Legendary British rock band "Pink Floyd": history and collapse

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

In 1965, a new group appeared on the world musical horizon - "Pink Floyd". It was founded by students of the Faculty of Architecture of the London Polytechnic University, four rock enthusiasts: Roger Waters (vocals and bass guitar), Richard Wright (vocals and keyboards), Nick Mason (drums) and Syd Barrett (vocals and slide guitar). In 1968, when Barrett left the band, David Gilmour, a well-trained guitarist with vocal abilities, took his place.

From birth to decay

The recognized head of the group musically and administratively was Roger Waters, a natural leader and talented poet. From 1973 to 1984 he single-handedly wrote the lyrics and was the main author of the most recognized album - The Wall. Three significant events occurred for "Pink Floyd" in 1994, when the penultimate disc The Division Bell was released, the last tour and the unofficial breakup of the group took place. In its classic composition, the group "PinkFloyd" took to the stage in the summer of 2005, at the Live 8 concert, for the last time.

A bit of history

Roger Waters and Nick Mason met at the architecture department of the University of Westminster in London. There already existed a group organized by students Clive Metcalfe and Keith Nomble. We started playing with four, it turned out well. Richard Wright then joined the quartet. The band was called Sigma 6 and played songs by student Ken Chapman, who later became the band's impresario and songwriter.

In September 1963, Waters and Mason moved into an apartment rented by one of the University's professors, Mike Leonard. There the musicians began to gather. As usual, some began to leave the group, and others came. In October, Roger's friend Syd Barrett arrived and joined the band as a guitarist.

After the departure of Metcalfe and Nobel in 1964, the band was left virtually without vocalists. They began to look for singers. Close soon introduced Chris Dennis to the musicians, who had a good blues timbre and could perform any song with little or no accompaniment. The updated band changed its name to The Pink Floyd Sound. The musicians were satisfied, and Barrett was just happy. He constantly reminded that the Pink Floyd group took its name from the names of the bluesmen Floyd Council and Pink Anderson.

Swing intonations

Thanks to Chris Dennis, the repertoire could now include spirituals, gospel, and even soul. Early sixtiesof the last century, the blues was held in high esteem, and the musicians took advantage of this circumstance. However, the Pink Floyd group (its members) decided not to play pure blues, so as not to become another performer of "black" music. They only inserted a blues rhythm pattern into the composition, but it turned out, nevertheless, very beautifully.

Pink Floyd's concerts went on uninterrupted, the audience liked the young musicians who tried to create something unusual. Thus, the group quickly became popular, first in London and then outside the UK.

Timbre and its meaning

Speaking in clubs, the musicians played mostly rhythm and blues hits that were on everyone's lips. This technique fully justified itself, and one day a certain Peter Jenner drew attention to them. This man was not a professional musician, he taught economics in one of the London schools. But he was struck by the acoustics, rare in terms of purity of timbre, that Wright managed to create together with Barrett.

Jenner became a friend of the musicians and started promoting them. By the fall of 1966, the Pink Floyd group had become one of the most popular and successful.

First entries

In January 1967 two recordings were made at Polydor Studios: Interstellar Overdrive and Arnold Layne. Then the musicians signed a contract with another studio - EMI, and the recordings that were made on good equipment were now successfully replicated and went on sale. Thus began the commercialan era quite successful considering the millions in album sales.

Not all participants withstood the burden of success, the first to be "retired" was Syd Barrett, who abused drugs. The guitarist went to live with his mother and became a hermit until he died of cancer.

In 1973, the stellar album "The Dark Side of the Moon" was released, which became the quintessence of the band's creativity and a powerful catalyst for the future.

In the early 1980s, Pink Floyd put on incredible stage performances, complete with special sound and visual effects. A show was created in which the music was no longer heard. Lasers, balls and figures, pyrotechnics - all this destroyed the band that rock fans have known for years.

"Pink Floyd" line-up

At the time of the breakup, the musicians worked in the following line-up:

• Waters Roger - vocalist, bass guitar.
• Wright Richard - keyboards, vocals.
• Nick Mason - drums.
• Gilmour David - vocalist, guitar.

Most famous albums

• "Piper at the Gates of Dawn" (1967).
• "Music from the Film" (1969).
• "Mother's Heart" (1970).
• "Cloudy Weather" (1972).
• "The Dark Side of the Moon" (1973).
• "Animals" (1977).
• "The Wall" (1979).
• "Endless River" (2014).

Group albums"Pink Floyd" sold 74.5 million copies in America, which is a kind of record considering the very short sales period. In the world, without taking into account the solo compositions of the albums, almost 300 million sold.