The Pink Floyd or Pink Floyd are without doubt one of the most important phenomenons in British music. Certainly the lyric “And when the band you’re in starts playing different tunes” from Dark Side of the Moon is one of the most notable lyrics that come to mind whilst reviewing this incredible history. If you don’t know the history of Pink Floyd, then shame on you.
For anyone who was even remotely close to their teens around the launch of The Dark Side of the Moon this moment changed everything. It was certainly a watershed moment for the band. The Dark Side of the Moon featured a U.S. Top 20 single became the band’s first #1 on U.S. charts and is one of the biggest-selling albums both in U.S. history, and third worldwide (behind Michael Jackson’s Thriller and AC/DC’s Back In Black), with 45 million copies sold. The album stayed on top of the Billboard Top 200 for an unprecedented 741 weeks (including 591 consecutive weeks from 1976 to 1988 establishing a world record. It also remained 301 weeks on UK charts, despite never rising higher than #2.
Pan forward to the re-union at Live Aid.
In the week after Live Aid, there was a revival of interest in Pink Floyd. According to record store chain HMV, sales of Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd went up, in the following week, by 1343%, while Amazon.com reported increases in sales of The Wall at 3600%, Wish You Were Here at 2000%, The Dark Side of the Moon at 1400% and Animals at 1000%. David Gilmour subsequently declared that he would donate his share of profits from this sales boom to charity, and urged all the other artists and record companies profiting from Live Aid to do the same.
On 15 September 2008, Richard Wright died at age 65. He was lauded by his surviving bandmates, Gilmour in particular, for his influence on the overall sound of Pink Floyd.
In April 2009, it was revealed that the band had initiated legal action against EMI, their label for over four decades, for allegedly failing to pay royalties. The dispute is reportedly connected to an ongoing disagreement with Terra Firma Capital Partners, the private equity firm who took ownership of EMI in 2007.
Sound quality in and of itself as well as how it is done live and on record has always been primary concerns of the Pink Floyd. This continues till today with SACD and 180 gm virgin vinyl re-issues all with glorious artwork.
