Pink Floyd Biography
High hopes (1986 - 2001)
 In this tense situation, Pink Floyd, now Gilmour and Mason, began
recording a new album, which was meant to show the world that Pink Floyd
were still around, on Gilmour's Astoria houseboat. River was the main
theme of the album, but not lyrically nor musically, it was rather the
design of the cover and promotional posters, which would usually show
Astoria houseboat/studio (praised by experts for its outstanding
acoustics) on a river. The front cover of the album shows a "river" of
beds (not a paste-up! Storm Thorgerson, who had started to design PF
artworks again, indeed lined up 800 hospital beds on a beach). A giant
inflatable bed that hovered over river Thames was used as a kind of
advertisement.
The name of the album, A Momentary Lapse Of Reason, only teased the
supporters of Waters, who considered it a scam, saying that if anyone
has the right to be called Pink Floyd, it is Roger. At the time, Waters
said Mason and Gilmour could never be the Pink Floyd they used to be
with him. Rick Wright, too, participated in the recording, in the
beginning again just as a hired musician, because David still remembered
his zero contribution to The Wall. During the following almost
never-ending world tour, he became part of the band again. At that time,
Pink Floyd reached their post-Waters peak. A Momentary Lapse Of Reason
sold well, although it was condemned by critics for being "hastily
jumbled" just to show Pink Floyd could get around without Waters. Truth
be told, it lacks the weight, vibe and feeling of the previous albums.
Waters did not remain behind either. Immediately after finishing The
Final Cut he started working on a new album - a slightly confusing
vision of marital crisis called The Pros And Cons Of Hitch Hiking,
dedicated to his wife Carolyne. The newspapers commented on that with
wordplay headlines like "Waters in full flow," implying he was back.
After he had recorded the album, he continued with the successful Radio
K.A.O.S. The album was released almost at the same time as Momentary
Lapse, and both Waters and Pink Floyd toured the US. The managers tried
their hardest to make the two parts of the original Pink Floyd play the
shows as far from each other as possible. Waters then broke off for a
moment, while Pink Floyd continued touring extensively.
In the early 90s, Waters aroused public notice in a monstrous way.
The fall of the Berlin wall meant a great opportunity to him, because he
couldn't think of a better place to perform his masterpiece, The Wall,
than a notorious wall that used to divide the world. The megalomaniacal
Berlin gig, which even made it into the Guiness Book of World Records as
the greatest concert of all time, was a real something both for the
fans and the critics. Waters brought in many guest artists, including
Sinéad O'Connor, Cyndi Lauper, Scorpions and many others. Those who were
not invited to play, were given the tickets and invited to see the
concert, except for two people - Mr Mason and Mr Gilmour, as Waters
called his former band mates at the time (never even mentioning Mr
Wright). The Cold war b was over, but the "cold war" between the former
band mates was reaching its peak.
Waters didn't lie back on his laurels after the Berlin renaissance of
The Wall. He started recording a new concept album considered by many
to be the best Waters has ever written, including songs he wrote for
Pink Floyd. It has been the most successful of the Pink Floyd members'
solo albums.
The album named Amused To Death was released in 1992 and again it had
a sort of a central idea, so typical of Waters. It is not as clear as
in The Pros and Cons Of Hitch-Hiking or Radio K.A.O.S, because Waters
had matured both musically and lyrically. Most of the lyrics more or
less sarcastically criticise television or war, but this time it is not
WWII but more prominently the modern wars of the 1990s that were fought
using advanced technology which allowed people to wage the war from
distance and watch it live on TV. We can see a kind of a main character
of the album in the monkey, which represents a dull TV viewer who just
keeps channel surfing while dirty dishes pile in their kitchen... Waters
also criticises the US for the way its government wages wars, "when
pilots just follow their orders and enjoy the beautiful blue sky."
The artwork of the album is symbolic - a monkey sitting on a pile of
straw watching TV with a gazing "eye of God" on the screen. God is also
one of the important themes of the record. Waters doesn't believe
everything that happens is God's will and he states this opinion in the
song What God Wants. By placing contradictions next to each other (God
wants peace, God wants wars)he paraphrases religious sermons and the
belief that people have no responsibility for what they do. At the end
of the 20th century and the beginning of the new millennium, Waters set
out for a world tour which finished in Europe. He has been working on a
new album and composed an opera named Ca Ira. It is sure that Roger
Waters is still enthusiastic about new projects and his music doesn't
mean just the royalties to him.
After the release of Momentary Lapse Of Reason, Pink Floyd toured
extensively. When the tour, which ran from the late 1980s to the early
1990s had ended, the band stated they considered the optimal time
between the releases of new Pink Floyd albums to be 7 years.
Unfortunately, they released one more album only. In 1994 Pink Floyd
surprised the world with their vitality and inspiration when they
released one of the best received albums they have ever recorded -
Division Bell. The album is a typical post-Waters Pink Floyd piece. Even
the artwork, designed traditionally by Storm Thorgerson, reflects the
concept of the record, this time lack of communication. The album is
well balanced in every way, but some of the fans criticised Pink Floyd's
inevitable commercialisation in some ways, for example the track Take
It Back, which reminded the listeners far too much of U2 and which was
undoubtedly added to the album because it was radio-friendly. Moreover,
many didn't like Pink Floyd joining forces with Volkswagen for
advertising. The Volkswagen concern, the main sponsor of the following
tour, even introduced a limited Pink Floyd edition of VW Golf.
The tour was truly magnificent and it was accompanied by the biggest
and most elaborate light show ever, which has not been surpassed to the
present day. It was one of the most successful tours in the history of
rock music (and included the show on Strahov in Prague, Czech Republic,
where Pink Floyd played for 115.000 people including then President of
the CR, Václav Havel).
The tour and the album were shrouded in the Enigma mystery. In 1994 a
user of an anonymous Penet remailer posted a message to the
alt.music.pink-floyd Usenet newsgroup. The message told people to listen
carefully to Division Bell and encouraged people of different social
classes to communicate and help each other find a special feature on the
album, which they called Enigma. No one really believed the user, whose
nickname was Publius, until they decided to show evidence of their
influence. They announced they were going to draw attention to
themselves at a certain concert on a certain day. Initially, the words
PUBLIUS ENIGMA showed up on the marquee below the stage, later they
decided to go more obvious - at the Earl's Court show that was televised
to many countries globally (and released as a video and audio record
called P.U.L.S.E.), a marker hand-written message appeared on the
screen with mathematical equations, that read ENIGMA. Then the message
was quickly blackened. .. That was enough of an evidence to confuse many
people, who tried to reveal Publius' identity and tried to find out
what Enigma was. Publius continued to post encouraging messages on the
internet, but in the late 1995 he suddenly stopped for good, leaving the
mystery unsolved. Many of the fans believe that because the Enigma
remains unresolved, the history of Pink Floyd has to continue and Pink
Floyd will release a new album.
When the tour was over, Pink Floyd retired from working on new
material and they have not released any further albums to present day
(except re-editions and a full live record of The Wall). As far as we
know, Nick Mason doesn't devote his time to music anymore. Neither did
Rick Wright, except for the release of Broken China in 1996, although he
played the keyboards with Gilmour in Meltdown. David Gilmour quite
frequently plays various charity concerts or appears on special
occasions, such as his concert with Paul McCartney in Liverpool Cavern
Club or his appearances at the Meltdown festival. He strictly denies
any rumours regarding preparations of a new Pink Floyd album saying that
the future can only show whether there is going to be any. Pink Floyd
never officially disbanded, so there still is some chance that Pink
Floyd could release another album. As of now, we can only hope. The fans
were happy to see Pink Floyd reunite for a series of Live 8 charity
concerts. It was the first time since 1981 that Roger Waters stood on
one stage with Gilmour and Wright (he had played several other charity
gigs with Mason). Few years before the concert, such a thing was
considered merely impossible, but against all odds it happened. And
speaking of a new album, when the impossible happened once, it could
happen again.
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