Douglas Adams — The renowned British author of The Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy and many other exceptional works. Adams is personal friends with several members of Pink Floyd, and he provided the title for The Division Bell.
Pink Anderson — The South Carolina blues musician whose name, appearing on a record of Syd Barrett's, provided half of Pink Floyd's moniker. Born in 1900, he went on the road at 14, singing for Dr Kerr's Indian Remedy Company, a one-man confidence operation. Recording occasionally over the years with his musical mentor Simmie Dooley, his most well-known song was 'South Forest Boogie.' Pink died in 1974, a good musician of the red clay hills in Western Carolina, but not well-known.
Michaelangelo Antonioni — An Italian director and fan of Pink Floyd's music, he asked them to record for his dubious film Zabriskie Point.
Roger Keith 'Syd' Barrett — The founder and early guiding light of Pink Floyd. Born in 1946 at the home pictured here, Syd was raised in Cambridge, where he was friends with Roger Waters, and later David Gilmour. After starting the Pink Floyd Sound in late 1965, Syd's innovative songs and guitar playing rocketed them to pop stardom in 1967. It was at this time that Syd's mental state began to break down, catalysed by heavy use of LSD, the death of his father, his perceived rejection by an eastern guru, and other factors. After being dropped from the band due to his erratic behavior in 1968, he recorded two solo albums over the next two years and had a brief stint with the band Stars before dropping out of the music scene altogether. He lived peacefully in Cambridge on his royalties and painting until his death July 7, 2006 from complications due to diabetes.Peter Biziou — the director of photography for the film Pink Floyd The Wall.
June Bolan — Formerly June Child, she was very very close friends with Syd in the early days, and also served as a secretary for the band. She eventually left to marry Marc Bolan of T. Rex, whose primary
inspiration (coincidentally enough) was Syd.
Alex Bollard — A Pink Floyd cover musician who recorded an album of covers called Pink Rock – Super Sound of the Seventies.
Andy Bown — The bassist for The Wall's surrogate band, he also played on The Final Cut.
Joe Boyd — The producer for Arnold Layne, he would have produced more of Pink Floyd's material if EMI accepted independent producers. He was Elektra Record's representative in the UK at the time; an excellent producer, and a loss to the band.
Pete Brown — A brilliant songwriter for Eric Clapton and Jack Bruce's band Cream, and an integral part of the 60's scene, he was inspired by Syd Barrett.
Peter Brown — The agent for skilled Liverpool poet Roger McGough, who worked with Dave Gilmour on ideas for a concept album in the Momentary era.
Jon Carin — A session musician and writer on the Momentary Lapse of Reason album, he also played keyboards on Pink Floyd's tours of 1987-89 and 1994, as well as on the Division Bell album.
Chris Charlesworth — An English music critic and sometime writer for Melody Maker magazine.
Willie Christie — Roger Waters' former brother-in-law, he took the photos for the album package of The Final Cut, as well as directing The Final Cut video EP.
Peter Christopherson — One of the three members of Storm Thorgerson's contemporary design team TCP.
Bob Close — The blues and jazz guitarist who was in the earliest incarnation of The Pink Floyd Sound. A skilled guitarist who left to pursue his studies, leaving Syd to front the group. He now probably regrets that
decision.
Floyd Council — The North Carolina bluesman whose name, appearing on a record of Syd's, provided half of the Pink Floyd moniker. Born in 1911, Floyd is a very obscure blues artist but nevertheless a good guitarist, best known as a backing musician for Blind Boy Fuller. His solo tracks were issued under the name 'Blind Boy Fuller's Buddy.' He was also known as 'Dipper Boy' Council and 'The Devil's Daddy-in-Law.' He died in 1976.
Karl Dallas — A British music critic, whose pieces have appeared in Melody Maker. He was the closest journalist to the band for many years, and conducted several interviews with both Roger Waters and Dave Gilmour. He later wrote a book about the band, published in 1987, entitled Bricks In The Wall. Up until that point, he was the only critic whose opinion Roger valued.
Bob Ezrin — A talented record producer who co-produced, wrote some material for and performed on The Wall, Momentary Lapse of Reason and The Division Bell. He was an important factor in shaping all of those albums, but most especially Momentary. He was originally brought on board as a mediator between Roger and Dave, and Dave later utilised his skill again to develop the themes of the more recent albums, and create their overall sound.
Ron Geesin — A Scots musician who, in the 60's and 70's, was on the forefront of experimental and avantgarde British music. He played with the Original Downtown Syncopators and recorded an album in 1967 (at the age of 23) called A Raise of Eyebrows. He recorded a film soundtrack with Roger Waters in 1970 (The Body), and was good friends with him for many years. Also in 1970, he wrote a massive orchestral score for the title track on Floyd's album Atom Heart Mother.
Bob Geldof — The lead singer of the Boomtown Rats who starred in Pink Floyd The Wall as Pink. He later went on to organise Live Aid, the original and most successful multi-star benefit concert of the 80's.
David Jon 'Dave' Gilmour — Born in 1946, Dave was raised in Cambridge where he was inspired to become a rock 'n' roll guitarist at the age of ten. He became good friends with Syd Barrett when he was studying A-levels at the local technical college, and they would often play guitar together. Dave's parents moved to New York when he was 18, leaving him on his own. After performing in various amateur bands, doing some modelling, and spending time in France, Dave helped to form a band called Joker's Wild which was almost successful. They recorded half an LP of covers which were issued in a limited pressing. They almost had another cover released as a single, but the release of the original dashed their plans. Dave later played in a band called the Flowers, which performed Hendrix covers on the Continent. Dave was asked if he would like to join Pink Floyd to support Syd's erratic playing at Christmas of 1967, and he joined the band the following March. Many years later, after Roger left Pink Floyd, he would become its guiding lightand primary creative force.
Nick Griffths — A co-producer and engineer on The Wall, who later went on to co-produce some of Roger's solo albums.
Roy Harper — The quintessential English folk/rock singer-songwriter, long-time friends with bands like Pink Floyd (he played at the first free Hyde Park concert with them in 1969) and Led Zeppelin. Some of his highly recommended albums include HQ, The Unknown Soldier (which Dave Gilmour plays on, and cowrote one song for), and Whatever Happened to Jugula? Harper sang on Floyd's Wish You Were Here
album, and inspired a scene from The Wall with his destructive rock-star tantrum at the 1975 Knebworth
concert.
John 'Hoppy' Hopkins — A major figure of London's 60's underground, Hoppy organised the venues at which the Floyd played their earliest gigs, such as the London Free School and the UFO Club. He also was a force behind the International Times, an underground newspaper also run by Miles. It was at a benefit for IT at the Roundhouse that Pink Floyd played their first really major gig. When Hoppy was busted on the pretext of drugs possession, the underground lost an important guiding force. Upon emerging from jail,
Hoppy was a changed man, without the same vitality, and things were never the same again.
Langley Iddens — The actor who appears on the front cover of A Momentary Lapse of Reason and in film footage shot for the subsequent tour.
Peter Jenner — The manager of the Barrett-era Floyd (with Andrew King), Jenner was formerly an
economics professor before he became involved with the underground London scene. He previously managed AMM, and has since managed a number of other bands. When Syd and the Floyd parted ways, Jenner went with Syd.
Michael Kamen — The classical conductor who arranged the orchestral score for The Wall, The Final Cut, and The Division Bell. Kamen is probably the most experienced in the musical field at creating classical/rock hybrids, and he was worked with the National Philharmonic, and arranged orchestral scores for many rock bands, including Guns 'n' Roses. He also co-produced one of Roger's solo albums, The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking. Kamen's scores are usually a subtle complement to the main music and are never invasive, but are most noticeable on The Wall.
Andrew King — The co-manager of the Barrett-era Floyd, with Peter Jenner. He also accompanied Syd when the split happened.
Nick Laird-Clowes — The leader of the band Dream Academy and friends with Dave Gilmour. He contributed some lyrics to the album The Division Bell.
Arthur Lee — Lead singer and songwriter for the 60's band Love, his version of My Little Red Book was an inspiration for the main riff in Interstellar Overdrive.
Pat Leonard — A producer and collaborator for much of Madonna's music, he co-wrote a song for Momentary Lapse of Reason, and played keyboards on that album. He later was a major collaborator for Roger's solo album Amused to Death.
Phil Manzanera — A guitarist for Roxy Music and friend of Dave's who co-wrote a song on Momentary Lapse of Reason.
George Martin — The producer for the Beatles. Many of his production tricks were also used by the Floyd. Martin's engineer Norman Smith became a producer after the album Rubber Soul, and produced the early Floyd albums and singles.
Nicholas Berkeley 'Nick' Mason — The erstwhile drummer for Pink Floyd, and the only one of the band present throughout all its many stages, from the beginning to the present day. Born in 1945 and raised in the Greater London area, Nick met Roger Waters and Rick Wright at the Regent Street Polytechnic School, where all three were reading architecture. Nick took his studies seriously, but was happy to join a pop group, as his materialistic side was very interested in the amount of money that could be made. While Nick's drumming is hardly metronome-exact, his imaginative style was perfectly suited to Pink Floyd's pre-Dark Side of the Moon psychedelic era, and his work in this period is original, interesting, and exciting. Nick's primary other interest is classic cars and car-racing. He owns several million pounds worth of vintage cars, which he personally races with great skill. He can be seen enjoying his avocation in the La Carrera Panamericana film, in which he races a 1952 Jaguar. He is also an interesting artist, and his drawing can be seen adorning the cover of the original Relics album.Paul McCartney — The bassist and songwriter for the Beatles. He was very interested in Pink Floyd as a new generation in music which could utilise the full potential of the emerging studio technology.
Miles — Formerly Barry Miles, he was an important figure of the 60's London underground, one of the collaborators on International Times and owner of the Indica book shop where John Lennon and Yoko Ono met. He was friends with Paul McCartney and known to Syd Barrett and Pink Floyd, and later wrote a book about the band, Pink Floyd: A Visual Documentary.
Anthony Moore — A lyricist who contributed to A Momentary Lapse of Reason and The Division Bell. Especially important were his contributions to the former.
Steve O'Rourke — Pink Floyd manager since 1968, and executive producer of virtually everything Floyd-related. Roger has described him as a hustler and a 'man in a man's world.' Though he keeps a relatively low profile (he can be seen in the La Carrera Panamericana film), he has the final say on all non-creative decisions within the corporation that is the present-day Floyd. He has also made it a point to attend virtually every Floyd concert over the last 26 years. He died of a stroke on October 30, 2003.
Scott Page — The saxophonist who played on Momentary Lapse of Reason and the subsequent tour.
Alan Parker — The film director who made such movies as Fame, Midnight Express, The Commitments, and Pink Floyd The Wall.
Dick Parry — The saxophonist who appeared on Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here, and the Division Bell. He has performed on several tours with Pink Floyd, including the current one.
Alan Parsons — The incredibly talented engineer and producer responsible for so much that was great in the sound of albums like Dark Side of the Moon and Atom Heart Mother. He went on to form his own group, the Alan Parsons Project, which made a career out of studio wizardry and Alan's reputation garnered from Dark Side.
Carole Pope — The Canadian singer-songwriter who was hired to help develop ideas for the Momentary project, none of which came to fruition.
Aubrey Powell — An old friend of Storm Thorgerson's and one of his contemporary design team of TCP.
Guy Pratt — Bassist for the post-Roger Pink Floyd. He played on the Momentary tour, and the Division Bell album and tour. A young and energetic bass player who injects some of the intensity that went out of the band when Roger left.
Tim Renwick — A old Cambridge chum of Dave Gilmour's, he played guitar on the Momentary tour and the Division Bell tour and album after following his friend Dave's career in the Pink Floyd since 1968.
Mick Rock — A photographer and good friend of Syd Barrett's, he shot the photos for Syd's solo album The Madcap Laughs.
Roger the Hat — The infamous roadie whose voice was used to great effect on Dark Side of the Moon. He went on the road for Deep Purple and many other bands.
Polly Samson — Dave Gilmour's wife and co-lyric writer in the Division Bell era. Her son, Charlie,
also makes an appearance on the album.
Gerald Scarfe — The political cartoonist and artist who designed and did the animation for the Wall film. He was friends with the band from the mid-70's, and was one of the three major creative forces behind the above named film. His art was also featured on concert programmes, advertising, sheet music, and other paraphernalia related to the Wall album, concerts, and film. His innovative art style was ahead of its time, and became popular in the adult comic book industry of the late 80's and early 90's.
Nicholas Schaffner — The author of a popular Pink Floyd book, A Saucerful of Secrets, and several other music books, including Lennon and Me, with Pete Shotton. He sadly died of AIDS in 1992 after recording his first album.
Barbet Schroeder — The French director of two films featuring the music of Pink Floyd, More and La Vallée. He has also directed more recent mainstream films such as Reversal of Fortune.
Norman Smith — The former engineer for the Beatles who EMI appointed as the Pink Floyd's new producer when they were signed. He produced most of the band's early albums and singles from 1967-69, and taught them about the studio and recording techniques he had picked up from George Martin. The band took over from conservative 'Normal' Smith as their own producers as soon as possible, in 1970. Oddly enough, Smith would later record and release a relatively successful single under the stage name 'Hurricane' Smith.
Beecher Stevens — The EMI executive who signed the Floyd for a £5000 advance. Stevens was a conservative old school exec who had, when working at Decca, rejected the Beatles when they came to him for a recording contract. He was the typical profits-first, take-advantage-of-the-artist-whenever-possible type. Though his advance was generous, the band received a poor royalty rate. Stevens assigned Norman Smith to keep a firm hand on the group's sessions, as he didn't approve of Syd's strangeness.
Eric Stewart — Originally of the band 10cc, he was brought in to help develop a concept for Dave's first Pink Floyd album without Roger in 1986 (see the entry for Momentary Lapse of Reason).
Chris Thomas — The talented mixing engineer whose skilled hand was responsible for the mixing on Dark Side of the Moon and The Division Bell.
Storm Thorgerson — The artist and designer responsible for most of Pink Floyd's album covers. Brought up in Cambridge, he was friends with Dave Gilmour from childhood. In the sixties, he formed the design company Hipgnosis. The play on words was meant to indicate the connection between the new hip culture, and Gnostic (representing ancient, secret) knowledge. Hipgnosis did the covers of Floyd albums between 1968 and 1977, as well as for many other groups (most notably Led Zeppelin), before dissolving. Storm then joined forces with Aubrey Powell and Peter Christopherson to create the design firm TCP, designing the cover for A Collection of Great Dance Songs in 1981. Later, under his own name, Storm would design the album package art for the post-Roger albums and singles of 1987 and 1994.
Gary Wallis — The hotshot young percussionist who played on the Momentary tour and the Division Bell album and tour, augmenting Nick Mason.
George Roger Waters — Born in 1944 to a dead father, Roger was raised in Cambridge. He attended a boarding school whose main goal was to crush all imagination out of children, so that they would go on to university and 'do well.' Roger’s final report commented that he 'never lived up to his considerable potential.' As a youth, he was an ardent leftist (like his mum) and was president of a local youth nuclear disarmament brigade. After taking aptitude tests, his career counsellor suggested he study architecture. Roger attended Regent Street Polytechnic, where he outraged instructors by questioning the value of their rote teaching methods. He took an interest in rock 'n' roll only when it became apparent that architecture wasn't all it was cracked up to be, spending his grant on guitars and the like. It was at the Poly that Roger met Rick Wright and Nick Mason, also reading architecture. They formed a band, eventually getting in Syd Barrett and Bob Close, and the rest is history. After Syd left the group, Roger assumed his natural role as leader and starting writing most of the material, mainly because no one else was going to do it. Roger's lyrics and song ideas, combined with the musical acumen of Dave Gilmour and Rick Wright, propelled the band to super stardom in the 70's. As Roger's ideas for the statements he wanted to make with Pink Floyd's music blossomed and grew, he assumed more and more control until things reached a head in 1982, when the rest of the band was expected to have no input of any kind. Needless to say, this was not a happy state of affairs for anyone in the group, and Roger formally left the band in 1985 to pursue a solo career. He has recorded three solo albums, each one better and more successful than the last. He staged a star-studded concert of The Wall, to commemorate the fall of the Berlin wall, at Potsdammer Platz in the summer of 1990. A live album of the event was issued. Roger's most recent solo effort, Amused to Death, is a brilliant album but still hasn't garnered him the level of success he enjoyed with Pink Floyd.
Pete Watts — A roadie and then road manager for the band in the late 60's and throughout the seventies. He sadly died of a heroin overdose.
Clive Welham — A drummer with whom Dave Gilmour played in his pre-Floyd days.
Peter Whitehead — A film director who was the first to show interest in recording Pink Floyd, for the purposes of his 1967 film of the underground and above-ground music scene Tonite Let's All Make Love in London (the title taken from Allen Ginsberg's poem). The band appeared briefly in the film and recorded two extended tracks for the sound, though only a brief excerpt was used. When Whitehead discovered the tapes in a cupboard two decades later, they were released in complete form.
Willie Wilson — A drummer with whom Dave Gilmour played in his pre-Floyd days who would later comprise one-fourth of the 'surrogate' (backup) band for the Wall's live concert performance.
Richard William 'Rick' Wright — Born in 1945, Rick grew up in the greater London area and was interested in music from an early age. Rick went to the Regent Street Poly to read architecture (which he was not really interested in), where he met Nick and Roger. Rick subsequently played all keyboards in Pink Floyd, Hammond organ and Farfisa organ in the early days, and synthesisers later. Rick also wrote music up to 1975. By 1977, he was still playing with the band but no longer had creative input. He recorded a solo album, Wet Dream (1978), which hinted at some of the problems he was experiencing in the band at the time. Although Rick was always a good improvisational player and could write a good tune and jam with the best of them, he ran into difficulties when he was asked to play according to other's specifications. At the time of The Wall (1979), he could no longer cope with Roger's demands and the pain of his current divorce, and played very few keyboards on the album. After it was complete, Roger asked him to leave the band, and Rick agreed, becoming a session musician on a wage for the tour. After that point, his involvement with Pink Floyd ended until 1987, when he joined Dave's band as a session musician. Rick started writing for Pink Floyd again in 1991, and was reinstated as a full member of the band for the 1993 recording of the Division Bell, on which he writes and sings, bringing him full circle to the status he enjoyed in the early 70's. Rick died on September 15, 2008 from cancer.Peter Wynne Willson — An early friend of Syd Barrett's, Peter was the first road manager for the band and also designed the lighting for a time. His relationship with the band ended with Syd's departure.
