One of the most predominant and celebrated rock bands of all time,
the origins of Pink Floyd developed at Cambridge High School.
Roger Keith 'Syd' Barrett
(b. 6 January 1946, Cambridge, England;
guitar/vocals), Roger Waters
(b. 9 September 1944, Cambridge,
England; bass/vocals) and David Gilmour
(b. 6 March 1944,
Cambridge, England; guitar/vocals) were pupils and friends there.
Mutually drawn to music, Barrett and Gilmour undertook a busking
tour of Europe prior to the former's enrolment at the Camberwell
School Of Art in London. Waters was meanwhile studying
architecture at the city's Regent Street Polytechnic. He formed
an R&B-based group, Sigma 6, with fellow students Nick Mason

(b. 27 January 1945, Birmingham, England; drums) and Rick
Wright
(b. 28 July 1945, London, England; keyboards). The early
line-up included bassist Clive Metcalfe - Waters favoured guitar
at this point - and
(briefly) Juliette Gale
(who later married Wright)
but underwent the first crucial change when Bob Close
(lead guitar)
replaced Metcalfe. With Waters now on bass, the group took a
variety of names, including the T-Set and the
(Screaming) Abdabs.
Sensing a malaise, Roger invited Barrett to join but the latter's blend
of blues, pop and mysticism was at odds with Close's traditional
outlook and the Abdabs fell apart at the end of 1965. Almost
immediately Barrett, Waters, Mason and Wright reconvened as the
Pink Floyd Sound, a name Barrett had suggested, inspired by an
album by Georgia blues' musicians Pinkney 'Pink' Anderson and
Floyd Council.

Within weeks the quartet had repaired to the Thompson Private
Recording Company, sited in the basement of a house. Here they
recorded two songs, 'Lucy Leave', a Barrett original playfully
blending pop and R&B, and a version of Slim Harpo 's 'I'm A
King Bee'. Although rudimentary, both tracks indicate a defined
sense of purpose. Ditching the now-superfluous 'Sound' suffix, Pink
Floyd attracted notoriety as part of the nascent counter-culture
milieu centred on the London Free School. A focus for the emergent
underground, this self-help organisation inspired the founding of
Britain's first alternative publication, International Times. The paper
was launched at the Roundhouse on 15 October 1966; it was here
Pink Floyd made its major debut. By December the group was
appearing regularly at the UFO Club, spearheading Britain's
psychedelic movement with extended, improvised sets and a highly-
visual lightshow. Further demos ensued, produced by UFO-co-founder
Joe Boyd, which in turn engendered a recording deal with EMI Records.
Surprisingly, the band's hit singles were different to their live sound,
featuring Barrett's quirky melodies and lyrics. 'Arnold Layne', a tale
of a transvestite who steals ladies' clothes from washing lines, escaped
a BBC ban to rise into the UK Top 20. 'See Emily Play', originally
entitled 'Games For May' in honour of an event the group hosted at
Queen Elizabeth Hall, reached number 6 in June 1967. It was succeeded
by The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn which encapsulated Britain's
'Summer of Love'. Largely Barrett-penned, the set deftly combined
childlike fantasy with experimentation, where whimsical pop songs
nestled beside riff-laden sorties, notably the powerful 'Interstellar
Overdrive'. Chart success begat package tours - including a memorable
bill alongside the Jimi Hendrix Experience - which, when combined
with a disastrous US tour, wrought unbearable pressure on Barrett's
fragile psyche. His indulgence in hallucinogenic drugs exacerbated such
problems and he often proved near-comatose on-stage and incoherent
with interviewers. A third single, 'Apples And Oranges', enthralled but
jarred in equal measures, while further recordings, 'Vegetable Man' and
'Scream Thy Last Scream', were deemed unsuitable for release. His
colleagues, fearful for their friend and sensing a possible end to the band,
brought Dave Gilmour into the line-up in February 1968. Plans for
Barrett to maintain a backroom role, writing for the group but not
touring, came to naught and his departure was announced the following
April. He subsequently followed a captivating, but short-lived, solo career.

Although bereft of their principle songwriter, the realigned Pink Floyd
completed A Saucerful Of Secrets. It featured one Barrett original, the
harrowing 'Jugband Blues', as well as two songs destined to become an
integral part of their live concerts, the title track itself and 'Set The
Controls For The Heart Of The Sun'. Excellent, but flop singles, 'It
Would Be So Nice'
(a rare Wright original) and 'Point Me At The Sky'
were also issued; their failure prompted the group to disavow the format
for 11 years. A film soundtrack, More, allowed Waters to flex
compositional muscles, while the part-live, part-studio Ummagumma,
although dated and self-indulgent by today's standards, was at the vanguard
of progressive space-rock in 1969. By this point Pink Floyd were a major
attraction, drawing 100,000 to their free concert in London the following
year. Another pivotal live appearance, in the volcanic crater in Pompeii,
became the subject of a much-loved, late-night film.

Atom Heart Mother was a brave, if flawed, experiment, partially written
with avant-garde composer, Ron Geesin. It featured the first in a series of
impressive album covers, designed by the Hipgnosis studio, none of which
featured photographs of the band. The seemingly abstract image of Meddle,
is in fact a macro lens shot of an ear. The music within contained some classic
pieces, notably 'One Of These Days' and the epic 'Echoes', but was again
marred by inconsistency. Pink Floyd's festering talent finally exploded in
1973 with Dark Side Of The Moon. It marked the arrival of Waters as an
important lyricist and Gilmour as a guitar hero. Brilliantly produced - with a
sharp awareness of stereo effects - the album became one of the biggest
selling records of all time, currently in excess of 25 million copies. Its
astonishing run on the Billboard chart spanned over a decade and at last the
group had rid itself of the spectre of the Barrett era. Perhaps with this in
mind, a moving eulogy to their former member, 'Shine On You Crazy
Diamond', was one of the highpoints of Wish You Were Here. Barrett
apparently showed at Abbey Road studio during the sessions, prepared to
contribute but incapable of doing so. 'Have A Cigar', however, did feature
a cameo appearance, by of Roy Harper. Although dwarfed in sales terms
by its predecessor, this 1975 release is now regarded by some aficionados
as the group's artistic zenith. Animals featured a scathing attack on the
'clean-up television' campaigner, Mary Whitehouse, while the cover
photograph, an inflatable pig soaring over Battersea power station, has
since passed into Pink Floyd folklore. However it was with this album that
tension within the band leaked into the public arena. Two of its tracks,
'Sheep' and 'Dogs', were reworkings of older material and, as one of the
world's most successful bands, Pink Floyd were criticised as an anathema
to 1977's punk movement. At the end of the year, almost as a backlash,
Nick Mason produced the Damned 's Music For Pleasure. Wright and
Gilmour both released solo albums in 1978 as rumours of a break-up
abounded. In 1979, however, the group unleashed The Wall, a Waters-
dominated epic which has now become second only to Dark Side Of The
Moon in terms of sales. A subtly-screened autobiographical journey, The
Wall allowed the bassist to vent his spleen, pouring anger and scorn on a
succession of establishment talismen. It contained the anti-educational
system diatribe, 'Another Brick In The Wall', which not only restored the
group to the British singles' chart, but provided them with their sole number
1 hit. The Wall was also the subject of an imaginative stage show, during
which the group was bricked up behind a titular edifice. A film followed in
1982, starring Bob Geldof and featuring ground-breaking animation by
Gerald Scarfe, who designed the album jacket.

Such success did nothing to ease Pink Floyd's internal hostility. Longstanding
enmity between Waters and Wright - the latter almost left the group with
Barrett - resulted in the bassist demanding Wright's departure. He left in
1979. By the early 80s relations within the band had not improved. Friction
over financial matters and composing credits - Gilmour argued his
contributions to The Wall had not been acknowledged - tore at the heart
of the band. 'Because we haven't finished with each other yet,' was Mason's
caustic reply to a question as to why Pink Floyd were still together and, to
the surprise of many, another album did appear in 1983. The Final Cut was
a stark, humourless set which Waters totally dominated. It comprised of
songs written for The Wall, but rejected by the group. Mason's contributions
were negligible, Gilmour showed little interest - eventually asking that his
production credit be removed - and Pink Floyd's fragmentation was evident
to all. One single, 'Not Now John', did reach the UK Top 30, but by the
end of the year knives were drawn and an acrimonious parting ensued. The
following year Waters began a high-profile but commercially moribund solo
career. Mason and Gilmour also issued solo albums, but none of these
releases came close to the success of their former group. The guitarist
retained a higher profile as a session musician, and appeared with ex- Roxy
Music singer Bryan Ferry at the Live Aid concert in 1984.

In 1987 Mason and Gilmour decided to resume work together under the
Pink Floyd banner; Rick Wright also returned, albeit as a salaried member.
Waters instigated an injunction, which was over-ruled, allowing temporary
use of the name. The cryptically titled A Momentary Lapse Of Reason,
although tentative in places, sounded more like a Pink Floyd album than its
sombre 'predecessor', despite the muted input of Wright and Mason.
Instead Gilmour relied on session musicians, including Phil Manzanera of
Roxy Music. A massive world tour began in September that year, culminating
12 months and 200 concerts later. A live set, Delicate Sound Of Thunder,
followed in its wake but, more importantly, the rigours of touring rekindled
Wright and Mason's confidence. Galvanised, Waters led an all-star cast for
an extravagant adaptation of The Wall, performed live on the remains of the
Berlin Wall in 1990. Despite international television coverage, the show failed
to reignite his fortunes. In 1994 his former colleagues released The Division
Bell, an accomplished set which may yet enter the Pink Floyd lexicon as one
of their finest achievements. 'It sounds more like a genuine Pink Floyd album
than anything since Wish You Were Here', Gilmour later stated, much to the
relief of fans, critics and the band themselves. With Wright a full-time member
again and Mason on sparkling form, the group embarked on another lengthy
tour, judiciously balancing old and new material. The band also showcased
their most spectacular lightshow to date during these performances. Critical
praise was effusive, confirming the group had survived the loss of yet another
nominally 'crucial' member. Pulse cashed in on the success of the tours and
was a perfectly recorded live album. The packaging featured a flashing LED,
which was supposed to last
(in flashing mode) for 6 months. The legacy of
those 'faceless' record sleeves is irrefutable; Pink Floyd's music is somehow
greater than the individuals creating it.