Pink Floyd in 500 words (ish)
Pink Floyd was an English rock band formed in 1964. The band was founded by Syd Barrett (guitar, lead vocals), Nick Mason (drums), Roger Waters (bass guitar, vocals), Richard Wright (keyboards, vocals) and Bob Klose (guitars). Klose left the band in 1965 and guitarist David Gilmour joined in 1967.
The group were considered to be one of the first psychedelic music groups in the UK and touch on genres hard rock, blues, electronic music, folk and country. This made the band have an experimental rock and progressive rock sound.
The band released 15 studio albums, 4 live albums and 27 singles. They have sold over 250 million records worldwide and sold over 30 million copies of ‘Dark Side of the Moon’.
In the UK, the band had 1 UK no.1 single ‘Another Brick in the Wall’ released in 1979, and 1 single in the UK top 10 ‘See Emily Play’ in 1967.
Pink Floyd had 6 no.1 studio albums and 12 in the top 10. ‘Atom Heart Mother’ (1970), ‘Wish You Were Here’ (1975), ‘The Final Cut’ (1983), ‘The Division Bell’ (1994), ‘Pulse’ (1995) and ‘The Endless River’ (2014) all reached no.1. ‘Dark Side of the Moon’ (1973) and ‘Animals’ (1979) both reached no.2. ‘Meddle’ (1971), ‘The Wall’ (1979) and ‘A Momentary Lapse of Reason’ (1987) all reached no.3.
The albums artwork is a distinctive feature of Pink Floyd’s sound and image; most do not contain any text or the band’s name. The cover for ‘Dark Side of the Moon’ was collaboration with graphic designer George Hardie. The cover for ‘Animals’ features an inflatable pig moored to Battersea Power Station and ‘The Wall’ has a minimalist design on the outside and the characters of the story in side, this was designed by Gerald Scarfe.
The band is best known for their lavish live shows which combine visual effects and music to create a show where the performers are no longer the main event. They were one of the first bands to use a travelling light show and often used strobe lights and liquid lights to hide the performers. Pink Floyd was also well known for using dry ice, pyrotechnics and special effects during their live shows.
Pink Floyd has won several awards including Best Original Song Written for a Film in 1983 for the film The Wall which featured ‘Another Brick in the Wall’. In 1995, the bands won Best Rock Instrumental performance for ‘Marooned’ and were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996.
In 2005, Pink Floyd reunited for Live 8, the first time that the band had performed together in 24 years. The image of a hug on stage made newspapers the day after as a highlight of events which happened during the concert.
Artists like David Bowie, Queen, Radiohead, Nine Inch Nails, the Orb and the Smashing Pumpkins have all been inspired by Pink Floyds sound and image. The band were also the second band to be featured on a Royal Mail stamp and in 2017 had an audio-visual experience opened at the Victoria and Albert museum to mark their 50th anniversary