PinkFloyd

The 2008 Polar Music Prize is awarded to the British group Pink Floyd for their monumental contribution over the decades to the fusion of art and music in the development of popular culture. Through extensive sonic experimentation, they captured the mood and spirit of a whole generation in their reflections and attitudes. Pink Floyd managed to evolve and create exciting music and albums over the years, When rock’n'roll developed, Pink Floyd was foremost in shaping the sounds that would influence artists for ever.

Listen to the official Playlist

Chapters

1. The Polar Music Prize Ceremony 2008

2. Introduction

3. Beginnings

4. Psychedelic

5. Departure of Barrett

6. End of a decade

7. 1970–1979

8. 1986-1994: Gilmour at the front

9. 2005: Back on stage

Roger Waters and Nick Mason receiving the Polar Music Prize from HM King Carl XVI Gustaf.

Stockholm, August 2008

The 17th Polar Music Prize Ceremony was held in August 2008 at Konserthuset Stockholm. Pink Floyd shared the Laureate stage with opera singer Renée Fleming.

Nick Mason and Roger Waters from the band attended the ceremony. The citation for Pink Floyd was read by the Swedish Prime Minister at the time, Fredrik Reinfeld.

A stellar constellation of Swedish artists performed to honour the Laureates: Titiyo, Freddie Wadling, Andreas Kleerup, Joey Tempest, Georg "Jojje" Wadenius among others.

The evening continued with the traditional banquet at Grand Hôtel.

Nick & Annette Mason outside Konserthuset Stockholm. (Source: Photo: Emma Svensson, © Polar Music Prize)

Roger Waters arriving to Konserthuset Stockholm. (Source: Photo: Emma Svensson, © Polar Music Prize)

Citation for Pink Floyd read by Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt. Nick Mason and Roger Waters receive the Prize from HM King Carl XVI Gustaf.

Freddie Wadling, Frida Öhrn, Joey Tempest from Europe, Titiyo and Andreas Kleerup performed on stage at Konserthuset Stockholm to honour the legendary band.

"In the Flesh", performed by Joey Tempest, the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and the Polar Music Prize Band.

"Comfortably Numb", performed by Freddie Wadling, Titiyo & Andreas Kleerup, with Georg Wadenius on guitar.

HM Queen Silvia, HM King Carl XVI Gustaf, Renée Fleming, Roger Waters, HRH Crown Princess Victoria.

Interview with Nick Mason and Roger Waters, 2008. A brief story of Pink Floyd, prior to the Polar Music Prize Ceremony in August 2008. Both Waters and Mason were original members of Pink Floyd in 1965. They can look back on a tremendous career in music, creatively as well as in commercial terms. The albums Pink Floyd made, especially during the 1970s, are among the most innovative, influential and commercially successful records ever were made in rock history. The Dark Side of the Moon (1973), Wish You Were Here (1975) and The Wall (1979) are still among the world’s most popular and respected rock albums. But the group’s history started much earlier. And it went on for much longer.

The origin of Pink Floyd is in 1963-64 London. Roger Waters and drummer Nick Mason met while they were studying architecture at the London Polytechnic in Regent Street. So did keyboard player Rick Wright, and they played together in Pink Floyd’s predecessor, Sigma 6. Syd Barrett, an old friend of Waters from Cambridge who also played the guitar and was in London studying art, joined the band in 1965.

London Polytechnic at Regent Street in London where Nick Mason and Roger Waters studied architecture, 1963-64. (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

They called themselves the Tea Set and played mainly rhythm and blues songs. In late 1965 they became the resident band at the Countdown Club in London, playing from late night until early morning, three sets of 90 minutes each. Now they realised that songs could be extended with lengthy solos.

The name Pink Floyd was created on the spur of a moment by Syd Barrett, when another band, also called the Tea Set, was to perform at one of their gigs. The name came from two blues musicians in Barrett’s record collection; Pink Anderson and Floyd Council.

Syd Barret, Nick Mason, Rick Wright and Roger Waters, 1967.

Pink Anderson, one of the two blues musicians whose name inspired Syd Barrett to call the band Pink Floyd. (Source: © Bluesville/Original Blues Classics)

By 1967 Pink Floyd had developed an unmistakably psychedelic sound; long, loud suitlike compositions that touched on hard rock, blues, country, folk, electronic and classical music. Adding a slide-and-light show, one of the first in British rock, they became a sensation among London’s underground as a featured attraction at the UFO Club. Syd Barrett, who wrote most of the band’s early material, had a talent for composing singles-length bits of psychedelia, and they had hits with two of them in 1967: “Arnold Layne” (#20 U.K.), the tale of a transvestite and “See Emily Play” (#6 U.K.). The latter, however, was the last hit single they would have for over a decade. Space-epic titles like “Astronomy Domine” and “Interstellar Overdrive” were more typical. Their first album, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, was released in August 1967, recorded in EMI Studios at Abbey Road.

Pink Floyd in 1967, the four piece band with Syd Barrett (far right). From left: Nick Mason, Rick Wright, Roger Waters. (Source: EMI Music)

Pink Floyds debut album, Piper at the Gates of Dawn, 1967

A rare photo of Pink Floyd from January 1968, with 5 members – when Syd Barrett was still with the band and David Gilmour just joined. Left to right: Mason, Barrett, Waters, Wright. Gilmour seated. (Source: Wikipedia/pink-floyd.org)

"Astronomy Domine", Pink Floyd live on Belgian TV, 1968

Around mid 1967, Syd Barrett began showing increasingly alarming signs of mental instability, allegedly because of an excess of LSD experimentation. He would go catatonic on stage, playing music that had little to do with the material, or not playing at all. An American tour had to be cut short when he was barely able to function at all. Around the beginning of 1968, guitarist David Gilmour, a friend of the band who was also from Cambridge, was brought in as a fifth member.

The idea was that Gilmour would enable Pink Floyd to continue as a live band; Barrett would still be able to write and contribute to the records. That didn’t work either, and within a few months Barrett was out of the group. It was a hard blow for Pink Floyd – but early in the game yet.

Pink Floyds second album, "A Saucerful of Secrets" released in June 1968

Pink Floyd went through a huge development from the late ‘60s into the ‘70s. They moved from Barrett’s concise and vivid songs to spacy, ethereal material with lengthy instrumental passages. Their third release Ummagumma (1969) was a double album, one live and one studio record, showing a more skilful and musically developed group, and with a sound that was much louder and harder.

"Ummagumma", 1969

"Atom Heart Mother" (1970) goes even further, starting with a side-long, 23-minute extended orchestral piece. In 1970 Pink Floyd toured extensively across America and Europe.

1971’s album "Meddle" is considered to be their strongest record between Barrett’s departure and "The Dark Side of the Moon." The 1973 album with its iconic refracting prism design on the cover became Pink Floyd’s definite breakthrough – one of the most commercially successful rock albums of all time.

"The Dark Side of the Moon", released in March 1973. Artwork by Hipgnosis and George Hardie.

Documentary about the recording of "The Dark Side of the Moon."

"The Dark Side of the Moon" was a hard act to follow. After extensive touring, Pink Floyd returned to the studio in 1975 to record their ninth studio album, which became "Wish You Were Here", highlighted by a melancholy tribute to the long-departed Barrett, “Shine On You Crazy Diamond”.

The lyrical themes on "The Dark Side of the Moon" had been insecurity, fear and the cold sterility of modern life. "Wish You Were Here" and 1977’s "Animals" explored these themes even more explicitly.

Now, Roger Waters was the conceptual leader of Pink Floyd.

"Wish You Were Here", released in 1975. Artwork by Hipgnosis.

Cover of "Animals" (1977), with the Battersea Power Station and the pig in the sky.

"Bricks in the Wall" was one of two conceptual ideas that Roger Waters presented to the group in 1978 for the next album – about the material and emotional walls modern humans build around themselves for survival. The other idea would later become Waters’ first solo album, “The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking.”

Both Mason and Gilmour chose the former idea for the new album. "The Wall" (1979) became a huge success, especially in the U.S – in part because the music was losing some of its heavy duty electronic textures in favour of more approachable pop elements. It was largely a lyrical piece. The show was the most ambitious the rock world had ever seen and it was also turned into a film by Alan Parker. Keyboard player Rick Wright was very passive during the recording, and left the band as a result.

"The Wall", released in November 1979.

"The Final Cut" was released in 1983 and looked like it would be Pink Floyd’s final album. It was almost entirely Roger Waters’ – the concept, the lyrics, all compositions – although Gilmour and Mason played on it. It is dedicated to Waters’ father who was killed in World War II, and is critical to Margaret Thatcher’s response to the invasion of the Falklands. It got mixed reviews but was commercially a success. Following the album's release, each member of the band concentrated on solo projects, but Waters then announced that he had left the group, and later attempted to keep Gilmour and drummer Nick Mason from using the Pink Floyd name.

Gilmour fought back legally and in 1987 he recorded "A Momentary Lapse of Reason", Pink Floyd's first album without Waters – with Rick Wright back in the band, Nick Mason still there and with the assistance of several songwriters.

"The Final Cut", 1983

"A Momentary Lapse of Reason", the first Pink Floyd album after Roger Waters left the band.

Another David Gilmour-fronted Pink Floyd album, "The Division Bell", was released in 1994 and became a number one album in both the U.K. and U.S. But after the following tour, on which they played "The Dark Side of the Moon" in its entirety, no more studio recordings of Pink Floyd have been made.

The probably final Pink Floyd studio album, "The Division Bell", released in 1994.

The dispute with Roger Waters was settled legally at the end of 1987. The parties reached an agreement where Mason and Gilmour retained the right to use the Pink Floyd name in perpetuity and Waters received exclusive rights to, among other things, The Wall. In 2005, Waters, Gilmour, Mason and Wright reunited to perform at the Live 8 concert in London’s Hyde Park and later on in 2011 at the O2 Arena also in London. Syd Barrett and Rick Wright passed away, respectively, in 2006 and 2008.

Pink Floyd performing at Live 8 in London, 2 July 2005 (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

Content of biography is presented here as it was published in 2012.

Discover similar artists

2009

PeterGabriel

2008

RenéeFleming