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Its been a sad day for music with the news that Pink Floyd legend Rick Wright passed away yesterday. Its a bit stange for me as often in the news you here about the passing away of various stars over the years, some you’ve never heard of, some you sort-of know and some who you are extremely familiar with, but I think this is the first time I’ve felt really sad for the loss of someone I have never met.

For anyone who knows me will testify, Pink Floyd have been an extremely important part of my life since I first heard them in 1990 at the age of 15 when the Knebworth Silver Clef concert was broadcast on ITV. I recorded the concert on VHS tape, mainly for the reason that Eric Clapton and Dire Straits were playing which were favorites of mine at the time. I knew Pink Floyd were on the line-up but I’d never really heard them before, and certainly didn’t know the names of the band members, so it was by chance that I stayed watching until the end to see Pink Floyd finish the show. The three songs they played (Sorrow, Comfortably Numb, and Run Like Hell) really had a profound effect on me; I’d never heard anything like it and its fair so say from that moment I became an instant fan, I was literally mesmorised by Comfortably Numb, particularly Dave Gilmour’s guitar playing, and it started a craving to discover more about the band. It also prompted me to start playing the guitar, and the following Christmas predictably became the owner of a red Fender Stratocaster in homage to Dave Gilmour!

It therefore comes as no surprise that since then I have acquired pretty much all of their albums, and after initially tending towards the post-Water’s work, I can truly say I’m a huge fan of pretty much everything they have done. I also managed to see them live a number of times; first time was during the Division Bell tour at Earls Court which just blew me away (although I do distinctly remember the part of the first half was somewhat ruined by a rather stoned individual on the seat next to me that insisted of singing every word stright into my ear, arms aloft, that prompted me to ask to move somewhere else for the rest of the concert!). The second time was the most memorable when I managed to get tickets for Live8; on the news that Pink Floyd were reforming for this one off concert, I had a knee -jerk reaction that made me text the ticket-line a fair number of times (at my company’s substantial cost!) and fortunatelty I managed to get a pair of tickets! Even thought the line up for the whole concert was pretty impressive, I was there for only one thing – to see the four members play together after a break of 25 years for what has now turned out to be the very last time. Although I saw them play again in the form of Dave Gilmour’s touring band without Waters at the Albert Hall, the Live8 reunion was an amazing event that I’m prevelidged to have been able to see.

So back to the original point, the loss of Rick Wright to me is more about the very end of Pink Floyd rather than the man himself, and I know that sounds a bit strange, but, as has often been quoted for bands of such influence, Pink Floyd is bigger than the sum of the individuals, and I’m gutted tht there is now no prospect of the full line up ever playing again. Its a shame really that Dave Gilmour, after initially being the driving force for the continuation of Pink Floyd after the bust up in the 80’s lost the appetite after the Division Bell. Even after Live8, when it was Waters who seemed most keen to get things moving again, with similar noises coming from Mason and Wright, Gilmour seemed to have had enough and wanted a quiet life without the hassles and tension of getting back into the recording studio with Waters. So now, even if the remaining three did do something together as a tribute (which I very much doubt), so much of the Floyd sound is down to the combination of Wright and Gilmour that it just wouldn’t be right!

So it really is the end as far as I see it. Shine on Rick..