so sad – didn’t even know that he was ill.
Pink Floyd keyboard player and founder member Richard Wright has died aged 65 from cancer.
Wright appeared on the group’s first album, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, in 1967 alongside lead guitarist Syd Barrett, Roger Waters and Nick Mason.
complete story
Wright toured with David Gilmour in 2006, supporting Gilmour’s On An Island album. If you’re looking for something good to spin today, the Remember That Night DVD which documents that particular Gilmour tour, is great.
Update:
David Gilmour’s comments on Wright’s passing (from Gilmour’s website)
No one can replace Richard Wright. He was my musical partner and my friend.
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.
I have never played with anyone quite like him. The blend of his and my voices and our musical telepathy reached their first major flowering in 1971 on ‘Echoes’. In my view all the greatest PF moments are the ones where he is in full flow. After all, without ‘Us and Them’ and ‘The Great Gig In The Sky’, both of which he wrote, what would ‘The Dark Side Of The Moon’ have been? Without his quiet touch the Album ‘Wish You Were Here’ would not quite have worked.
In our middle years, for many reasons he lost his way for a while, but in the early Nineties, with ‘The Division Bell’, his vitality, spark and humour returned to him and then the audience reaction to his appearances on my tour in 2006 was hugely uplifting and it’s a mark of his modesty that those standing ovations came as a huge surprise to him, (though not to the rest of us).
Like Rick, I don’t find it easy to express my feelings in words, but I loved him and will miss him enormously.
David Gilmour
Monday 15th September 2008
Oh man – this ruins my day. I grew up on Floyd and they have long been one of my favorites. Do you have the “Live at Pompeii” DVD we could watch in mourning?
A sad day.
I am “Lost For Words”
-Craig
Yeah, this is rough news. May the music he helped create live on……and I am sure it will.
If you have the On An Island DVD I highly suggest the “Island Jam” on disc two. It was the perfect spin..thanks Matt.
-c