awarded for their charity work for
The Nordoff-Robbins Music Center in 1980
Grammys
-
1973 nomination for Album Of the Year
-
"Dark Side of the Moon" -- lost to Stevie
Wonder's "Innervisions"
-
1980 nomination for Album of the Year
-
"The Wall" -- lost to Christopher Cross'
Christopher Cross
-
1980 nomination for Best Rock Performance by
Duo or Group
-
"Another Brick In the Wall (Part 2)" -- lost to
Bob Seger's "Against the Wind"
-
1994 nomination for Best Rock Instrumental
Performance
-
"Marooned" from The Division Bell -- won
RIAA gold certifications
-
Atom Heart Mother
-
Obscured by Clouds
-
A Nice Pair
RIAA platinum certifications
-
Ummagumma
-
Meddle - 2x
-
Dark Side of the Moon - 15x
-
Wish You Were Here - 6x
-
Animals - 4x
-
The Wall - 23x
-
A Collection of Great Dance Songs - 2x
-
The Final Cut - 2x
-
A Momentary Lapse of Reason - 4x
-
Delicate Sound of Thunder - 3x
-
Shine On - (9-CD boxed set)
-
The Division Bell - 3x
-
Pulse - 2x
-
Is There Anybody Out There? The Wall Live
-
Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd 3x
Rock And Roll Hall of Fame
Inducted in 1996.
* * * *
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