Richard William "Rick" Wright was an English musician, composer, singer and songwriter,
best known for his career with Pink Floyd. A multi-instrumentalist, Wright's richly textured
keyboard layers were a vital ingredient and a distinctive characteristic of Pink Floyd's
sound. Wright frequently sang harmony and occasionally lead vocals on stage and in the
studio with Pink Floyd. Though not as prolific a songwriter as his
band mates Roger Waters, Syd Barrett and David Gilmour, he wrote significant parts of the
music for classic albums such as Meddle, The Dark Side of the Moon and Wish You Were Here,
as well as for Pink Floyd's The Division Bell.
Early life Wright, whose father was head biochemist at
Unigate Dairies, grew up in Hatch End, North London and was educated at the Haberdashers'
Aske's School. Wright taught himself to play guitar, trumpet
and piano at age 12, and took private lessons in musical theory and composition at the Eric
Gilder School of Music. Uncertain about his future, he enrolled at Regent Street Polytechnic
in 1962. There he met fellow band members Roger Waters and Nick Mason, was a founding
member of The Pink Floyd Sound in 1965, and also participated in its previous incarnations,
Sigma 6 and The Abdabs. Although Mason and Waters were competent students, Wright found
architecture of little interest and after only a year of study moved to the London College
of Music. Pink Floyd 1967 - 1981
In the early days of Pink Floyd, Wright was a prominent musical force in the group. Wright
wrote and sang several songs of his own during 1967–1968. While not credited for vocals
on The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, he sang lead on Barrett-penned songs like "Astronomy
Domine" and "Matilda Mother", as well as harmonies on "The Scarecrow" and "Chapter 24". Examples
of his early compositions include "Remember a Day", "See-Saw", "Paint Box" and "It Would
Be So Nice". As the sound and the goals of the band evolved, Wright became less interested
in song writing and focused primarily on contributing his distinctive style to extended instrumental
compositions such as "Cirrus Minor", "Interstellar Overdrive", "Set the Controls for the Heart
of the Sun", "Careful with That Axe, Eugene", "One of These Days", "Dogs" and to musical
themes for film scores. He particularly made essential contributions to Pink Floyd's long,
epic compositions such as "Atom Heart Mother", "Echoes" and "Shine On You Crazy Diamond".
His most commercially popular compositions are "The Great Gig in the Sky" and "Us and
Them" from 1973's The Dark Side of the Moon. He also contributed significantly to other
mid-period Floyd classics such as "Breathe" and "Time", singing the lead vocals on alternate
verses of the latter with David Gilmour. Wright recorded his first solo project, Wet
Dream, which was released in September 1978 with minimal commercial success. Battling
both personal problems and an increasingly rocky relationship with Roger Waters, he was
forced to resign from Pink Floyd during The Wall sessions by Waters, who threatened to
pull the plug on the album if Wright did not leave the band. He was retained as a salaried
session musician during the live concerts to promote that album in 1980–81. Wright
became the only member of Pink Floyd to profit from the initial run of the costly Wall shows,
since the net financial loss had to be borne by the three remaining "full-time" members.
Wright did not attend the 1982 premiere of the film version of Pink Floyd—The Wall.
In 1983, Pink Floyd released The Final Cut, the only album from the band on which Wright
does not appear. Later life
During 1984, Wright formed a new musical duo with Dave Harris called Zee. They signed a
record deal with EMI Records and released only one album, Identity, which was a commercial
and critical flop. Wright worked as a salaried musician alongside Pink Floyd, following Waters'
departure. Because of legal and contractual issues from this "hired gun" status during
The Wall world tour, his photo was not included in the 1987 album A Momentary Lapse of Reason
and his name was listed in smaller letters than Mason and Gilmour. In 1994, by which
time his reinstatement in the band had become official, he co-wrote five songs and sang
lead vocals on one song for the next Pink Floyd album, The Division Bell. This recording
provided material for the double live album and video release Pulse in 1995. Wright, like
Nick Mason, performed on every Pink Floyd tour.
'Rick asked to be a part of "A Momentary Lapse of Reason," and we talked and argued and negotiated
again, and this time [The Division Bell] he's on a percentage of everything, not just the
record. Last time Nick and myself had put up all the money and taken all the risks on
everything, including the lawsuits with Roger. If you take all the risks, you expect to get
more of the profits, quite simply. This is a wonderful artistic endeavour we've spent
all our adult lives working on, but reality comes into it as well.'
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 and Tim Renwick, another Pink
Floyd associate, on electric guitar. Broken China marked a new phase in Richard Wright's
artistic development and playing style, 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 and 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. This was
the last time that all four Pink Floyd members performed together. Wright underwent eye surgery
for cataracts in November 2005, preventing him from attending Pink Floyd's induction
into the UK Music Hall of Fame. In 1999, keyboard player Jon Carin joined
with Wright's wife to bring Wright and Waters back together after some 18 years apart; the
two men met backstage after a tour date by Waters.
Wright contributed keyboards and background vocals to David Gilmour's 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 on Hammond organ, piano, electric
piano, Kurzweil K2600 workstation, and even his long-inactive Farfisa organ, which was
used for performing "Echoes" and two of Pink Floyd's and Syd Barrett's older songs that
Gilmour chose to revisit in his recent concerts. He also provided backing vocals and lead vocals.
He declined an offer to join Roger Waters and Nick Mason on Waters' The Dark Side of
the Moon Live tour in order to spend more time working on a solo project.
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
was 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's final vocal performance took place at "The Madcaps Last Laugh" a tribute concert
at The Barbican in London on 10 May 2007. It was organised by Joe Boyd in the memory
of Syd Barrett who had died the previous July. Boyd rounded up many musical guests all paying
their tributes to Syd including Captain Sensible, Chrissie Hynde, Damon Albarn, Kevin Ayers,
Kate McGarrigle with Martha Wainwright and Lily Lankin, Mike Heron, Nick Laird Clowes,
Vashti Bunyan, Robyn Hitchcock and performing solo, Roger Waters.
Pink Floyd featuring David Gilmour, Nick Mason and Wright appeared at the end of the show
as surprise guests where they performed the song that had started it all, "Arnold Layne"
with Wright on lead vocals. Wright's final live performance was as part
of David Gilmour's band at the premiere of Gilmour's concert DVD Remember That Night.
It took place on 6 September 2007 at the Odeon Leicester Square, London. After an edited
version of the film had been shown, the band took to the stage to jam and Wright played
keyboards. Personal life
He married his first wife, Juliette Gale, in 1968. They had two children, Gala and Jamie,
and divorced in 1982. He married his second wife Franka in 1984. They divorced in 1990.
Wright married his third wife Mildred "Millie" Hobbs in 1995, with whom he had a son, Ben.
Their marriage ended in 2007. From 1984 to 1994 he lived on the island Kefalonia. In
1996, Wright's daughter Gala married Guy Pratt, a session musician who has played bass for
Pink Floyd and bandmate David Gilmour since Roger Waters' exit. In his later years, Wright
lived in France and spent time on a yacht he owned in the Virgin Islands.
Death Wright died at home, of an undisclosed form
of cancer, on 15 September 2008 at age 65. 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.
His death occurred one week before the release of David Gilmour's Live in Gdańsk CD, on
which he appeared. On July 6th, 2014, it was announced that a new album, "The Endless River"
will be the first that Pink Floyd will release since 1994. The album, being released in fall
of 2014, was begun during the 1994 recording session. Tracks played by Richard Wright will
be included along with more original works by David Gilmour and Nick Mason.
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. Like Rick,
I don't find it easy to express my feelings in words, but I loved him and will miss him
enormously.
Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason told Entertainment Weekly:
Like any band, you can never quite quantify who does what. But Pink Floyd wouldn’t have
been Pink Floyd if [we] hadn't had Rick. I think there’s a feeling now – particularly
after all the warfare that went on with Roger and David trying to make clear what their
contribution was – that perhaps Rick rather got pushed into the background. Because the
sound of Pink Floyd is more than the guitar, bass, and drum thing. Rick was the sound that
knitted it all together... He was by far the quietest of the band, right from day one.
And, I think, probably harder to get to know than the rest of us... It's almost that George
Harrison thing. You sort of forget that they did a lot more than perhaps they’re given
credit for.
Former bandmate Roger Waters' website was replaced with a photograph of an array of
candles and poppies against a black background; one of the screen images used for the song
"Wish You Were Here" in his "Dark Side of the Moon Live" Tour.
Waters issued a statement:
I was very sad to hear of Rick's premature death, I knew he had been ill, but the end
came suddenly and shockingly. My thoughts are with his family, particularly [his children]
Jamie and Gala and their mum Juliet, who I knew very well in the old days, and always
liked very much and greatly admired. As for the man and his work, it is hard to overstate
the importance of his musical voice in the Pink Floyd of the '60s and '70s. The intriguing,
jazz influenced, modulations and voicings so familiar in 'Us and Them' and 'Great Gig
in the Sky,' which lent those compositions both their extraordinary humanity and their
majesty, are omnipresent in all the collaborative work the four of us did in those times. Rick's
ear for harmonic progression was our bedrock. I am very grateful for the opportunity that
Live 8 afforded me to engage with him and David [Gilmour] and Nick [Mason] that one
last time. I wish there had been more.
On 23 September 2008, David Gilmour performed "Remember a Day", a Wright composition from
Pink Floyd's second album, A Saucerful of Secrets, on a live broadcast of Later... with
Jools Holland on BBC Two as a tribute to Wright. In an interview later on in the show, Gilmour
said that Wright had intended to perform with him that day, but that he had texted Gilmour
a couple of weeks before his death to advise him that he would not be well enough to attend.
This was the first live performance of the song by any member of the band.
On 15 September 2008, Elton John, while playing a concert in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan dedicated
the song "Believe" to Wright who had died earlier that day.
Influence Wright's style fused jazz, neoclassical and
experimental music influences, which complemented the simple harmonic structures of the more
blues and folk-based songs of Roger Waters and David Gilmour. As a keyboardist, he was
more interested in complementing each piece with organ or synthesizer layers and tasteful
piano or electric piano passages. Unlike his contemporaries Rick Wakeman, Tony Banks or
Keith Emerson, he opted for solo playing only occasionally, notably in "Atom Heart Mother",
"Echoes", "Any Colour You Like", "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" Parts 1–5 and 6–9,
"Welcome to the Machine", "Dogs", "Run Like Hell" and "Keep Talking". Wright was known
for his ghostly, atmospheric textures such as the Leslie piano arpeggios at the beginning
of "Echoes", the echoed Farfisa Organ in the live versions of "Careful with That Axe, Eugene"
and "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun", the distinctive Minimoog solo in "Shine
On You Crazy Diamond" and the Wurlitzer passages in "Money", "Time" and the Fender Rhodes riffs
in "Sheep". In "A Saucerful of Secrets" and "Sysyphus" he experimented with 'treated piano'.
"Sysyphus" also made extensive use of Mellotron sounds, something of a rarity in the Pink
Floyd canon. Equipment
In the early days of the band, Wright dabbled with brass before settling on the Farfisa
Compact Duo electronic organ as his main instrument onstage. For a brief period in 1969, Wright
played vibraphone on several of the band's songs and in some live shows, and he even
played trombone on "Biding My Time". During the formative years of Pink Floyd with Syd
Barrett, Wright relied heavily on his Farfisa organ, fed through a Binson Echorec platter
echo, to achieve distinctive sounds that helped the band gain their "psychedelic rock" edge.
He used a Mellotron on many Pink Floyd songs recorded in 1968, on "Sysyphus" and on "Atom
Heart Mother". He started using a Hammond organ regularly on stage thereafter, and a
grand piano later became part of his usual live concert setup when "Echoes" was added
to Pink Floyd's regular set list. For tours in the 1970s based around The Dark Side of
the Moon, Wish You Were Here, Animals and The Wall, the Farfisa was dropped, and an
array of other instruments were added to the lineup, such as: Fender Rhodes & Wurlitzer
Electric Pianos, Hohner clavinet, VCS 3, Minimoog, ARP String Ensemble and Prophet 5, Roland
D-50 synthesizers. From 1987 Wright favoured Kurzweil digital synthesizers for reproducing
his analogue synthesizer sounds, even though he still used his favourite Hammond B-3 or
C-3 organ, along with Leslie speaker system. According to Seth Goldman, Rick tried ear
moulds during the Division Bell tour, but "he didn't get on with them". Throughout his
career, Wright was also a proficient multi-instrumentalist. He also played violin, cello, bass, guitar,
saxophone, and drums, amongst others. Pink Floyd songs with Wright singing lead
vocals "Astronomy Domine", with Syd Barrett
"Matilda Mother", with Barrett "Paintbox"
"It Would Be So Nice" "Let There Be More Light", with David Gilmour
and Roger Waters "Remember a Day"
"Corporal Clegg", with Gilmour and Nick Mason "See-Saw"
"Crumbling Land", with Gilmour "Summer '68"
"Echoes", with Gilmour "Burning Bridges", with Gilmour
"Stay" "Time", with Gilmour
"Us and Them", with Gilmour "Wearing the Inside Out", with Gilmour
Discography With Pink Floyd
See Pink Floyd discography With Syd Barrett
Barrett – 14 November 1970 Plays keyboards
Solo albums Wet Dream – 15 September 1978, US number
203 Broken China – 26 November 1996
Zee album Identity – 9 April 1984
With David Gilmour David Gilmour in Concert – October 2002
Appears on two tracks: "Breakthrough" & "Comfortably Numb"
On an Island – 6 March 2006 Appears on two tracks: "On an Island" & "The
Blue"
Remember That Night – September/November(BD), 2007
Live in Gdańsk – released on 22 September 2008
References
External links The Richard Wright Archives
Pink Floyd's official site