Pink Floyd, British rock-music band, recognised as taking music from the psychedelic era of the late 1960s into the so-called progressive, or art-rock, genre of the following decade. The band formed for the first time in 1965. The first band members Roger Waters, Richard Wright and Nick Mason. The bands first name was Sigma 6. During their early career , they played under many different names: The T-set, The Meggadeaths, The architechtural Abdabs and the sreaming Abdads

Later the same year Waters bought in a friend from High School, hoping to give the band a new sound. His name was Syd Barrett. Barrett came up with the name Pink Floyd, after two American blues musicians Pink Anderson and Floyd Council. Syd Barrett began to show his creative genius in the lyrics he wrote. The bands popularity was rapidly growing and it wouldn't be uncommon to see their names in papers along with people like Jimi Hendrix. The First Albun singlge "Arnold Layne" rapidly flew up the charts.

However, during the bands success, Syd Barrett was having a few problems. He was often lost in LSD daydreams and was having some mental health problems. Sometimes, while on stage, he would stand on stage playing a single chord while staring into the lights, or just detune his guitar while playing. Sometimes, it was said that the band would have to carry him off stage at the end of a concert and wipe the drool from his mouth. Syd was becoming too much to handle. He had to go.

Pink Floyd's new guitarist ended up being David Gilmour, a long time friend. Syd Barrett repungantly left the band, and a short time later was checked into a sanitarium. The bands new problem was finding their style of music. After doing a couple of soundtracks for foreign films, the band released "Meddle" which is the album from which the bands music started to develop. Through the early seventies, the band became more universal, with most of their fans being in the United States. In 1973, their fame began to apex with the release of "Dark Side of the Moon" This new project showed a different band. All the band members had matured since they first played together nearly a decade before.

At this time, the band was also realising the tension that fame and fortune could bring. It was becoming very obvious that there was a struggle between Roger Waters and the rest of the band. He threatened to walk out on the recording of the album, and also on the following tour. The band then started to record the classic "Wish You Were Here" which was released in 1975. David Gilmour later explained the album was sort of like a "thankyou" to Syd Barrett for his guidance and Wisdom during the early period of the band. To everyone's surprise, Barrett showed up during the middle of recording, nearly seven years after leaving the band, looking nothing like the sheik looking rock star he used to resemble.

In 1976, "The Dark Side of the Moon" had entered the Billboard 200, nearly 3 years after it's release. And more surprisingly, no-one expected it to stay in the charts for the next thirteen years "Animals" was released in 1977 which was met with respectful popuarity In 1978, The band began work on "The Wall". Early in the recording of this album, Gilmour approached Waters with a complete instrumental song that he had played for the rest of the band. After listening to it, Waters said he hated it and wouldn't have it on his album. He cogitated it to be "simplistic and childlike". The rest of the band stood up for the song and demanded that the song be included or they would leave. Reluctantly, Waters agreed. He put together the lyrics in less than half an hour. The song was "Comfortably Numb". Only two weeks after the fiasco, Waters "fired" Richard Wright and the band was now a trio.

"The Wall" was released in 1979, and met with worldwide success, as did the movie production of the same name. A massive tour followed the release, and the rumors of the bands breaking up followed soon after. In 1983 amidst the rumours of turmoil in the band, Pink Floyd released "The Final Cut". The name so ironically characterised the present status of the band. Some people considered the album to be a Waters "solo" album. On this album, no song was co-written with another member of the band.

After a very punctuated tour and a U.K mini movie, no-one heard from the band for two years. Then, in late 1985, Waters left the band and immediatly sued the remaining band members for exclusive rights for all the works of Pink Floyd, including the name. The fight lasted over a year. The final result was that the judge said that Waters left the band of his own free will, and since the band never entirely broke up, the rights to most of the material belonged to the remaining members of the band. However, Waters did recieve a partial decision in his favour. He was to receive royalties for what he had worked on. Neither side entirely happy, but the battle was over.

In September of 1987, Pink Floyd: Gilmour,Mason and Wright(as a paid musician) released "Momentary Lapse of Reason". Originally intended as a solo album for Gilmour, he wanted the album to be done as a whole. Some fans embraced this new album, saying that the spirit of the band was still alive. However, some fans turned their backs on the new project from Floyd. But after a very successful tour, it showed that the band was still as popular as ever.

Meanwhile, Waters in 1989, orchestrated a star studded performance of "The Wall" in a now unified Germany. Other performers for this event included Bryan Adams, Thomas Dolby, Cyndi Lauper and a very special performance by the infamous Vera Lynn. In 1994, The Floyd released "The Division Bell" which flew to no.1 on the American charts.

Despite all of the problems Pink Floyd have had, It is rumoured that there is anew album coming out in 1998/9. In my opinion, there is so much talent left in the remaining members that they can still perform as well as ever.