Pink Floyd: the story on HearLore

Pink Floyd

In 1965, four young men from London's architecture and art schools formed a band that would eventually redefine the boundaries of rock music, yet their origins were rooted in the mundane reality of student housing and shared rent. Roger Waters, Nick Mason, and Richard Wright were studying architecture at the London Polytechnic at Regent Street when they began playing music together in a group initially called Sigma 6. They were joined by Syd Barrett, a charismatic and eccentric guitarist who had moved to London to study at Camberwell College of Arts. Barrett's influence was immediate and transformative; he was described by Mason as unfashionably outgoing in an era of adolescent coolness. The group, which went through several name changes including the Tea Set, began performing at the Countdown Club, playing three sets of ninety minutes each from late night until early morning. It was during these grueling hours that they realized songs could be extended with lengthy solos to minimize repetition, a practice that would become a hallmark of their future sound. By late 1965, they rebranded as the Pink Floyd Sound, a name Barrett supposedly created on the spur of the moment after discovering another band called the Tea Set was playing at one of their gigs. The name was derived from the given names of two blues musicians, Pink Anderson and Floyd Council, whose records Barrett collected. Their early performances were not immediately successful; after a gig at a Catholic youth club, the owner refused to pay them, claiming their performance was not music. A local magistrate upheld the owner's decision, but the band found a home at the UFO Club, where they began to build a fan base and experiment with rudimentary light shows projected by colored slides and domestic lights. By 1966, they had secured their first major management deal with Peter Jenner and Andrew King, who set up Blackhill Enterprises to manage their affairs and purchase new equipment. The band's first single, Arnold Layne, was released in March 1967, and despite a ban by several radio stations due to its references to cross-dressing, it reached number 20 in the UK. Their second single, See Emily Play, followed in June 1967, peaking at number 6. The band's early success was built on a foundation of psychedelic experimentation and a unique ability to extend compositions, setting them apart from their contemporaries.

The Disappearance of Syd

The mental deterioration of Syd Barrett, the band's primary songwriter and frontman, began in early 1967 and accelerated rapidly, transforming the group from a promising psychedelic act into a crisis of leadership. Barrett's regular use of LSD led to behavior that Mason described as being completely distanced from everything going on. By the time of their first US tour in October 1967, his condition had worsened to the point where he would stare into space during performances, refusing to move his lips when it came time to mime See Emily Play on the Pat Boone show. The band's manager, Andrew King, informed the music press that Barrett was suffering from nervous exhaustion, and they were forced to cancel appearances at prestigious venues like the National Jazz and Blues Festival. Attempts to help him included a meeting with psychiatrist R. D. Laing, which Barrett refused to attend, and a stay in Formentera with a doctor well established in the underground music scene, which led to no visible improvement. In December 1967, reaching a crisis point, Pink Floyd added guitarist David Gilmour as a fifth member. Gilmour, who had studied with Barrett at Cambridge Tech in the early 1960s and had once watched the Tea Set perform, was brought in to cover for Barrett's eccentricities. The plan was for Gilmour to cover for Barrett's eccentricities while Barrett continued to write material, but this proved unworkable. Barrett, frustrated by the expectation to write additional hit singles, introduced Have You Got It Yet? to the band, intentionally changing the structure on each performance to make the song impossible to follow and learn. In January 1968, a band member asked if they should collect Barrett for a performance in Southampton, and according to Gilmour, the answer was Nah, let's not bother, signaling the end of Barrett's tenure. Waters later said, He was our friend, but most of the time we now wanted to strangle him. Barrett agreed to leave in early March 1968, and Blackhill Enterprises announced his departure on the 6th of April 1968. Jenner and King decided to represent Barrett and end their relationship with Pink Floyd, leaving the band to navigate their future without their creative genius. The burden of lyrical composition and creative direction fell mostly on Waters, and the band began to evolve into a different entity, one that would eventually produce some of the most successful albums in rock history.

When did Pink Floyd form and who were the founding members?

Pink Floyd formed in 1965 with founding members Roger Waters, Nick Mason, Richard Wright, and Syd Barrett. The group initially played under the name Sigma 6 before evolving into the Pink Floyd Sound by late 1965.

Why did Syd Barrett leave Pink Floyd and when was his departure announced?

Syd Barrett left Pink Floyd due to mental deterioration and erratic behavior caused by regular LSD use. His departure was announced by Blackhill Enterprises on the 6th of April 1968 after he agreed to leave in early March 1968.

Which Pink Floyd album became the third best-selling album in the world and when was it released?

The Dark Side of the Moon became the world's third best-selling album after its release in March 1973. It sold more than 45 million copies worldwide and remained on the Billboard Top LPs & Tape chart for more than fourteen years.

When did Pink Floyd perform together for the first time in over 24 years and where did the concert take place?

Pink Floyd performed together for the first time in more than 24 years on the 2nd of July 2005 at the Live 8 benefit concert in Hyde Park, London. The reunion was arranged by Bob Geldof and included all four surviving members of the band.

When did Pink Floyd agree to sell their catalogue and to which company was it sold?

Pink Floyd agreed to sell their catalogue to Sony Music for approximately $400 million in October 2024. The sale included rights to recordings and merchandise but excluded songwriting rights.

When was the soundtrack album for the 4K restoration of Pink Floyd: Live at Pompeii released and what chart position did it achieve?

The soundtrack album for the 4K restoration of Pink Floyd: Live at Pompeii was released on the 2nd of May 2025. It became Pink Floyd's seventh UK number-one album.

The Sonic Architects

Following Barrett's departure, Pink Floyd entered a period of intense musical experimentation and transition, marked by the release of A Saucerful of Secrets in June 1968. The album included Barrett's final contribution, Jugband Blues, and showcased the emerging songwriting talents of Waters, Wright, and Gilmour. Norman Smith, the band's producer, encouraged them to self-produce their music, and they recorded demos at their houses. With Smith's instruction at Abbey Road, they learned how to use the recording studio to realize their artistic vision, though Smith remained unconvinced by their music. Wright recalled Smith's attitude about the sessions, saying, Norman gave up on the second album... he was forever saying things like, You can't do twenty minutes of this ridiculous noise. As neither Waters nor Mason could read music, they invented their own system of notation to illustrate the structure of A Saucerful of Secrets, which Gilmour later described as looking like an architectural diagram. The album reached number 9 on the UK chart and featured a psychedelic cover designed by Storm Thorgerson and Aubrey Powell of Hipgnosis, the first of many Pink Floyd album covers designed by the duo. In 1969, the band released Ummagumma, a double LP that contained live performances and experimental contributions from each member. The following year, they released Atom Heart Mother, their first number-one album, which Waters later criticized as a load of rubbish. The band continued to tour extensively across America and Europe, and by 1971, they were making a profit. Mason and Wright became fathers and bought homes in London, while Gilmour moved to a 19th-century farm in Essex. Waters installed a recording studio at his home in Islington in a converted tool shed. In January 1971, upon their return from touring Atom Heart Mother, Pink Floyd began working on new material, spending long periods working on basic sounds or a guitar riff. They also spent several days at Air Studios, attempting to create music using a variety of household objects, a project that would be revisited between The Dark Side of the Moon and Wish You Were Here. Meddle, released in October 1971, marked a transition between the Barrett-led group of the late 1960s and the emerging Pink Floyd, with Jean-Charles Costa of Rolling Stone writing that it not only confirms lead guitarist David Gilmour's emergence as a real shaping force with the group, it states forcefully and accurately that the group is well into the growth track again. The album featured the song Echoes, which NME called the Zenith which the Floyd have been striving for, and it spent 82 weeks on the UK chart. The band's sound was evolving, incorporating elements of space rock, experimental rock, and acid rock, and they were beginning to establish themselves as one of the leading progressive rock bands of the era.

The Dark Side of the Moon

The Dark Side of the Moon, released in March 1973, became one of the most commercially successful rock albums of all time, selling more than 45 million copies worldwide and remaining on the Billboard Top LPs & Tape chart for more than fourteen years during the 1970s and 1980s. The band recorded the album between May 1972 and January 1973 with EMI staff engineer Alan Parsons at Abbey Road, and the title is an allusion to lunacy rather than astronomy. The band had composed and refined the material while touring the UK, Japan, North America, and Europe, and producer Chris Thomas assisted Parsons. Hipgnosis designed the packaging, which included George Hardie's iconic refracting prism design on the cover, with a beam of white light representing unity passing through a prism, which represents society, and the refracted beam of colored light symbolizing unity diffracted, leaving an absence of unity. Waters is the sole author of the lyrics, which explore themes of time, money, mental health, and death. The album reached number 2 in the UK and number 1 in the US, and it is the world's third best-selling album, and the twenty-first best-selling album of all time in the US. The success of the album brought enormous wealth to the members of Pink Floyd, with Waters and Wright buying large country houses and Mason becoming a collector of expensive cars. Disenchanted with their US record company, Capitol Records, Pink Floyd and O'Rourke negotiated a new contract with Columbia Records, who gave them a reported advance of US$1,000,000. In Europe, they continued to be represented by Harvest Records. The album's success was not without controversy; every member of Pink Floyd except Wright boycotted the press release of The Dark Side of the Moon because a quadraphonic mix had not yet been completed, and they felt presenting the album through a poor-quality stereo PA system was insufficient. Melody Maker Roy Hollingworth described side one as utterly confused... and difficult to follow, but praised side two, writing: The songs, the sounds... and the rhythms were solid... the saxophone hit the air, the band rocked and rolled. Rolling Stone Loyd Grossman described it as a fine album with a textural and conceptual richness that not only invites, but demands involvement. The album's themes and sound would influence countless artists and cement Pink Floyd's status as one of the greatest bands in rock history.

The Wall of Isolation

The Wall, released on the 30th of November 1979, topped the Billboard chart in the US for 15 weeks and reached number 3 in the UK, becoming one of the best-selling albums of all time with 23 million certified units sold in the US. The album was supported by Pink Floyd's first single since Money, Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2), which topped the charts in the US and the UK. The story of The Wall was based on the central figure of Pink, a gestalt character inspired by Waters's childhood experiences, the most notable of which was the death of his father in World War II. This first metaphorical brick led to more problems; Pink would become drug-addled and depressed by the music industry, eventually transforming into a megalomaniac, a development inspired partly by the decline of Syd Barrett. At the end of the album, the increasingly fascist audience would watch as Pink tore down the wall, once again becoming a regular and caring person. During the recording of The Wall, the band became dissatisfied with Wright's lack of contribution and fired him. Gilmour said that Wright was dismissed as he hadn't contributed anything of any value whatsoever to the album, he did very, very little. According to Mason, Wright would sit in on the sessions without doing anything, just being a producer. Waters said the band agreed that Wright would either have to have a long battle or agree to leave quietly after the album was finished; Wright accepted the ultimatum and left. The Wall was supported by Pink Floyd's first single since Money, Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2), which topped the charts in the US and the UK. The cover, with a stark brick wall and band name, was the first Pink Floyd album cover since The Piper at the Gates of Dawn not designed by Hipgnosis. Gerald Scarfe produced a series of animations for the Wall tour, and he also commissioned the construction of large inflatable puppets representing characters from the storyline, including the Mother, the Ex-wife and the Schoolmaster. Pink Floyd used the puppets during their performances. Relationships within the band reached an all-time low; their four Winnebagos parked in a circle, the doors facing away from the center. Waters used his own vehicle to arrive at the venue and stayed in different hotels from the rest of the band. Wright returned as a paid musician, making him the only band member to profit from the tour, which lost about $600,000. The Wall was adapted into a film, Pink Floyd , The Wall, which was conceived as a combination of live concert footage and animated scenes. Alan Parker agreed to direct and took a different approach, and the animated sequences remained, but scenes were acted by actors with no dialogue. Waters was screentested but quickly discarded, and they asked Bob Geldof to accept the role of Pink. Geldof was initially dismissive, condemning The Wall storyline as bollocks, but eventually won over by the prospect of participation in a significant film and receiving a large payment for his work. Screened at the Cannes Film Festival in May 1982, Pink Floyd , The Wall premiered in the UK in July 1982, and it won the BAFTAs for Best Original Song (for Another Brick in the Wall) and Best Sound.

The Final Cut and Departure

In 1982, Waters suggested a project with the working title Spare Bricks, originally conceived as the soundtrack album for Pink Floyd , The Wall. With the onset of the Falklands War, Waters changed direction and began writing new material, dedicating the album to his late father and seeing Margaret Thatcher's response to the invasion of the Falklands as jingoistic and unnecessary. Immediately arguments arose between Waters and Gilmour, who felt that the album should include all new material, rather than recycle songs passed over for The Wall. Waters felt that Gilmour had contributed little to the band's lyrical repertoire, and Michael Kamen, a contributor to the orchestral arrangements of The Wall, mediated between the two, performing the role traditionally occupied by the then-absent Wright. The tension within the band grew, and Waters and Gilmour worked independently. After a final confrontation, Gilmour's name disappeared from the credit list, reflecting what Waters felt was his lack of songwriting contributions. Though Mason's musical contributions were minimal, he stayed busy recording sound effects for an experimental Holophonic system to be used on the album. With marital problems of his own, he remained distant. Pink Floyd did not use Thorgerson for the cover design, and Waters designed the cover himself. Gilmour did not have any material ready and asked Waters to delay the recording until he could write some songs, but Waters refused. Gilmour later said, I'm certainly guilty at times of being lazy... but he wasn't right about wanting to put some duff tracks on The Final Cut. Released in March 1983, The Final Cut went straight to number 1 in the UK and number 6 in the US. Waters wrote all the lyrics, as well as all the music, and Rolling Stone gave the album five stars, with Kurt Loder calling it a superlative achievement... art rock's crowning masterpiece. He viewed The Final Cut as essentially a Roger Waters solo album. Waters's departure and legal battles followed, with Gilmour recording his second solo album, About Face, in 1984, and used it to express his feelings about a variety of topics, from the murder of John Lennon to his relationship with Waters. He later stated that he used the album to distance himself from Pink Floyd. Soon afterwards, Waters began touring his first solo album, The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking (1984). Wright formed Zee with Dave Harris and recorded Identity, which went almost unnoticed upon its release. Mason released his second solo album, Profiles, in August 1985. Gilmour, Mason, Waters and O'Rourke met for dinner in 1984 to discuss their future, and Mason and Gilmour left the restaurant thinking that Pink Floyd could continue after Waters had finished The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking, noting that they had had several hiatuses before; however, Waters left believing that Mason and Gilmour had accepted that Pink Floyd were finished. Mason said that Waters later saw the meeting as duplicity rather than diplomacy, and wrote in his memoir: Clearly, our communication skills were still troublingly nonexistent. We left the restaurant with diametrically opposed views of what had been decided. Following the release of The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking, Waters publicly insisted that Pink Floyd would not reunite. He contacted O'Rourke to discuss settling future royalty payments, and O'Rourke felt obliged to inform Mason and Gilmour, which angered Waters, who wanted to dismiss him as the band's manager. He terminated his management contract with O'Rourke and employed Peter Rudge to manage his affairs. Waters wrote to EMI and Columbia announcing he had left the band, and asked them to release him from his contractual obligations. Gilmour believed that Waters left to hasten the demise of Pink Floyd. Waters later said that, by not making new albums, Pink Floyd would be in breach of contract which would suggest that royalty payments would be suspended and that the other band members had forced him from the group by threatening to sue him. He went to the High Court to dissolve the band and prevent the use of the Pink Floyd name, declaring Pink Floyd a spent force creatively. When Waters's lawyers discovered that the partnership had never been formally confirmed, Waters returned to the High Court to obtain a veto over further use of the band's name. Gilmour responded with a press release affirming that Pink Floyd would continue to exist.

The Division Bell and Reunions

In 1986, Gilmour began recruiting musicians for a new project, and initially there was no commitment to a Pink Floyd release, and Gilmour maintained that the material might become his third solo album. However, by the end of 1986, Gilmour had decided to make the material into a Pink Floyd project, the first without Waters. There were legal obstacles to Wright's re-admittance to the band, but after a meeting in Hampstead, Pink Floyd invited Wright to participate in the coming sessions. Gilmour later stated that Wright's presence would make us stronger legally and musically, and Pink Floyd employed him with weekly earnings of $11,000. Recording sessions began on Gilmour's houseboat, the Astoria, moored on the River Thames. Gilmour felt that lyrics had become more important than the music under Waters, and sought to restore the balance. The group found it difficult to work without Waters's creative direction; to write lyrics, Gilmour worked with several songwriters, including Eric Stewart and Roger McGough, eventually choosing Anthony Moore. Wright and Mason were out of practice; Gilmour said they had been destroyed by Waters, and their contributions were minimal. A Momentary Lapse of Reason was released in September 1987, and Thorgerson, whose creative input was absent from The Wall and The Final Cut, designed the album cover. To emphasize that Waters had left the band, they included a group photograph on the inside cover , the first since Meddle , featuring only Gilmour and Mason. The album reached number 3 in the UK and the US, and Waters said: I think it's facile, but a quite clever forgery... The songs are poor in general... and Gilmour's lyrics are third-rate. Although Gilmour initially viewed the album as a return to the band's top form, Wright disagreed, saying: Roger's criticisms are fair. It's not a band album at all. Q described it as essentially a Gilmour solo album. Waters attempted to subvert the Momentary Lapse of Reason tour by contacting promoters in the US and threatening to sue if they used the Pink Floyd name. Gilmour and Mason funded the start-up costs with Mason using his Ferrari 250 GTO as collateral. Early rehearsals for the tour were chaotic, with Mason and Wright out of practice. Realizing he had taken on too much work, Gilmour asked Ezrin to assist them. As Pink Floyd toured North America, Waters's K.A.O.S. On the Road tour was on occasion, close by, in much smaller venues. Waters issued a writ for copyright fees for Pink Floyd's use of the flying pig. Pink Floyd responded by attaching a large set of male genitalia to its underside to distinguish it from Waters's design. The parties reached a legal agreement on the 23rd of December; Mason and Gilmour retained the right to use the Pink Floyd name in perpetuity and Waters received exclusive rights to, among other things, The Wall. In 2013, Waters said he regretted the lawsuit and had failed to appreciate that the Pink Floyd name had commercial value independent of the band members. The Division Bell, released in 1994, reached number 1 in the UK and the US, and spent 51 weeks on the UK chart. For several years, Pink Floyd had busied themselves with personal pursuits, such as filming and competing in the La Carrera Panamericana and recording a soundtrack for a film based on the event. In January 1993, they began working on a new album, The Division Bell, in Britannia Row Studios, where Gilmour, Mason and Wright worked collaboratively, improvising material. After about two weeks, they had enough ideas to begin creating songs. Ezrin returned to co-produce the album and production moved to the Astoria, where the band worked from February to May 1993. Contractually, Wright was not a member of the band, and said he almost did not work on the album. However, he earned five co-writing credits, his first on a Pink Floyd album since 1975's Wish You Were Here. Gilmour's future wife, the novelist Polly Samson, is also credited; she helped Gilmour write songs including High Hopes, a collaborative arrangement which, though initially tense, pulled the whole album together, according to Ezrin. They hired Michael Kamen to arrange the orchestral parts; Dick Parry and Chris Thomas also returned. The writer Douglas Adams provided the album title and Thorgerson the cover artwork. Thorgerson drew inspiration from the Moai monoliths of Easter Island; two opposing faces forming an implied third face about which he commented: the absent face, the ghost of Pink Floyd's past, Syd and Roger. To avoid competing against other album releases, as had happened with A Momentary Lapse, Pink Floyd set a deadline of April 1994, at which point they would resume touring. The Division Bell reached number 1 in the UK and the US, and spent 51 weeks on the UK chart. Pink Floyd spent more than two weeks rehearsing in a hangar at Norton Air Force Base in San Bernardino, California, before opening The Division Bell tour on the 29th of March 1994, in Miami, with an almost identical road crew to that used for their Momentary Lapse of Reason tour. They played a variety of Pink Floyd favorites, and later changed their setlist to include The Dark Side of the Moon in its entirety. The tour, Pink Floyd's last, ended on the 29th of October 1994. Mason published a memoir, Inside Out: A Personal History of Pink Floyd, in 2004. On the 2nd of July 2005, Waters, Gilmour, Mason, and Wright performed together as Pink Floyd at Live 8, a benefit concert raising awareness about poverty, in Hyde Park, London. It was their first performance together in more than 24 years. The reunion was arranged by the Live 8 organizer, Bob Geldof, who also played the role of Pink in the film Pink Floyd , The Wall. After Gilmour declined, Geldof asked Mason, who contacted Waters. About two weeks later, Waters called Gilmour, their first conversation in two years, and the next day Gilmour agreed. In a statement to the press, the band stressed the unimportance of their problems in the context of the Live 8 event. The group planned their setlist at the Connaught hotel in London, followed by three days of rehearsals at Black Island Studios. The sessions were problematic, with disagreements over the style and pace of the songs they were practicing; the running order was decided on the eve of the event. At the beginning of their performance of Wish You Were Here, Waters told the audience: It is quite emotional, standing up here with these three guys after all these years, standing to be counted with the rest of you... We're doing this for everyone who's not here, and particularly of course for Syd. At the end, Gilmour thanked the audience and started to walk off the stage. Waters called him back, and the band embraced. Images of the embrace were a favorite among Sunday newspapers after Live 8. Waters said: I don't think any of us came out of the years from 1985 with any credit... It was a bad, negative time, and I regret my part in that negativity. Though Pink Floyd turned down a contract worth £136 million for a final tour, Waters did not rule out more performances, suggesting it ought to be for a charity event only. However, Gilmour told the Associated Press that a reunion would not happen: The Live 8 rehearsals convinced me it wasn't something I wanted to be doing a lot of... There have been all sorts of farewell moments in people's lives and careers which they have then rescinded, but I think I can fairly categorically say that there won't be a tour or an album again that I take part in. It isn't to do with animosity or anything like that. It's just... I've been there, I've done it. In February 2006, Gilmour was interviewed for the Italian newspaper La Repubblica, which announced that Pink Floyd had disbanded. Gilmour said that Pink Floyd were over, citing his advancing age and his preference for working alone. He and Waters repeatedly said that they had no plans to reunite.

The Endless River and Legacy

Barrett died on the 7th of July 2006, at his home in Cambridge, aged 60. His funeral was held at Cambridge Crematorium on the 18th of July 2006. No Pink Floyd members attended. Wright said: The band are very naturally upset and sad to hear of Syd Barrett's death. Syd was the guiding light of the early band line-up and leaves a legacy which continues to inspire. Although Barrett had faded into obscurity over the decades, the national press praised him for his contributions to music. On the 10th of May 2007, Waters, Gilmour, Wright, and Mason performed at the Barrett tribute concert Madcap's Last Laugh at the Barbican Centre in London. Gilmour, Wright, and Mason performed the Barrett compositions Bike and Arnold Layne, and Waters performed a solo version of his song Flickering Flame. Wright died of cancer on the 15th of September 2008, aged 65. His former bandmates paid tributes to his life and work; Gilmour said that Wright's contributions were often overlooked, and that his soulful voice and playing were vital, magical components of our most recognized Pink Floyd sound. A week after Wright's death, Gilmour performed Remember a Day from A Saucerful of Secrets, written and originally sung by Wright, in tribute on BBC Two's Later... with Jools Holland. The keyboardist Keith Emerson released a statement praising Wright as the backbone of Pink Floyd. In November 2013, Gilmour and Mason revisited recordings made with Wright during the Division Bell sessions to create a new Pink Floyd album. They recruited session musicians to help record new parts and generally harness studio technology. Waters was not involved. Mason described the album as a tribute to Wright: I think this record is a good way of recognizing a lot of what he does and how his playing was at the heart of the Pink Floyd sound. Listening back to the sessions, it really brought home to me what a special player he was. The Endless River was released in the following year. Though it received mixed reviews, it became the most pre-ordered album of all time on Amazon UK and debuted at number 1 in several countries. The vinyl edition was the fastest-selling UK vinyl release of 2014 and the fastest-selling since 1997. Gilmour said The Endless River would be Pink Floyd's last album, saying: I think we have successfully commandeered the best of what there is... It's a shame, but this is the end. There was no supporting tour, as Gilmour felt it was impossible without Wright. In 2015, Gilmour reiterated that Pink Floyd were done and that to reunite without Wright would be wrong. In November 2016, Pink Floyd released a box set, The Early Years 1965, 1972, comprising outtakes, live recordings, remixes, and films from their early career. It was followed in December 2019 by The Later Years, compiling Pink Floyd's work after Waters's departure. The set includes a remixed version of A Momentary Lapse of Reason with more contributions by Wright and Mason, and an expanded reissue of the 1988 live album Delicate Sound of Thunder. In November 2020, the reissue of Delicate Sound of Thunder was given a standalone release on multiple formats. Pink Floyd's Live at Knebworth 1990 performance, previously released as part of the Later Years box set, was released on CD and vinyl on the 30th of April. In 2018, Mason formed a new band, Nick Mason's Saucerful of Secrets, to perform Pink Floyd's early material. The band includes Gary Kemp of Spandau Ballet and the longtime Pink Floyd collaborator Guy Pratt. They toured Europe in September 2018 and North America in 2019. Waters joined the band at the New York Beacon Theatre to perform vocals for Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun. In 2022, Gilmour and Mason reunited as Pink Floyd, alongside Pratt and the keyboardist Nitin Sawhney, to record the single Hey, Hey, Rise Up!, protesting Russian's invasion of Ukraine that February. It features vocals by the BoomBox singer Andriy Khlyvnyuk, taken from an Instagram video of Khlyvnyuk singing the 1914 Ukrainian anthem Oh, the Red Viburnum in the Meadow in Kyiv. Gilmour described Khlyvnyuk's performance as a powerful moment that made me want to put it to music. Hey, Hey, Rise Up! was released on the 8th of April, with proceeds going to Ukrainian Humanitarian Relief. Gilmour said the war had inspired him to release new music as Pink Floyd as he felt it was important to raise awareness in support of Ukraine. Asked whether he was considering more Pink Floyd music, Gilmour said the single was a one-off. Pink Floyd removed music from streaming services in Russia and Belarus. Their work with Waters remained, leading to speculation that Waters had blocked its removal; Gilmour said only that I was disappointed... Read into that what you will. Waters refused to condemn Russia's invasion and criticized Hey, Hey, Rise Up!. Shortly afterwards, Gilmour and his wife, Polly Samson, condemned Waters on Twitter as a lying, thieving, hypocritical, tax-avoiding, lip-synching, misogynistic, sick-with-envy megalomaniac. In 2023, Waters released The Dark Side of the Moon Redux, a new version of the album, and Pink Floyd released a box set, The Dark Side of the Moon 50th Anniversary. In 2024, Gilmour released his fifth solo album, Luck and Strange, featuring keyboards recorded with Wright in 2007. In 2023, Variety reported that Pink Floyd had been seeking to sell their catalogue for some time but that this had been hampered by infighting. Gilmour said he wanted to be rid of the decision-making and the arguments that are involved with keeping the catalogue going... It's three people saying yes, but one person saying no. In October 2024, Pink Floyd agreed to sell their catalogue to Sony Music for approximately $400 million. The sale included the rights to Pink Floyd's recordings, merchandise and spin-offs, but not songwriting. A 4K restoration of Pink Floyd: Live at Pompeii was screened in cinemas from the 24th of April 2025 and released on home media shortly after. A soundtrack album was released on the 2nd of May, which became Pink Floyd's seventh UK number-one album. Pink Floyd are one of the best-selling music artists of all time, with sales exceeding 250 million records worldwide. The Dark Side of the Moon and The Wall were inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, and are among the best-selling albums of all time. Four Pink Floyd albums topped the US Billboard 200 and five topped the UK Albums Chart. Although an album-oriented band, they did achieve several hit singles, including Arnold Layne, See Emily Play (both 1967), Money (1973), Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2) (1979), Not Now John (1983), On the Turning Away (1987) and High Hopes (1994). Pink Floyd were inducted into the US Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996 and the UK Music Hall of Fame in 2005. In 2008, they were awarded the Polar Music Prize for their monumental contribution over the decades to the fusion of art and music in the development of popular culture.