Pink Floyd Member Dies
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News ? Richard Wright, Founding Member of Pink Floyd, Passes Away
Richard Wright, Founding Member of Pink Floyd, Passes Away
Mon Sep 15, 10:05 PM GMT
The Associated Press reports that Richard Wright, founding member and keyboardist of seminal English rock band Pink Floyd, has passed away after battling with cancer. He was 65.
The report goes on to say that Wright met Roger Waters and Nick Mason in college and joined their band Sigma 6. The trio then joined with the late Syd Barrett to form the first incarnation of Pink Floyd in 1965. In 1967, the band released its debut album
The Piper at the Gates of Dawn.
The report adds that after the band achieved much commercial and critical success, with such albums as
Dark Side of the Moon and
Wish You Were Here, tension grew between Wright, Waters, and singer/guitarist David Gilmour (who joined the band in 1968, according to wikipedia.org, because of Barrett?s increasingly erratic behavior). During the recording sessions of
The Wall, Waters insisted Wright be fired; as a result, he was relegated to the position of session player.
According to the AP report, Wright subsequently formed a new band Zee, with which he recorded one album. In 1985, after Waters left Pink FLoyd, Wright one again joined Gilmour and Mason to record two albums. The report notes that Wright also released two solo albums,
Wet Dream in 1978 and
Broken China in 1996.
The report adds that in July of 2005, Wright, Waters, Mason, and Gilmour set aside their differences in order to reunite for the
Live 8 Charity concert in London.