Pink Floyd pioneered an elastic, echoing, mind-bending sound that evokes the chasms of space. Celestial concerns surfaced early in the band's career, with their 1967 debut The Piper at the Gates of Dawn containing the epic instrumental "Interstellar Overdrive" and "Astronomy Domine," a psychedelic masterpiece sung by their early leader, Syd Barrett. That initial album and its accompanying singles were groundbreaking psychedelic works, pairing astral voyages with deep explorations of British eccentricity. Floyd continued to pursue this mix after Barrett's premature departure in 1968, with the group spending five years wandering through experiments as they charted the outer reaches of their limitless sound.
Bassist Roger Waters emerged as the group's chief songwriter, developing a deep fascination with mundane matters of ego, mind, memory, and heart, touching upon madness, alienation, narcissism, and society. These obsessions came into sharp relief on Dark Side of the Moon, an album that became a perennial favorite, with its sculpted widescreen sweep attracting new audiences decades after its 1973 release.
After its unprecedented success, Waters acted as the group's de facto leader in the 1970s, conceiving such epics as Wish You Were Here and The Wall. He departed acrimoniously after the 1983 release of The Final Cut, leaving guitarist David Gilmour -- who joined the group as Barrett's replacement -- to step to the forefront on 1987's A Momentary Lapse of Reason. Gilmour, drummer Nick Mason, and keyboardist Rick Wright kept Floyd afloat through the middle of the '90s, taking the band off the road after the successful international tour supporting the international 1994 hit The Division Bell. The subsequent decades were filled with feuds between Floyd and Waters interrupted by the occasional reunion, such as their appearance at 2005's Live 8, as well as The Endless River, a 2014 album assembled by Gilmour and Mason as a partial tribute to Wright, who died in 2008. The Endless River played upon Floyd's sonic trademarks: a wide, expansive sound that was instantly recognizable as their own, yet was adopted by all manner of bands, from guitar-worshiping metalheads to freaky, hippie, ambient electronic duos. Unlike almost any of their peers, Pink Floyd played to both sides of the aisle: they were rooted in the blues, but their hearts belonged to the future, a dichotomy that made them a quintessentially modern 20th century band.
That blues influence, quickly sublimated and only surfacing on the occasional Gilmour guitar solo, was the foundation for the band's very name, as the group decided to splice the names of two old bluesmen -- Pink Anderson and Floyd Council -- as a tribute to the American music they loved. These members of the early Floyd -- guitarist/singer Syd Barrett, bassist Roger Waters, keyboardist Rick Wright, and drummer Nick Mason -- were all architecture students at London Polytechnic, with the exception of Barrett, who was an art student and a friend of Waters since childhood. This version of the band started gigging regularly in 1965, with Barrett becoming the group's lead singer quite quickly. During this time, the group relied on blues and R&B covers, not unlike many of their British peers, but they wound up extending the time of their sets through extended instrumental jams, planting the seeds of space rock that would come to fruition not much later. In 1966, the group's increasingly adventurous sets became something of a sensation in the London underground, leading to a contract with EMI early in 1967. Their first single, "Arnold Layne," backed with "Candy and a Currant Bun," appeared in March of 1967, and it was banned from some radio stations due to its gender-bending lyrics, but the single wound up in the U.K. Top 20, and the group's second single, "See Emily Play" -- a menacing, mincing stomp with a profound, lasting influence -- went into the Top Ten, paving the way for the release of The Piper at the Gates of Dawn. On their full-length LP, Pink Floyd veered toward the experimental and avant-garde, particularly on the elastic, largely instrumental vamps "Astronomy Domine" and "Interstellar Overdrive," resulting in an album that had a significant influence not only upon its release but well beyond. It was also a hit in the U.K., reaching number six on the British charts.
Since he was a child he felt an ability for art, specifically, for painting and music. At the age of 15, he had his first electric guitar, built his own amplifier and initiated his first musical experience playing in a group: Geoff Mott and the Mottoes.
After a brief stint with Chris Dennis on lead vocals, rhythm and blues fan Syd Barrett joined the band, and Waters moved on to play bass. It was then that Syd Barrett proposed a new name for the band: The Pink Floyd Sound, in memory of two old blues musicians, Pink Anderson and Floyd Council. At the Thompsan Private Record Company, a recording studio located in the basement of a house in Hemel Hampstead, the band recorded their first two songs: "Lucy Leave", a cover of "Gloria" by Them and another cover by Slim Harpo, called "I'm a King Bee".
The group's live debut came at the Roundhouse on October 15, 1966, already having been influenced by the new sound coming from the psychedelic counterculture like The Byrds' song "Eight Miles High". Syd Barrett had a talent for composing original material. He had been doing it since he was 16, when he composed "Effervescing Elephant" and continued it in songs like the instrumental "Interstellar Overdrive", the latter making it easier for the band to begin to earn its reputation as an "experimental" group, far and different from what it was the music scene at that time.
Birth: January 6, 1946
Death: July 7, 2006
Is a British musician and composer, co-founder of the Pink Floyd band, considered one of the most prominent in the history of modern music. He became the band's conceptual composer after Syd Barrett's departure. In addition to being the bass player, he was one of the singers and experimented with synthesizers, loops, electric and acoustic guitar. With him, Pink Floyd achieved worldwide success in the 1970s and early 1980s thanks to their concept albums The Dark Side of the Moon (1973), Wish You Were Here (1975), Animals (1977), The Wall (1979) and Final Cut (1983).
Waters didn't start playing music until he was on the cusp of his 20th birthday. His childhood he was haunted by the departure of his father Eric, a schoolteacher who abandoned his status de él as a conscientious objector to World War II to join the British Army. Eric Waters died in combat when Roger was five months old, and his mother de él Mary moved him and his brother de él to Cambridge. There, Waters met his future bandmates Syd Barrett and David Gilmour, but it wasn't until he was studying architecture at Regent Street Polytechnic that the first incarnation of Pink Floyd came into view. Waters and his fellow students Nick Mason and Rick Wright played with vocalist Keith Noble and bassist Clive Metcalfe in a group called Sigma 6, and once they departed, Roger brought in Barrett. This was in the fall of 1963 and by 1965, the group had gelled into the Pink Floyd Sound, dropping the "Sound" in 1966.
Birth: September 6, 1943
He gained international fame for his incisive, atmospheric guitar work and vocals with Pink Floyd, and eventually became the leader of the group during their late period, as he pursued a successful solo career and worked with some of the most respected names in British rock. Gilmour was born in Cambridge, England on March 6, 1946; his parents were both involved in education -- his father was a lecturer in Zoology at Cambridge University and his mother was a teacher -- and as a schoolboy, Gilmour struck up a friendship with a boy who attended the same grade school, Roger Barrett, who later gained the nickname Syd. Gilmour became re-acquainted with Barrett while they were studying at the Cambridgeshire College of Arts and Technology; both were interested in music and began learning to play guitar in their spare time, as did Barrett's friend Roger Waters.
In 1963, Gilmour joined a rock group, Jokers Wild, which specialized in R&B covers; in 1965, he and Barrett took the summer off and spent several months busking and traveling through France, though the adventure didn't pay off financially. After returning to England, Gilmour played with a group called Flowers for a while, as well as a revamped version of Jokers Wild called Bullitt; meanwhile, Barrett and Waters teamed up with Rick Wright and Nick Mason to form a group called the Tea Set, which was later renamed Pink Floyd.
Birth: March 6, 1946
Joined the Sigma 6 group in 1964, one of the early versions of what would come to be called Pink Floyd, with Syd Barrett, Roger Waters, Nick Mason and Bob Klose. Wright made essential contributions to the band's sound. His style, defined as quirky and much more focused on textures than other contemporaries of his time, is one of the hallmarks of Pink Floyd's style. Tracks like "Echoes," "The Great Gig in The Sky," "Us and Them" and "Shine on You Crazy Diamond" are excellent examples of Wright's playing.
In 1978, Richard William Wright recorded and released his first solo album called Wet Dream, an album that he later considered simple and with not very solid lyrics, but that he liked. On that record he worked with Snowy White as guitarist, former Thin Lizzy and Pink Floyd backing member, currently guitarist for Roger Waters.
Birth: July 28, 1943
Death: September 15, 2008
He is the son of documentary film director Bill Mason, who was born in Birmingham but raised in Hampstead, London, and attended Frensham Heights School near Farnham, Surrey. He later studied at Regent Street Polytechnic (now the University of Westminster), where he teamed up with Roger Waters, Bob Klose and Rick Wright in 1964 to form Pink Floyd's predecessor, Sigma 6.
He was one of the first drummers in rock history to use the double pedal (but he has never used it), which is very common these days.
He has also worked through his company Ten Tenths, as a drummer and producer with musicians such as Steve Hillage and Robert Wyatt, as a drummer with Michael Mantler and as a producer with The Damned.
Birth: January 27, 1944