PINK FLOYD biography

PINK FLOYD biography




Original Members:

Syd Barrett - guitar, vocals
Roger Waters - bass, guitar, vocals
Bob Klose, guitar
Rick Wright - keyboards, wind instruments
Nick Mason - drums

First Album:
The Piper At the Gates of Dawn (1967)
Most Recent Album:
The Division Bell (1994)
Significant Facts:

* More than 200-million albums sold since 1967
* Four Grammy nominations in the '70s, '80s, and '90s
* Helped define the Progressive Rock genre
* One of the first bands to use pyrotechnics, video, and light shows in their stage acts
* Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996

Career History:

The band that eventually became known as Pink Floyd started by performing covers of American R&B songs. When Syd Barrett joined the group in 1965 he began writing most of the band's songs, and moved the group into the burgeoning psychedelic rock movement. Surreal lyrics and experimental electronic effects established the band as the British epicenter of psych rock.

After two albums, Barrett self-destructed due to mental instability aggravated by drug use. He was replaced by David Gilmour in 1968. The band continued to expreriment, increasingly incorporating classical and jazz influences into their music.

Their innovative musical styles and flashy stage production in live performances established them as a commercially successful band with a unique sound, at the forefront of the rock opera genre with heir 1979 epic The Wall.
Modern Times:

Between the mid-70s and mid-80s Roger Waters increasingly asserted control over the band's sound and overall direction. In 1985, Waters left to pursue a solo career, and declared that Pink Floyd was done. A subsequent court battle proved otherwise, as David Gilmour retained the right to use the band's name and much of its catalog.

Pink Floyd's last studio album was 1994's The Division Bell. In July 2005, the group, Waters included, performed at the London Live 8 concert.

Both Waters and Gilmour continue to pursue solo careers, occasionally joined by Nick Mason or Rick Wright or both to perform music from the band's glory days. All indications are that another reunion that includes both Waters and Gilmour is, at best, highly unlikely.
Essential CD:

Wish You Were Here
It is significant because it is so indicative of the group's intensely complicated musical compositions and elaborate studio production. The album was a tribute to founding member Syd Barrett. It was the first Pink Floyd album to reach the #1 position on both the US and UK album charts.