Legendary British rock band Pink Floyd: history and disintegration

In 1965, a new band appeared on the world musical horizon - Pink Floyd. It was founded by students of the architectural faculty of the London Polytechnic, four rock enthusiasts: Roger Waters (vocals and bass), Richard Wright (vocals and keyboard instruments), Nick Mason (drums) and Sid Barrett (vocals and slide guitar). In 1968, when Barrett left the band, David Gilmour, a well-trained guitarist, also had vocal abilities.

From inception to decay

Recognized as the head of the group in musical and administrative terms was Roger Waters, a born leader and a talented poet. From 1973 to 1984 he wrote the lyrics singly 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 tour and unofficial breakup of the band took place. In its classic line-up, the Pink Floyd band entered the stage in the summer of 2005, at Live 8, for the last time.

A bit of history

Roger Waters and Nick Mason met at the architectural department of Westminster University in London. There already existed a group, organized by students Cleve Metcalfe and Keith Nombble. They began to play the four of us, it turned out well. Then Richard Wright joined the quartet. The band bore the name Sigma 6 and played the compositions of student Ken Chapman, who later became the collective impresario and songwriter.

In September 1963, Waters and Mason moved to an apartment, which was handed over by one of the university professors Mike Leonard. Musicians began to gather there. As usual, the group began to leave alone, and others came. In October, a friend of Roger Sid Barrett came and joined the musicians as a guitarist.

After the departure of Metcalfe and Noble in 1964, the group remained virtually without vocalists. They began to search for singers. Soon, Clouse introduced the musicians Chris Dennis, who had a good blues timbre and could perform any composition almost without accompaniment. The updated team changed its name to The Pink Floyd Sound. The musicians were pleased, and Barrett was just happy. He constantly reminded that the name Pink Floyd was taken from the names of the bluesmen Floyd Kaunsil and Pink Anderson.

Swelling intonations

Thanks to Chris Dennis, the repertoire now included spirituals, gospel, and even soul. In the early sixties of the last century, blues was a special honor, and the musicians took advantage of this circumstance. However, the group "Pink Floyd" (its participants) decided not to play pure blues, not to become another performer of "black" music. In the composition, only the blues rhythmic pattern was inserted, but it turned out, nevertheless, very beautifully.

Concerts of "Pink Floyd" band went on a continuous turn, the audience liked 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 everyone had heard. This method of self-justified, and one day they drew attention to a certain Peter Jenner. This person was not a professional musician, he taught economics in one of the London schools. But he was struck by the rare acoustics on the purity of timbre, which Wright managed to create with Barrett.

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

First recordings

In January 1967, at the studio "Polidor" were made two records: Interstellar Overdrive and Arnold Layne. Then the musicians signed a contract with one more studio - EMI, and records that were made on good equipment, now successfully replicated and went on sale. So began the commercial era, very successful, given the album's millionth album sales.

Not all participants withstood the burden of success, the first to receive the "resignation" of Sid Barrett, who abused drugs. The guitarist went to his mother and began to lead the hermit's way of life until he died of cancer.

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

In the early eighties of the last century, the band Pink Floyd began to arrange incredible performances on stage, with a lot of special noise and visual effects. A show was created in which music was no longer audible. Lasers, balls and figures, pyrotechnics - all this destroyed a group that fans of rock music knew for many years.

"Pink Floyd", the composition of the group

At the time of the collapse, the musicians worked in the following composition:

• Waters Roger is a vocalist, bass guitar.
• Wright Richard - keyboards, vocals.
• Nick Mason - percussion instruments.
• Gilmore David is a vocalist, guitar.

Most Famous Albums

• "Piper at the gates of the dawn" (1967).
• "Music from the film" (1969).
• "The Heart of the Mother" (1970).
• "Cloudy weather" (1972).
• "The Dark Side of the Moon" (1973).
• "Animals" (1977).
• "The Wall" (1979).
• "The Infinite River" (2014).

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