Misplaced Pages

Revision as of 00:41, 26 August 2012

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

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

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

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

1963–1967: Formation and early years

The beginning

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

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

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

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

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

Signing with EMI

" taken place around us—not within us".

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

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

The Piper at the Gates of Dawn

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

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

1968–1977: Transition and international success

Gilmour replaces Barrett

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

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

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

A Saucerful of Secrets

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

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

Soundtracks

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

Ummagumma, Atom Heart Mother and Meddle

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

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

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

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

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

The Dark Side of the Moon

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

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

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

Wish You Were Here

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

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

While Pink Floyd were working on the album, Barrett made an impromptu visit to the studio, during which Thorgerson recalled that he "sat round and talked for a bit, but he wasn't really there." He had changed significantly in appearance, and the band did not initially recognise him. Waters was reportedly deeply upset by the experience. 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. Most of Wish You Were Here premièred on 5 July 1975, at an open-air music festival at Knebworth before its release in September of that year, when it quickly reached number one in both the UK and the US.

Animals

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

Waters originated the concept of Animals, loosely based on George Orwell's political fable, Animal Farm. Its lyrics described different classes of society as dogs, pigs, and sheep. Hipgnosis received credited for the packaging of Animals; however, Waters designed the final concept, choosing an image of the ageing Battersea Power Station, over which they superimposed an image of a pig.

The division of royalties became a difficult subject during production of the album. Members earned royalties on a per-song basis, and although Gilmour was largely responsible for "Dogs", which took up almost the entire first side of the album he received less than Waters, who contributed the much shorter two-part "Pigs on the Wing". 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.

Released in January 1977, the album entered the UK chart at number two, and the US chart at number three. NME called the album "one of the most extreme, relentless, harrowing and downright iconoclastic hunks of music ... available this side of the sun", and Melody Maker's Karl Dallas called it " uncomfortable taste of reality in a medium that has become in recent years, increasingly soporific".

They performed much of the album's material during their "In the Flesh" tour, Pink Floyd's first experience playing large stadiums, the size of which became an issue. 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 Montréal Olympic Stadium, a small 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.

Financial problems

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. 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 percent 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.

1978–1985: Waters-led era

The Wall

In July 1978, Waters presented the group with two original ideas. The first was a 90-minute demo with the working title, Bricks in the Wall, and the other would later become Waters' first solo album, The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking. Although both Mason and Gilmour were initially cautious, they chose the former to be their next album. Bob Ezrin co-produced, and he wrote a forty-page script for the new album. Ezrin based the story on the central figure of Pink—a gestalt character inspired by Waters' childhood experiences, the most notable of which was the death of his father in World War II. This first 'brick in the wall' led to more problems; Pink would become drug-addled and depressed by the music industry, eventually transforming into a megalomaniac, a development inspired partly by the decline of Syd Barrett. At the end of the album, the increasingly fascist audience would watch as Pink 'tore down the wall', once again becoming a regular and caring person.

During the recording of The Wall, the band became increasingly dissatisfied with Wright's lack of contribution to the album. Gilmour said that Wright, "hadn't contributed anything of any value whatsoever to the album—he did very, very little" and that's why he "got the boot". According to Mason, "Rick's contribution was to turn up and sit in on the sessions without doing anything, just 'being a producer'." Waters commented: " was not prepared to cooperate in making the record ... it was agreed by everybody ... either can have a long battle or can agree to ... finish making the album, keep full share ... but at the end of it leave quietly. Rick agreed."

Although Pink Floyd had not released a single since 1968, "Another Brick in the Wall (Part II)", supported the album, topping the charts in the US and the UK. Released on 30 November 1979, The Wall topped the Billboard chart in the US for fifteen weeks, reaching number three in the UK. The Wall ranks number four on the RIAA's list of the all-time Top 100 albums, with 23 million certified units sold in the US. The cover is one of their most minimalist designs, with a stark white brick wall, and no trademark or band name. It was also their first album cover since The Piper at the Gates of Dawn not designed by Hipgnosis.

Gerald Scarfe produced a series of animations for the subsequent live shows, The Wall Tour, including nightmarish visions of the future. He also commissioned the construction of large inflatable puppets representing characters from the storyline such as the "Mother", the "Ex-wife" and the "Schoolmaster". Pink Floyd used the puppets during their performances of the album. Relationships within the band were at an all-time low; their four Winnebagos parked in a circle, the doors facing away from the centre. Waters used his own vehicle to arrive at the venue and stayed in different hotels from the rest of the band. Wright returned as a paid musician and was the only one of the four to profit from the venture, which lost about $600,000.

The Wall concept also spawned an eponymous film, the original idea for which was to be a combination of live concert footage and animated scenes. However, the concert footage proved impractical to film. Alan Parker agreed to direct and took a different approach. The animated sequences would remain, but scenes would be acted by professional actors with no dialogue. Waters was screen-tested, but quickly discarded and they asked Bob Geldof to accept the role of Pink. Geldof was initially dismissive, condemning The Wall's storyline as "bollocks". Eventually won over by the prospect of participation in a significant film and receiving a large payment for his work, Geldof agreed. Screened at the Cannes Film Festival in May 1982, Pink Floyd—The Wall premièred in the UK in July 1982.

The Final Cut

In 1982, Waters suggested a new musical project for the band, with the working title Spare Bricks, originally conceived as the soundtrack album for Pink Floyd The Wall; however, with the onset of the Falklands War, Waters changed artistic direction and began writing new material. Waters saw Margaret Thatcher's response to the invasion of the Falklands as jingoistic and unnecessary, and he dedicated the new album—provisionally titled Requiem for a Post-War Dream—to his late father. Immediately there were arguments between Waters and Gilmour, who felt that the album should include all new material, rather than recycling a number of songs passed over for The Wall. Waters felt that Gilmour had contributed little to the band's lyrical repertoire. Michael Kamen, 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, The Final Cut 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 Kurt Loder 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"

Gilmour recorded his second solo album, About Face, in 1984, and used it to express his feelings about a variety of topics; from the murder of John Lennon 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, The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking. Wright formed Zee with Dave Harris and recorded Identity, which went almost unnoticed upon its release. Mason released his second solo album, Profiles, in August 1985, which featured a contribution from Gilmour on "Lie for a Lie".

After Waters had declared Pink Floyd "a spent force", he contacted O'Rourke to discuss settling future royalty payments. O'Rourke felt obliged to inform Mason and Gilmour, and this angered Waters, who wanted to dismiss him as the band's manager. Waters then went to the High Court in an effort to prevent their use of the Pink Floyd name. 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".

Waters wrote to EMI and Columbia declaring his intention to leave the group, and asking 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. With the case still pending, Waters dismissed O'Rourke and employed Peter Rudge to manage his affairs.

1986–1996: Gilmour-led era

A Momentary Lapse of Reason

In 1987, Gilmour began recruiting musicians for what would become Pink Floyd's first album without Waters, A Momentary Lapse of Reason. There were legal obstacles to Wright's readmittance to the band; however, 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"; Pink Floyd employed him as a paid musician with weekly earnings of $11,000. Recording sessions for the album began on Gilmour's houseboat, the Astoria, moored along the River Thames. Gilmour worked with several songwriters, including Eric Stewart and Roger McGough, eventually choosing Anthony Moore 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.

Released in September 1987, Storm Thorgerson, whose creative input was absent from The Wall and The Final Cut, designed the album cover. In order 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 very facile, but a quite clever forgery ... The songs are poor in general ... Gilmour's lyrics are very 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.

The associated tour had a rough start, with Waters attempting to subvert it by contacting promoters in the US and threatening to sue them if they used the Pink Floyd name. Gilmour and Mason funded the start-up costs with Mason using his Ferrari 250 GTO as collateral. Early rehearsals for the upcoming tour were chaotic, with Mason and Wright 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' Radio K.A.O.S. 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 flying pig. 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, with Mason and Gilmour retaining the right to use the Pink Floyd name in perpetuity and Waters receiving exclusive rights to, amongst other things, The Wall.

The Division Bell

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

The band spent more than two weeks rehearsing in a hangar at Norton Air Force Base in San Bernardino, California, before opening on 29 March 1994, in Miami with an almost identical crew to that used for their Momentary Lapse of Reason tour. They played a mixture of Pink Floyd favourites, but later changed their setlist to include The Dark Side of the Moon in its entirety. The band also renewed their acquaintance with Peter Wynne Willson. Waters declined the band's invitation to join them as the tour reached Europe, later expressing his annoyance that they performed Pink Floyd songs in large venues. The tour ended on 29 October 1994, with what was the last performance of the final Pink Floyd tour. In 1995, the band released the live album, Pulse, and an accompanying concert video.

2005–present

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

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

In the week following their performance there was a revival of interest in Pink Floyd. According to HMV, in the week following sales of Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd rose by 1,343 per cent, while Amazon.com reported a significant increase in sales of The Wall. Gilmour subsequently declared that he would donate his share of profits from this sales boom to charity and urged other artists and record companies profiting from Live 8 to do the same. Pink Floyd turned down a £136 million (then about $250 million) deal for a final tour. Waters did not rule out further performances, however he suggested it ought to be only for a special occasion. Gilmour told the Associated Press that a reunion would not happen, stating: "The rehearsals convinced me it wasn't something I wanted to be doing a lot of ... There have been all sorts of farewell moments in people's lives and careers which they have then rescinded, but I think I can fairly categorically say that there won't be a tour or an album again that I take part in. It isn't to do with animosity or anything like that. It's just ... I've been there, I've done it."

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

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

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

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

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

Legacy

Influence and awards

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

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

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

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

Live performances

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

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

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

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

Discography

Tours

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

Band members

Former members

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

Timeline

Notes

1. Wright studied architecture until 1963, when he began studying music at London's Royal College of Music.
2. 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 Tomorrow's World. For a brief time, Leonard played keyboard with them using the front room of his flat for rehearsals.
3. Wright also briefly lived at Leonard's.
4. Povey spelled it Meggadeaths but Blake spelled it Megadeaths. Architectural Abdabs is sometimes suggested as another variation; Povey dismisses it as a misreading of a headline about the Abdabs 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.
5. According to Povey, by 1964 the group began calling itself the Abdabs.
6. The four-song session became the band's first demo and included the R&B classic "I'm a King Bee", and three Syd Barrett originals, "Butterfly", "Lucy Leave" and "Double O Bo", a song Mason described as "Bo Diddley meets the 007 theme".
7. Also in 1965, they auditioned for the Melody Maker Beat Contest, losing to the eventual national winners.
8. The name is derived from the given names of two blues musicians whose Piedmont blues records Barrett had in his collection, Pink Anderson and Floyd Council.
9. Soon after, someone stole the equipment, and the group resorted to purchasing new gear on a payment plan.
10. 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 polarisers, mirrors and stretched condoms.
11. They dropped the definite article from the band's name at some point in early 1967.
12. Previous to this session, on 11 and 12 January, they recorded a long take of "Interstellar Overdrive". Sometime around the 29 January sessions they produced a short music film for "Arnold Layne" in Sussex.
13. Shaffner described the £5,000 advance as generous; however, Povey suggested it was an inadequate agreement which required that the money be dispersed over five years.
14. After their deal with EMI, they purchased a Ford Transit van, which was then considered top-of-the-line band transportation. On 29 April 1967, they headlined an all-night event called The 14 Hour Technicolour Dream at the Alexandra Palace, 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 and they took the stage just as the sun was beginning to rise.
15. "See Emily Play" premiered at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, on 12 May 1967, when the group first used an early quadraphonic device called an Azimuth co-ordinator.
16. At Abbey Road Pink Floyd experimented with musique concrète and watched The Beatles record "Lovely Rita".
17. Blackhill's late application for work permits forced Pink Floyd to cancel several of the US dates.
18. Pink Floyd released the single "Apples and Oranges" in November 1967 in the UK.
19. Barrett's absence on one occasion forced the band to book David O'List as his replacement. Wynne-Willson left his position as lighting director and assisted the guitarist with his daily activities.
20. 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 ...  a couple of chick singers". 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 busked their way around the south of France. In 1965, while a member of Joker's Wild, Gilmour had watched the Tea Set.
21. One of Gilmour's first tasks was to mime Barrett's guitar playing on an "Apples and Oranges" promotional film.
22. Mason is unsure which member of Pink Floyd said "let's not bother".
23. For a short period after, Barrett turned up at occasional performances, apparently confused about his standing with the band.
24. Storm Thorgerson attended the same school, about the same time as Waters and Barrett.
25. The band recorded their previous LPs using a four-track system; Atom Heart Mother was their first album recorded on an eight-track machine.
26. 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 FBI they had recovered most of the stolen equipment.
27. 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.
28. Povey states that the UK release date was 5 November, but Mabbett and Pink Floyd's official website both state 13 November. All sources agree on the US release date of 30 October.
29. Producer Chris Thomas assisted Parsons. The band filmed studio footage for Pink Floyd: Live at Pompeii before beginning a tour of Europe in 1972.
30. Waters is the sole author of the album's lyrics.
31. Throughout March 1973, The Dark Side of the Moon featured as part of their US tour.
32. Dark Side is the world's second best-selling album, and the twenty-first best-selling album of all time in the US.
33. 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.
34. Brian Humphries engineered the album, which was completed in December 1976.
35. The band commissioned a 30 feet (9.1 m) pig-shaped balloon and photography began on 2 December. Inclement weather delayed filming, and the balloon broke free of its moorings in strong winds. It eventually landed in Kent, where a local farmer recovered it, reportedly furious that it had frightened his cows. The difficult shoot had resumed before they decided to superimpose the image of the pig onto the photograph of the power station.
36. "Pigs on the Wing" contained references to Waters' romantic relationship with Carolyne Anne Christie. Christie and Rock Scully, 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.
37. Animals is the first Pink Floyd album that does not include a writing credit for Wright. Wright 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 were still going ... when he started to develop his ego trips, the person he would have his conflicts with would be me."
38. Waters was not the only person depressed by playing in large venues, as Gilmour refused to perform the band's usual twelve-bar blues encore that night.
39. 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.
40. James Guthrie 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 Nice.
41. 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. Toward the end of The Wall sessions, Mason left the final mix to Waters, Gilmour, Ezrin and Guthrie, travelling to New York to record his debut solo album, Nick Mason's Fictitious Sports.
42. 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.
43. Pink Floyd created a modified soundtrack for some of the film's songs.
44. Recording took place in eight studios, including Gilmour's home studio at Hookend Manor and Waters' home studio at East Sheen.
45. 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.
46. Waters commissioned his brother-in-law, Willie Christie, to take photographs for the album cover.
47. Though Gilmour's name did not appear on the production credits, he retained his pay as musician and producer.
48. Released as a single, "Not Now John", with its chorus of "Fuck all that" bowdlerised to "Stuff all that"; Melody Maker declared it "a milestone in the history of awfulness".
49. 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."
50. Waters went on to record the soundtrack for When the Wind Blows, as well as his second solo album, Radio K.A.O.S..
51. Artists such as Jon Carin and Phil Manzanera worked on the album, joined by Bob Ezrin.
52. A colleague of Guthrie, Andy Jackson, engineered the album.
53. In a departure from previous Pink Floyd albums, they recorded A Momentary Lapse of Reason using a 32-channel Mitsubishi digital recorder using MIDI synchronisation with the aid of an Apple Macintosh computer. Recording later moved to Mayfair Studios and then to Los Angeles.
54. Wright's name appears only on the credit list.
55. Gilmour divorced his wife Ginger and Mason married actress Annette Lynton.
56. Thorgerson also provided six new pieces of film for the upcoming tour.

Citations

1. Blake 2008, pp. 37–38: Mason meeting Waters while studying architecture at the London Polytechnic; Fitch 2005, p. 335: Waters meeting Mason while studying architecture at the London Polytechnic.
2. Blake 2008, pp. 39–40: Wright was also an architecture student when he joined Sigma 6; Povey 2008, pp. 13–14: The formation of Sigma 6; Schaffner 1991, p. 27: Instrumental line-up of Sigma 6: Waters (lead guitar), Wright (rhythm guitar) and Mason (drums).
3. Blake 2008, pp. 39–40.
4. Blake 2008, pp. 38–39.
5. ^ Mason 2005, pp. 24–26.
6. ^ Povey 2008, p. 14.
7. Povey 2008, pp. 13–18.
8. Povey 2008, p. 13: Meggadeaths; Blake 2008, p. 39: Megadeaths.
9. Povey 2008, pp. 14–15.
10. Blake 2008, pp. 43–44: The T-Set as an alternate spelling; Povey 2008, pp. 28–29: The Tea Set used throughout.
11. Blake 2008, p. 41.
12. ^ Mason 2005, p. 27.
13. ^ Schaffner 1991, pp. 22–23.
14. ^ Blake 2008, pp. 42–44.
15. ^ Mason 2005, pp. 29–30.
16. Mason 2005, p. 30.
17. Mason 2005, p. 31.
18. ^ Mason 2005, pp. 31–32.
19. Blake 2008, pp. 44–45: Klose quit the band in mid 1965 and Barrett took over on lead guitar (secondary source); Mason 2005, p. 32: Klose quit the band in mid 1965 (primary source).
20. Povey 2008, pp. 18–19.
21. Povey 2008, pp. 18–19: The origin of the band name Pink Floyd (secondary source); Mason 2005, pp. 33–37: The origin of the band name Pink Floyd (primary source).
22. Mason 2005, pp. 33–37: Jenner was impressed by Barrett and Wright; Schaffner 1991, p. 17: Jenner and King became Pink Floyd's business managers.
23. Schaffner 1991, pp. 32–33.
24. Schaffner 1991, p. 32.
25. Mason 2005, pp. 50–51.
26. Schaffner 1991, p. 34: (secondary source); Mason 2005, pp. 46–49: (primary source).
27. Fitch 2005, pp. 359–360: Peter Wynne Willson; Mason 2005, pp. 78–79: Willson updated the band's lighting rig with some innovative ideas.
28. Schaffer 1991, pp. 42–43. sfn error: no target: CITEREFSchaffer1991 (help)
29. Mason 2005, pp. 52–53: Jenner and King's connections helped gain the band important coverage; Schaffner 1991, p. 44: "apparently very psychedelic."
30. 1992 & Schaffner, pp. 32–33. sfn error: no target: CITEREF1992Schaffner (help)
31. Mason 2005, p. 49.
32. Mason 2005, p. 54.
33. ^ Mason 2005, pp. 54–58.
34. Schaffner 1991, p. 49.
35. Mason 2005, p. 58.
36. Schaffner 1991, p. 50.
37. di Perna 2002, p. 29: Pink Floyd as a spack rock band; Povey 2008, p. 37: The music industry began to take notice of Pink Floyd.
38. Blake 2008, p. 79.
39. ^ Povey 2008, p. 37.
40. Mason 2005, pp. 59–63.
41. Schaffner 1991, pp. 54–55: Signing with EMI; Povey 2008, p. 342: Release date for "Arnold Layne".
42. Mason 2005, pp. 84–85.
43. Mason 2005, p. 70.
44. Povey 2008, p. 58.
45. Povey 2008, p. 342.
46. Blake 2008, p. 86.
47. Blake 2008, pp. 86–87.
48. Mason 2005, pp. 86–87.
49. Mason 2005, p. 82.
50. Shaffner 1991, p. 51 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFShaffner1991 (help): Barrett's increasing LSD use starting early 1967; Mason 2005, p. 82: Barrett was "completely distanced from everything going on".
51. Schaffner 1991, p. 55: Their first contract was negotiated by Morrison and in it they agreed to record their first album at Abbey Road Studio; Mason 2005, pp. 87–88: Their first record contract was negotiated by Norman.
52. Blake 2008, p. 85.
53. Mason 2005, pp. 92–93.
54. Mason 2005, p. 95: "The band started to play and Syd just stood there"; Schaffner 1991, p. 36: June Child was Blackhill's assistant and secretary.
55. Mason 2005, p. 95.
56. Blake 2008, p. 123.
57. ^ Mason 2005, pp. 95–105.
58. Povey 2008, p. 69.
59. Schaffner 1991, pp. 88–90.
60. Schaffner 1991, pp. 91–92.
61. Schaffner 1991, p. 97.
62. Mason 2005, pp. 95–105: Barrett's mental deterioration and Pink Floyd's first US tour (primary source); Schaffner 1991, pp. 91–94: Barrett's mental deterioration and Pink Floyd's first US tour (secondary source).
63. Blake 2008, p. 102.
64. Mason 2005, p. 110.
65. Blake 2008, p. 110.
66. Mason 2005, p. 28.
67. Mason 2005, p. 34.
68. Schaffner 1991, p. 104: Gilmour was officially announced as a new member of Pink Floyd; Mason 2005, pp. 109–111: O'Rourke set Gilmour up in O'Rourke's home.
69. Blake 2008, pp. 110–111.
70. Schaffner 1991, p. 105.
71. Schaffner 1991, p. 104.
72. Povey 2008, p. 45.
73. ^ Mason 2005, p. 111.
74. Blake 2008, p. 112.
75. Blake 2008, pp. 90–113: (secondary source); Mason 2005, pp. 78–105: (primary source).
76. Povey 2008, p. 78–80.
77. Mason 2005, pp. 112–114: On O'Rourke becoming the band's manager, 127–131: On O'Rourke becoming the band's manager.
78. Schaffner 1991, pp. 107–108.
79. Blake 2008, pp. 112–114.
80. Blake 2008, pp. 3, 9, 113, 156, 242, 279, 320, 398.
81. di Perna 2002, p. 13.
82. Mason 2005, pp. 115–119.
83. Povey 2008, pp. 87: The television audience, 111: The name of the piece.
84. Blake 2008, pp. 116–117.
85. ^ Blake 2008, p. 117.
86. ^ Blake 2008, p. 118.
87. Mason 2005, p. 19.
88. Povey 2008, p. 84.
89. Mason 2005, pp. 127–131.
90. ^ Mason 2005, pp. 133–135.
91. Schaffner 1991, p. 128.
92. Schaffner 1991, pp. 135–136.
93. Schaffner 1991, pp. 156–157.
94. Povey 2008, pp. 87–89.
95. Povey 2005, pp. 135–136. sfn error: no target: CITEREFPovey2005 (help)
96. Povey 2008, p. 344.
97. Schaffner 1991, p. 154.
98. Blake 2008, p. 148.
99. ^ Schaffner 1991, p. 144.
100. Schaffner 1991, pp. 140–147.
101. Povey 2008, pp. 128–140.
102. Schaffner 1991, pp. 150–151.
103. Mason 2005, pp. 152–153.
104. Harris 2005, p. 71: "a couple of bottles of wine and a couple of joints"; Mason 2005, p. 153: Lacking a central theme they experimented.
105. Harris 2005, p. 72.
106. Mason 2005, p. 157: (primary source); Povey 2008, pp. 142–144: (secondary source)
107. For "Meddle not only confirms lead guitarist David Gilmour's emergence" see: Costa, Jean-Charles (6 January 1972). "Pink Floyd: Meddle". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on 4 January 2008. Retrieved 19 August 2009.; Povey 2008, p. 150: The release dates for Meddle.
108. Mabbett 1995, p. 39 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFMabbett1995 (help); Povey 2008, p. 150; For pinkfloyd.com see: "Pink Floyd – Echoes (click Echoes image link)". pinkfloyd.com. Retrieved 22 August 2009.
109. Schaffner 1991, p. 155.
110. Watts 1996, p. 56–57.
111. "Review of Pink Floyd – Meddle". BBC Music. Retrieved 5 August 2012.
112. Harris 2005, pp. 103–104: Recording schedule for Dark Side; Harris 2005, p. 104: Alan Parsons as an engineer on Dark Side; Schaffner 1991, p. 159: The Dark Side of the Moon as an allusion to lunacy, rather than astronomy.
113. Mason 2005, p. 177: (primary source); Harris 2005, pp. 140–141: (secondary source).
114. Povey & Russell 1997, p. 87.
115. Harris 2005, p. 151.
116. Harris 2005, pp. 12–13, 88–89.
117. Schaffner 1991, p. 166.
118. Hollingworth, Roy (1973). "Historical info – 1973 review, Melody Maker". pinkfloyd.com. Retrieved 28 May 2011.
119. Grossman, Lloyd (24 May 1973). "Dark Side of the Moon Review". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on 18 June 2008. Retrieved 7 August 2009.
120. Schaffner 1991, pp. 166–167.
121. Titus, Christa; Waddell, Ray (2005). "Floyd's 'Dark Side' Celebrates Chart Milestone". Billboard.com. Retrieved 12 August 2012.
122. Povey 2008, p. 345.
123. Harris 2006, pp. 164–166. sfn error: no target: CITEREFHarris2006 (help)
124. Schaffner 1991, p. 173.
125. Povey 2008, p. 184.
126. Mason 2005, pp. 134, 177, 200.
127. ^ Schaffner 1991, pp. 184–185.
128. Schaffner 1991, pp. 178–184.
129. Schaffner 1991, p. 184: The motif reminded Waters of Barrett; Watkinson & Anderson 2001, p. 119: Gilmour composed the motif entirely by accident.
130. Schaffner 1991, pp. 185–186.
131. Schaffner 1991, p. 184.
132. Watkinson & Anderson 2001, p. 120.
133. Blake 2008, p. 231.
134. Schaffner 1991, pp. 189–190.
135. Povey 2008, p. 346.
136. Povey 2008, p. 197: Wish You Were Here release date; Schaffner 1991, pp. 192–193: Wish You Were Here UK and US chart performance.
137. Mason 2005, pp. 215–216.
138. ^ Mason 2005, pp. 218–220.
139. Blake 2008, pp. 241–242.
140. Blake 2008, p. 246: (secondary source); Mason 2005, pp. 223–225: (primary source).
141. Blake 2008, p. 246.
142. Blake 2008, p. 246: (secondary source); Mason 2005, pp. 223–225: (primary source).
143. ^ Blake 2008, pp. 244–245.
144. ^ Blake 2008, pp. 242–243.
145. Blake 2008, pp. 246–247.
146. Blake 2008, p. 247.
147. Blake 2008, pp. 252–253.
148. ^ Mason 2005, pp. 235–236.
149. Mason 2005, p. 230.
150. ^ Schaffner 1991, pp. 206–208.
151. Blake 2008, pp. 258–259.
152. Blake 2008, p. 260.
153. Blake 2008, pp. 260–261.
154. Mason 2005, p. 238.
155. Schaffner 1991, p. 213: (secondary source); Mason 2005, pp. 240–242: (primary source).
156. Simmons 1999, pp. 76–95.
157. Simmons 1999, pp. 86–88: Wright, "hadn't contributed anything of any value"; Schaffner 1991, p. 219: That's why Wright "got the boot".
158. Mason 2005, p. 246.
159. Simmons 1999, p. 88.
160. Blake 2008, pp. 269: Wright's name did not appear on the album, 285–286: Wright as a paid musician during the tour.
161. Mason 2005, pp. 267, 249.
162. Bronson 1992, p. 523: Peak US chart position for "Another Brick in the Wall (Part II)"; Roberts 2005, p. 391: Peak UK chart position for "Another Brick in the Wall (Part II)".
163. Roberts 2005, p. 391: Peak UK chart position for The Wall; Rosen 1996, p. 246: Peak US chart position for The Wall.
164. "RIAA's Top 100 Albums". Retrieved 21 August 2012.
165. Blake 2008, p. 279.
166. Scarfe 2010, pp. 91–115.
167. Blake 2008, pp. 285–286.
168. Blake 2008, p. 289.
169. ^ Blake 2008, pp. 288–292.
170. Povey 2008, p. 229.
171. Blake 2008, pp. 294–295.
172. ^ Blake 2008, pp. 296–298.
173. Blake 2008, pp. 296–298: (secondary source); Mason 2005, p. 268: (primary source)
174. Blake 2008, pp. 296–298: (secondary source); Mason 2005, p. 268: (primary source)
175. ^ Mason 2005, p. 273.
176. Roberts 2005, p. 391: Peak UK chart position for The Final Cut; Blake 2008, p. 300: Peak US chart position for The Final Cut.
177. Blake 2008, p. 294: (secondary source); Mason 2005, p. 265: (primary source).
178. ^ Blake 2008, p. 295.
179. Blake 2008, pp. 294–300: (secondary source); Mason 2005, pp. 269–270: (primary source).
180. Schaffner 1991, p. 243.
181. Blake 2008, p. 300.
182. Loder, Kurt (14 April 1983). "Pink Floyd—The Final Cut". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on 22 June 2008. Retrieved 4 September 2009.
183. Blake 2008, pp. 302–309.
184. ^ Blake 2008, pp. 309–311.
185. ^ Blake 2008, pp. 311–313.
186. Blake 2008, pp. 311–313: O'Rourke's involvement in the settlement; Povey 2008, p. 240: "a spent force".
187. Schaffner 1991, p. 271.
188. Schaffner 1991, pp. 263–266.
189. ^ Schaffner 1991, pp. 264–268.
190. Blake 2008, pp. 316–317.
191. Schaffner 1991, p. 269; Manning 2006, p. 134
192. ^ Mason 2005, pp. 284–285.
193. Blake 2008, p. 320.
194. Mason 2005, p. 287.
195. Schaffner 1991, pp. 268–269: (secondary source); Mason 2005, p. 287: (primary sources).
196. Blake 2008, p. 321.
197. Schaffner 1991, p. 273.
198. Blake 2008, p. 166.
199. Blake 2008, p. 366.
200. Povey 2008, p. 349.
201. Blake 2008, p. 328.
202. Blake 2008, p. 327.
203. Blake 2008, pp. 326–327.
204. Blake 2008, p. 322.
205. Shaffner 1991, p. 277. sfn error: no target: CITEREFShaffner1991 (help)
206. Blake 2008, pp. 329–335.
207. Mason 2005, pp. 311–313.
208. Blake 2008, p. 352.
209. Mason 2005, pp. 314–321.
210. Blake 2008, p. 355.
211. Blake 2008, p. 356.
212. Blake 2008, p. 365.
213. Mason 2005, pp. 314–321: (primary source); Blake 2008, pp. 356–357: (secondary source).
214. Blake 2008, p. 359.
215. Mason 2005, p. 322.
216. Mason 2005, p. 330: Momentary Lapse of Reason tour crew was almost identicle to the The Division Bell tour crew; Povey 2008, p. 270: Rehearsing for over two weeks at Norton Air Force Base before opening in Miami.
217. ^ Blake 2008, pp. 363–367.
218. Mason 2005, p. 324.
219. ^ Blake 2008, p. 367.
220. Povey 2008, pp. 264, 285–286, 351–352.
221. Povey 2008, p. 237: (secondary source); Mason 2005, p. 342: (primary source)
222. ^ Povey 2008, p. 160.
223. Mason 2005, pp. 335–339; Blake 2008, pp. 380–384
224. Povey 2008, p. 287.
225. ^ Blake 2008, p. 386.
226. Blake 2008, p. 395.
227. ^ "Donate Live 8 profit says Gilmour". BBC News. 5 July 2005. Retrieved 2 August 2012.
228. "Gilmour says no Pink Floyd reunion". NBC News. 9 September 2008. Retrieved 2 August 2012.
229. Blake 2008, pp. 387–389.
230. ^ Pareles, Jon (12 July 2006), "Syd Barrett, a Founder of Pink Floyd And Psychedelic Rock Pioneer, Dies at 60", The New York Times, retrieved 7 September 2009
231. Blake 2008, pp. 390–391.
232. Blake 2008, p. 394.
233. Youngs, Ian (11 May 2007). "Floyd play at Barrett tribute gig". BBC News. Retrieved 8 September 2009.
234. Booth, Robert (16 September 2008). "Pink Floyd's Richard Wright dies". The Guardian. Retrieved 7 September 2009.
235. "Floyd Founder Wright dies at 65". BBC News. 15 September 2008. Retrieved 2 August 2012.
236. "Pink Floyd's Roger Waters and David Gilmour reunite for charity gig: Duo play together for Hoping Foundation". NME. 11 July 2011. Retrieved 2 August 2012.
237. Barth, Chris (15 July 2010). "Roger Waters Reunites With David Gilmour for 'Wall' Tour". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 1 August 2010.
238. "Pink Floyd end EMI legal dispute". BBC News. 4 January 2011. Retrieved 5 January 2011.
239. ^ Todd, Ben (13 May 2011). "Pink Floyd legends Roger Waters and Dave Gilmour reunite in front of 14,000 delirious fans at O2 Arena". The Daily Mail. Retrieved 2 August 2012.
240. "Pink Floyd Reunite at Roger Waters Show in London", Rolling Stone, 12 May 2011, retrieved 12 May 2011
241. "Why Pink Floyd?, Pink Floyd & EMI 2011 remastered campaign". Whypinkfloyd.com. 2011. Retrieved 27 May 2011.
242. "Rock & Roll Hall of Fame: Pink Floyd biography". Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Retrieved 2 August 2012.
243. For 250 million albums sold see: "Pink Floyd Reunion Tops Fans' Wish List in Music Choice Survey". Bloomberg News. 26 September 2007. Retrieved 2 August 2012.; For 74.5 million RIAA certified units sold see: "Top Selling Artists". RIAA. Retrieved 2 August 2012.; For 37.2 million albums sold since 1991 see: Le Miere, Jason (5 January 2012). "Metallica's "Black Album" Remains Top Selling Record of Past 20 Years". Revolver. Retrieved 2 August 2012.
244. Olsen, Eric (3 March 2004). Best Rock "The 10 best rock bands ever: A purely subjective list of the groups that changed music forever". NBC News. Retrieved 2 August 2012. {{cite web}}: Check |url= value (help)
245. "100 Greatest Artists:51 - Pink Floyd". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2 August 2012. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
246. "100 greatest guitarists of all time". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2 August 2012. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
247. Barnes, Anthony (3 October 2004). "Q: Which is biggest band of all time? A: And readers say ... : Album sales, audience sizes and time spent in the charts combine to put the British foursome at the top". The Independent. Retrieved 2 August 2012.
248. The Greatest Artists of All Time VH1/Stereogum. Retrieved 8 April 2011
249. VH1: 100 Greatest Hard Rock Artists: 1–50. Rock On The Net. Retrieved 8 April 2012
250. 'Top 50 Artists Of All Time', All Time Top 1000 Albums, Virgin Books, 2005
251. "Sunday Times Rich List 2012: Music Millionaires". Daily Star. 2012. Retrieved 29 April 2012.
252. "David Bowie pays tribute to Syd Barrett". NME. 11 July 2006. Retrieved 13 October 2009.
253. McCormick, Neil (editor) (2006). U2 by U2. HarperCollins. p. 102. ISBN 978-0-007-19668-5. {{cite book}}: |first= has generic name (help)
254. Erlewine, Stephen Thomas "Queen" Allmusic.
255. The 50 Greatest Bands Spin. February 2002, p.78. Retrieved 4 April 2012
256. Reising 2005, pp. 208–218.
257. Vorsprung durch Techno The Guardian, Friday 22 February 2008
258. Eder, Bruce "Yes" Allmusic.
259. Erlewine, Stephen Thomas "Queensryche" Allmusic.
260. Huey, Steve "Nine Inch Nails" Allmusic.
261. The Orb: Metallic Spheres An Interview With Alex Paterson Zeitgeist Magazine, 23 September 2010
262. Erlewine, Stephen Thomas "Smashing Pumpkins" Allmusic.
263. Povey 2008, p. 348: Grammy award for The Wall; For the 1982 BAFTA awards see: "BAFTA: Awards Database". BAFTA. 1982. Retrieved 2 August 2012.
264. "And the Winners Are..." The New York Times. 2 March 1995. Retrieved 2 August 2012.
265. Nordstrom, Louise (21 May 2008). "Pink Floyd wins Polar Music Prize". USA Today. Retrieved 7 October 2010.; "Pink Floyd receive 2008 Polar Prize". NME. 28 August 2008. Retrieved 7 October 2010.
266. Povey 2008, p. 286: Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction; Povey 2008, p. 287: The UK Hall of Fame induction; For the Hit Parade Hall of Fame induction see: "Pink Floyd – 2010 Inductee". Hit Parade Hall of Fame. Retrieved 2 August 2012.
267. Calore, Michael (12 May 2009). "12 May 1967: Pink Floyd Astounds With 'Sound in the Round'". Wired. Retrieved 2 August 2012. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
268. Schaffner 1991, p. 166
269. Povey 2008, p. 160
270. Povey 2008, pp. 164–173
271. Mason 2005, pp. 225–226
272. Blake 2008, pp. 280–282
273. Blake 2008, pp. 284–285
274. Mason 2005, p. 307
275. Schaffner 1991, pp. 281–283

Sources

• Blake, Mark (2008). Comfortably Numb—The Inside Story of Pink Floyd. Da Capo Press. ISBN 978-0-306-81752-6. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Bronson, Fred (1992). Weiler, Fred (ed.). The Billboard Book of Number One Hits (3rd revised ed.). Billboard Books. ISBN 978-0-8230-8298-8. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• di Perna, Alan (2002). "Mysterious Ways". In Kitts, Jeff; Tolinski, Brad (eds.). Guitar World Presents: Pink Floyd. Hal Leonard. ISBN 978-0-754-66708-7. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Fitch, Vernon (2005). The Pink Floyd Encyclopedia (Third ed.). Collector's Guide Publishing. ISBN 978-1-894-95924-7. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Harris, John (2005). The Dark Side of the Moon (First Hardcover ed.). Da Capo. ISBN 978-0-306-81342-9. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Manning, Toby (2006). The Rough Guide to Pink Floyd (First ed.). Rough Guides. ISBN 978-1-84353-575-1. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Mason, Nick (2005) . Dodd, Philip (ed.). Inside Out – A Personal History of Pink Floyd (Paperback ed.). Phoenix. ISBN 978-0-7538-1906-7. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Povey, Glenn (2008) . Echoes: The Complete History of Pink Floyd. Mind Head Publishing. ISBN 978-0-9554624-1-2. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Povey, Glen; Russell, Ian (1997). Pink Floyd: in the flesh, the complete performance history (1st US paperback ed.). St. Martin's Press. ISBN 978-0-9554624-0-5. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Reising, Russell (2005). Speak to Me. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. ISBN 978-0-754-64019-6. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Roberts, David, ed. (2005). British Hit Singles & Albums (18 ed.). Guinness World Records Limited. ISBN 978-1-904994-00-8. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Rosen, Craig (1996). Lukas, Paul (ed.). The Billboard Book of Number One Albums. Billboard. ISBN 978-0-823-07586-7. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
• Schaffner, Nicholas (1991). Saucerful of Secrets (First ed.). Sidgwick & Jackson. ISBN 978-0-283-06127-1. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Scarfe, Gerald (2010). The Making of Pink Floyd: The Wall (1st US paperback ed.). Da Capo Press. ISBN 978-0-306-81997-1. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Simmons, Sylvie (December 1999). "Pink Floyd: The Making of The Wall". Mojo Magazine. 73. Emap Metro. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Watkinson, Mike; Anderson, Pete (2001). Crazy Diamond: Syd Barrett & the Dawn of Pink Floyd (First ed.). Omnibus Press. ISBN 978-0-7119-2397-3. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Watts, Michael (1996) . "Pink's muddled Meddle". In MacDonald, Bruno (ed.). Pink Floyd: through the eyes of ... the band, its fans, friends, and foes. Da Capo Press. ISBN 978-0-306-80780-0. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

Further reading

• Bench, Jeff; O'Brien, Daniel (2004). Pink Floyd's The Wall: In the Studio, On Stage and On Screen (First UK paperback ed.). Reynolds and Hearn. ISBN 978-1-903111-82-6. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Fitch, Vernon (2001). Pink Floyd: The Press Reports 1966–1983. Collector's Guide Publishing Inc. ISBN 978-1-896522-72-2.
• Hearn, Marcus (2012). Pink Floyd. Titan Books. ISBN 978-0-857-68664-0.
• Jones, Cliff (1996). Another Brick in the Wall: The Stories Behind Every Pink Floyd Song. ISBN 978-0-553-06733-0.
• Mabbett, Andy (2010). Pink Floyd - The Music and the Mystery. Omnibus Press. ISBN 978-1-84938-370-7.
• Mabbett, Andy; Mabbett, Miles (1988). Pink Floyd: 25th Anniversary Edition (Visual Documentary). ISBN 978-0-711-94109-0.
• Miles, Barry (2007). Pink Floyd. Omnibus Press. ISBN 978-1-846-09444-6.
• Palacios, Julian (2001). Lost in the Woods: Syd Barrett and the Pink Floyd. ISBN 978-0-752-22328-5.
• Reisch, George A, ed. (2007). Pink Floyd and Philosophy: Careful with that Axiom, Eugene!. Open Court. ISBN 978-0-812-69636-3.
• Ruhlmann, William (2004). Breaking Records. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-94305-5.
• Ruhlmann, William (1993). Pink Floyd. Smithmark. ISBN 978-0-831-76912-3.
• Snider, Charles (2008). The Strawberry Bricks Guide to Progressive Rock. Strawberry Bricks. ISBN 978-0-615-17566-9.

External links

Template:Misplaced Pages books

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

Template:Link GA Template:Link GA Template:Link FA Template:Link FA Template:Link FA Template:Link FA Template:Link FA

• Use dmy dates from July 2011
• Pink Floyd
• Capitol Records artists
• Harvest Records artists
• English progressive rock groups
• English rock music groups
• Experimental rock groups
• Psychedelic rock music groups
• Rock music duos
• Musical trios
• Musical quartets
• Musical quintets
• Grammy Award winners
• Echo winners
• Musical groups from London
• Musical groups established in 1965
• Musical groups disestablished in 1996
• Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees
• British rhythm and blues boom musicians