One of the most predominant and celebrated rock bands of all time, the origins of Pink Floyd developed at Cambridge High School by Syd Barrett, Roger Waters, and David Gilmour. Mutually drawn to music Barrett and Gilmour undertook a tour of Europe prior to the former's enrollment at the Camberwell School Of Art in London. Waters, studying architecture at the city's Regent Street Polytechnic, formed an R&B-based band, Sigma 6, with fellow students Nick Mason and Rick Wright. The early line-up included bass player Clive Metcalfe - Waters favored guitar at this point - and Sensing a malaise, Roger invited Barrett to join but the latter's blend of blues, pop and mysticism was at odds with Close's traditional outlook and the Abdabs fell apart at the end of 1965. Almost immediately Barrett, Waters, Mason and Wright reconvened as the Pink Floyd Sound, a name Barrett had suggested, inspired by an album by Georgia blues' musicians Pinkney 'Pink' Anderson and Floyd Council.

  Chart success begot package tours - including a memorable bill alongside the Jimi Hendrix Experience - which, when combined with a  disastrous US tour, wrought unbearable pressure on  Barrett's fragile psyche. His indulgence in hallucinogenic drugs exacerbated such problems and he often proved near comatose on-stage and incoherent with interviewers.
  His colleagues, fearful for their friend and sensing a possible end to the band, brought  Dave Gilmour into the line-up in February 1968. Plans for
  Barrett to maintain a back room role, writing for the group but not touring, came to naught and his departure was announced the following April.

     Although bereft of their principle songwriter, the realigned Pink Floyd completed Saucerful Of Secrets. It  featured one Barrett original, the harrowing 'Jugband  Blues', as well as two songs destined to become an integral  part of their live concerts, the title track itself and 'Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun'. The failure of numberous other singles  prompted the group to disavow the format for 11 years.

    Atom Heart Mother was an experiment,  partially written with avant-garde composer, Ron Geesin. It featured the first in a series of impressive album
 covers, designed by the Hipgnosis studio, none of which featured photographs of the band. The seemingly abstract  image of Meddle, is in fact a macro lens shot of an ear. The music within contained some classic pieces, notably ''One Of These Days'' and the epic ''Echoes'', but was again marred by inconsistency. Pink Floyd's festering talent finally exploded in 1973 with Dark Side Of The Moon. It marked the arrival of Waters as an important lyricist and Gilmour as a guitar hero. Brilliantly produced - with a sharp awareness of stereo effects - the album became one of the biggest selling records of all time, currently in excess of 25 million copies. Its astonishing run on the
Billboard chart spanned over a decade and at last the group had rid itself of the specter of the Barrett era.

   Although dwarfed in sales terms by its predecessor, this 1975 release is now regarded by some aficionados as the group's artistic zenith.  It was with Animals that tension within the band leaked into the public arena. Two of its tracks, "Sheep'' and ''Dogs'', were reworkings of older material and, as one of the world's most successful bands, Pink Floyd was criticized as an anathema to 1977's punk movement.

In 1979, the group unleashed The Wall, a Waters dominated epic which has
now become second only to Dark Side Of The Moon in terms of sales. A subtly screened autobiographical journey, The Wall allowed the bass player to vent his spleen, pouring anger and scorn on a succession of establishment talisman. It contained the anti-educational system diatribe, ''Another Brick In The Wall'', which not only restored the group to the British singles' chart, but  provided them with their sole number 1 hit. The Wall was
 also the subject of an imaginative stage show, during which the group was bricked up behind a titular edifice. A film followed in 1982, starring Bob Geldof and featuring ground-breaking animation by Gerald Scarfe, who designed the album jacket.

 Such success did nothing to ease Pink Floyd's internal hostility. Long standing enmity between Waters and Wright - the latter almost left the group with Barrett - resulted in the bass player demanding Wright's departure.
 He left in 1979. Friction over financial matters and composing credits  tore at the heart of the band. "Because we haven't finished with each other yet,'' was Mason's caustic reply to a question as to why PinkFloyd was still together and, to the surprise of many,another album did appear in 1983. The Final Cut was a stark, humorless set which Waters totally dominated. It comprised songs written for The Wall, but rejected by the group. Pink Floyd's
fragmentation was evident to all. By the end of the year knives were drawn and an acrimonious parting ensued. The following year Waters began a high profile but commercially moribund solo career. Mason and Gilmour also issued solo albums, but none of these releases came close to the success of their former group. The guitarist retained a higher profile as a session musician, andappeared with ex- Roxy Music singer Bryan Ferry at the
Live Aid concert in 1984.