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Rick Wright Biography



RICK WRIGHT was a founder member of the Architechtural Abdabs, along with Roger Waters and Nick Mason, in 1965. Later that year, with the addition of Syd Barrett, they became the Pink Floyd. The band established itself on the London underground scene with WRIGHT's Farfisa organ a distinctive element in their sound. After two Top 20 singles and a Top 10 album in '67, Pink Floyd looked set for a successful career but Syd's personal disintegration scuppered their prospects.



After David Gilmour replaced Syd Barrett in mid '68 the band gradually redefined their style over half a dozen albums (three of them soundtracks) but it wasn't until 1971's Meddle with the side-long Echoes inspired by WRIGHT's single piano note fed through his Leslie rotating speaker, that the band regained the prospects they'd shown four years earlier



The next album, Dark Side Of The Moon, ensured their place in rock history. Released in 1973, the album became more than just a soundtrack to a generation (many of whom first discovered the delights of stereo listening to it in headphones). It spent an unprecedented 15 years in the Billboard Top 200 album charts and to date it has sold 28 million copies (rising at the rate of a million a year) making it the third highest selling album ever. WRIGHT co-wrote many of the tracks on this epoch-making album but his most memorable contribution was The Great Gig In The Sky.



The next two albums - Wish You Were Here in 1975 and Animals in 1977 - consolidated their position as one of rock's biggest names but, as frequently happens, the band's phenomenal success put an increasing strain on their personal relationships and the creative tensions gave way to conflict. Solo albums were a safety valve and WRIGHT released Wet Dream in 1978.



By the time they came to record The Wall in 1979 Roger Waters was assuming control of the band. WRIGHT felt the full brunt of this when Waters threatened not to release The Wall unless WRIGHT left the band. WRIGHT spent the next two years as a paid employee, playing The Wall in America, Britain and Germany.



None of this was public knowledge until WRIGHT's name was conspicuously absent from Pink Floyd's 1983 album, The Final Cut. However, within months the band had imploded under the weight of the acrimony between the survivors. WRIGHT released his second solo album, as Zee with Fashion singer Dave Harris, in 1984 called Identity, which he now describes as "an experimental mistake". WRIGHT rejoined Pink Floyd in 1987, after Gilmour and Mason had reconstituted the band, during the recording of A Momentary Lapse Of Reason. He arrived too late to contribute any songs but played on the world tour that confirmed Pink Floyd's status as one of the world's biggest drawing live attractions.



However on Pink Floyd's most recent studio album, The Division Bell, the band returned to the co-operative principles that had got lost during the late '70's. WRIGHT co-wrote Wearing The Inside Out with lyricist Anthony Moore and co-wrote the music for Cluster One, What Do You Want From Me, Marooned, and Keep Talking with David Gilmour. More important, as WRIGHT says, "On this album the three of us actually played together. It's like the Floyd again." Millions of fans felt exactly the same way during Pink Floyd's Division Bell world tour which played over 100 shows, culminating in their 14-night stint at London's Earls Court in the autumn of 1994.



Wright was contractually a member of Pink Floyd once again. In 1994, he co-wrote five songs and sang lead vocals on one song ("Wearing the Inside Out") for the next Pink Floyd album, The Division Bell. This recording provided material for the double live album and video release P*U*L*S*E in 1995. Wright, like Nick Mason, has performed on every Pink Floyd tour.



In 1996, inspired by his successful input into The Division Bell, Wright released his second solo album, Broken China, including contributions from Sinéad O'Connor on vocals, Pino Palladino on bass, Manu Katché on drums, Dominic Miller (known from his guitar work with Sting) and Tim Renwick, another Pink Floyd associate, on electric guitar. Broken China was considered to be a more focused and artistically successful work than Wet Dream and marked a new phase in Richard Wright's modus operandi, with extensive use of computer-based recording and production techniques, assisted by Anthony Moore with whom he co-wrote the album's lyrics.



On 2 July 2005, Wright, Gilmour, Mason were joined by Waters on stage for the first time since the Wall concerts for a short set at the Live 8 concert in London. Wright underwent eye surgery for cataracts in November 2005, preventing him from attending Pink Floyd's induction into the UK Music Hall of Fame.



Roger Waters, who was also unable to attend the band's induction due to rehearsals for the opening of his opera Ça Ira in Rome, appeared in video link and stated, tongue-in-cheek: “ Rick actually hasn't had an eye operation, he and I have eloped to Rome and we're living happily in a small apartment off the Via Venuti! ”



Wright contributed keyboards and background vocals to David Gilmour's most recent solo album, On an Island, and performed with Gilmour's touring band for over two dozen shows in Europe and North America in 2006 . On stage with Gilmour he performed piano, electric piano and synth leads with his Kurzweil K2600 workstation, Hammond organ and even his long-inactive Farfisa organ, which was resurrected especially for performing "Echoes" and a couple of Pink Floyd's and Syd Barrett's older numbers that Gilmour chose to revisit in his recent concerts. He also provided backing vocals and lead vocals (notably on "Echoes", "Time", "Comfortably Numb", "Wearing the Inside Out" "Astronomy Domine" and "Arnold Layne" - the latter released as a live single).



He declined an offer to join Roger Waters and Nick Mason on Waters' The Dark Side of the Moon Live tour[citation needed] in order to spend more time working on an upcoming solo project (which may be an instrumental album released in 2008).



On 4 July 2006, Wright joined Gilmour and Mason for the official screening of the P•U•L•S•E DVD. Inevitably, Live 8 surfaced as a subject in an interview. When asked about performing again, Wright replied he would be happy on stage anywhere. He explained that his plan is to "meander" along and said about playing live: “ .and whenever Dave wants me to play with him, I'm really happy to play with him. And [to Gilmour] you'll play with me, right? ” Wright had the lowest profile of any member of a band known for their disinclination to seek individual attention.



Wright was very rarely seen in the live footage from the Live 8 reunion performance; with a few exceptions he was shown only in wide shots.



Wright died of an undisclosed form of cancer in his home in Britain on 15 September 2008. He was 65 years old. At the time of his death, he had been working on a new solo album, which was thought to comprise a series of instrumental pieces.



Bandmate David Gilmour said: "In my view, all the greatest Pink Floyd moments are the ones where he is in full flow. No-one can replace Richard Wright - he was my musical partner and my friend." He added: "In the welter of arguments about who or what was Pink Floyd, Rick's enormous input was frequently forgotten. He was gentle, unassuming and private but his soulful voice and playing were vital, magical components of our most recognised Pink Floyd sound. Like Rick, I don't find it easy to express my feelings in words, but I loved him and will miss him enormously. I have never played with anyone quite like him."



Bandmate Roger Waters's website displayed nothing except a simple picture as a tribute. An array of candles and poppies against a black background, with some of the candles having extinguished.



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