Pink Floyd was formed in 1966, in the midst of the psychedelic explosion sweeping London at that time. In small, smoky clubs like the UFO and the Roadhouse, Syd Barrett, Roger Waters, Nick Mason, Rick Wright and David Gilmour stimulated the effervescent British rock scene with their extended free-form instrumentals and surreal pop songs, performed to the accompaniment of bobbling splashes of multi-colored liquid lights.
In 1967 Pink Floyd included vocalist and guitarist Syd Barrett, bassist and vocalist Roger Waters, drummer Nick Mason and keyboard player Richard Wright.
Pink Floyd’s first album was titled The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn. It was released in 1967, featuring the original line-up of Syd Barrett, Roger Waters, Richard Wright and Nick Mason.
A Saucerful of Secrets, the second album, came out in 1968. Pink Floyd was in a state of change. Syd Barrett was kicked out of the band due to his problems with LSD and eccentric behavior. He only appeared on one track. Barrett was replaced by guitarist and vocalist David Gilmour.
With the introduction of David Gilmour, who became an essential musician and composer for the band, Pink Floyd moved away from pop and evolved towards a more creative form of music as one of the pioneers of progressive rock.
In 1969 the band released a double album titled Ummagumma, a collection of both live and studio recordings, featuring an assortment of styles and experimental sounds.
On Atom Heart Mother (1970), Pink Floyd introduced orchestral elements such a strings and brass, along with spoken word parts and the band’s signature sound effects.
Pink Floyd’s legendary film Live at Pompeii, directed by Adrian Maben was filmed in October 1971 at the ancient Roman amphitheater in Italy, amid the ruins of Pompeii, which lies in the shadow of the still-active volcano of Mount Vesuvius.
Live at Pompeii captured Pink Floyd at a crucial moment in their career, just before the release of their ‘Meddle’ (1971) album that lifted them from an underground cult band to a major rock group, reaching Number 3 in the UK charts.
The band at the time was the classic Pink Floyd format: bassist Roger Waters, guitarist David Gilmour, keyboard player Richard Wright and drummer Nick Mason. They are seen performing ‘One Of The Days’ and ‘Echoes’ from the ‘Meddle’ album, songs that would form the cornerstone of their impressive live shows over the next few years. They also played classic songs from their earlier, psychedelic past including ‘’A Saucerful Of Secrets’, ‘Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun’ and ‘Careful With That Axe Eugene’.
Director Adrian Maben chose to film Pink Floyd in the deserted amphitheater as a deliberate contrast to the traditional in-concert rock movie. The walls of the amphitheater give the sound a special resonance while the volcanic antics of Mount Vesuvius provided an amazing backdrop for the band’s experimental, progressive rock music. The film also includes a never-released Pink Floyd song, ‘Mademoiselle Nobs’, featuring an Afghan hound on vocals.
When Live At Pompeii was premiered at the Edinburgh Festival in September 1972, ‘Dark Side Of The Moon’ was still six months away from being released. By the time the film went on general release in 1974, however, Pink Floyd were superstars.
Pink Floyd followed the phenomenal success of ‘Dark Side Of The Moon’ with three masterful progressive rock albums: ‘Wish You Were Here’ (1975), ‘Animals’ (1977) and ‘The Wall’ (1979) that spent an exceptional 15 weeks at the top of the American charts. Their spectacular concerts at the time featured crashing airplanes, flying pigs and giant inflatables, not to mention a 30-foot wall that divided the band from the audience.
Pink Floyd ventured into more mainstream rock after The Wall. The band broke up after ‘The Final Cut’ in 1983 but returned – without Roger Waters – in 1987 with ‘A Momentary Lapse Of Reason’ which immediately re-established them as one of the most popular rock groups in the world – on record and on tour.
During their world tour in 1996 they performed the whole of ‘Dark Side of the Moon’ as well as ‘One of These Days’. Their multi-million selling, career-spanning compilation was titled ‘Echoes, The Best of Pink Floyd.’
Pink Floyd Live At Pompeii was re-edited in 2016 and was featured in ‘The Early Years 1965-1972’ boxed set.
In recent years, Pink Floyd has reissued most of their recordings in remastered ‘immersion” editions, and also in deluxe boxed sets.
Discography:
The Piper at the Gates of Dawn (Columbia, 1967)
A Saucerful of Secrets (Columbia, 1968)
More (Columbia, 1969)
Ummagumma (Harvest, 1969)
Atom Heart Mother (Harvest, 1970)
Meddle (Harvest, 1971)
Obscured by Clouds, soundtrack (Harvest, 1972)
The Dark Side of the Moon (Harvest, 1973)
Wish You Were Here (Harvest, 1975)
Animals (Harvest, 1977)
The Wall (Harvest, 1979)
The Final Cut (Harvest, 1983)
A Momentary Lapse Of Reason (EMI, 1987)
Delicate Sound of Thunder (Live) (EMI, 1988)
The Division Bell (EMI, 1994)
Pulse (EMI, 1995)
Discovery, 14-CD boxed set (EMI, 2011)
The Endless River (Parlophone, 2014)
The Later Years 1987-2019 (Legacy, 2019)