Pink Floyd is a legendary rock band – Pulse – Live at Earls Court – 1994 (Concert)
Pink Floyd are an English rock band formed in London in 1965 by Syd Barrett (guitar, vocals), Nick Mason (drums), Roger Waters (bass guitar, vocals) and Richard Wright (keyboards, vocals), with David Gilmour (guitar, vocals) joining at the end of 1967. Gaining an early underground following as one of the first British psychedelic groups, they were distinguished by their extended compositions, sonic experiments, philosophical lyrics, and elaborate live performances, becoming a leading progressive rock band.
With Barrett as their main songwriter, they released two hit singles, “Arnold Layne” and “See Emily Play”, and the successful debut studio album The Piper at the Gates of Dawn (all 1967). Barrett left in 1968 due to deteriorating mental health.
In the early 1970s, Waters became the primary lyricist and thematic leader, devising the concepts behind Pink Floyd’s most successful studio albums, The Dark Side of the Moon (1973), Wish You Were Here (1975), Animals (1977) and The Wall (1979). The musical film based on The Wall, Pink Floyd – The Wall (1982), won two BAFTAs. Pink Floyd also composed several film scores.
Personal tensions led to Wright leaving the band in 1981, followed by Waters in 1985. Gilmour and Mason continued as Pink Floyd, rejoined later by Wright. They produced the studio albums A Momentary Lapse of Reason (1987) and The Division Bell (1994), both backed by major tours. In 2005, Gilmour, Mason and Wright reunited with Waters for a performance at the global awareness event Live 8. Barrett died in 2006, and Wright in 2008.
The last Pink Floyd studio album, The Endless River (2014), was based on unreleased material from the Division Bell recording sessions. In 2022, Pink Floyd released the song “Hey, Hey, Rise Up!” in protest of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Pink Floyd are one of the best-selling music artists of all time, with sales exceeding 250 million records worldwide. The Dark Side of the Moon and The Wall were inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame,and are among the best-selling albums of all time. Four Pink Floyd albums topped the US Billboard 200 and five topped the UK Albums Chart.
Although an album-orientated band, they did achieve several hit singles, including “Arnold Layne”, “See Emily Play” (both 1967), “Money” (1973), “Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2)” (1979), “Not Now John” (1983), “On the Turning Away” (1987) and “High Hopes” (1994). Pink Floyd were inducted into the US Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996 and the UK Music Hall of Fame in 2005.
In 2008, they were awarded the Polar Music Prize for “their monumental contribution over the decades to the fusion of art and music in the development of popular culture”.
Pink Floyd – History
1963–1965: Formation
Roger Waters and Nick Mason met in September 1962 while studying architecture at the London Polytechnic at Regent Street, London. They first played music together in a group formed by fellow students Keith Noble and Clive Metcalfe, with Noble’s sister Sheilagh. Richard Wright, a fellow architecture student, joined later that year, and the group became a sextet, Sigma 6. Waters played lead guitar, Mason drums, and Wright rhythm guitar, later moving to keyboards.
The band performed at private functions and rehearsed 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, Highgate in 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 the guitarist Bob Klose moved in during September 1964, prompting Waters’s switch to bass. Sigma 6 went through several names, including the Meggadeaths, the Abdabs and the Screaming Abdabs, Leonard’s Lodgers, and the Spectrum Five, before settling on the Tea Set.
In September 1963, Metcalfe and Noble left to form their own band. The guitarist Syd Barrett, a childhood friend of Waters, joined Klose and Waters at Stanhope Gardens. Mason said about Barrett: “In a period when everyone was being cool in a very adolescent, self-conscious way, Syd was unfashionably outgoing; my enduring memory of our first encounter is the fact that he bothered to come up and introduce himself to me.”
The musical film based on The Wall, Pink Floyd – The Wall (1982), won two BAFTA Awards. Pink Floyd also composed several film scores.
Following personal tensions, Wright left Pink Floyd in 1981, followed by Waters in 1985.
Gilmour and Mason continued as Pink Floyd, rejoined later by Wright. They produced the albums A Momentary Lapse of Reason (1987) and The Division Bell (1994), backed by major tours, before entering a long hiatus.
In 2005, all but Barrett reunited for a performance at the global awareness event Live 8.
Barrett died in 2006, and Wright in 2008. The last Pink Floyd studio album, The Endless River (2014), was based on unreleased material from the Division Bell recording sessions.
In 2022, Gilmour and Mason reformed Pink Floyd to release the song “Hey, Hey, Rise Up!” in protest at the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Pink Floyd in 2014
By 2013, Pink Floyd had sold more than 250 million records worldwide, making them one of the best-selling music artists of all time.
The Dark Side of the Moon and The Wall were inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, and these albums and Wish You Were Here are among the best-selling albums of all time.
Four Pink Floyd albums topped the US Billboard 200, and five topped the UK Albums Chart.
Pink Floyd’s hit singles include “Arnold Layne” (1967), “See Emily Play” (1967), “Money” (1973), “Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2” (1979), “Not Now John” (1983), “On the Turning Away” (1987) and “High Hopes” (1994).
Source: Wikipedia