All language subtitles for Pink Floyd Whatever Happened To Pink Floyd 2011 480p AMZN WEB-DL AAC2 0 H 264-GINO

- We can't let you
go without asking you

about this perennial
talk of reunion.

- I didn't know there was
any talk of a reunion.

- [Anchor] Oh yes.

All Pink Floyd
fans want you guys

to get together again.

Think it'll happen?

- No, it's not gonna happen.

["The Blue Danube"
by Johann Strauss II]

- [Voiceover] For
many, Pink Floyd is

the definitive album band,

with an expansive and
inimitable back catalog of music

that stretches back
to the mid 1960s.

Having not released any
new material since 1994,

their last four albums,
recorded over a 15-year period,

saw one of the most commercially
successful acts in music

endure a turbulent change
in leadership and style,

whilst enhancing the
element of spectacle

in their ever-impressive
live shows.

Yet a very bitter
and public breakdown

in communications between
the creative forces

of Roger Waters
and David Gilmour

sealed the eventual
fate of the band.

With the building of The
Wall, making The Final Cut,

having a Momentary
Lapse of Reason,

and ringing The Division Bell,

Pink Floyd's final throes saw
their death and resurrection,

leaving the band and fans
on an indefinite hiatus

before a surprise
reunion in 2005

in view of the watching world

went some of the way
to burying the hatchet.

- The larger point
about Pink Floyd's story

is that it's a very sad one,

and it's not just
that Roger Waters

had to take over a band in
order to express his issues,

it's the wider story
of what it takes

for a rock band
to be successful.

Pink Floyd's a perfect
example of a band

who made it up as
they went along,

and I think you
cannot underestimate

the importance of
the others in that,

particularly David
Gilmour and Rick Wright,

because I think they brought

a huge musicality, a lot
of melody to Waters' ideas.

Waters might've had the concept,
he might've had the ideas,

but the other two
definitely had the tunes.

- Gilmour is very much
a musician's musician

and he was able to be the
yin to Roger Waters' yang.

They really do complement
each other well,

and you can see from his
subsequent solo material

that Waters has
always struggled to be

quite as melodic as
Gilmour enabled him to be,

while Gilmour has
always struggled to be

as lyrically competent
as Waters was.

- You can see that they
made their best work

when the tension between
them was creative.

When the tension
became destructive,

you end up with an album that's

as unsatisfying
as The Final Cut.

So the signs were there.

Everybody could read it

except, paradoxically, it seems

Gilmour and Waters themselves.

[audience applause]

- [Voiceover] By the late
1970s, Pink Floyd had reached

an unprecedented level of
critical and commercial success.

But the classic lineup
of Roger Waters,

David Gilmour, Nick
Mason, and Rick Wright

were beginning to show
signs of great tension.

The band were not
unfamiliar with upheaval,

having already dealt with

the breakdown and
eventual departure

of lead inspiration
Syd Barrett in 1968.

The change had enforced not
only a shift in creative input,

but also in sonic output,

seeing the group's sound move
from pastoral psychedelic rock

into more progressive,
electronic textures.

This sonic evolution and a
strong collaborative effort

from the remaining members

eventually culminated in the
album Dark Side of the Moon.

The record's huge
success broke the band

in the United States,

and its impact was consolidated

by a follow-up album,
Wish You Were Here,

a tribute to the
long-departed Barrett.

Despite their
breakthrough success,

the stress of touring and
the pressure to appease

an increasingly
mainstream audience

was starting to tell.

The creative duties
were transferring

from collaboration to
something more individual,

as Roger Waters gradually became

the dominant voice
within the band.

And by the time
Pink Floyd released

their 10th studio album Animals,

it was clear the cracks in
the group were spreading fast.

- The Animals album
was recorded in '76

and released in January '77,

and recorded mostly in London.

The material was in
the main part left over

from what had been the
Wish You Were Here album.

There were some songs
that were played

live in concert under
different titles

and with different lyrics

but evolved into
"Dogs" and "Sheep"

and they were mostly
written by Waters.

So the band got together
again and assembled an album

out of what they had then
with some additional material.

♪ You gotta keep one eye

♪ Looking over your shoulder

♪ You know, it's
gonna get harder

♪ Harder, harder

♪ As you get older

♪ Yeah, and in the
end you'll pack up

♪ And fly down south

♪ Hide your head in the sand

♪ Just another sad old man

♪ All alone and
dying of cancer ♪

- I think what is
interesting about Animals

is although it's
coming off the back

of a couple of very successful,
classic Pink Floyd records,

it has a sort of
fearlessness about it.

It seems to attack
its subject with teeth

that we perhaps haven't seen
on earlier Pink Floyd records.

It might seem a bit unreasonable

and I know it was terribly
criticized at the time

for being a bit bleak
and little bit negative

in its subject matter,

but at least it's got
a bit of fire about it.

- It's very much Waters-driven

although Gilmour played a large
part in the music on "Dogs."

The album was bookended
by "Pigs on the Wing

"Part One and Part Two,"

which are a little
love song from Waters

to his then new
partner Caroline.

Because of the way the
songs were divided up,

two short songs
credited to Waters,

there was some tension
over the fact that Waters

was getting more money in his
royalties than Gilmour was,

and that's one of the seeds
of the dispute between them,

and I'm pretty sure that
at the time Waters thought

that he was making
more of a contribution.

♪ Big man, pig man

♪ Haha, charade you are

♪ Woo

- Animals was the first
album on which you hear

a dysfunctional band
beginning to fall apart.

Roger Waters is

playing quite a
bullying role already.

If you look at the credits
for Animals, Waters dominates.

I think Gilmour appears once.

In retrospect, we can
see this is the beginning

of Waters taking over the band,

being the voice of Pink Floyd.

- Gilmour did contribute
perhaps a bit less so,

Mason less still,

and you'll notice there's
no writing contribution

from Nick Wright on the album,

who at the time started to deal

with some of his own
personal difficulties,

and indeed Gilmour was
occupied at the time

by the birth of his first child,

so personal differences,
personal difficulties

outside of the band.

- I didn't really like
much, a lot of it,

a lot of the music on the album.

I have to say I didn't fight
very hard to put my stuff on,

and I didn't have
anything to put on.

I mean, I played on it
and I think I played well,

but I didn't contribute
to the writing of it.

And I think also Roger was
kind of not letting me do that.

This was the start of
the whole ego thing

I think from the band.

Animals.

- The band had got to
a point where they'd

been together now for
the best part of 10 years

and little things that may
have been minor irritations

when you're in your
late teens/early 20s

had probably become
quite serious problems

by the time they were
all in their 30s.

- The band have spoken
openly about the fact

that they felt that
once they'd done

Dark Side of the Moon
and its mammoth tour,

everything changed.

The audiences were no
longer quiet and respectful.

They would cheer and holler

or set off fireworks
during performances.

They were treated differently
by record companies

who saw them as
obviously as a cash cow.

And no matter what they
did, they were never really

going to have something
that was as monumental

as Dark Side of the Moon
has turned out to be.

- [Voiceover] With internal
divisions and conflicts

threatening to boil over,

Pink Floyd persevered.

Driven predominantly by Waters,

Animals demonstrated a distinct
downturn in subject matter.

And even though
commercially strong,

critics met the
album with caution

and on occasion derision.

Nevertheless, fans eager to
witness their musical heroes,

flocked to the supporting tour.

With Waters' ambition,
their theatrical live shows

had grown from the simple
oil and light projections

of the UFO Club

to gigantic arena spectacles
designed to draw attention

away from the band towards
the live production.

In the Flesh would
be the first tour

in which Floyd played a
number of stadium dates

in addition to
their arena shows.

But as their music had graduated

to fill these vast,
cavernous venues,

their relationship with
the fans had altered.

The lively and often distracted
behavior of audiences

enraged certain
members of Pink Floyd,

until one night in Montreal,
events took a worrying turn.

- I was on the latter
date of the tour.

The audiences were very
loud and boisterous,

and would cheer and holler
even during quiet passages,

and this really started
to get to the band,

particularly to Roger Waters.

- That whole tour was a real
drag, those stadium gigs.

That's the only tour we ever did

where we did lots
of big stadiums,

and I really hated
it, I hated it.

And Montreal was
the final straw.

It's the famous story now

that I ended up
spitting at some guy

who was in the front
row there and I thought

"Jesus Christ, have I
been brought to this?"

- I think it sums up where
his head was at at the time.

- Waters realized what he'd done

and felt quite
disgusted with himself

that these people had paid
money and obviously adored him,

and their behavior upset him,

and his reaction clearly
was hostile to them.

- I became rather
disenchanted with it

and thought that
too much was lost.

What was gained from having

a large congregation of
people communing together,

which is what a
stadium at its best is,

was being lost in a
sort of watering down

of the way the message got
across to the audience.

- Now, after the gig,
he has an accident,

some kind of
backstage tomfoolery.

He cuts his foot, so
he has to be taken

to the emergency room to
kind of get it patched up,

and the story is that he's
in the back of the car

with Bob Ezrin, the producer
who produced The Wall

and a friend of Bob Ezrin's who
was actually a psychiatrist,

and again, this is the
tale that Waters says

that he started
talking about the idea

of building a wall
between his audience,

which obviously Ezrin
was fascinated by

and so was the psychiatrist.

- So he went away and spent
obviously a lot of time thinking

about what he'd become,
how did it happen,

whether it's what
he really wanted,

and the consequence
obviously of all

the success he's had
in previous years,

and he started to
conceive of the artist

as being alienated
from his audience

and by virtue of his lifestyle,

being alienated from
the people around him,

his family, his
partner, and so on,

and alienated from
life at large, really.

- Out of that, came
this theatrical idea

of building a wall across
the front of the stage

to express that sense of
alienation and separation

that I had between me and them.

- When someone says "Well,
in the first half of a show,

"we're going to build
this fucking great wall

"across the front of the stage

"and we're gonna be
behind it playing

"and the audience are gonna be

"in front of it looking at it,"

you sort of go
"Hang on a minute."

[voices chattering]

♪ Out there

- [Voiceover] As a way of coping

with the internal and
external alienation

Waters was feeling,

he formed the narrative
for a new album, The Wall,

the story of washed up
rock and roll star Pink,

who descends into isolation
through the gradual breakdown

in his various relationships,

a character that bore
a strong resemblance

to Waters himself.

♪ So ya

♪ Thought ya

♪ Might like to

♪ Go to the show

♪ To feel that warm
thrill of confusion

♪ That space cadet glow

- Waters presented
to me two ideas,

one for The Wall and
one for what became

his first sort of
proper solo album,

The Pros and Cons
of Hitchhiking.

Apparently the band
were all totally agreed

that they should do The Wall,

while their manager
apparently wanted them

to do The Pros and
Cons of Hitchhiking.

But, you know, the idea was
very, very rough at this point,

and I think as the
rest of the band said

that they weren't
bringing that many ideas

to the table themselves,

so it's kind of like "This
is what we're going to do"

and there wasn't a
lot of other choice.

- I played them a
whole bunch of music

and told them about the
idea at the same time.

I had a bunch of
demos of the songs,

and I think they
could see that it was

potentially quite
an exciting project.

- [Voiceover] At the
end of the 1970s,

as The Wall
continued to develop,

Britain, a country
plagued by strikes

and crippling unemployment,

was branded the
"sick man of Europe."

The punk movement
had been central

in reflecting the anger and
hopelessness of the time,

and its
anti-establishment spirit

had not been lost
on Roger Waters.

♪ God save the queen

♪ The fascist regime

♪ They made you a moron

♪ A potential H-bomb

- Directly or indirectly,
Roger Waters has been

influenced by punk here.

I mean, first off, there
is the infamous incident

on the '77 tour when he
spat in the face of a fan.

Spitting was a sort
of image of punk.

Johnny Rotten is
walking around wearing

an "I Hate Pink Floyd" t-shirt.

And Roger Waters, whether
in direct response to this

or a more indirect response,

comes up with a
petulant, teenage theme

that he's taking here,

and it's almost as if he is

spitting at everybody
who is in direct range.

So although sonically there
is nothing in the record

that derives from
the punk revolution,

I think thematically he's
going to strike a chord

with a fairly wide audience,
and a young audience,

and he's going to
prevent Pink Floyd

from going the way of
Emerson, Lake & Palmer

and some of the other dinosaurs.

- [Voiceover] Waters'
design for The Wall

was not just an
idea for an album,

but a concept for
an entire show,

filled with
characters and events,

a sprawling scheme
that met no opposition

from a band that were
all but out of ideas.

The project required refining,

and given the frosty
relationships within the group,

someone would also be
needed to act as go-between.

The role fell to 29-year-old
producer Bob Ezrin.

- Bob Ezrin's
contribution to The Wall

is incredibly important.

One of the first things he
did was he wrote a treatment,

like you would for
a film, of the album

because Waters' demo
was very patchy,

the narrative skipped about

in a nonlinear and
unclear fashion,

so he basically wrote a script

which apparently
ran to 40 pages,

so a considerable
piece of effort,

just explaining
what the story was

so everybody knew where
everything fitted into it.

- It was a big
decision for Pink Floyd

to bring in an outside producer

because before that, they
tended to produce themselves,

and early on, they'd worked
with EMI's in-house producers

and their engineers,

but they were used to
doing things themselves,

and he was very much
Roger Waters' guy.

But I think what
he did do was act

as a great mediator
between them.

- I think he found the
reality to be quite different

from what he'd been
sold by Roger Waters.

I think Waters
had brought him in

saying "You'll find Dave
Gilmour and the rest of them

"are very, very difficult"

and he basically said to Ezrin

"I don't want to talk to them.

"I want to have as little
to do with them as possible.

"You're there as my go-between."

But of course, what
Ezrin then found

was that Gilmour was a very
easygoing chap to work with

and all the difficulties
were by and large

coming from Roger's side.

- It might be argued that
if it hadn't been for Ezrin,

The Wall would never
have got completed.

In the same way that
Gilmour walked out

on the sessions
of The Final Cut,

it might well have happened
much earlier on The Wall

had there not been a
mediating influence.

- So he has this role within
the dynamic of the band

and the dynamic of
working in the studio.

He has a second role,
which is of course

about the sound of the album.

And so he comes to
work with Pink Floyd

with a track record
that includes

Alice Cooper,
Aerosmith, and Kiss.

So he's steeped in this sort of

American stadium rock sound,

and I think you can
hear quite strongly

the influence of that,
which he brings to The Wall.

♪ Billion dollar baby

♪ Rubber little lady,
slicker than a weasel

♪ Grimy as an alley,
loves me like no other

♪ Billion dollar baby

- The influence of Ezrin on

Pink Floyd's commercial
alertness is immeasurable.

It was his idea to send
Nick Mason and Dave Gilmour

into a disco to
listen to disco music.

I don't think they would've
got 'round to doing that

off their own bat.

So obviously, the
influence of someone

with a commercial head

will have made
immense difference

to the development
of the project.

- [Voiceover] And the difference
was instantly apparent,

as "Another Brick
in the Wall" became

Pink Floyd's first
single in over a decade.

♪ We don't need no education

♪ We don't need no
thought control ♪

- The big, significant thing
about The Wall initially

was before the album came
out, they released a single.

It was the first one they'd
done since about 1968,

certainly in the UK.

They'd done promotional
singles in America.

But that was a huge
sea change for Floyd.

- It was never intended
to be a single.

It was just one of those motifs

in Waters' 85-minute rock opera

that cropped up a
couple of times.

And it's a classic
Waters trick, actually.

What it is, is a drone,

which is a pedal point bass line

which doesn't move, there's
no harmonic movement really,

and a three-note melodic motif,

and it's the sort of thing
he would do quite a lot.

For instance,

[playing simple piano melody]

Set the controls to
the heart of the song,

same thing, a drone and
a three-note melody,

a three-note motif,
which just repeats.

Same thing with this, with
"Another Brick in the Wall."

Another different,
different key,

but the same, and minor as well.

[playing simple piano melody]

Now, these aren't tunes as such.

They're just little
nuggets, little motifs

that will pepper the
piece throughout.

And I think it was Ezrin
who suggested doubling it up

and putting a disco beat on it,

and making it into
a commercial thing.

The addition of the kids' vocals

made it into a commercial
work, and a single.

Now, Pink Floyd would've
resisted that at the time.

Singles were exactly what
Pink Floyd were not about.

They were one of the
original albums bands,

but I think when
faced with something

as seductive and
irresistible as that,

that they couldn't refuse.

♪ No dark sarcasm
in the classroom

♪ Teachers leave
those kids alone ♪

- [Voiceover] "Another
Brick in the Wall"

provided Pink Floyd with a
global, number one success.

However, in the UK, the
release attracted criticism,

as members of the government

claimed the track
was anti-education.

Roger Waters disagreed,

offering that the intended
message had been missed.

♪ All in all you're just
another brick in the wall ♪

- It's important
to remember that

"Another Brick in the Wall"

isn't anti-school
or anti-education,

as it's often been portrayed.

It's very much Waters
being anti-bad education

and bad schools.

Waters really is an
old school socialist.

His parents were very
left wing, members of CND.

His father, who ironically
died in World War II,

had been a pacifist
and only fought it

because he was opposed to
what the Nazis were doing.

- There was some flack
in some of the papers

from people who had only
heard that single on the radio

and didn't know
anything about the piece

or anything about me or
anything about The Wall

or what it was about
or anything else.

I remember a piece
saying it was obscene

and it was this,
that, and the other,

and I thought "Well, you prat,

"you haven't done your research.

"You don't know what
you're talking about."

♪ There's no way

♪ I'm gonna let go

- [Voiceover] All the while
The Wall was in development,

the tensions between the
members of Pink Floyd increased,

and the relationship
between Waters

and the rest of the
band was deteriorating.

In the period between
Animals and The Wall,

both Richard Wright
and David Gilmour

had released solo albums,

while Nick Mason
had also broadened

his activities beyond the band,

producing punk outfit The
Damned's Music for Pleasure.

With minds often
focused elsewhere,

a dispute regarding the
creative direction of Floyd

and the level of input
from individual members

caused friction, particularly
between Waters and Gilmour.

- To understand what happened
between Gilmour and Waters,

and indeed the rest of the band,

it takes a great deal of
reading between the lines.

People's recollection
so many years on

are contradictory sometimes
or sometimes vague,

and there are things that
they clearly won't talk about.

But it's quite obvious
that while Waters

thought that he was
carrying the band,

the other band members
thought that he was

happy to do as much
as he was doing

and that their contributions
were still significant.

And clearly there was a
difference of opinion about that

and it's a pity that
they didn't sit down

and talk about it
in a grown-up manner

and resolve those issues,

a pity for the rest of
us who would've benefited

from the resultant work.

- Well, it had started
on Animals but this where

the divide between the
two of them really starts.

And it's very easy to see

the duality between them
in terms of the traditional

sort of good cop/bad
cop, nice cop/nasty cop.

I think it's a little more
complicated than that.

Waters is certainly
developing serious

signs of megalomania
at this point.

- What we can be clear
about is that Waters felt

he was at the lead of Pink Floyd

and that without him
there was no Pink Floyd,

and the other band
members clearly disagreed,

as eventually did the courts.

- But, you know, I think he
had high demands of himself

and he expected the
rest of the band

to come up to those standards.

So it wasn't as though he was
demanding anything of them

that he didn't
demand of himself.

And Gilmour did not
come up with material

in time for the deadline.

I mean, he does eventually.

They resurrect a couple of songs

that were rejects
from his solo album.

But you can imagine why
Waters was frustrated,

which isn't to excuse
some of his behavior,

but you can see why he felt
other members of the band

were not necessarily
pulling their weight

at this point in time.

- You know, my confidence
in my own lyric writing

has not always been that high

and Roger showed a very strong
desire to be the lyricist,

and we all lazily
allowed that to happen.

- One, I didn't have
any material to offer.

David didn't really either.

And Roger had begun to think

"Well, I'm the
writer of this band,

"and I don't want
anyone else to write.

"I'm going to become the..."

It was the start of
that whole thing.

So I'm to blame for
not having anything

and he's to blame for not
encouraging anything to come.

- "Oh, he wouldn't
let us write."

What?

You know, that's just
so sort of stupid.

I'm desperate for
people to write, always,

always, always, always, always.

- [Voiceover] The
miscommunication between
friends continued

and Rick Wright, already dealing

with serious personal issues,

was about to take the fall.

- Rick Wright had a huge
impact on Floyd musically,

but personality-wise,
he was quite gentle,

so he was not the alpha
male in the equation.

And I think at that
point, he had issues

in his own personal life,

which he talked
about before he died,

issues with his
marriage and so on.

There is other
stuff that went on,

which the band have
always remained

very tight-lipped
about, even now.

But I think there was an issue

that he'd kind of
run out of road.

- Rick just didn't
seem like he wanted

to take very much part in it

and it was kind of a
frustrating thing for all of us.

- Rick was probably
split between

a feeling of "My God, I
don't need anymore of this"

and the sheer
unpleasantness of Roger

trying to boot him out.

- The issue was that they
weren't going to have

the album completed
in time for Christmas.

EMI wanted it for Christmas,
and it was a huge bonus

if they delivered
it before Christmas,

which in the light of
their financial problems

was obviously a big sweetener.

And I think a decision
was taken by Waters

that we will have
to go to America,

we will have to use
session players.

We're not going to get this
thing done unless we do this.

- I was under a certain
amount of pressure

to finish this, finish
the project off,

and I tried to get Rick
to cooperate with me

to achieving that
end and he declined,

and so our ways parted.

- The story is that
Waters gave Rick Wright

a timetable he had to work with.

He'd agreed a family holiday

and that seemed to be the straw
that broke the camel's back.

The issue was that he left.

- When a band's been
together for so long,

the decent and reasonable
thing to do is go to the guy

who's not pulling his weight
or contributing and say

"Look, there's a problem here.

"What's the problem?

"We can work this out."

But no.

Because of the way Roger
was behaving at the time

and who he was,

you couldn't do that.

- I read all this stuff
about "Oh, Roger did this

"and Roger threw Rick
out, and Roger was this

"and he was this, and
that, and the other"

and I think I've
passed the point

in my path, down my road

and through all my
psychotherapy and whatever

that I no longer feel a
strong urge to defend myself

or to take part in
that conversation.

- [Voiceover] Wright
agreed to leave the band

but was determined
to complete the album

and also take part in
the supporting tour,

to which the other
members agreed.

The Wall was finally
released in November 1979.

Roger Waters' concept of the
rock star in sharp decline

had been realized,

and even though its creation
had broken the band,

his creative drive
had not surrendered.

Throughout its recording,
both Waters and Ezrin

had been plotting
a spectacular show

to complement the music,

and it was to this that
their minds now turned.

The show Waters envisaged was
a rock opera like no other

and took live performance
to the next level.

With a gigantic wall
covering the stage

and a backdrop of dark
and vividly imaginative

animations from Gerald Scarfe,

The Wall tour was a
breathtaking triumph

that stunned Floyd's loyal fans.

- As the album is a culmination
of all the techniques

and styles that
the band had used

over the preceding decade or so,

so the concert was a culmination

of all the different
things that they'd done

in live performances.

Back projected
films, giant puppets,

surround sound going right
'round the auditorium.

So it was quite a natural
progression in that sense,

although the audacity
of building the wall
across the stage

and hiding the band
behind it was clearly new.

I think the band
were a little bit

shocked about that concept,

but once they understood
what it was about,

then they realized
that they actually did,

it actually needed to be done
in order to tell the story.

- At the time, it
was unprecedented,

a show of that scale,

but the sheer cost
of putting it on

meant that they couldn't tour it

to the extent that perhaps
they may have wanted to do.

It really is the beginning
of what you saw in the '80s,

with huge productions by
bands like Rolling Stones,

and Queen, and every
band that came, Prince,

every group that came back
and started doing stadiums.

The Wall is the
beginning of that.

It's that point at
which musicians realized

that with a bit of corporate
sponsorship and so on

just how big you could go.

- [Voiceover] Despite
the major success

of both the album and live show,

tensions within
the band remained.

But however volatile
the relationship

between Waters and Gilmour
had been during recording,

it was a collaboration
that arguably

produced some of
Floyd's best work.

- The tensions in the band

at the time The
Wall was recorded

certainly have an
effect on the music.

There are some slight
references in the lyrics,

but the overall angsty
feel can't have been

anything but enriched by the
tensions within the band.

- They are barely
on speaking terms,

and yet some of the best
moments on the record

come from the collaboration

of Roger Waters
and David Gilmour.

Foremost amongst those
is "Comfortably Numb,"

which I think for
a lot of Floyd fans

is to them what
"Stairway to Heaven"

is to Led Zeppelin fans.

It's this sort of, you
know, the totem track.

- The chord sequence
of "Comfortably Numb"

was one of the few
offerings that Gilmour

brought to the project,

and I think it was Ezrin
who persuaded Waters

to engage with it and actually
try to do something with it.

- I think Ezrin plays a key
role, by the way, in this.

I mean, possibly without
Ezrin, there wouldn't have been

any Gilmour material
at all on The Wall

and we would've lost
"Comfortably Numb."

- And what we have

is the most musically
rich thing on the record.

♪ Hello

♪ Is there anybody in there

♪ Just nod if you can hear me

♪ Is there anyone at home

♪ Come on now

♪ I hear you're feeling down

♪ Well I can ease the pain

♪ And get you on
your feet again ♪

- The verse of "Comfortably
Numb" is a classic

minor key Pink Floyd sequence.

[playing piano chord sequence]

Now that functions as the verse.

So you have the sinister doctor

asking "Hello, is there
anybody out there?"

but it also functions as
the big guitar fade solo.

When it comes in for the
bridge, we go to the major.

[playing piano chord sequence]

It's all very reassuring.

[playing piano chord sequence]

But then, where do we go?

[playing piano chord sequence]

Which muddies the waters a bit.

We don't quite know
what's happening.

We wouldn't if we're
in this woozy state

and we've been given something
to make us comfortably numb.

♪ When I was a
child, I had a fever

♪ My hands felt just
like two balloons

♪ Now I've got that
feeling once again

♪ I can't explain, you
would not understand

♪ This is not how I am

♪ I have become
comfortably numb ♪

- It's tempting to interpret

the two distinct personalities
at work on that record.

Prodding, sinister
verses, Mr. Waters.

Soothing, delightfully
numbing, actually,

choruses by Gilmour.

- It is one of the highlights
not just of this album

but of Pink Floyd's career.

- [Voiceover] With
only a smattering

of Gilmour's contributions
on the album,

The Wall provided an insight
into the complexities

of Roger Waters' own psyche,

and no more so than on
the track "Nobody Home."

♪ Got a little black
book with my poems in

♪ I've got a bag with a
toothbrush and a comb in

♪ When I'm a good dog, they
sometimes throw me a bone in ♪

- I think what's interesting
about "Nobody Home"

is it seems to encapsulate
every musician on the road,

a particularly isolated
and tormented one

in this particular case,

but I think it's all about
"I'm here, you're there,

"and I can't get a hold of you.

"I've got all of this.

"I've got all this stuff
that money's bought me

"that doesn't seem
to mean very much.

"These are my adornments,

"but I can't even get through
to the people I love."

So "Nobody Home"
works on that level.

He can't get through
to the people he loves.

But it also works
on the idea that

when you stack up
everything that he's got,

his perm, and his boots,
and his silver spoon,

and he still picks up the phone

and there's still nobody home,

he's talking about himself.

There's neither
anybody home there

nor is there anybody home here.

♪ I've got electric light

♪ I've got second sight

♪ Got amazing powers
of observation

♪ And that is how I know

♪ When I try to get through

♪ On the telephone to you

♪ There'll be nobody home

- I think what makes
it doubly effective

is although the tune
itself, as ever with Waters,

is not the most
interesting thing about it,

he does set this
litany of emptiness

to quite an elegaic
chord sequence,

which reflects hymns,
reflects gospel music.

And it's beautifully
arranged as well.

It's got a lovely, warm,
swelling kind of arrangement,

which really underlines
the isolation of it all.

[playing chord sequence]

So that's very gospel-y.

And then you get this
lovely moment here later.

[playing chord sequence]

Which is straight out of church.

So the whole thing has
a sort of grandeur.

There's a grandeur
in the desperation,

and I think this is what Waters
can do really, really well.

- I think by this stage
Roger Waters has developed

a grand vision in
keeping with the rather

grand self-image that he
has adopted at this point.

And the theatricality,
I think he's moving

in a slightly different
way from that kind of

David Bowie theatricality
we'd had before,

which was very sort of pop

and it's moving more in the
direction of grand opera,

certainly of Gilbert
and Sullivan operetta.

And of course, that is a
direction which he does

end up following and
attempting to write

a serious opera
later in his career.

- [Voiceover] The final brick

in The Wall's
overall construction

was the creation of a film
directed by Alan Parker

and starring Boomtown Rats
lead singer Bob Geldof.

With the rest of
Pink Floyd sidelined,

the movie version of the
stage show of the album

was very much Roger
Waters' attempt

to crown his grand achievement.

Yet the production was
beset with problems,

and Waters was
unhappy with Parker's

execution of the project.

It left an
appropriately sour taste

in what had been a
bittersweet masterpiece.

♪ If you wanna find out
what's behind these cold eyes

♪ You'll just have to claw your
way through this disguise ♪

[explosion]

[men shouting]

[explosion]

[explosion]

- [Voiceover] The Wall had been

a mammoth undertaking
for Pink Floyd,

and its success saw
the group reassemble

in 1982 to record The Final Cut.

Without the influence and
mediation of Bob Ezrin,

and missing Rick Wright
for the first time

on a Pink Floyd record,

Waters relentlessly persevered.

Still influenced and obsessed
by the injustice of war

and the death of his father,

the writer and bass player
was inspired to address

both the Falklands
conflict and the arrival

of Margaret Thatcher's
conservative government,

and creating a heavily
political album,

which ultimately would
drive a permanent wedge

between himself and
the rest of the band.

♪ Should we scream

♪ What happened to
the post war dream ♪

- By the time it came to make

the next Pink Floyd
album, The Final Cut,

there were definitely huge
cracks appearing in the band.

The Final Cut always
feels in some ways

like the beginning of
Roger Waters' solo career.

There are many elements
of it that you think

you could be listening to
a Roger Waters solo album.

- When the band came
to record an album,

which was originally going
to be called Spare Bricks,

made of the bits and
pieces from The Wall,

tracks that had been
re-recorded for The Wall,

tracks that had been excised
from the original album,

tracks that had been specially
recorded for the film,

they realized that it
would just be a mishmash.

It wouldn't match
the normal quality,

it wouldn't tell a story,

and it would just look
like scraping the barrel.

So they decided instead to
produce another proper album

using some of the
material that had been

discarded from The Wall,

some of the tunes for instance,

but not actually using the
material from the film.

Waters obviously came
up with this story

based around what had happened
since the film came out

around the Falklands War,

around the political
situation in Britain.

There are lots of
references to Thatcher,

references to the Cold War,

references to Israel, and
clearly to the Falklands War.

Gilmour, on the other
hand, was quite opposed

to re-using some
of the discarded
material from The Wall.

He felt it had been discarded

because of its quality
not being sufficient

and therefore to re-use it
was lowering the standard,

and he said since that there
are only three tracks on there

that considers worthy
of the name Pink Floyd.

- I felt that Roger
was resurrecting tracks

that we had not accepted
for The Wall album,

and I did say to him "They
weren't good enough then.

"Why are they good enough now?"

It got so difficult
that Roger wanted me

to not have a say
in what was going on

on the production
side of the album.

So after a lot of arguing,

and hemming and hawing,
and soul searching,

I agreed to come off
the production credits.

♪ Brezhnev took Afghanistan

♪ And Begin took Beirut

♪ Galtieri took the Union Jack

♪ And Maggie over lunch one day

♪ Took a cruiser with all hands

♪ Apparently, to make
him give it back ♪

- They're not what
I would regard

and I suspect most Pink
Floyd fans would regard

as characteristic
Floyd material.

They are overtly political,

which means they're not quite
as mysterious and enigmatic,

which had been trademarks
of the Floyd throughout.

They're a lot more literal
and very, very personal.

- I think another sticking point

for the others in the
band, which was obviously

just David Gilmour and
Nick Mason at this point,

was that again it
was Waters returning

to very autobiographical themes,

the death of his father,
his feelings about war.

There's a lot of very heavy
political sentiment on it,

particularly inspired
by Margaret Thatcher,

who was of course prime
minister at the time,

and also the Falklands War,

which was going
on at that point.

I mean, Gilmour has
always said that he

didn't disagree
with the sentiment,

but he just felt that it
was overdone on an album,

that he wasn't convinced
that the place for it

was on a Pink Floyd album.

- The whole album speaks of
a man who is only interested

in one way and one
way of thinking,

and that's his way.

Waters has every
right to say that.

He's got his own history.

If he wants to
turn childhood hurt

into an ongoing onslaught
onto political leaders,

then that's his right.

He can do that, but
I think to do it

within the context of a
band is very difficult.

♪ Ladies and gentlemen,
please welcome

♪ Reagan and Haig

♪ Mr. Begin and friend

♪ Mrs. Thatcher, and Paisly

♪ Mr. Brezhnev and party

♪ The ghost of McCarthy

♪ And the memories of Nixon

♪ And now, adding colour,

♪ a group of anonymous
Latin- American

♪ Meat packing glitterati

♪ Did they expect us to
treat them with any respect

♪ They can polish their medals
and sharpen their smiles

♪ And amuse themselves
playing games for awhile

♪ Boom boom, bang bang

♪ Lie down you're dead

- The politics of The Final
Cut are not terribly subtle.

This is bile-filled
hatred a lot of the time.

Politicians are simply
corrupt warmongers

and they all need
to be gathered up

in a care home and eliminated.

Now that's pretty extreme stuff,

and you can see why Gilmour
couldn't quite get behind

something as extreme as that.

- It's an album
that you feel like

you're being hit over
the head the whole time.

There's some great stuff on it

but there is this sense of
"Just get out of my face,

"just for a moment."

And there's not a lot of that.

It's a very relentless record.

- [Voiceover] A damning
reflection of the breakdown

in communication
on The Final Cut

was the limited contribution
from David Gilmour,

only really having
a significant role

on the track "Not Now John."

Having provided a musical foil

for Roger Waters' lyrics
and concepts for so long,

his lack of input was
highly conspicuous.

♪ So fuck all that

♪ We've gotta get on with these

♪ Gotta get on with these

- A thing that
stands out about it

is that Gilmour
doesn't, you don't feel

his presence on that album as
much as you do on the others.

He's playing on it,
he's actually excellent.

There are two or three
really good songs on there,

but there is definitely a
sense that by that point

I think Gilmour had run
out of steam with Waters.

It was a very, very difficult
working relationship,

and he'd sort of taken
his attitude as like

"Well, I'll play guitar
when you want me to,

"but I'm not going to do
very much more than that."

- Perhaps it's telling that
the only vocal he's got

is on "Not Now John"

and what does he say?

"Fuck all that" I
think is the phrase.

You can read a myriad
of things into that.

I suspect "Fuck all
that" pretty much sums up

his attitude to Roger
Waters at this point.

♪ Not now John, we've gotta
get on with the film show

♪ Gotta get on, gotta get on

♪ Hollywood waits at
the end of the rainbow

♪ End of the rainbow

♪ Who cares what it's about
as long as the kids go

♪ As long as the kids go

♪ So not now John, we've
gotta get on with the show ♪

- I think what's significant
about "Not Now John"

is you have a very extreme lyric

and it's sung not by
Waters, but by Gilmour,

who really, really lays into it.

And I think that it's
indicative of how supportive

Gilmour was trying to be.

Gilmour always said he never
wanted to stop Roger Waters

expressing what he
needed to express

and in fact he was
always trying to help him

express what he
wanted to express,

and that's never more clear
than on "Not Now John."

One's put in mind really
of when John Lennon wanted

to record "Ballad
of John and Yoko"

and asked Paul McCartney
to help him out

and off they went
and they did it.

I think that's the difference
between the two characters.

You can't imagine Lennon
doing the same for McCartney.

In the same way, you
can't really imagine

Waters doing the
same for Gilmour.

- I think Gilmour hates
this set of songs.

But again, he's got
nothing better to offer.

So when Roger Waters
calls his bluff and says

"Well, if you hate
this album so much,

"I tell you what, we won't
call it a Pink Floyd album,

"we'll call it a
Roger Waters album,"

Gilmour says "Oh, no you don't."

So he's in a slightly
difficult position here.

It's sort of put
up or shut up time.

- It was dreadful, really.

It was dreadful,
it's the not the way

a band should make records

and I think we all thought that.

Roger certainly thought it,

because he left the
band shortly afterwards.

- [Voiceover] The
Final Cut was released

to the public in March 1983,

and despite its different
sound and dark political edge,

the album went to number
one on the UK charts,

something both Dark Side
of the Moon and The Wall

had failed to achieve.

It received mixed
reviews from critics,

while "Not Now John" was
released as an edited single

and accompanied by a
short promotional film

featuring four of
the album tracks.

But by then, the
rift in Pink Floyd

had reached insurmountable
proportions,

and no supporting
tour was scheduled.

The Final Cut, as it turned
out, was the final straw.

David Gilmour, anticipating a
future without Roger Waters,

recorded his second
solo album, About Face,

released in 1984.

- By the time Gilmour
recorded About Face,

his 1984 solo album,

it's safe to assume
that he realized

his partnership with Waters
was effectively over,

and it seems to be him
putting a toe in the water

to see whether he can
forge a solo career

separate to Pink Floyd.

The album is more
heavily promoted,

there are singles from it,

there are singles on picture
disc and 12 inch singles

and all the usual paraphernalia

about somebody making a
career out of their album.

Unfortunately for Gilmour,
his tour to support the album

wasn't a great success.

His third British
concert in Birmingham

had an audience of about 200.

But it looks as though he
had a stab at a solo career

and realized he was
never going to be able

to emulate what
he'd been able to do

under the Pink Floyd banner.

- [Voiceover] While
Gilmour was trying

to reinvent himself
as a solo artist,

Roger Waters recorded and
released his own solo effort,

The Pros and Cons
of Hitchhiking.

Having been discarded
in favor of The Wall

several years earlier,

the album continued Waters'
theatrical, conceptual style,

although a supporting
tour in which he

recruited Eric Clapton as
part of his backing band

somewhat backfired when
Clapton began to get

more appreciation than Waters
during some of the shows.

♪ A Salvation Army band played

♪ And the children
drank lemonade ♪

- [Voiceover]
Alongside About Face,

Gilmour also kept his hand
in the wider music scene.

Having discovered Kate
Bush back in 1976,

he maintained his interested
in working with new acts

by producing English folk
rock band The Dream Academy,

featuring Nick Laird-Clowes.

He also provided backing
or guest session work

for a host of other artists,

such as Grace Jones, Pete
Townshend, and Supertramp.

♪ Ah hey ma ma
mommy doo-din-nie-ya

♪ Ah hey ma ma ma hey-y-yah

♪ Life in a northern town

♪ Ah hey ma ma ma ma

- Supertramp were
making our first album

after Roger Hodgson had left,

and we were making something
really strong and solid,

and the album turned
out to be called

Brother Where You Bound,

and we had this long
20-minute track.

It had solos from this
and solos from that

and different passages,

and then there was one
two- or three-minute slot

that we'd reserved
for a guitar solo,

and I think we tried a
couple of guitarists,

but it was there just waiting

and we were sitting around
one night and we said,

somebody said "What
we really need

"is like a Pink Floyd-type,
Dave Gilmour-type solo.

"Now, who can do a Dave
Gilmour-type solo?"

and everyone started
going "Hmm, well."

And I think it was
me, I think I said

"How about Dave Gilmour to
do a Dave Gilmour-type solo?"

"Good idea, John."

So we called him up,
and he said "Yeah,"

and he came to Rick in
Rick's house and studio.

He just seemed to be very
happy to be playing with us

and happy to get his
sound and everything.

He set up in the studio
with his footboard

and box of tricks or whatever

and plugged it in, tuned up,

and there was a
Dave Gilmour sound.

All we had to do
was just record it.

- I don't think
it's just a question

that Dave Gilmour was
a musician's musician

in his discovering Kate Bush

and producing The Dream Academy

and hanging out and
supporting Pete Townshend

and appearing on a Wings album.

I don't think it's just that.

I think that, at his
heart, Dave Gilmour

is a side man, he's a
supportive, supporting player.

He likes to be around and
helping people make good work.

That's part of his personality,

and that's part of his
reason for making music.

That's not what
Roger Waters does.

Roger Waters is a
megalomaniac artist.

There's only one important thing

about what Roger Waters does

and it's what he does.

It's him, it's a complete
expression of him.

Dave Gilmour never had that

until he was forced into it

by the absence of Roger Waters.

- [Voiceover] It
was becoming clear

that the name of Pink Floyd
carried far more weight

than any individual member.

So when Roger Waters
released a statement

claiming that Pink
Floyd were disbanding,

he was immediately
countered by Gilmour,

who issued his own
statement to the contrary.

- The argument was
me rather pompously,

and I freely admit
now erroneously,

suggesting that, because I
wasn't in the band anymore,

that the brand and band
name should be retired.

It wasn't up to me.

- [Voiceover] Roger Waters
officially left Pink Floyd,

claiming he had been forced
out by the remaining members.

A bitter legal wrangle ensued

as an air of uncertainty fell
over the future of Floyd.

- I harbor some bad
feelings about Roger

and about the procedure.

Yes, I do.

Wouldn't you?

I mean, it's not something that

I waste a lot of
energy on, though,

and I don't have any
desire to see him

or talk to him or
any of that stuff.

But I'm not going to
spend all my energy

trying to fight him.

No one is going to tell
me that I'm not Pink Floyd

and that we can't do
Pink Floyd anymore.

I mean, could you imagine it?

I can't imagine it.

- [Voiceover] Nick
Mason and David Gilmour,

in a display of
unity and defiance

against Roger Waters'
jibes and accusations,

carried on under the
name of Pink Floyd

and produced their
13th studio album,

A Momentary Lapse of Reason.

Released in September
1987, the record,

which featured Rick
Wright on keyboards,

offered a sound and style
that was more recognizable

to fans of classic Floyd.

- It was inevitable that the
record was going to sound

more like a traditional
Pink Floyd record

because Roger Waters had gone.

Now, that's not to denigrate
Roger Waters' contribution

to the uniqueness of
Pink Floyd's sound,

but we saw really
from The Wall onwards

that Waters was moving in a
quite different direction.

Gilmour, for sound
commercial reasons

if not sound artistic reasons,

conceived this album as a return

to the classic Pink Floyd sound.

- It would be very
easy to portray

A Momentary Lapse of Reason

as a Gilmour solo album
under the Pink Floyd banner.

Again, that's not something
that it's possible

to be concrete about,

but it certainly has a lot more

of Gilmour's style
and influence,

clearly because
Waters isn't there.

Gilmour was the driving
force behind it.

- On one level,
there is a return

to that sort of dreamscape
Pink Floyd approach

and the importance of the
gargantuan guitar solo,

and atmosphere, and menace,
and all that kind of stuff

unfolding in slow motion.

There is a return a bit to that.

So all that theatrical
aspect of Waters' approach

with the vignettes and
the linking sections

and the overall arcing concept,

that's been dropped,

and a return to sort of slightly
older school Floyd values.

So on that level, yes,
it does have something

in common with a
Pink Floyd record.

- So that's the sound,
but he really didn't have

the material to sustain it,

and that's where he
misses Roger Waters.

- [Voiceover] Where Roger Waters
appeared to be missed most

was within the lyrics
and subject matter.

Although lead single
"Learning to Fly"

performed well in the charts,

it lacked the depth and
meaning of previous Floyd work.

♪ Into the distance
a ribbon of black

♪ Stretched to the
point of no turning back

♪ A flight of fancy
on a windswept field ♪

- [Voiceover] Not only
were criticisms aimed

at the collaborative
efforts on the album,

with Gilmour being joined
by several writers,

they were also directed
towards the band's attempt

to sound contemporary.

With prog and classic
rock having been

pushed out of the spotlight,

many questioned if
Pink Floyd had a place

in the 1980s music scene.

♪ Can't keep my eyes
from the circling skies

♪ Tongue tied and twisted
just an earth bound misfit I ♪

- While listening to A
Momentary Lapse of Reason,

you have to conclude
that there wasn't a place

in the musical landscape
for Pink Floyd in the 1980s

because the record
sounds pretty hollow,

they attempt to fill the
vacuum with bombast, really.

And so you'd imagine they
would be anachronistic,

and yet, of course, the
album sells millions

and there still clearly
is a market out there

for anything under
the Pink Floyd brand.

- [Voiceover] To maintain
the Pink Floyd brand

yet also compete commercially
in a changing market,

Gilmour's list of
collaborators included

previously out of favor
producer Bob Ezrin.

- Ezrin had obviously proved
himself in the Pink Floyd camp

by helping The Wall
to be pulled together.

So you can see precisely
why Gilmour would

want him back on board.

But I think in the absence of

a genuine, eccentric creative
for Ezrin to work with,

what we end up with
is a slightly empty,

super slick product,

'cause for all of
Gilmour's qualities,

he's not an auteur in the
same way that Waters is.

He's not a great lyric writer.

He's not driven to write.

And Waters would
say this himself:

Writers don't have a choice.

When you're a creative
writer, you just write.

You don't say "Today I'm
gonna write an album.

"Today I'm gonna write
a Pink Floyd album."

And I think he
recognized that Gilmour

wasn't that kind of guy.

- [Voiceover]
Without the influence

and creativity of Waters,

Gilmour, Mason, and
Ezrin struggled at first.

When their initial attempts were

deemed not good enough
by the record company,

writing collaborators such as
Anthony Moore were brought in.

This led to criticism regarding
the validity of the album

as a Pink Floyd record.

- Gilmour had to recruit
a bunch of professionals

to help him make the record,

which by definition
means that it's becoming

a diluted entity anyway.

- I arrived at the studio

and, well, I know I
had my soprano with me

'cause that's on the recording,

and I probably had
my tenor and alto,

and it was very loose.

And I met Dave and I met
the producer, Bob Ezrin,

and he said "Well,
yeah, get set up,

"get your instruments out.

"We'll play this music."

The first track they played
was "Terminal Frost."

He said try a soprano on it,

and I think I tried
soprano and alto.

He said just blow along
with the whole track,

and it's the instrumental track.

And we both agreed that
soprano sounded good with it,

and so he said "Well,
let's do a take."

Dave, to me, was
very relaxed and calm

and just got his
head into the music

and was really nice to me.

No problems with that.

From what I've read, well,
I've never met Roger Waters,

but what I can imagine was
that between the two of them

that Roger was the
one with the angst

and Dave was the one
that was a lot calmer.

- I mean, there's
an argument to say

that actually there hasn't been

a Pink Floyd proper
record since Animals.

You know, The Wall
and The Final Cut

are clearly not Pink Floyd
records in the old sense either,

but A Momentary Lapse of
Reason certainly isn't

a Pink Floyd record.

It's a Dave Gilmour record
with a bunch of professionals

trying to help him make a record

that sounds a bit like
a Pink Floyd record.

- [Voiceover] And Waters
was quick to issue

his thoughts on the new album.

Having goaded his
former bandmates

during their
acrimonious breakup,

his public pronouncements
on the record

and its collaborative setup

were predictably damning.

- Roger Waters dismissed the
album as a pretty fair forgery

and David Gilmour has since
admitted some years later on

that Nick Mason only
really played on one track

and that most of
the keyboard parts

were done by him
and not Rick Wright.

It's for the individual
to decide whether or not

Waters is right and
that album is a forgery,

but it certainly wasn't a
collaborative Pink Floyd effort.

♪ Then drowned in desire

- [Voiceover]
Nevertheless, with sales

of over 9,000,000 copies,

A Momentary Lapse of Reason
reestablished Pink Floyd

and proved that there
was life after Waters.

Gilmour, Mason, and Wright
took the album to the road

on a record-breaking world tour.

♪ One slip and down
the hole we fall

♪ It seems to take
no time at all

♪ A momentary lapse of reason

♪ That binds a life for life

- [Voiceover] While
Pink Floyd Mach 3

were playing to
sell-out stadium crowds,

Roger Waters was taking his
new solo album, Radio K.A.O.S.,

around the globe,

only playing to much
smaller audiences

as he competed with
his former bandmates.

- I remember one particular
night I'm playing in Cincinnati

to about 2,000 people
in a 6,000-seat arena

and they were
playing the next day

to 60,000 people in a
football stadium next door,

playing all my songs.

That was hard to take.

- [Gilmour] The viewpoint I
suspect is that it's his work

that we are getting
all the publicity from.

That's his viewpoint, is
that he should be receiving

all these fans that are
out there going to see us

should be going to see him
and feels very aggrieved

that they don't
understand that...

He said it publicly
that he wishes

he'd done more publicity stuff

and that people understood him.

- [Voiceover] The Momentary
Lapse of Reason tour

had restored confidence
within the band

and culminated in a
performance in Venice

which was broadcast
to millions worldwide.

After such a struggle
to keep the band alive,

Gilmour remained philosophical
about his reasons

for maintaining Pink Floyd.

- It was a very
difficult period.

You've sort of achieved all your

childhood's rock and roll dreams

when you've reached
that sort of pinnacle

of Dark Side of the Moon,

and you have to
really ask yourself

what you're still in it for.

And it was a tough time,

but I think in the end
I came to the conclusion

that I was in it for the music
more than for anything else,

and a conclusion which I
haven't really changed.

In that separation,
we lost something

and we gained something.

You always have
some regrets about

losing a talented
person, don't you?

- [Voiceover] In 1993,
it was an older, wiser,

and more relaxed Pink
Floyd that returned

to Gilmour's floating
studio near Hampton Court

to record what would be
their last album to date,

The Division Bell.

- When it was time to
make The Division Bell,

Gilmour had a couple of years of

massively successful
world tour behind him.

Also, huge sales of the
last Pink Floyd album.

Not only that, but
Roger Waters had agreed

to allow Gilmour, and Nick
Mason, and Rick Wright

to carry on and be Pink Floyd.

So they're starting
the album with

a completely different feeling.

- The Division Bell was far
more of a collaborative effort.

It began with jamming sessions

with Gilmour, Mason, and Wright

on Gilmour's houseboat
studio The Astoria

with other people,
people like Guy Pratt,

who had been the touring
bassist on the previous tour.

Just messing about, trying
to come up with tunes,

and it's the first
time that Rick Wright

has a writing contribution
on a Pink Floyd album

for nearly 20 years since
Wish You Were Here in 1975.

So that's a significant return
to the fold for Rick Wright

and indicative of the fact that
this was a Pink Floyd album

and not a Gilmour solo
project under another name.

- Rick Wright has had an
unexpected Renaissance

and makes a major
contribution to this album.

So suddenly Dave
Gilmour has got somebody

he can spark off again.

It's not Roger Waters, but
Rick Wright is almost back to

the creative best that he
had shown in the early 70s.

There's suddenly a sense
of Pink Floyd being

a band again on this record,

which was really lacking

on the last record
with Roger Waters

and the first record
without Roger Waters.

- Although it is a
collaborative effort,

it's clear that at this stage

Pink Floyd is being
steered by David Gilmour,

perhaps not as
autocratically as Waters

had steered it in
the previous era,

but nevertheless
there is a band leader

who is making the decisions

and deciding the
direction of the band.

- I'm not really a control
freak, I don't think.

But I like things
to be done properly

and I suppose in
the end I've become

a bit of a perfectionist.

In many of the stages I'm not,

but I've become a bit
of a perfectionist,

but I don't see myself
as being a control freak

in the way that other people,

like my predecessor in
this band if you like, was.

- [Voiceover] As
chief songwriter

and the main driving
force behind the band,

Gilmour was forced to
look within himself

for lyrical and
thematic inspiration

in conceiving The Division Bell,

a process that he
had publicly admitted

to finding very difficult.

- From what we know
of the writing process

for the songs on
The Division Bell,

it's clear that Gilmour
had certain things

he wanted to say.

He was prepared to
talk about in passing

his relationship
with Roger Waters,

his relationship with his
new wife, the world at large.

- The impetus
behind this is that

Gilmour had got married again.

He was in a new relationship
with Polly Samson,

who was a writer, a
newspaper columnist,

and she wrote lyrics
for the album.

And by his own admission,
Gilmour had struggled

in the past with lyrics.

That's why he'd use outside
lyric writers before.

And she came along
and delivered lyrics,

which got the album moving.

- Well, we started off.

I went off to try and start
writing lyrics, to France,

and my girlfriend
Polly came with me

and she encouraged me.

She kept telling
me to keep working,

to sit in front of that word
processor and bash away.

But as these things do work,
she got more and more involved

and I would say "Listen to this.

"What do you think of this?"

and she'd say "Well, that's
crap" or "That's good"

and would come up
with ideas herself

and gradually I had
to face up to the fact

that she was
properly contributing

and put it in some
sort of proper order.

- But of course,
that then opens up

a whole other can of worms

in terms of criticism
of the record,

the idea of some Yoko Ono figure

meddling in the Pink Floyd.

That of course was
the downside to that,

but there's no getting
away from the fact

that her involvement in
that record got it moving.

- [Voiceover] Gilmour's
lyrical collaboration

with Polly Samson,

along with The Dream
Academy's Nick Laird-Clowes,

finally allowed
the Floyd frontman

to open up and express himself.

♪ Her love rains down on
me as easy as the breeze

♪ I listen to her breathing

♪ It sounds like
the waves on the sea

♪ I was thinking all about her

♪ Burning with rage and desire

♪ We were spinning into darkness

♪ The earth was on fire

♪ She could take it back

♪ She might take
it back someday ♪

- Lyrically, the album
does seem to address

issues of miscommunication,

human emotions,
people's inability

to deal with their emotions
and to confront issues,

which of course is something
that's a big part of life

but also a very big part
of the Pink Floyd story.

- In the same way that what
happened with Syd Barrett

continued to resonate through
David Gilmour's career

and indeed the
rest of the band's,

what happened between
him and Roger Waters

would resonate
through his career.

There would never be a time
when he could write an album

without thinking "What if Roger
had been involved in this?"

That might've been a
subconscious thought,

but it was always
going to be there,

and I'm sure it's the same
for Roger Waters as well.

It's the same for any
partnership that's ended.

There I always the "What if?"

- It's ironic and apt in a way

that by the time
Gilmour is making

what turns out to be the
last Pink Floyd album,

he's grappling with one of
Roger Waters' favorite themes,

which is connection,
communication, reaching out,

getting beyond that
distance between

one person and another person.

Songs like "Poles Apart"
address that head on.

♪ Hey you

♪ Did you ever realize
what you'd become

♪ And did you see

♪ That it wasn't only me
you were running from ♪

- He also revises the
Pink Floyd tradition

of singing about poor old Syd.

Syd gets a look in.

In fact, the first
verse of "Poles Apart"

appears to be
talking about a man

that he once knew and
doesn't know anymore.

He was once a golden boy,

but whatever happened there?

And then the second verse,
he appears to be addressing

his old sparring
partner Roger Waters.

All of this stuff you
can't imagine Gilmour

dealing with 10 years earlier.

But I think it's
not insignificant

that he had a co-writer,
and a muse, and a helper

in his current
girlfriend and now wife,

who seemed to have been able to

unlock Gilmour in a way.

- Waters always seemed to
wear his heart on his sleeve.

Gilmour's much better
at hiding things.

And I think for
someone that didn't

feel very comfortable
writing lyrics,

it was probably very
difficult to write about

his own feelings and
his own emotions,

and on The Division Bell
you certainly get the sense

that he's doing that.

He's quite a closed down
individual, as you suspect.

I think the others are as well.

It's a very English thing.

There's something very
English about that record

and about the way he
expresses those emotions.

♪ The rain fell slow

♪ Down on all the
roofs of uncertainty

♪ I thought of you

♪ And the years and all the
sadness fell away from me ♪

- When two people
have been close,

whether it's in a
marriage or in a rock band

and they fall out,

there's always going to
be a sense of sadness.

But, I mean, the bitterness
of this falling out

far outweighed any
of that sort of

melancholic sense
of loss that I think

David Gilmour
would've been feeling.

- There's a track on there
as well called "High Hopes,"

which is easily the best
thing on the record,

which Polly Samson had
co-written the lyrics on that,

and that is very much
about reflecting.

It very much sounds like
Gilmour reflecting on his life,

growing up in Cambridge,
what had gone on

in the past with Syd
Barrett, with Roger Waters.

It very much feels
like a man in his 50s

kind of taking stock,
taking stock of the world.

- It belongs to a larger
tradition of Pink Floyd songs,

which goes back all the way to

Roger Waters'
"Grantchester Meadows"

and Dave Gilmour's
"Fat Old Sun,"

in which they ruminate and
reminisce about Cambridge,

the marvelous Cambridge
in their youth,

and everything
that was possible,

and lying in the meadow,

and listening to the birds,

and listening to
the church bells,

and that it was all ahead
of us, and all that.

It's entirely appropriate that

a reminiscence piece
like "High Hopes"

should be the final track of
the final Pink Floyd album.

♪ The grass was greener

♪ The light was brighter

♪ The taste was sweeter

♪ The nights of wonder

♪ With friends surrounded

- [Voiceover] Released
in the spring of '94,

The Division Bell laid to
rest the ghosts and turmoil

not just of the last
20 years of Pink Floyd,

but stretching back to
their humble beginnings.

David Gilmour as the band's
leader and inspiration

had succeeded in rescuing
one of the world's

best-loved names from
the bitter tangle

of an unsightly and
regrettable feud,

and a traditional
spectacular tour

brought the curtain
down on the band.

♪ Forever and ever

- [Voiceover] As far
as all were concerned,

Pink Floyd were now on
an indefinite hiatus.

Not officially broken
up, but with no plan

for any new material,

the members were content to
work on their own projects

and enjoy their lives.

As the band's
self-imposed outcast,

Roger Waters continued
with his solo career,

taking his masterpiece
The Wall around the world

before finally achieving
his ultimate goal

and creating the
fully-fledged opera Ca Ira.

But to everyone's surprise,
Pink Floyd returned

in their full form
one last time.

When Bob Geldof assembled the
best musical acts in the world

for Live Aid in 2005,

he managed to coax Pink
Floyd out of retirement.

And due to the time gone by

and the many gallons of
water under the bridge,

there was a definite desire
by all parties involved

to reassemble the classic lineup

for this global charity show.

- It's quite obvious with
hindsight that for some years

Gilmour and Waters had been
dancing around each other

with a view to some
sort of reconciliation.

Waters had invited
Gilmour to play in Berlin.

Gilmour had invited
Waters to play

on the Division Bell tour.

So when Live Aid finally
arose, although there was

some initial hesitancy
perhaps on both sides,

there had been some
precursors to it,

and it was likely
that at some point

they would sit down and
break bread together

and eventually play
together again.

- We had a meeting with Roger

and he wanted to do other songs

and basically David said

"Look, they've asked
Pink Floyd to play.

"We're Pink Floyd so we're
gonna do these songs,

"and if you would like
to play them with us,

"that'd be great."

So he was very humble actually,

and he knew that,
he realized that.

♪ A distant ship
smoke on the horizon

♪ You are only coming
through in waves

♪ Your lips move but I can't
hear what you're saying

♪ When I was a child I
caught a fleeting glimpse

♪ Out of the corner of my eye

- [Voiceover] Pink Floyd played

four of their best-known pieces

for the hundred thousand-strong
crowd in Hyde Park.

And the show not
only allowed the band

to reunite in public,

but also step out of
the formal anonymity

of their spectacular live shows

and simply play the music
they were loved for.

♪ And I have become
comfortably numb ♪

- The reunion for Live Aid
in 2005 surprised everybody.

I think most people
by that stage

had accepted that it was
never going to happen.

Bob Geldof pulled it off.

- Like many Pink Floyd fans,

I was astonished when the
band reunited for Live Aid.

I would've laid money that
that would never happen.

And I think one of
the most significant

things that happened at Live Aid

wasn't the fact that the
band played together,

but it was the group hug that
they had at the end of it.

It was quite obvious
that there was

genuine emotional
feeling between them,

that whatever had
happened in the past,

whatever acrimony there had been

was receding into the past,

and that above all
else they were friends.

- [Voiceover] The triumph
of the Live Aid performance

was captured within
the faces of the band

following their set.

Contrary to public
demand, however,

there was no other
reformation of Pink Floyd.

And following Rick
Wright's sad death in 2008,

Live Aid will remain
their final appearance.

In July 2010, however,
both Gilmour and Waters

reunited at a charity concert
for the Hoping Foundation,

where they played a
handful of Floyd classics.

Throughout the turbulent
final years of Pink Floyd,

the constant friction between
Roger Waters and David Gilmour

had threatened to overthrow
the band as a whole.

Yet the work they
created jointly

showed each of
them at their best.

Never as good apart
as they were together,

the bruises and scars of such
bitter infighting have faded,

and the the pair are reconciled,

not as bandmates, but
simply as old friends.