Pink Floyd page 2

A Momentary Lapse of Reason was released in September 1987. Storm Thorgerson, whose creative input was absent from The Wall and The Final Cut, designed the album cover. To drive home that Roger Waters had left the band, they included a group photograph on the inside cover, the first since Meddle. The album went straight to number three in the UK and the US. Roger Waters commented: "I think it's facile, but a quite clever forgery ... The songs are poor in general ... [and] David Gilmour's lyrics are third-rate." Although David Gilmour initially viewed the album as a return to the band's top form, Richard Wright disagreed, stating: "Roger's criticisms are fair. It's not a band album at all." Q magazine described the album as essentially a David Gilmour solo album.

Roger Waters attempted to subvert the Momentary Lapse of Reason tour by contacting promoters in the US and threatening to sue them if they used the Pink Floyd name. David Gilmour and Nick Mason funded the start-up costs with Mason using his Ferrari 250 GTO as collateral. Early rehearsals for the upcoming tour were chaotic, with Nick Mason and Richard Wright entirely out of practice. Realising he had taken on too much work, David Gilmour asked Bob Ezrin to assist them. As Pink Floyd toured North America, Roger Waters' Radio K.A.O.S. tour was on occasion, close by, though in much smaller venues than those hosting his former band's performances. Roger Waters issued a writ for copyright fees for the band's use of the flying pig. Pink Floyd responded by attaching a large set of male genitalia to its underside to distinguish it from Roger Waters' design. The parties reached a legal agreement on 23 December; Nick Mason and David Gilmour retained the right to use the Pink Floyd name in perpetuity and Roger Waters received exclusive rights to, among other things, The Wall.

Storm drew inspiration for the album cover from the Moai monoliths of Easter Island; two opposing faces forming an implied third face about which he commented: "the absent face—the ghost of Pink Floyd's past, Syd and Roger". To avoid competing against other album releases, as had happened with A Momentary Lapse of Reason, Pink Floyd set a deadline of April 1994, at which point they would resume touring. The Division Bell reached number 1 in the UK and the US, and spent 51 weeks on the UK chart.

Pink Floyd spent more than two weeks rehearsing in a hangar at Norton Air Force Base in San Bernardino, California, before opening on 29 March 1994, in Miami, with an almost identical road crew to that used for their Momentary Lapse of Reason Tour. They played a variety of Pink Floyd favourites, and later changed their setlist to include The Dark Side of the Moon in its entirety. The Division Bell Tour, Pink Floyd's last, ended on 29 October 1994. Nick Mason published a memoir, Inside Out: A Personal History of Pink Floyd, in 2004.

Though Pink Floyd turned down a contract worth £136 million for a final tour, Roger Waters did not rule out more performances, suggesting it ought to be for a charity event only. However, David Gilmour told the Associated Press that a reunion would not happen: "The Live 8 rehearsals convinced me that it wasn't something I wanted to be doing a lot of ... There have been all sorts of farewell moments in people's lives and careers which they have then rescinded, but I think I can fairly categorically say that there won't be a tour or an album again that I take part in. It isn't to do with animosity or anything like that. It's just ... I've been there, I've done it." In February 2006, David Gilmour was interviewed for the Italian newspaper La Repubblica, which declared: "Patience for fans in mourning. The news is official. Pink Floyd the brand is dissolved, finished, definitely deceased." Asked about the future of Pink Floyd, David Gilmour responded: "It's over ... I've had enough. I'm 60 years old ... it is much more comfortable to work on my own." David Gilmour and Roger Waters repeatedly said that they had no plans to reunite.

His former bandmates paid tributes to his life and work; David Gilmour said that Richard Wright's contributions were often overlooked, and that his "soulful voice and playing were vital, magical components of our most recognised Pink Floyd sound". A week after Richard Wright's death, David Gilmour performed "Remember a Day" from A Saucerful of Secrets, written and originally sung by Richard Wright, in tribute to him on BBC Two's Later... with Jools Holland. Keyboardist Keith Emerson released a statement praising Richard Wright as the "backbone" of Pink Floyd.

The albums were remastered by James Guthrie, co-producer of The Wall. In November 2015, Pink Floyd released a limited edition EP, 1965: Their First Recordings, comprising six songs recorded prior to The Piper at the Gates of Dawn.

The vinyl edition was the fastest-selling UK vinyl release of 2014 and the fastest-selling since 1997. David Gilmour said The Endless River would be Pink Floyd's last album, saying: "I think we have successfully commandeered the best of what there is ... It's a shame, but this is the end." There was no supporting tour, as David Gilmour felt it was impossible without Richard Wright. In 2015, David Gilmour reiterated that Pink Floyd were "done" and that to reunite without Richard Wright would be wrong. Nick Mason said in 2018 that, while he remained close to David Gilmour and Roger Waters, they remained "at loggerheads".

In November 2016, Pink Floyd released a box set, The Early Years 1965–1972, comprising outtakes, live recordings, remixes, and films from their early career. It was followed in December 2019 by The Later Years, compiling Pink Floyd's work after Roger Waters' departure. The set includes a remixed version of A Momentary Lapse of Reason with more contributions by Richard Wright and Nick Mason, and an expanded reissue of the live album Delicate Sound of Thunder. In November 2020, the reissue of Delicate Sound of Thunder was given a standalone release on multiple formats. Pink Floyd's Live at Knebworth 1990 performance, previously released as part of the Later Years box set, was released on CD and vinyl on 30 April.

In 2018, Nick Mason formed a new band, Nick Mason's Saucerful of Secrets, to perform Pink Floyd's early material. The band includes Gary Kemp of Spandau Ballet and longtime Pink Floyd collaborator Guy Pratt. They toured Europe in September 2018 and North America in 2019. Roger Waters joined the band at the New York Beacon Theatre to perform vocals for "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun".

"Rarely will you find Floyd dishing up catchy hooks, tunes short enough for air-play, or predictable three-chord blues progressions; and never will you find them spending much time on the usual pop album of romance, partying, or self-hype. Their sonic universe is expansive, intense, and challenging ... Where most other bands neatly fit the songs to the music, the two forming a sort of autonomous and seamless whole complete with memorable hooks, Pink Floyd tends to set lyrics within a broader soundscape that often seems to have a life of its own ... Pink Floyd employs extended, stand-alone instrumentals which are never mere vehicles for showing off virtuoso but are planned and integral parts of the performance."

During the late 1960s, the press labelled Pink Floyd's music psychedelic pop, Progressive pop and Progressive rock; they gained a following as a psychedelic pop group. In 1968, Richard Wright said: "It's hard to see why we were cast as the first British psychedelic group. We never saw ourselves that way ... we realised that we were, after all, only playing for fun ... tied to no particular form of music, we could do whatever we wanted ... the emphasis ... is firmly on spontaneity and improvisation." Roger Waters said later: "There wasn't anything 'grand' about it. We were laughable. We were useless. We couldn't play at all so we had to do something stupid and 'experimental' ... Syd was a genius, but I wouldn't want to go back to playing "Interstellar Overdrive" for hours and hours." Unconstrained by conventional pop formats, Pink Floyd were innovators of progressive rock during the 1970s and Ambient music during the 1980s.

David Gilmour paces himself throughout and builds upon his initial idea by leaping into the upper register with gut-wrenching one-and-one-half-step 'over bends', soulful triplet arpeggios and a typically impeccable bar vibrato." Jimmy Brown described David Gilmour's phrasing as intuitive and perhaps his best asset as a lead guitarist. David Gilmour explained how he achieved his signature tone: "I usually use a fuzz box, a delay and a bright EQ setting ... to get singing sustain ... you need to play loud—at or near the feedback threshold. It's just so much more fun to play ... when bent notes slice right through you like a razor blade."

Pink Floyd used innovative sound effects and state of the art audio recording technology during the recording of The Final Cut. Nick Mason's contributions to the album were almost entirely limited to work with the experimental Holophonic system, an audio processing technique used to simulate a three-dimensional effect. The system used a conventional stereo tape to produce an effect that seemed to move the sound around the listener's head when they were wearing headphones. The process enabled an engineer to simulate moving the sound to behind, above or beside the listener's ears.

On 29 April 1967, they headlined an all-night event called The 14 Hour Technicolour Dream at the  Alexandra Palace, London. Pink Floyd arrived at the festival at around three o'clock in the morning after a long journey by van and ferry from the Netherlands, taking the stage just as the sun was beginning to rise. In July 1969, precipitated by their space-related music and lyrics, they took part in the live BBC television coverage of the Apollo 11 moon landing, performing an instrumental piece which they called "Moonhead".

In November 1974, they employed for the first time the large circular screen that would become a staple of their live shows. In 1977, they employed the use of a large inflatable floating pig named "Algie". Filled with helium and propane, Algie, while floating above the audience, would explode with a loud noise during the In the Flesh Tour. The behaviour of the audience during the tour, as well as the large size of the venues, proved a strong influence on their concept album The Wall. The subsequent The Wall Tour featured a 40 feet (12 m) high wall, built from cardboard bricks, constructed between the band and the audience. They projected animations onto the wall, while gaps allowed the audience to view various scenes from the story. They commissioned the creation of several giant inflatables to represent characters from the story. One striking feature of the tour was the performance of "Comfortably Numb". While Roger Waters sang his opening verse, in darkness, David Gilmour waited for his cue on top of the wall. When it came, bright blue and white lights would suddenly reveal him. David Gilmour stood on a flightcase on castors, an insecure setup supported from behind by a technician. A large hydraulic platform supported both David Gilmour and the tech.

During the The Division Bell Tour, an unknown person using the name Publius posted a message on an internet newsgroup inviting fans to solve a riddle supposedly concealed in the new album. White lights in front of the stage at the Pink Floyd concert in East Rutherford spelled out the words Enigma Publius. During a televised concert at Earls Court on 20 October 1994, someone projected the word "enigma" in large letters on to the backdrop of the stage. Nick Mason later acknowledged that their record company had instigated the Publius Enigma mystery, rather than the band.

The album's characters include the "Dogs", representing fervent capitalists, the "Pigs", symbolising political corruption, and the "Sheep", who represent the exploited. Croskery described the "Sheep" as being in a "state of delusion created by a misleading cultural identity", a false consciousness. The "Dog", in his tireless pursuit of self-interest and success, ends up depressed and alone with no one to trust, utterly lacking emotional satisfaction after a life of exploitation. Roger Waters used Mary Whitehouse as an example of a "Pig"; being someone who in his estimation, used the power of the government to impose her values on society. At the album's conclusion, Roger Waters returns to empathy with the lyrical statement: "You know that I care what happens to you. And I know that you care for me too." However, he also acknowledges that the "Pigs" are a continuing threat and reveals that he is a "Dog" who requires shelter, suggesting the need for a balance between state, commerce and community, versus an ongoing battle between them.

War, viewed as the most severe consequence of the manifestation of alienation from others, is also a core element of The Wall, and a recurring theme in the band's music. Roger Waters' father died in combat during the Second World War, and his lyrics often alluded to the cost of war, including those from "Corporal Clegg" (1968), "Free Four" (1972), "Us and Them" (1973), "When the Tigers Broke Free" and "The Fletcher Memorial Home" from The Final Cut (1983), an album dedicated to his late father and subtitled A Requiem for The Postwar Dream. The themes and composition of The Wall express Roger Waters' upbringing in an English society depleted of men after the Second World War, a condition that negatively affected his personal relationships with women.

Roger Waters' lyrics to The Dark Side of the Moon dealt with the pressures of modern life and how those pressures can sometimes cause insanity. He viewed the album's explication of mental illness as illuminating a universal condition. However, Roger Waters also wanted the album to communicate positivity, calling it "an exhortation ... to embrace the positive and reject the negative." Reisch described The Wall as "less about the experience of madness than the habits, institutions, and social structures that create or cause madness." The Wall's protagonist, Pink, is unable to deal with the circumstances of his life, and overcome by feelings of guilt, slowly closes himself off from the outside world inside a barrier of his own making. After he completes his estrangement from the world, Pink realises that he is "crazy, over the rainbow". He then considers the possibility that his condition may be his own fault: "have I been guilty all this time?" Realising his greatest fear, Pink believes that he has let everyone down, his overbearing mother wisely choosing to smother him, the teachers rightly criticising his poetic aspirations, and his wife justified in leaving him. He then stands trial for "showing feelings of an almost human nature", further exacerbating his alienation of species being. As with the writings of philosopher Michel Foucault, Roger Waters' lyrics suggest Pink's insanity is a product of modern life, the elements of which, "custom, codependancies, and psychopathologies", contribute to his angst, according to Reisch.

And in 2004, on their 500 Greatest Songs of All Time list, Rolling Stone included "Comfortably Numb" at number 314, "Wish You Were Here" at number 316, and "Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2" at number 375.

In 2004, MSNBC ranked Pink Floyd number 8 on their list of "The 10 Best Rock Bands Ever". In the same year, Q Magazine named Pink Floyd as the biggest band of all time according to "a points system that measured sales of their biggest album, the scale of their biggest headlining show and the total number of weeks spent on the UK album chart". Rolling Stone ranked them number 51 on their list of "The 100 Greatest Artists of All Time". VH1 ranked them number 18 in the list of the "100 Greatest Artists of All Time". Colin Larkin ranked Pink Floyd number 3 in his list of the 'Top 50 Artists of All Time', a ranking based on the cumulative votes for each artist's albums included in his All Time Top 1000 Albums. In 2008, the head rock and pop critic of The Guardian, Alexis Petridis, wrote that the band occupy a unique place in Progressive rock, stating, "Thirty years on, prog is still persona non grata [...] Only Pink Floyd—never really a prog band, their penchant for long songs and 'concepts' notwithstanding—are permitted into the 100 best album lists." The writer Eric Olsen has called Pink Floyd "the most eccentric and experimental multi-platinum band of the album rock era".

Pink Floyd have won several awards. In 1981 audio engineer James Guthrie won the Grammy Award for "Best Engineered Non-Classical Album" for The Wall, and Roger Waters won the British Academy of Film and Television Arts award for "Best Original Song Written for a Film" in 1983 for "Another Brick in the Wall" from The Wall film. In 1995, Pink Floyd won the Grammy for "Best Rock Instrumental Performance" for "Marooned". In 2008, King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden presented Pink Floyd with the Polar Music Prize for their contribution to modern music; Roger Waters and Nick Mason attended the ceremony and accepted the award. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996, the UK Music Hall of Fame in 2005, and the Hit Parade Hall of Fame in 2010.

Pink Floyd have influenced numerous artists. David Bowie called Syd Barrett a significant inspiration, and The Edge of U2 bought his first delay pedal after hearing the opening guitar chords to "Dogs" from Animals. Other bands and artists who cite them as an influence include Queen, Radiohead, Steven Wilson, Marillion, Queensrÿche, Nine Inch Nails, The Orb and The Smashing Pumpkins. Pink Floyd were an influence on the Neo-progressive rock subgenre which emerged in the 1980s. The English rock band  Mostly Autumn "fuse the music of Genesis and Pink Floyd" in their sound.

Pink Floyd were admirers of the Monty Python comedy group, and helped finance their 1975 film Monty Python and the Holy Grail. In 2016, Pink Floyd became the second band (after The Beatles) to feature on a series of UK postage stamps issued by the Royal Mail. In May 2017, to mark the 50th anniversary of Pink Floyd's first single, an audio-visual exhibition, Their Mortal Remains, opened at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. The exhibition featured analysis of cover art, conceptual props from the stage shows, and photographs from Nick Mason's personal archive. It was extended for two weeks beyond its planned closing date of 1 October.