[Story Of Pink Floyd] 2010

there's this group called Pink Floyd who got what the only time I saw Syd Barrett was when he popped into the Abbey Road session swimmers are doing atom heart mother and he kind of spun round a couple of times in slow motion and then went out again and that was very as all I ever thought of him he'd gone he was still looking the same but he was somewhere else we carried on to musical careers at the same time we took interstellar overdrive' outside London people hated it the hand thing you know my hands felt like two balloons is that's from being delirious as a child but this tell us this like everything receding there is no pain you I received happen to me and so and it came back slowly as I sat and played the piano but I think good cut you know is this is a fine line I'm walking here one bit of riff from another bit of it's there's hundreds of different ways you can do something some have a little bit of magic to them but the ones that do have that bit of magic to them it's obvious to people arrest even just that piece of music as an emotional Porter that's what we're struggling to find all the time [Music] Pink Floyd grew from friendships forged in the 1960s in the university town of Cambridge Britain was then in the group of psychedelia and the hippie scene as well popular music was undergoing a huge transformation and the young Syd Barrett was wide open to these influences first time I met Syd was at a Saturday morning art class in Cambridge I was 9 or 10 and he was 8 or 9 we became close you know when we were teenagers talking about smoking dope but not doing it you know in those days I would go long after to SIDS after school and he'd be in there painting away and so they made such play and chat and do whatever he was a great rhythm player a terrific sense of time and you know and then he sort of took that and you know took it in directions that no one could have imagined really [Music] I said was the charmer when I first met him he was the charismatic handsome jolly slightly intimidating - what the one that everyone focused on most people including myself had certain jealousies of what a bright light appeared to him on the scene he was physically beautiful witty funny the way he talked the way he walked he was much loved by pretty much everyone around him I don't actually remember when I met Syd I don't remember where I met Syd just suddenly he was part of my life the whole Pink Floyd suddenly became part of my life [Music] the name Pink Floyd first began to appear in January 1965 when the group was then known as the Pink Floyd blues band the band featured a five piece liner formed from a group of friends from Cambridge in England and originally included Bob Close on guitar and vocals Bob didn't stick around for too long and neither did the Blues element of the name by the summer of 1965 the band was slimmed down to a four-piece and the name too was reduced to match for the next couple of years the band will be known as the Pink Floyd have you heard the early things he kind of thought well maybe it's the stones or and he recognized his voice Roger's voice but it's not a Pink Floyd sound yet it needed me to leave to do that you know that was quite an important step I was involved with this organization called the London Free School and I was also at the time working as the head of the London office of Elektra Records and the guy who was the leader of the London Free School or not there was no official leader but the real figure had the real sort of center of energy was John Hopkins I was happy it was a sort of melting pot of local people some of whom were black activists and some of whom were white activists there's a lot of interest in housing and smattering of professional people with different skills and among the the people who set up lung free school were Andrew King and Peter Jenner who later on turned out to be the first managers of the Pink Floyd they said that there is this group that they knew they'd like me to hear a demo tape and maybe take it to Elektra and I was amazed I thought they were great so I very excitedly took this tape to the head of Elektra who listened and said and from that point I made a deal with the general King that I would try and find him a record deal during the autumn of 66 I continued to see the floyd on a regular basis they became the regular group playing these benefit concert that they put on in our efforts to raise money for the London free school at the church hall at Palace square we felt if we could bottle that and put it on a weekly basis that people would come the UFO Club was born and although it had a fairly short life it made a certain dent on the culture by 1967 after the obligatory personnel shuffles Syd Barrett fronted a band which moved to London and now comprised himself on lead vocal and guitar Roger Waters on bass Rick Wright on the keyboards and Nick Mason on the drums we always had this notion that when we hit learned enough that we would start a band together and as it happened by the time he arrived I was already playing with a few other people so he came joined in fact Nichkhun wrote with a sort of permanent once there were a bunch of other people who were all at the Regent Street Poly I would go to rehearsals that were out of the flats and performances and obviously there was something special happening with them at the same time [Music] by early 1967 Floyd were huge news on the thriving underground scene the band now favored the unstructured improvisations which were the basis for long extended freak-outs which were then highly fashionable with the trendy london-based crowd they were known as the first psychedelic band on the London scene and there was a real buzz about them and there was a real feeling that they were pushing back the frontiers of popular music by June the Floyd had found a management company called Blackhill enterprises to represent them [Music] [Applause] our Elaine the first Pink Floyd single provided a surprise chart hit although in later years the band did admit that there might have been an element of unofficial sharp ringing to help the single on its way I got them a deal with Polydor and so they were playing at the UFO Club at the same time that I was I brought somebody from Palo tour down to see them they loved them I said yes here you go and we set up I set up my production company for the purpose of recording the Floyd and the contracts were all drawn up lawyers were looking at it back and forth etc etc and in the middle of all of this Jenner and King signed on with a new agent for them Brian Morrison agency and by this time we were ready to go in the studio for polidore and in fact that evening that they made the deal with these agents we were rehearsing in a small demo studio at Pala doors office and Jenner rang me up and said look the agents would like to come down and meet the group and just hear what you're up to you know and they came down and immediately I felt threatened and there was I knew that nothing good was gonna come out of this as far as I was concerned next day I got a call from Jenner to say that they've been very impressed with Arnold Layne we played the song for them I thought it was great and they could get us a much better deal with EMI than the deal we had with Polidori and I was crushed of course because of that pollen or was my deal that was going through my production company and but they wanted me to produce the single and I said well I'll do that I'll do that but I want to be assured that I'll be the producer of the album that falls the single and Brian Morris and said well EMI doesn't like to be tied down like that he came to me and he said where is this group called Pink Floyd because what pink what so he said Pink Floyd bar they said well he said that they're appearing at you phone I said you phone what do you fire so then he told me there's an underground with a freak out being topical Road you know they said would you would you like to go and see them so I thought well you know if if he thinks they've got something you know for recording then it's worth me going you know which I did Brian and I came away when had a drink and usable what do you think that well it's not so much the group very impressive their show it's the number of people that were their fans of theirs so I said to Brian yeah well I am interested somewhat reluctantly but I didn't that helped well I do a good job on the single you know don't want to keep the team together and so we went in the studio we made Arnold Layne and the Beast side Kent in the current bond Arnold Layne ism is a very unusual pop record sort of full stop because when you look at when it was written I mean you had sort of Ray Davis doing yourself in English vignettes you had Bowie who was sort of trying to do a sort of any newly thing after being a mod and then you had Syd Barrett coming in writing about a nikka snatcher subsequently EMI loved the record signed them gave them a big contract and said we're going to use our in-house producers so thanks very much and that was the end of my professional relationship with Floyd the follow-up single see Emily play also a hit gave EMI records the confidence to put Pink Floyd in the studio to record a full album this was to be called Piper at the Gates of Dawn it turned out yes they were keen to join hear my it would be my first major signing so therefore we're going up with it Norman Smith had been an engineer with the Beatles from the point where he'd come to EMI to make demos this was his first record as full-on producer they had to play me songs that they had in mind and they would obviously play it through the way they knew it and then I would simply analyze what I thought I could improve to to broaden the audience try to make them more melodic and to get away from all this psychedelic business you know when they played me see enemy play I thought ah it it struck a note you know I thought I think I can make a single out of this which I did and what I did and it was one that I was really able to dress up in my own way as well also you know and I thinks it hated it to be honest with you and Feder I'm sure he did but I thought things god this is going to happen I think this Emily plays is a fantastic psychedelic single and to be honest it was it was still quite early in what what is seen as sort of British psychedelia I mean then you had everyone going on Top of the Pops where and they hastily bought cravats and doing their versions of it but at that point I mean you'd had strawberry fields forever white shaker pale was around but family pet just comes from another place altogether it's a great subject it has a lovely production sound it has not too many gimmicks at the time we don't have huge huge amounts of for example phasing and those records or things that make them sound dated it sounds very much of its time and very much for any time but about the time see Emily play was riding high in the charts and since behaviour deteriorated markedly as it started to climb up the charts I thought the next thing is going to happen is trouble the pots before they went on they actually went him to makeup I was waiting for them in their dressing room as soon as they walked in our source said and he'd look wonderful so straightaway I made the mistake of saying Syd you look absolutely wonderful anyway look and he walked over to the mirror saw himself and he immediately scuffed up all his hair got tissues and started wiping off the the makeup etcetera and I thought what am I going to do with this guy you know anyway we went on like that and stood there with his guitar just dangling didn't even try to play it head sort of bowed and complete another well nothing and of course I mean I was furious and that was the first science for me mentally something was missing something was going we did the Pat Boone show and Pat Boone came on and you know set alone and what Sid would do is through every ran through rehearsal we will rehearse we were miming to see Emily play or something I think and through the run throughs he'd be miming away and then they'd go okay we'll take it because we were taping it and then when they went action you'd stand there light and that cut cut okay we're doing it now guys ready and Sid go yeah yeah yeah and he did and he do it again again until finally but he had to say listen isn't it weird you know I'll mime it from a very early age he didn't believe in rules and I imagine he was subjected to quite a few rules in that studio I mean Norman Smith was one of the old school and imagine getting to record at a certain time and getting to sing a song in a certain way all this must be very difficult for several nights Sid who was very much a creature of the times a product of his era who didn't like being told what to do each time Norman left the studio said it was with a splitting headache and he said it's dealing with Sid barrows like dealing with a child he just looked at you blankly some other time one minute II be up the next to be down Norman Smith did not even enjoy the experience of working with Syd Barrett it was pretty damn difficult with with Syd Barrett it was Piper that put the band on the map it's endearing brand of psychedelic whimsy was perfect for the mood of the day Barrett clearly had his finger on the pulse of the national mood however the first glimpse of a full albums worth of Pink Floyd was something of a musical enigma the album was so steeped in psychedelia it could only have been made in 1967 alongside Barrett's whimsical mannered compositions such as the loam and bike we find full blown space rock epics like interstellar overdrive' and astronomy domine the overall effect is one of almost palpable confusion it's two completely different and totally irreconcilable musical personalities battle it out for supremacy not surprisingly the results are somewhat confusing in musical terms when the debut album came out in 1967 the Piper at the Gates of Dawn it was generally enthusiastically received with one notable exception the clientele of the UFO Club in Tottenham Court Road which became to pinpoint what the cavern had been to the Beatles were generally rather sniffy towards ourselves and there was a widespread opinion that the Piper at the Gates of Dawn and quite significantly failed to capture the band's live sound I think part of the gate for Dorne is grayed out pop at the gates of door is the best blow it out for me I absolutely love it it's the sound of a band going places where no one had ever been before totally innovative totally experimental you take some of the songs of the first album you know bike I've got a boat you can write it if you like it's got a basket but all the rings and things to make it look good I'd give it to you if I could but I borrowed it there's something away about the way the lyric attaches to the meter in a very satisfying way but then they kids but I borrowed it kind of kicks it off into there's something very English about that about the completeness of that and yet the fact that it's so unpredictable I think it was the unpredictability of it combined with its simplicity that that made it so special Piper at the Gates of Dawn I think sits as a unique artifact separate from the rest of Pink Floyd it was a different band people actively hate Pink Floyd for what they became but embrace that you know the city of Pink Floyd and it's almost like a badge you know I actually hate his annoyed but the first album by the time the band came to make its second album CID was no longer functioning as either performer or writer thinks it's its own illness it put it probably you know we can say that marijuana to a certain extent an asset to a large extent can do nothing but exacerbate that collection of symptoms that we put together and loosely described a schizophrenia anything and so there is no doubt but that those things are very bad for schizophrenic they worsen the condition and they and so on and so forth and so and they way there is no doubt that Sid was schizophrenic and that he was taking those those drugs at the same time we had a sort of style of almost if there was a problem ignore it and it finally sort of came to the point where we ignored it by not picking sit up one day just going off with the other four of us Sid was the creative force behind the original recording lineup of Pink Floyd not only was he the lead vocalist and the guitarist he was also the writer of all the fledgling groups material now without Sid to call upon Pink Floyd needed both a guitarist and a writer finally the guitarist was relatively easy David Gilmour friend of SIDS from Cambridge had been drafted in as the fifth member to provide onstage cover for the increasingly unstable frontman when Sid drifted out of the picture Gilmour was already in place filling the gap left by Barrett the writer proved to be somewhat bigger of a challenge overnight the hit singles suddenly dried up losing the flow of songs was disastrous for us at that point cuz he was doing most of the writing so I said why doesn't he just write songs and come and record and we'll go and do gigs but he there's no way you can do that they rang up eventually maybe a specific offer which obviously was the start of a very difficult and strange time with both Syd and I turning up together to two rehearsals and you're going out and doing shows with five of us where I would be playing I'd be learning and playing Sid's parts and singing sits songs well Syd it'd be sort of standing there and sometimes singing a little bit and sometimes playing a little bit very odd shall I light all good laughter or shall I try to kill him I don't how it's certainly as far as I'm concerned I don't remember being overcome with compassion but having said that as I say I think there were a number of people who did try and do their best for him and there were attempts to get him to therapy in' and so on we never actually managed to get him through the front door we can you know got him to the door a couple of times whenever going through the job I I think someone said that they described all of said symptoms to him but he did say something like well are you sure this is SIDS problem which it may be with it's a good thing to say one night soon after Barrett was ousted from the band when he came into the UFO Club and he stood right in front of Gilmour on stage Gilmour recounted later that Sid's head was about at his foot height and he just stood there throughout the Floyd set glaring upwards straight into Gilmore's eyes about 35 minutes and buried mine Gilmour and Barrett had been friends since childhood and and really remain friends for years and years afterwards but that incident had a very profound effect on Gilmore who confined it to his flatmates afterwards that he didn't think he would carry on anymore he was that disturbed by that particular evening the group as a whole was greater than the sum of the parts and that's why Floyd managed to survive after Sibley because that essence of what they were doing together survived I said was a great performer and a great you never knew what was going to come from SIDS guitar now you know I saw a lot of great performers around that period and Sid was definitely a great performing away from it very challenging the definition of the word genius extends to someone who makes a profound effect on the lives of others and if you take that then I think can apply it to said bio it quite well [Music] I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that in this pop never really recovered from the loss of Syd Barrett as it as a writer and indeed as a guitarist he was never adequately replaced Syd Barrett made only a marginal contribution to a Saucerful of Secrets the second Pink Floyd album the pop sensibilities of Piper are increasingly buried under layers of avant-garde experimentation as Freud begin to grasp their way towards the sound which made them a worldwide success highlights include set the controls for the heart of the Sun and the heavenly voices section of the title track simple straight numbers such as jug band Blues and corporal Clegg now seems slightly out of place as the main emphasis is clearly on the instrumental heavyweights jump band blues is one of the saddest things you can hear it really is there's a version of it which was recorded for John people showed just before Christmas 1967 so really on the cusp of seds last days as a member of the Pink Floyd and I've known people who were reduced to tears over that thing yes I defy anyone to listen to joke band blues almost 40 years after he's written and defy them not to be terribly moved by the lyrics in that particular song it's the one flash of seed that you get instills full of secrets and it's like he's addressing the fact that he's not quite with it anymore mentally the title track Saucerful of Secrets and set the controls for the heart of the Sun definitely hint what was to come their continued exploration with sound effects which were a great thing and the extended themes were absolutely brilliant because of the experimentation I'd be doing the with sounds each song that came up that I listened to I would be going through my head I reckoned perhaps some of those sounds could work here so it was to be built as one went along but he'd sound sometimes of course an song didn't need though those sort of gimmicks at all but like feedback or or tape loops played backwards and it echo added to it and all stuff like they set the controls is one of my favorite tracks from that era because it's really quite strange and and it has a particular mood and that's one of the things they were always very good at getting still are you know it's creating a mood the taboo against songs longer than three minutes I've been lifted in a way there have been you know different groups doing longer sort of extended instrumentals and things like that and so they were able to put on record the way that they sounded in person much more in addition to studio recordings at this time Floyd also producing soundtrack music for films the original soundtrack from the film more was the first of two soundtracks made for the french director Barbet Schroeder with the band still working to find a solid direction in writing terms the next album was to be a curious hybrid I try to encourage them in their own sort of producing at home they all had little studio things that they could do a record on and just simply bring them into the studio with me and I'll go through them etc so I encouraged them to more and more produce themselves and particularly Norma goomar where they each had a section of that album to themselves they could do exactly whatever they wanted I have a memory of working as an assistant at a pop on some of the Piper at the Gates of doing sessions and I was extremely impressed because that was wonderful so you know you had this expectation this was going to be great you were going to come in and you're going to do all these his wonderful songs and it didn't turn out quite like her they all came in and we all sat there and Norman said to him well you got some songs they didn't know and had to decide what they were going to do in terms of what they're going to do for this record they had to make a record they've got sessions booked what were they going to do and and after much discussion it was decided that they would have a quarter of the record each to do whatever they wanted and that the others would you know the other three would assist the one whose quarter it was to do now I mean at that stage probably there would have been other producers who would have said no sorry would cancel sessions go away rights and songs come back and we're done whereas Norman went with it and we ended up with what we ended up with and I wouldn't interfere they could do unless helped them it's it's an integration between the music and the effects it's you can't really separate the two out I mean you can listen to what any of the four parts and they all have the integration of effects and music or sounds or experimentation or whatever you want to call it there's a lot of double speed and half speed stuff going on in there backwards stuff going on in there be interesting to pull it apart and actually see what it was at the time you know we put there savvy over all the experiment strays too far towards freeform instrumental exploration without enough of the melodic counterpoint which was to make their next album so successful mortis himself let it described the album as a disaster although I'm a Gummer had proved an inconsistent experience the band continued to work hard and the constant touring saw them improved very much in the live arena life on tour and playing together almost every night was sharpening up the group's collective skills as a writing unit as well the results of this process would be seen in the next album atom heart mother released in October 1970 this album was to be the first real breakthrough for Pink Floyd the whole first side of the album comprised an avant-garde instrumental piece featuring choir and orchestral elements arranged by Ron Geeson what happened in a tomorrow mother was that because they were a kind of exhausted because of commitments and and demands by the manager and EMI records they needed some other input so because I was friends with them all I was asked to be their input really they had five or six little sections that they had recorded at EMI abbey road of what I call a backing track and they had then stuck these together as you do with magnetic tape so with that they come up with a tape which was an accompaniment tape blasting I can't remember 23 minutes or something and I have been 25 and a half whatever was under 30 and over 20 and [Music] they gave me that a mix a rough mix of that tape and we had some discussions about what might go on it they said they wanted a big sound and we had a very short session and I'm talking like a morning and I another bit of an afternoon somewhere I think where Rick Wright came around my studio in Labrador London West 10:00 and we looked at the choir section so he may be suggested some notes or our way of going but there was nothing written down either there was nothing written down for the choir at that time at that session and then Dave came round with her with a sort of an arpeggio and suggesting that for the four what was in fact the main theme the frosty the rest of it was me it's an it's a concoction it's an assembly the speeds were all wrong like when you're moving through a piece you know when it should speed up you know when it should slow down in fact the reverse happened with some of the sections because when they stuck the sections together they didn't actually really work so my job was to craft something sensible on top of this rather cobbled collage or montage and make it look like it was working the art bit was getting a couple of melodies that really worked and I believe that the opening theme melody really works now and the cello melody really works and they're entirely out of my head both of them are quite expansive they cover quite a wide range I mean the whole one starts on the space without an octave but then it expands and then further so you've covered that whole space which is quite quite right arranging if you then look at the cello theme it starts down at the same place [Music] it's actually slightly wider but not much so they both have this sense of of expansiveness of space they're not claustrophobic atom heart mother featured more of the gentler pastoral Floyd sound which characterized the album's around about this time the Roger Waters song if and Gilmore's fat old son proved to be the highlights of the mellow second side of the illness how on earth is somewhat fat holds fun certain fame Eldon is acting out mother in some ways it reminds me a bit of us at a country song you know it's sort of weird because on the same album there's this completely and utterly British Standard soul but I quite like it when they play it on stage it's like a different song it's got all the dynamics or the passion all the greatness of Floyd tracks the one thing that the Pink Floyd to me have always been able to do is transmit their emotion from the record to the listener I think that's why they're so popular it was a group effort and everybody was doing enjoying it and I think that comes across here's the opening sequence for atom heart mother under the horn Melanie a four chord sequence which just repeats it doesn't repeat the same every time but pretty well what do we get under fat old son exactly the same metrically it's exactly the same you've got this ponderous fall for what is different between fat old son and atom heart mother is that you have some lyrics so it makes it a song will that matters that that takes it out of the realm of that heart mother great things and you have no you have no orchestral instruments but other than that they're exactly the same they come from exactly the same stay with exactly the same way of thinking maybe in a way the album had to have these more subdued and cooler tracts otherwise you might have gone [Music] they had established themselves originally as 3-minute hits single people in a way with see Emily playing Arnold Layne and although live of course they'd always experiment even played longer pieces but now I could do that on my album stew with that'm heart mother the band was now firmly into its musical stride and the signs were auspicious for the next album when it finally arrived in November 1971 medal was to exceed all expectations that is the album released they moved from post Barrett experimentalists trying to find the right identity it's where they began to find their identity and hit hit on me the motifs that they were then turned into the the tremendous in transcendent Dark Side of the Moon with this album Pink Floyd demonstrated that the group had learned how to take their original sound effects which the band have made their own and weaves them together with the music to create a seamless blend which was to become synonymous with Pink Floyd the results are best seen still in echoes it's got all of the great floyd qualities coming together possibly for the very first time they drama the dynamics really individual distinctive lead guitar playing gorgeous melodies harmony singing that's a Rick Wright and Dave Gilmour singing together so very close harmonies always between Rick Wright and Dave Gilmour they're always kind of there's certainly nothing sweetly birds being poppy going on in row echoes was the centerpiece of metal was the centerpiece of their live show at that time and was a melding together of many episodes and was something that they could replicate live very very well echoes is absolutely a landmark in Pink Floyd's Korea it's the one which probably meant that they didn't just wind up round about now being just another psychedelic band who couldn't get a break it's when they learned how to with an extended expanded piece of music to make it accessible to the casual listener Becker has also formed the foundations of the superb film Pink Floyd at Pompeii directed by French director Adrian Marvin Pink Floyd had always been greatly appreciated in Europe and the Pompeii film is the result of a European co-production it is still rightly regarded by many as the best a vocation of the Floyd in the live environment on the whole the album is still a rather patchy offering in which the weaker moments outnumbered are strong its yet middle represented rather than its content you know after all this sort of messing about with film soundtracks line albums you know projects are atom heart mother I think that it was probably the first true post Sid Pink Floyd album the real Pink Floyd masterpiece was just around the corner in March 1973 Pink Floyd released the album which would take them into the musical stratosphere Dark Side of the Moon [Music] with Dark Side of the Moon everything came together beautifully the songs were fascinating state-of-the-art technology interested people the album cover was intriguing everything about it hit at the right time in my opinion Darkseid was the most accessible Floyd album to date and as most rounded and in a sense it was a sort of underground rocks Sergeant Pepper if you like Dark Side of the Moon started off with as a mish mash as the band sitting down once they'd finished touring in America in early 1971 I'm thinking we've got to do a new album what have we got they have some ideas bits and bobs Dave Gilbert always says nothing gels and so one day Roger Waters walked in and said I've got this idea let's do this as a concept album it was great gig in the sky ric reitz piano playing for me is absolutely fantastic and he's coming from a kind of a jazz angle even just that piece of music as an emotional quarter that's what we're struggling to find [Music] I went up to Abbey Road I had no idea what it was nobody told me I didn't know whether I was going to walk into the studio there's going to be a choir to other girls three other girls no idea so I walked into the control room and the band were there and they proceeded to explain to me that they were doing this album it was nearly finished and that the concept of the album and death and everything else in between and they played with the backing track when I said well what do you want and basically they had no idea so I thought oh lovely and when I look back I was fairly new to this sort of world you know and probably quite naive but anyway I listened to the track a couple of times a night I personally had no idea and all what they wanted have I said I think the best thing for me is to go into the studio put the cans on and have a little girl and see what happens so I started off by going oh baby baby yeah yeah baby baby which is what what intended to do for sort of scat sort of singing and they said oh no no no no no we don't want any words well that really stumped me so david gilmour came he I have to say that he was really the the one that directed me there wasn't a word from anybody else so David said would I would you like me to write out the chord sequence I said no no no no no no no and it sort of happened when I I thought well I really don't know what they want I don't know but okay best feet forward you know and I thought well and I've said this many times but it's absolutely true that I thought I have to pretend to be an instrument and that's gave me an avenue to explore and so I started doing something so we like that so I said to Alan okay put the red light on record this because usually the first take is the best and I started singing and did it I went into the control room and they played it and not a lot was said and I said I will well thank you very much goodbye and left and I was convinced it would never see the light of day because they hadn't commented they hadn't made any do not I mean they hadn't said great faithful nothing greatly it is slightly different from the rest of the album and I think it is because there's an outside influence which is somebody else came in happened to be me could it could have been I don't know could have been Vicky brown then or saxophone player but but with the voice you you get a whole different input some different mindset and I think that's what perhaps why it stands out because it is not the four people in the band that have totally done it it there's an outside influence the use of Clare Torry on the album is something that I think every female vocalist whoever you are has got to listen to and aspire to you know maybe one day I will crack that whole piece and I'll just be the happiest person alone it's a taxing piece to sing from beginning to end and in fact I believe well believe that when Floyd or Roger have they don't always do greatly in the sky but if they have the free backing vocalists do a third each makes it it's exhausting this the ultimate Floyd album captured just the right blend of lyricism inspired instrumental passages sound effects and genuine musical innovation just how to follow up a massive success without disappointing the public is always regarded as one of the most difficult tasks in music the response from Pink Floyd to the worldwide acclaim for Dark Side of the Moon was to deliver wish you were here released in September 1975 a classic recording which in many respects out shown its illustrious predecessor when I think about it I can still see his eyes it was everything else service it's different seven years but no contact and then to walk in while we're actually doing that particular track didn't recognize him at all he'd shaven all his hair off he was about probably 17 18 stone I had no idea who he was for a long time and neither did anybody else I didn't think for a while coincidence karma fate who knows but it was very very very powerful shiny new crazy diamonds is a masterpiece it's a masterwork it is in a way a representation of their entire career up to that point in one track [Music] I sort of knew that really we were over as far as the band of brothers notion of the pop group was concerned we just weren't anymore and we were never going to be that again and so I was mourning that loss as well as the loss of have said as a as a friend and as a colleague [Music] came from just playing an a minor chord [Music] and just move my fingers to the wrong position it could just be an accident it did seem to sort of have a sort of hinting cooling sounds to shine on you crazy diamond with its majestic introduction is arguably the finest recording in the entire Pink Floyd Canon once again there are no fillers or throwaway numbers on this flawless album every track pulls its weight I think it's our best album I love it lyrically but I also like just musically and I love the flow of it and I just think I mean I I will listen to that album four pleasures not many of the Floyd albums I can I feel the wish it were here album doesn't have a set theme or a set tone every song seems to be slightly different from shine on you crazy diamond to the barbs of have a cigar to the almost distressed insouciance of welcome to the Machine almost the acceptance of well what are we going to do to wish you were here which seems to be a longing for something that's already gone it has an emotional depth that and it's a sort of fairly universal I think and and I suppose you could say that we haven't done quite as many concerts as people like the stones have or someone we've so my performance is a wish over here still numbering sort of three or four hundreds I suppose there's no are thousands or some people I do but it always it still resonates it still has has its meaning it means that to me every time I sing it [Music] play that in the UM in the control room of number three studio at Abbey Road and it's just something I've been struggling at home and Roger immediately said what's that Elsa and we had just sort of immediately get on with that and work it up and write the rest of the musical so I don't think wish you were here as a song represents what the album was about so much as an element of what the album was about and the album went in different directions and a lot of the album is couched him Syd Barrett terms not in the way the music was presented but in a way that they were trying to bring this ghost from the past into the modern environment to still make him part of what they were doing because he was very much still a crucial element in the Pink Floyd story sadly this was to be the last album produced as a real cohesive joint effort by the entire band Animals released in January 1977 was the first of three Floyd albums which were masterminded by Roger Waters fortunately the album also coincided with waters reaching his very best form as a writer the choice of subject matter on animals is typically bleak and joyless but instrumentally the band continued to shine as brightly as ever Rick Wright plays very much a backseat role in this album he's he plays a lot of pads simple backing but the lovely rhodes piano intro to sheep is is one of the last times we'd hear him in full flow for quite some time absolutely excellent there were no really strong melodies like us and then or Molly or anything like that but just it showed the depth that Roger Waters would would go into to explore lyrical themes very clever lyrics a great piece of composition by Roger Waters and by now he was putting his indelible stamp or as the leader of the direction of Pink Floyd it's it was the start of a kind of dispute between Roger Waters and Rick Wright their keyboard player and Dave Gilmour early guitar player which was sort of I think there's cotton tanks written at atmosphere while we were actually making that album they were looking for a guitar player their room manager got I've got my name I think I was recommended as being an ordinary guy you know could play a bit and so he called me up and said the boys are finishing their album want to come to the studio and meet them that was the animals helping us 76 and so I went along and I said well you've told me you know can you play a bit of bass I said yeah and can you want to do the gig yeah I said to David Gilmour yeah I'd love to do it but you know maybe we should have a bit of jam so you can see how apply and make sure I said I think wouldn't be actually couldn't play with you and I said well no not really he said well that's all right then the first tour I did was the animals album tour and that was much more free as a look you know especially towards the end of the set there was a lot more freedom to do bits and pieces and stretching out of it often overlooked in favor of what went before and after animals represented another milestone in the run of amazing Floyd albums animals very successful musically I see a little bit more tugging and pulling you here can hear a little bit of that as well and animals were particularly bearing you know there was there was some real attacks going on it was always brave whatever the Floyd did was always just we're gonna do this you know whether it was against the record company whether it was against the government whether it was against the tower in the fashion they just did it and I think that's really one of the things that made them so successful No the live shows were becoming increasingly elaborate this trend would culminate in the spectacle of the world released in November 1979 the wall was produced by Bob Ezrin ezrin hugely deserves his producer's credit but it's the chief architect of the album the majority of plaudits were rightfully channel towards Roger Waters who fully deserved the praise for his part in creating what is still a milestone in rock music well the war has been called one of the most successful and most imaginative rock albums of the the whole rock era you know the 60 seventies and eighties because it did combine not just a concept in terms of music on songs and lyrics but also a visual concept as well it lends itself to a much bigger more experimental project so the wall kind of grew and grew really became a big monster out of control it was a very big undertaking and it was very very well done and was done to a very high standard elegant powerfully affecting but hugely negative in its content I mean that has to be said that you know if you look at the lyrics if you read the subtext of what's going on you just go out and slashy wrists I mean Sid appears in the wall a lot you know which is where you know in the movie where the cigarette burns down between the fingers well I went into the room and saw that my friendship with him and his illness combined yeah provided an enormous opportunity for grief it's sad it's very sad I'm still very sad about it with the wall he was expressing all the bricks on the wall were all the things in his life that upset him or made him the way was that was the thing that they played on I think this was largely from Rogers sense of alienation he was a he was an uneasy pop star I think it was fair to say and he had sort of doubts about his role in some ways you know none at all in others rising tensions between Roger Waters and Rick Wright led to the keyboard player being sacked none of them had made any money from the wall the wall had been such an expensive production the only person ironically who made him money was Rick Wright the original keyboards player who had been involved in the production of the wall or wanted to be involved in the production of the wall but allegedly was not very active in that role and and Roger Waters had demanded that he be fired from the group then they realized that they haven't got anywhere to play keyboards or the state so they get him back in on a wage so in fact he is actually the only member of Pink Floyd to make any money out of the wall the live shows which promoted the album were an unforgettable experience ambitious in their scope and their staging waters themes of alienation and separation took physical form with the creation of a real wall and we're going to see the show at the Earls Court in London I'm watching the slow process of building the brick wall which goes on throughout the entire show gradually laying this line of bricks and think what are they doing how's it all going to resolve and of course gradually the band Sapir behind me a huge barrier another final moments a whole lot has destroyed and smashed to pieces and larger realizes that maybe it's not a good idea psychologically speaking to forever a mental barrier inside your head well I think back I think wow there was quite a big show and I and it's very impressive that Roger could actually put that sort of thing together technically to make it work building the wall and knocking it down written into the structure of the show was the nature of what they termed the surrogate bat so for instance the show opens with a thing that is largely instrumentalists are certainly a big bombastic instrumental opening then the light goes down at the end of the song the band's freeze the image the Lancaster bomber or something flies over the head of the crowd the lights come up on a stage that's higher than the stage that they've just seen the Pink Floyd play the opening number and they're on the higher stage who's Pink Floyd playing the second number so it's like hang on you know that was Ben Floyd down there and that was the illusion that they constantly played on and they used what they turned the surrogate band which was myself Andy Bowne Willie Wilson and Pete wood as the surrogates and we were given latex masks and made to look exactly like Pink Floyd Jones cough as I understand it created the whole show entirely from the the visuals to the animatronics to the stage in of it you know that that was his vision more than Roger Waters is massive puppets things that was sort of you know 30-foot high and string puppets that would walk across the stage that the school teacher for another brick in the war was this giant puppet with car headlights for eyes it's a big show and the musicians are just one you know a few small cogs in a big machine there's a lot more going on and you just make sure you get your power right any note that Pink Floyd could have played live was played life I mean that was the bottom line basically musically the orchestral pieces and things like the children's voices in another brick you know we don't need no education that stuff was pre-recorded dabbas on tapes over all had to be basically played in times it was all linked into special effects and click tracks and you know film and that's everything had to be down to the last second most of the time the basic structure of the whole of the first half of the show was the building of the wall up to the point where the final brick goes in and suddenly the house lights come up and the audience realizes that this vast structure you know it suddenly hits the pie cart look at that you know this is 150 foot across 60 foot high wherever it was you know is this vast structure has been built in 45 minutes but in order to get to that point there was a piece of music built in just before the goodbye cruel world where David and I would just trade rifts to give the wall builders time to get those last bricks in some nights it was slow some nights you know they really had to move fast and we were play for three or four minutes when we got the tear down the wall section I was standing inside a cage on state behind the wall as the wall came down and inside the cage with me were roadies who were holding the cage up as these bricks were hammering down on it and it was playing the guitar riff for the tear down the walls section and it was unbelievable and you would have a count down on the monitors as the when the first bricks were going to come because if you didn't have that warning you would you know you just stopped playing it was so frightening I think The Legend of that show is built up because there's such a tremendous cachet to having been there and to having experienced it because you know wasn't this vast touring circus that went around the world for three years it's 29 shows four locations that's it you know see you later I knew that there were tensions in the bat very interestingly Beck's Asia Earls Court there were four caravans in a sort of Square and three of them faced into the middle of the square Rogers face the other way so he didn't socialize whether see now he came to the bar in or the other three were always there after the gig you know few scoops chats and whether it was going well of what could be better and you know those things that anybody would talk about Africa but you know saw Roger it was very much its swan song and the thing was sort of corroding really Allen Parker was going to shoot concept movie and there were going to be dramatic highlights cut in with the story that became ultimately the story of the entire movie the the thing with Geldof and you know the no eyebrows character and pink you know it was just a big rag doll in in our show and then they just jettisoned the notion of the concert at all but they filmed every night at Earls Court for five nights multi camera shoots I mean people everywhere well some people have called the wall of a movie which came out in 1982 directed by Alan Parker a one huge clip in other words lots of repetition and not really focused as a movie my overwhelming feeling really was of disappointment I hoped it was going to be a concert movie and I didn't really know that it wasn't until I went to see the film and I the other thing was that I thought it was a shame that they didn't make more of the music they used the album and just remixed bits of the album rather than actually approach it again from scratch the bigger criticism I would make is is that the movie itself if you compare it with with another album that made it onto the big screen like that who's Tommy there's this there's a lack of humor really in self-parody it's all very very intense I mean it is all on one level and it is very extreme but I guess it had to be you know there that was that was the wall you know that was the concept the wall always repays the listener with new insights into an amazing creation a magnificent achievement which stretches the horizons of Pink Floyd's musical scope to include a worldwide hit single an ingenious Gilbert and Sullivan pastiche and two genuine highlights from the Floyd repertoire run like hell and comfortably numb' david gilmour came up with a song comfortably numb' the fact that it did sneak onto the album opposite if if indeed that was the case was was was of great credit to Dave Gilmour really and because obviously to interrupt Roger Waters is you know tunnel vision about that record whose amazing thing in itself in a strange kind of way it's almost like their greatest hits album because you've got these much sort of tighter pieces of writing much more controlled it's it's less of the very long expensive dark side of the moon sort of a continuous and saga it gave them the chance to produce hit singles which took everybody by surprise as far as the strength of music is concerned with the wall obviously with tracks like comfortably numb' and not the brick in the wall part two you can't you can't say anything about strong and I think the strangest thing is that the room to me does sound a little bit like a soundtrack album I think when he initially bought their album you felt that it wasn't quite a whole in itself was just it was it was an element and you needed to bolt on the other bits and pieces to get the full floyd experience with the departure of Richard Wright Pink Floyd began the eighties as a three-piece with Roger Waters as the real power in the band this disproportionate spoiler control was evident in the next album the final cut released back in March 1983 the overriding impression from this Schill favorite outing is one of a Roger Waters solo album the credits tell you very categorically that this is a Roger Waters work and the fact that he didn't really involve the others really showed his disinterest in keeping the group going the final cut dwell Zahn the politics and social landscape of Britain in the early 1980s the focus is incredibly narrow and kurama's be lifted from an editorial meeting of the Guardian Roger's newspaper of choice the atmosphere of the album is relentlessly downbeat and with no melodic or instrumental relief the darkness and bitterness are overwhelming what is different is that that Bob Ezrin had been dismissed from the camp because he'd he had inadvertently told an American journalist that that's the the finale of the wall stage show would involve it basically being demolished so he's replaced by Michael Kaman who's capable who's a great catalyst he's one of those people who can bring everyone together and his energy in the studio on final cut was very important so he could have badgered I mean if he's such an up figure you could imagine it could have been a lot even more down than it already is if he hadn't been there Pink Floyd never turd with the final cut really because I think no one wanted to turn particularly Roger Waters didn't want to turn he really seemed to want to get out of the whole thing at that point there is a strong feeling that we are revisiting exactly the same somatic landscape as the war with its exploration of the damaging effect of the sacrifices made in war we are very much stuck in the same territory well if you look at something you know peace a piece of music like the war you're hardly going to better that so everything is going to be dead from there no matter what you try at least for a short period of time so when you bring something out like the final cut I think it's going to look at it in that context I think it's on recorders as we going down that a lot of the pieces were leftover pieces from the war which is where Dave Gilmour got a little upset with things even the photograph on the album sleeve that the soldier holding film cans was been cleanly knifed in the back has been widely interpreted as a reference to Rogers frustrations of the creation of the memory a significant aspect of the final cut is that Pink Floyd no longer used hypnosis to design the cover instead Roger Waters and there decides that he will design the cover himself there by almost proving that it's just a Roger Waters solo album the final cut is certainly not a brilliant album it's brilliantly played brutally executed but it does lack the feel of things for instance like back side of the moon and to a lot of people of course the war and so on but I think the album stood the test of time extremely well when you listen to it today I think it's a more valid piece today because it is a historical document at the time not just of Roger Waters you know creating a testament to his father but it's actually a sign of the times in the 80s for which most of us we can remember quite well as a result of a dispute with manager Steve O'Rourke Roger Waters wrote to the record companies informing them that he would no longer be recording with Pink Floyd waters clearly felt that this maneuver would signal the end of the group Rodgers saw it as the final cut you know that's the titleist since the end of Floyd and he probably thought that's what was going to happen of course it would he's absolutely shocked when he learns that the other two members as they then were Dave Gilmour and Nick Mason intend to carry on with the group's name but he only learns this when he essentially issues them with legal papers saying that the group is to be disbanded and the name is to exist no more the final chance despite everything Morris could throw at him Gilmour and Mason emerged victorious they had won the right to use the Pink Floyd name and in a further calculated snub to waters they hooked up again with Richard Wright and produced a new album backed by a huge world tour for legal and tax reasons Richard Wright was not officially a full member of the band again despite the fact that he was a founder member legally Floyd when our duo with a hired keyboard player on wages the album which emerged was entitled a momentary lapse of reason and demonstrated there was still plenty of life in the band even without waters I think moment relapse a reason was a fantastic rebirth the band wrote relapse the reason certainly did breathe new life into the group I mean it got them up and running again on actually a much larger scale than previously there was a huge appetite for Pink Floyd's music and a colossal amount of goodwill the fans really wanted something which sounded like the Floyd of old and sensing the mood David Gilmour was able to produce an album which just about passed muster although the estranged Roger Waters notoriously dismissed the album as a facsimile of the Floyd sound I think it was a sort of a it was modest obviously a very much hid in the in the Pink Floyd style but I think really was a sort of a transition for for David who was very much at the helm was particularly at that point of doing if he was it kind of set up I'm sure he didn't by me saying so really in a way but obviously including the advertising and the band but because they'd been I don't know seven eight years as ever got elapsed since they've done it it was kind of that very much kind of a fresh take on Bob Ezrin is brought back for momentary lapse of reason obviously to her supporters is never liked her and so there's no problems and he's you know he's a proven commodity it's been proven he works he's almost second to none as a producer anyway and I think it's the results speak for themselves Pink Floyd began an enormous trek around the stadiums of Europe and North America playing to huge crowds which easily eclipsed the thin crowds which attended waters solo tour ice by chance got asked to do roger waters first solo tour the pros and cons of hitch hiking so I've done that and I suppose that kind of put me in in a bit of a you know kind of who should we get to play rhythm guitar ah he seems to be alright you know so I've actually got a call to do that much to my surprise I think David rang me personally to start with it was the very first sort of introduc just to see you know what I'd like to be involved and obviously I was you know sounds like a fantastic idea initially was a belief plan to just go out for a number of weeks just in America and they weren't really quite sure how it was going to all go but it very quickly became apparent that some that's a lot of demand for it so he came to it changed from a sound of a few weeks in America to what will ended up to 16 months around the world twice basically huge life-changing thing there were great sort of come camraderie within the back instantly very well both very good very very friendly balance of people at the beginning of the tour only performed that the new numbers from them momentary lapse of reason and he hadn't really been released in fact I think when we when we started out we were released I think that played the first few gigs my album wasn't actually out so this plane that people just didn't recognize this stuff at all they're given that the response was fantastic really he basically tried to keep each other to two numbers obviously the payment was more associated with and the sang and contributed to the writing off so that's sort of narrowed it down a fair bit it's the best period for Pink Floyd life that I have ever seen it went down so I'm pretty sure because most of the public didn't really expect to ever see people playing anything so it was kind of a you know from out of nowhere comes well this baton didn't think we'd ever see and and in the past they'd been very very difficult to catch life so suddenly it became kind of available you know in your town you know a particularly America I mean the response was fantastic before playing a note a great deal of excitement and anticipation and stuff going on the Division Bell released in April 1994 was an altogether superior effort careful studied and mannered the album flows together as a suite of songs there are no dramatic dynamic peaks and troughs or extremes of tempo but the smooth majestic flow of the music worked its magic on audiences on both sides of the Atlantic and for the first time in history Pink Floyd had an album which went to number one in both Britain and America I love the Division Bell I just think it's classic Floyd completely you know you don't have necessarily the angry side of earlier Floyd Nick Mason and Rick Wright were now fully functional and part of the team but with Dave Gilmour not being a dab hand at writing lyrics he enlisted the help of his wife to be Polly Sampson and also Nick Laird clues of the dream Academy to help him together with other collaborators the songwriting tended to be a little diluted compared with previous efforts where momentary lapse of reason had perhaps been a collection of songs that he'd been unable to use in the previous Pink Floyd lineup cluster1 is a great example of exactly how good this band could still be some 30 years after his birth [Music] the tall which supported the album was also something of a triumph it featured an even better and more advanced light show than anything which had gone before and pulse the live album taken from the tour beautifully captured what was certainly a career highlight for Pink Floyd Richard Wright was also back in the fold and as a full member of Pink Floyd in many respects it seemed as if the band had reached the limits of its creativity and in fact its commercial success there was almost nowhere else to go following the death of long-term manager Steve O'Rourke David Gilmour announced to the world that he felt disinclined to continue to carry the weight of the Floyd juggernaut upon his shoulders if there ever was a good example of the old adage that it's best to quit at the top then this was it Pink Floyd bowing out of the recording studio in 1994 with a magnificent best-selling album a gigantic or inspiring live show a wonderful musical legacy and an unmatched reputation for excellence all left blissfully intact with no sad decline into mediocrity to taint the brilliance [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music]

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Rating: 4.7465649 out of 5

Keywords: Documentary, Music

Id: Dk6q_j1gSkI

Length: 76min 49sec (4609 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 31 2017