Pink Floyd (formed in 1965 in Cambridge, England) is a British progressive rock

band, noted for their progressive compositions, thoughtful lyrics, sonic experim
entation, album art and live shows. Pink Floyd is one of rock s most successful ac
ts, having sold 73.5 million albums in the US alone. The group is also believed
to have sold an estimated 175 to 200 million albums worldwide.
Pink Floyd enjoyed moderate success in the late-1960s as a psychedelic band led
by Syd Barrett. After Barrett s erratic behavior caused his colleagues to add guit
arist David Gilmour (who eventually replaced Barrett), the band went on to recor
d several elaborate concept albums, achieving worldwide success with 1973 s Dark S
ide of the Moon, one of the best-selling and most enduringly popular albums in r
ock history.

Live performances

Pink Floyd is renowned for their lavish stageClassic Pink Floyd line-up; early 7
0s
shows, combining over-the-top visual experiences with their music to create a sh
ow in which the performers themselves are almost secondary. In their early days,
Pink Floyd were among the first bands to use a dedicated traveling light show i
n conjunction with their performances, projecting slides, film clips, pyrotechni
cs (exploding flashpots and the exploding gong and fireworks) and psychedelic pa
tterns onto a large circular screen (dubbed Mr. Screen ). Their early combination o
f music and visuals set the standard for subsequent rock tours on both sides of
the Atlantic. Later shows featured oversized balloons (notably a giant pig ballo
on which floated over the audience during performances of Pigs from the Animals
album), a plane crashing into the stage at the end of On the Run , a giant flowerin
g disco ball a projection screen which could be retracted and tilted, more than
100 multi-colored robotic dancing spot lights, and multi-colored lasers.

The lavish stage shows were also the basis for Douglas Adams fictional rock group
Disaster Area (creators of the loudest noise in the universe, and making use of s
olar flares in their stage show) in The Hitchhiker s Guide to the Galaxy series. D
ouglas Adams was a personal friend of David Gilmour and made a one-off guest app
earance, on guitar, on the Division Bell tour (October 28, 1994), purportedly as
a present for Adams 42nd birthday.

Split and reunion

In 1985, bassist Roger Waters declared Pink Floyd defunct, but the remaining ban
d members recorded and twice toured under the Pink Floyd name without him. Water
s rejoined the band at the London Live 8 concert on July 2, 2005, playing to Pin
k Floyd s biggest audience ever.

Syd Barrett led years: 1965-1968

Pink Floyd evolved from an earlier band, formed in 1964, which was at various ti
mes called Sigma 6, The Meggadeaths, The Screaming Abdabs, and The Abdabs. When
this band split up, some of its members guitarist Bob Klose, bass player Roger W
aters, drummer Nick Mason, and future keyboardist Rick Wright, who at this point
played primarily wind instruments formed a new band called Tea Set. A short tim
e after their formation, they were joined by guitarist Syd Barrett, who became t
he band s primary vocalist as well.

When Tea Set found itself on the same bill as another band with the same name, B
arrett came up with an alternate name on the spur of the moment, choosing The Pi
nk Floyd Sound (after two blues musicians, Pink Anderson and Floyd Council). For
a time after this they oscillated between Tea Set and The Pink Floyd Sound , with th
e latter name eventually winning out. The word Sound was dropped fairly quickly,
but the definite article was still used occasionally for several years afterwar
d, up to about the time of the More soundtrack.

In the early days, the band covered rhythm and blues staples such as Louie, Louie ,
but gained notoriety for their psychedelic interpretations, with extended impro
vised sections and spaced out solos.

The heavily jazz-oriented Klose left the band to become a photographer shortly b
efore Pink Floyd started recording, leaving an otherwise stable lineup. Barrett
started writing his own songs, influenced by American surf music and British psy
chedelic rock with his own brand of whimsical humor. Pink Floyd became a favorit
e in the underground movement, playing at such prominent venues as the UFO club,
the Marquee Club and the Roundhouse.

As their popularity increased, the band formed Blackhill Enterprises in October

1966, a six-way business partnership with their managers, Peter Jenner and Andre
w King issuing the singles Arnold Layne in March 1967 and See Emily Play in June 196
7. Arnold Layne reached number 20 in the UK singles chart, and See Emily Play reache
d number 6, granting the band their first TV appearance on Top of the Pops in Ju
ly 1967.

Released in August 1967, the band s debut album The Piper at the Gates of Dawn (or
iginally called Projection ) is considered to be a prime example of English psyched
elic music. The album s tracks, predominantly written by Barrett, showcase poetic
lyrics and an eclectic mixture of music, from the avant garde free form piece Int
erstellar Overdrive to whimsical songs, such as The Scarecrow , inspired by the Fenl
ands, the rural region north of Cambridge, Barrett, Gilmour and Waters s home town
. The album was a hit in the UK where it peaked at #6, but failed to get much at
tention in North America, reaching #131 in the US. During this period, the band
toured with Jimi Hendrix, gaining them further popularity.
Barrett s decline

As the band became more and more popular, the stresses of life on the road and a
significant intake of psychedelic drugs took its toll on Barrett. In January 19
68, guitarist David Gilmour joined the band to carry out the playing and singing
duties of Syd, whose mental health had been deteriorating for several months. N
evertheless, it was intended that Barret would remain as the band s figurehead and
main songwriter. With Barrett s behavior becoming less and less predictable, and
his use of LSD almost constant, he became very unstable, often staring into spac
e while the rest of the band performed. The band s live shows became increasingly
ramshackle until, eventually, the other band members simply stopped taking him t
o the concerts.

Once Barrett s departure was formalized in April 1968, producers Jenner and King d
ecided to remain with him, and the six-way Blackhill partnership was dissolved.
The band adopted Steve O Rourke as their manager, and he remained with Pink Floyd
until his death in 2003.

Finding their feet: 1969-1970

A Saucerful of Secrets

Whilst Barrett had written the bulk of the first record, The Piper at the Gates
of Dawn, only one Barrett composition, the Piper outtake Jugband Blues , appeared o
n the second Floyd album. A Saucerful of Secrets was released in June 1968, reac
hing #9 in the UK and becoming the only Pink Floyd album not to chart in the U.S
. The album contained hints of things to come, the center-piece being the 12-min
ute title track. Future Floyd albums would expand upon the lengthy compositions,
offering more focused songwriting with each subsequent release.

More

Pink Floyd were recruited by director Barbet Schroeder to produce a soundtrack f

or his film, More , which premiered in May 1969. The music was released as a Floyd
album in its own right, Music From the Film More, in July 1969 . Pink Floyd woul
d use this and future soundtrack recording sessions to produce work that may not
have fit into their idea of what would appear on a proper Pink Floyd LP, many o
f the numbers on Music From The Film More being acoustic folk songs. The rest of
the album consisted of incidental music with a few rockers such as The Nile Song
thrown in.
Ummagumma

The next record, the double album Ummagumma, was a mix of live recordings and un
checked studio experimentation by the band members, with each recording half a s
ide of a vinyl as a solo project (Mason s wife makes an uncredited contribution as
a flautist). The album was Pink Floyd s most popular release yet, hitting UK #5 a
nd making the U.S. charts at #70.

Atom Heart Mother

1970 s Atom Heart Mother was a collaboration with avant-garde composer Ron Geesin.
One side of the album consisted of the title piece, a 23-minute long rock-orche
stral suite. The second side featured one song from each of the band s then-curren
t vocalists (Roger Waters If , David Gilmour s Fat Old Sun and Rick Wright s Summer 68
ther lengthy piece, Alan s Psychedelic Breakfast , was a sound collage of a man cooki
ng and eating breakfast and his thoughts on the matter, linked with instrumental
s. The album had the best chart performance for the band so far, reaching #1 in
the U.K. and #55 in the U.S., although the album has since been described by Gil
mour as the sound of a band blundering about in the dark. The album was a transiti
onal piece for the group, hinting at future musical territory. The popularity of
the album allowed Pink Floyd to embark on their first U.S. tour.

The band also developed and pioneered the use of a device called the azimuth co-
ordinator, a joystick used to pan sound around their quadrophonic PA system.

Breakthrough era: 1971-1975

Meddle

The band s sound was considerably more focused on Meddle (1971), with the 23-minut
e epic Echoes taking up the entire second side of the LP. Meddle was considered by
David Gilmour to be his first real Pink Floyd album, as it had the sound and styl
e of the succeeding breakthrough-era Pink Floyd albums and stripped away the orc
hestra that was prominent in Atom Heart Mother.
Meddle also included the atmospheric One of These Days , a concert classic, with Ni
ck Mason s menacing one-line vocal, One of these days, I m going to cut you into litt
le pieces, and a melody that at one point segues into a throbbing synthetic pulse
quoting the theme tune of the cult classic science fiction television show Doct
or Who.

A glimpse into their humorous side was shown on Seamus (earlier, Mademoiselle Nobs ),
a pseudo-blues number featuring lead vocals by a Russian wolfhound called Seamu
s, belonging to Steve Marriott. Waters jazzy San Tropez was brought to the band pra
ctically completed, requiring minimal help in arrangement from the other band me
mbers. Pink Floyd was rewarded with a #3 chart peak in the UK for Meddle; it mad
e #70 in U.S.

Obscured By Clouds

Obscured By Clouds was released in 1972 as the soundtrack to the film La Vallee,
another art house film by Barbet Schroeder. This was the band s first U.S. Top 50
album (where it hit #46), hitting #6 at in the U.K.

Dark Side of the Moon

Despite Pink Floyd never having been a hit-single-driven group (at the time they
had stopped issuing singles after 1968 s Point Me At The Sky ), their massively succ
essful 1973 album, Dark Side of the Moon, featured a U.S. Top 20 single ( Money ). A
lthough the album hit #2 in U.K., it managed to become the band s first #1 on U.S.
charts, a huge improvement over the last albums. The critically-acclaimed album
stayed on the Billboard Top 200 for an unprecedent 741 weeks (including 591 con
secutive weeks from 1973 to 1988), the world record, and making it one of the to
p-selling albums of all time. It also remained 301 weeks on U.K. charts, despite
never hitting #1 there. Dark Side of the Moon went on to sell over 35 million c
opies worldwide and still sells around 250,000 copies a year, more than any othe
r album of the 70s.

Dark Side of the Moon, the first of Pink Floyd s five concept albums, described th
e different pressures applying in everyday life. The concept (conceived in Nick
Mason s kitchen) proved a powerful catalyst for the band and together they drew up
a list of themes: On The Run was dedicated to travel; Time depicted the encroachmen
t of old age; The Great Gig In The Sky (originally named Mortality Sequence and Relig
ious Theme during development) dealt with death; Money satirically spoke of the cor
rupting influence of money that often comes with fame and power; Us And Them entai
led violence, and futility of war (a theme to which Waters would return, through
out his career) and Brain Damage touched on themes of insanity and neurosis. This
was the first Pink Floyd LP to feature lyrics exclusively written by Roger Water
s. It was also the first Floyd LP to have lyrics printed inside the sleeve.

Thanks to the use of new 16-track recording equipment at Abbey Road Studios and
the investment of an enormous amount of time by engineer Alan Parsons, the album
set new standards for sound fidelity.

It was during this period that the band released the first of their films, Live a
t Pompeii . Film Director Adrian Maben s film featured footage of the band s 1971 perf
ormance at an amphitheater in Pompeii with no audience present (only the film cr
ew and stage staff), interspersed with interviews and behind-the-scenes footage
of the band in the studio recording Dark Side Of The Moon.

Dark Side of the Moon and the three following albums (Wish You Were Here, Animal
s and The Wall) are widely regarded as the peak of Pink Floyd s career.

Wish You Were Here

Wish You Were Here, released in 1975, carries an abstract theme of absence: abse
nce of any humanity within the music industry and, most poignantly, the absence
of Syd Barrett. This theme is carried by the music as well as the artwork packag
ed with the album. Originally, the album was sold with a black cellophane wrappi
ng, hiding any indication of what could be beneath. In addition to the classic a
coustic title track, Wish You Were Here, the album includes the majestic, mostly
instrumental nine-part Shine On You Crazy Diamond , a tribute to Barrett in which
the lyrics deal explicitly with the aftermath of his breakdown. The album also i
ncludes the songs Welcome to the Machine and Have a Cigar (Roy Harper sang the latte
r), both of which harshly criticize the music industry. Pink Floyd achieved thei
r first transatlantic #1 album with Wish You Were Here, reaching the top spot in
both U.K. and U.S. The album eventually sold over 10 million copies worldwide.

Knebworth 75

Dark Side of the Moon had made Pink Floyd a major international act. In 1975, th
e band launched a massive tour after the release of Wish You Were Here, which ev
entually sold out stadiums. The last gig of the tour was as the headliner of 197
5 Knebworth Festival, which also featured The Steve Miller Band, Captain Beefhea
rt and Roy Harper (who joined Pink Floyd on the stage to sing Have a Cigar ). It wa
s the second Knebworth Festival, which featured artists such as the Rolling Ston
es, Led Zeppelin, Genesis and Frank Zappa between 1974 and 1979.
The concert featured a large circular screen, lighting towers and great special
effects for the time. Despite some technical problems, the band managed to perfo
rm a remarkable concert, before an audience of 125,000, their biggest until Live
8. It was the last time the band performed Echoes and the entire Dark Side of the
Moon with Roger Waters.

Roger Waters-led era: 1976-1984

Animals

By January 1977, and the release of Animals (UK #2, U.S. #3), the band s music cam
e under increasing criticism from some quarters in the new punk rock sphere as b
eing too flabby and pretentious, having lost its way from the simplicity of earl
y rock and roll. However, Animals was considerably more guitar-driven than the p
revious albums, due to either the influence of the punk-rock movement or the fac
t that the album was recorded at Pink Floyd s new (and somewhat incomplete) Britan
nia Row Studios. Animals again contained lengthy songs tied to a theme, this tim
e taken in part from George Orwell s Animal Farm, using pigs, dogs and sheep as me
taphors for members of contemporary society. Animals was the first Pink Floyd al
bum not to feature any compositions from Rick Wright.

For the cover artwork, a giant inflatable pig was commissioned and floated over
Battersea Power Station. This became one of the enduring symbols of Pink Floyd a
nd inflatable pigs were a staple of Pink Floyd s live shows from then on.

In The Flesh

The 1977 Pink Floyd In The Flesh tour was the last time Pink Floyd performed a m
ajor tour with Roger Waters. The tour featured the famous inflatable puppets, no
tably a 40 foot pig balloon, and a Nuclear family with Mother, Father and two and
a half children, later the band added a Cadillac, a television and a fridge. It
also had a pyrotechnic waterfall and featured one of the biggest and most elaborat
e stages to date.

Pink Floyd s market strategy for the Animals tour was very aggressive, filling pag
es of The New York Times and Billboard magazine. To promote their four-night run
at Madison Square Garden in New York City, there was a Pink Floyd parade on 6th
 Avenue featuring pigs and sheep.

In the first half of the show, Pink Floyd played Animals , with Wish You Were Here in
the second. Although the Animals album had not been as successful as the two prev
ious ones, the band managed to sell out arenas and stadiums in America and Europ
e, setting scale and attendance records. In Chicago, the band played to an estim
ated audience of 95,000 and set an attendance record, in Cleveland, of over 80,0
00 people. They helped set another attendance record on the final night of the t
our, in Montreal, where a festival that also featured Emerson, Lake and Palmer d
rew another 80,000-strong audience. That night, Roger Waters spat in the face of
a disruptive fan; The Wall grew out of Waters thoughts about this incident, part
icularly his growing awareness that stardom had alienated him from his audience.

The Wall

1979 s epic rock opera, The Wall, conceived mainly by Waters, developed themes of
loneliness and failure of communication, inspired by Waters feelings of having co
nstructed a metaphoric wall between himself and his audience. This album gave Pi
nk Floyd renewed acclaim and their only chart-topping single with Another Brick i
n the Wall (Part 2) . The Wall also included the future concert staples Comfortabl
y Numb and Run Like Hell, with the former in particular becoming a cornerstone o
f album-oriented rock and classic-rock radio playlists as well as one of the gro
up s best-known songs. The album was co-produced by Bob Ezrin, a friend of Waters
who shared songwriting credits on The Trial and from whom the band distanced thems
elves, after Ezrin talked about the album to a journalist relative.

Despite never hitting #1 in U.K. (it made it to #3), The Wall spent an astoundin
g 15 weeks atop the U.S. charts during 1980. It sold well over 20 million copies
worldwide and is often regarded as the best-selling double album ever. It has b
een certified 23x platinum by RIAA, for sales of 11.5 million copies in U.S. alo
ne. The huge commercial success of The Wall made Pink Floyd the only artist sinc
e the Beatles to have the best-selling albums of two years (1973 and 1980) in le
ss than a decade.

The Wall Live

Pink Floyd mounted their most elaborate stage show in conjunction with the tour
of The Wall. A band of session musicians played the first song, wearing rubber f
ace masks (demonstrating that the individual members of the band were practicall
y anonymous to the public), then backed up the band for the remainder of the sho
w. Giant inflatable characters designed by Gerald Scarfe, including fully mobile
giant puppets of a teacher and Pink s wife, with menacing spotlights for eyes, to
ok the traditional inflatables to a whole new level.
During the first half of the show, a huge wall was built, brick by enormous bric
k, between the audience and the band. There were 340 white bricks forming a 160
foot wall which stood 35 feet tall. The final brick was placed as Roger Waters s
ang goodbye at the end of the song Goodbye Cruel World . For the second half of the s
how, the band were largely invisible, except for a hole in the wall that simulat
ed a hotel room setting, where Roger Waters acted out the story of Pink, and an ap
pearance by David Gilmour on top of the wall to perform the climactic guitar sol
o in Comfortably Numb . Other parts of the story were told by Gerald Scarfe animati
ons projected onto the wall itself (these animations were later integrated into
the film version Pink Floyd: The Wall). At the finale of the concert, the specia
lly-constructed wall was demolished amidst sound effects and a spectacular light
show.

It was the most ambitious theatrical show seen so far, much more expensive and c
omplex than contemporaneous efforts by artists such as David Bowie, Alice Cooper
and KISS. The costs of the tour were estimated to have reached US$ 1.5 million
even before the first performance. The New York Times stated in its March 2 1980
edition that The Wall show remains a milestone in rock history though and there s no
point in denying it. Never again will one be able to accept the technical clums
iness, distorted sound and meagre visuals of most arena rock concerts as inevita
ble and concluded that the Wall show will be the touchstone against which all future
rock spectacles must be measured .

The Wall concert was only performed a handful of times each in four cities: Los
Angeles, Uniondale (Long Island), Dortmund, and London (at Earl s Court). The prim
ary tour occurred in 1980, but the band performed two more shows at Earl s Court in
1981 for filming, with the intention of being integrated into the upcoming movie
. The resulting footage, however, was deemed substandard, and scrapped; years la
ter, Roger Waters said that he had tried to locate this footage for historical p
urposes, but was unsuccessful, and he now considers it to be lost forever. There
are, however, several unofficial videos of the entire live show in circulation.

Gilmour and Mason attempted to convince Waters to expand the show for a more luc
rative large-scale, stadium tour, but because of the nature of the material (one
of the primary themes is the distance between an artist and his audience) Water
s balked at this. In fact, Waters has reportedly been offered a guaranteed US$ 1
million for each additional stadium concert, but declined the offer, insisting
that such a tour would be hypocritical.

Waters later re-created the Wall show in 1990, amid the ruins of the Berlin Wall
, joined by a number of guest artists (including Bryan Adams, Scorpions, Van Mor
rison, The Band, Tim Curry, Cyndi Lauper, SinƩad O Connor, Marianne Faithfull, Joni M
itchell, and Thomas Dolby). This concert was even bigger than the previous ones.
Roger Waters built a 591 foot long and 80 foot high wall. The theatrical featur
es of The Wall concert were increased to gather the attention of a sold-out audi
ence of 200,000 people and of other estimated 500 million, in 35 countries, to w
hom the show would be broadcast. After the concert began, the gates were opened
and an estimated 300,000 to 500,000 people were able to watch the concert.
Even more so than during the Animals sessions, Waters was increasingly asserting
his artistic influence and leadership over the band, prompting frequent conflic
ts with the other members, and the eventual firing of Wright from the band. Wrig
ht returned, on a fixed wage, for the album s live concerts. Ironically, Wright wa
s the only member of Pink Floyd to make any money from the Wall shows, the rest
having to cover the extensive costs.

Film

A film (essentially a music video for the entire album) entitled Pink Floyd: The
Wall was released in 1982. The film, written by Waters and directed by Alan Parke
r, starred Boomtown Rats founder Bob Geldof and featured striking animation by n
oted British cartoonist Gerald Scarfe. It grossed over US$ 22 million at the Nor
th American box office. A song which first appeared in the movie, When the Tiger
s Broke Free, was released as a single on a limited basis. This song was finally
made widely availble on the complilation album Echoes and recent re-releases of
The Final Cut.

The Final Cut

1983 saw the release of The Final Cut. Even darker in tone than The Wall, this a
lbum re-examined many previous themes, while also addressing then-current events
, including Waters anger at Britain s participation in the Falklands War ( The Fletch
er Memorial Home ) and his cynicism toward, and fear of, nuclear war ( Two Suns in t
he Sunset ). Michael Kamen and Andy Bown contributed keyboard work due to Wright s a
bsence.

Though technically released as a Pink Floyd album, the interior sleeve specified
A requiem for the post war dream by Roger Waters, performed by Pink Floyd : the pr
oject was clearly dominated by Waters and became a prototype in sound and form f
or later Waters solo projects (Roger Waters has since said that he offered to re
lease the record as a solo album, but the rest of the band rejected this idea).
Gilmour also reportedly asked Waters to hold back the release of the album by a
year so he could contribute material, but was rejected by Waters.

Only moderately successful by Floyd standards (UK #1, U.S. #6), the album yielde
d one minor rock radio hit, Not Now John . The arguing between Waters and Gilmour b
y this stage was rumored to be so bad that they were never seen in the recording
studio simultaneously. Gilmour even had his name removed from the production cr
edits in protest over some of Waters decisions. There was no tour.
David Gilmour-led era: 1987-1995

After The Final Cut, the band members went their separate ways, each releasing s
olo albums to varying degrees of success. Waters announced in December of 1985 t
hat he was departing Pink Floyd describing the band as a spent force creatively . H
owever, in 1986 Gilmour and Mason began recording a new Pink Floyd album. (At th
e same time, Roger Waters was also working on his second solo album entitled Rad
io K.A.O.S.). A bitter legal dispute ensued with Waters claiming that the name Pi
nk Floyd should have been put to rest, but Gilmour and Mason upheld their convict
ion that they had the legal right to continue as Pink Floyd . High Court proceeding
s went in favor of Gilmour and Mason, much to the chagrin of Waters, and the two
camps continued working.

Momentary Lapse of Reason

Gilmour and Mason returned to the studio, along with producer Bob Ezrin in 1986.
Richard Wright also rejoined Gilmour and Mason during the final recording sessi
ons of A Momentary Lapse of Reason (UK #3/U.S. #3) album, though he did not offi
cially rejoin the band until the end of the subsequent tour. Gilmour later admit
ted that Mason had hardly played on the album. Because of Mason s limited contribu
tion, many critics say that A Momentary Lapse of Reason should really be regarde
d as a Gilmour solo effort, in the way that The Final Cut can be seen as a Water
s solo album. Having usually worked in tandem with Waters in drafting lyrics, Gi
lmour received further criticism for bringing writers from outside the band to a
ssist him.

After the release of A Momentary Lapse of Reason in 1987, Pink Floyd embarked on
what was initially meant to be an 11-week tour to promote the album. The two re
maining members of the band, David Gilmour and Nick Mason, along with Richard Wr
ight, who was not an official member of the band at the time, had just won a leg
al battle against Roger Waters and the future of the group was uncertain. Follow
ing the band s tradition, the tour was huge: 45 trucks were needed to carry the eq
uipment necessary to build the biggest outdoor stage to date, 85 feet high and 9
8 feet wide.

The tour proved to be much more successful than the album. Initially scheduled j
ust to promote the album, it lasted until almost two years later, in 1989, after
playing around 200 concerts, including 3 dates at Madison Square Garden and 2 n
ights at Wembley Stadium, to about 5.5 million people in total. The numbers of t
he tour speak for themselves: it made Pink Floyd the second highest grossing act
of 1987 and the highest grossing of 1988 in the U.S. Financially, PƬnk Floyd was t
he biggest act of these two years combined, as it grossed almost US$ 60 million
from touring, about the same as U2 and Michael Jackson, their closest rivals, pu
t together. Worldwide, the band grossed around US$ 135 million. A further concer
t was held in 1990, at the Knebworth Festival in 1990, a charity event which als
o featured other Silver Clef Award winners. Pink Floyd was the last act to play,
to an audience of 125,000. The AL60,000 firework display that ended the concert
was entirely financed by the band.

They released a double live album taken from their 1988 Long Island shows, entit
led Delicate Sound of Thunder. They later recorded some instrumentals for a clas
sic-car racing film La Carrera Panamericana, set in Mexico and featuring Gilmour
and Mason as participating drivers. At one part of the race Gilmour and Steve O R
ourke (his map-reader in the race) crashed. O Rourke suffered a broken leg, but Gi
lmour walked away with just some bruises. The instrumentals are notable for bein
g the first Floyd material co-written by Wright since 1975.

The Division Bell

The band s next recording was the 1994 release The Division Bell (UK #1/U.S. #1),
which was much more of a group effort than A Momentary Lapse of Reason had been,
with Wright now reinstated as a full and contributing band member. The album wa
s generally received more favorably by critics and fans alike than Lapse had bee
n, sounding more like the timeless Pink Floyd of old. Saxophonist Dick Parry, a
contributor to the mid-70s Floyd albums, also returned to the fold.

The ensuing Division Bell Tour was promoted by legendary Canadian concert impresar
io Michael Cohl and became the highest-grossing tour in rock history to that dat
e, with the band playing the entirety of Dark Side of the Moon in some shows, th
e first time they had done so since 1975. The concerts featured a very large sta
ge, a large round screen, incredible special effects, quadrophonic sound and pow
erful lasers. All in all, the tour required 700 tons of steel carried by 53 arti
culated trucks and an initial investment of US$ 4 million. It paid off. The tour
was the first to gross over US$ 100 million in the U.S. with only 59 concerts a
nd is still one of the top-grossing tours in the country. Worldwide, it played t
o 5.5 million people and grossed over US$ 250 million. More than 10 years later,
and despite the ticket price inflation, the Rolling Stones remain the only act
which managed to outgross Pink Floyd in worldwide terms.

The group reunited in 1994 for another world tour. The Division Bell tour was mu
ch shorter, lasting less than a year, but was even more elaborate. Three stages
leapfrogged around North America and Europe, each 180 feet long and featuring a
130 foot arch modelled on the Hollywood Bowl, incorporating 700 tons of steel. T
his required 53 articulated trucks and a crew of 161 people. The round screen, t
he dancing lights and lasers, and the quadrophonic sound were Pink Floyd s most te
chnologically advanced yet. The show cost US$ 4 million, plus US$ 25 million of
running costs, to stage.
This tour played to 5.5 million people in 68 cities; each concert gathered an av
erage 45,000 audience. At the end of the year, the Division Bell tour was announ
ced as the biggest tour ever, with worldwide gross of over AL150 million (about
US$ 250 million). In the U.S. alone, it grossed US$ 103.5 million from 59 concer
ts. However, this record was short-lived; less than a year later, The Rolling St
ones Voodoo Lounge tour finished with a worldwide gross of over US$ 300 million.
The Stones remain the only act ever to achieve a higher worldwide gross from a t
our.

Solo work and more 1995-2004

Pink Floyd has not released any new studio material or toured since 1994 s The Div
ision Bell, nor is there a sign of any forthcoming, however the band released a
live album entitled P*U*L*S*E in 1995. P*U*L*S*E hit #1 in U.S. and featured son
gs recorded during one of the record-breaking 14 presentations at Earl s Court, in
London, which ended The Division Bell tour, and includes an entire performance of
Dark Side of the Moon as well as other favourites from albums like The Wall and Wish
You Were Here .

In 1996, the band performed Wish You Were Here with Billy Corgan (of The Smashin
g Pumpkins fame) at their Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction. A live recording
of The Wall was released in 2000 compiled from their 1980/1981 London concerts,
entitled Is There Anybody Out There? The Wall Live 1980-81. It hit #1 on Billbo
ard Internet Album Sales chart, but managed to only hit #19 on U.S. charts.

A two-disc set of their best-known tracks entitled Echoes was released in 2001.
This compilation caused some controversy due to the songs segueing into one othe
r non-chronologically, thereby presenting the material out of the context of the
original albums. Some of the tracks ( Echoes , Shine On You Crazy Diamond , Marooned an
High Hopes ) have had substantial parts removed from them. Despite the controversy
, the album sold over 200,000 copies in its first week and guaranteed a #2 on U.
S. charts.

David Gilmour released a solo concert DVD called David Gilmour in Concert in Nov
ember 2002 which was compiled from shows on 2001-06-22, and 2002-01-17, at The R
oyal Festival Hall in London. Richard Wright, Robert Wyatt, and Bob Geldof (Pink
in The Wall film) make guest appearances.

In 2002 Q magazine named Pink Floyd as one of the 50 Bands To See Before You Die .
Two years later, the same magazine would place Pink Floyd as the biggest band of
all time, above the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin, according to
a complex system for comparing bands which included album sales, charts performa
nce and concerts attendance.
In 2003, a 30th-Anniversary SACD reissue of Dark Side of the Moon, featuring hig
h resolution surround sound was released with new artwork on the front cover and
went on to sell over 800,000 copies. Longtime manager Steve O Rourke died later t
hat year on October 30, 2003. The three remaining band members performed Fat Old
Sun and The Great Gig in the Sky at his funeral at Chichester Cathedral, contrary t
o reports in the media claiming they played Wish You Were Here .

In 2004 a remastered re-release of The Final Cut was released with the single Whe
n the Tigers Broke Free added.

Mason s book, Inside Out: A Personal History of Pink Floyd, was published in 2004
in Europe and 2005 in the US. To promote it, Mason made public appearances in a
few European and American cities, giving interviews and meeting fans at book sig
nings. The book gives Mason s personal view of the band s experiences.

In 2004, it was announced that contracts had been signed for a Broadway musical
version of The Wall, with extra music to be written by Waters. The Broadway vers
ion will feature all of the music written by Waters. It is not known whether the
songs co-written by Gilmour ( Young Lust , Comfortably Numb , and Run Like Hell ) will f
ature. The show was scheduled to be completed by mid 2005.

The 30th-Anniversary SACD reissue of Wish You Were Here is due early in 2006, al
so to feature high-resolution surround sound. Waters, Gilmour and Wright are rep
orted to all be working on solo albums, with Waters and Gilmour s due to be release
d in 2006.

Live 8, 2005-present

On July 2, 2005 Pink Floyd performed at the London Live 8 concert with Roger Wat
ers rejoining David Gilmour, Nick Mason and Richard Wright. It was the quartet s f
irst performance together in over 24 years a the band s last show with Waters was at
Earls Court in London on June 17, 1981.

Pink Floyd Reunited at Live 8

Gilmour announced the Live 8 reunion on June 12, 2005:

Like most people I want to do everything I can to persuade the G8 leaders to
make huge commitments to the relief of poverty and increased aid to the third w
orld. It s crazy that America gives such a paltry percentage of its GNP to the sta
rving nations. Any squabbles Roger and the band have had in the past are so pett
y in this context, and if re-forming for this concert will help focus attention
then it s got to be worthwhile.
The band s set consisted of Speak To Me/Breathe/Breathe Reprise , Money , Wish You Were
ere and Comfortably Numb . As on the original recordings, Gilmour sang the lead voca
ls on Breathe and Money , and shared them with Waters on Comfortably Numb. Wish You We
re Here was the exception to this with Gilmour singing his usual verse, with Wate
rs picking it up halfway through. During the guitar introduction of Wish You Were
Here , Waters said:
It s actually quite emotional standing up here with these three guys after all
these years. Standing to be counted with the rest of you. Anyway, we re doing thi
s for everyone who s not here, but particularly, of course, for Syd.
They were augmented by guitarist Tim Renwick (guitarist on Roger Waters 1984 solo
tour, who has since become Pink Floyd s backing guitarist on stage), keyboardist/
guitarist Jon Carin (Pink Floyd s backing keyboardist from 1987 onward who has sin
ce performed on the 1999-2000 North American leg of Waters In The Flesh solo tour),
saxophonist Dick Parry during Money (who played on the original recordings of Mone
y , Us And Them , and Shine on You Crazy Diamond ), and backing singer Carol Kenyon duri
ng Comfortably Numb . On the screen behind them, film of the iconic pig from the An
imals album was shown flying over Battersea Power Station.

Many fans expressed the hope that the Live 8 appearance would lead to a reunion
tour and a record-breaking US$ 250 million deal for a world tour is said to have
being offered to the band. At first, however, the band has made it very clear t
hat there are no such plans at that time. In the weeks after the show, the rifts
that separated the members during the breakup seemed to have largely healed. Da
vid Gilmour confirmed that he and Waters were on pretty amicable terms and that th
ey communicated via e-mail after the concert. Nick Mason said that the band woul
d be willing to perform for a concert that would support Israeli-Palestinian peac
e efforts.

Waters has offered what some see as conflicting comments on the issue, first say
ing, Never say never [...] I mean, under sort of similar circumstances, or in som
e way, we might do things again when questioned on the prospects of another perfo
rmance. However in an interview in Rolling Stone, Waters appeared less optimisti
c: I decided that if anything came up in rehearsals [for Live 8] a any difference o
f opinion a I would just roll over. And I did I didn t mind rolling over for one day,
but I couldn t roll over for a whole fucking tour . However, in an October, 2005 int
erview with Word Magazine, Waters stated he really loved playing with the band aga
in and he held out some possibility of the band re-forming again. I hope we do it
again. If some other opportunity arose, I could even imagine us doing Dark Side
of the Moon again you know, if there was a special occasion. It would be good t
o hear it again . Also, Waters stated on a BBC2 Radio interview in September the p
ossibility of a reunion album with Gilmour, Mason and Wright.

In the week after Live 8, there was a revival of interest in Pink Floyd. Accordi
ng to record store chain HMV, sales of Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd went up, i
n the following week, by 1343%, while Amazon.co.uk reported increases in sales o
f The Wall at 3600%, Wish You Were Here at 2000%, Dark Side of the Moon at 1400%
and Animals at 1000%. David Gilmour subsequently declared that he would donate
all profits from this post Live 8 boom in sales to charity, and urged that all t
he other performing artists and their record companies should do the same.

On 16 November 2005 Pink Floyd were inducted into the UK Music Hall of Fame, by
Pete Townshend. Gilmour and Mason attended in person, explaining that Wright was
in hospital following eye surgery, and Waters appeared on a video screen, from
Rome. It was stated that the chance of a reunion album is practically nil, and t
hat any future concerts would be in the same vein as Live 8.

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