Richard Wright (musician)
Richard Wright ( Richard William Wright, also known as Rick Wright, born July 28, 1943 in Hatch End, London Borough of Harrow, † September 15, 2008 in Kensington, London ) was a British musician and songwriter. He is best known as a keyboardist and vocalist for the rock band Pink Floyd, which he co-founded and where he served until 1981, and again in 1987 as guest musicians and from 1992 again as a full member.
Biography
School and musical beginnings
Rick Wright attended the Haberdashers ' Aske 's School in Elstree Boys' (near London). There he developed a keen interest in ancient Greek architecture. He decided to study architecture, and wrote after leaving school at the Regent Street Polytechnic in London. There he met his future bandmates Nick Mason and Roger Waters know.
The time as a band member of Pink Floyd
Since 1964, Nick Mason, Roger Waters and Wright played together in several bands. 1965 was added Syd Barrett and was called the future The Pink Floyd Sound, later simply only Pink Floyd. In the late 1960s, during that time, the Barretts and the entry of David Gilmour joined directly to the eviction, Wright was next to Waters of the most distinguished songwriters of the band. Pieces such as Paint Box, It Would Be So Nice, Remember a Day, See-Saw, Sysyphus ( Pts. 1-4), Summer of '68 and The Great Gig in the Sky came entirely from his pen. As a co- author, he also contributed significantly to pieces like A Saucerful of Secrets, Careful with that Axe, Eugene, Us and Them and Shine On You Crazy Diamond. From the mid- 1970s, he focused more on his role as the keyboardist of the band.
The recordings for the album Animals were 1976 ( also by his own admission ) with the beginning of a writer's block, which resulted in part from his former marriage problems associated. His recent in September 1978 and hardly noticed solo debut album Wet Dream also seemed to be a sign that he withdrew from the band. In 1979, he was then forced during the recording of the Pink Floyd album The Wall due to lack of posts and growing in-band voltages of Roger Waters gradually from the band.
Get off at Pink Floyd
At the following to the recordings for The Wall tour Wright was no longer a band member. In legal terms, he was no longer a partner in the company Pink Floyd, but only as an employee or guest musicians there. Finally, on the following 1983 Pink Floyd album The Final Cut he was missing. Wright moved in 1984 to the Ionian island of Kefalonia and lived there for 10 years.
David Gilmour and Nick Mason and published in 1987, the Pink Floyd album A Momentary Lapse of Reason. There was, however, Wright will be played again as a guest musician. On the subsequent tour, he was - though still officially only employee of the band - again presented as a band member. As of 1992, Wright was again a full member of the band.
In its 1994 ( still recent ) Pink Floyd studio album The Division Bell to find the strongest influences of Wright published since the 1975 album Wish you were here.
From 1994
After Pink Floyd Tour 1994 Wright worked on his second solo album, Broken China. That along with Anthony Moore (who had already co-authored texts in some of the pieces on A Momentary Lapse of Reason and The Division Bell ) written album finally appeared in 1996. In interviews, he said at the time that he would like to go on tour and beyond go out of that Pink Floyd immediately went into the studio again. Both could not be confirmed. On the tour of former bandmate Roger Waters in 2000, the two met for the first time in almost 20 years back. The meeting gave the keyboardist Jon Carin, the ' band was in Waters and already on the two Pink Floyd tours without Waters previously (1987 and 1994) with Gilmour, Wright and Mason had played together. However, the meeting was, according to Wright very short and impersonal.
The first musical sign of life after the publication of his 1996 solo album Broken China was Wright again until 2002 by itself. He appeared at the few concerts that completed his Pink Floyd colleague David Gilmour in the year, as a guest musician and offered thereby, inter alia, the title of Breakthrough from his solo album, Broken China, marks a recording of it is available on the published in 2002 DVD David Gilmour in Concert.
The last years
In July 2005, Wright was the first and last time since 1981, again with Roger Waters on stage. Former members of Pink Floyd played under the London Live 8 concert for the last time in their classic lineup.
On 15 September 2008 Rick Wright succumbed to the public surprise of cancer.
Musical style and influences
Rick Wright taught himself to play the piano itself. His playing style was mainly influenced by jazz. But Bach and Beethoven played an important role for him. His compositional ideas were strongly influenced by unusual, colorful and complex changes of harmony, showed the influences from the modern jazz as from the Romantic era. The show pieces like the last part of "Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Part 9) ", " The Great Gig in the Sky ", " Us And Them ", " Burning Bridges " and "Summer of '68 ". In contrast to David Gilmour Rick Wright was considering themselves never a rhythm and blues fan.
Technical Equipment
Rick Wright played from 1965 with a Farfisa Compact electron - organ, which was coupled with a Binson Echorec. He sat still in 1971 in the movie " Pink Floyd: Live at Pompeii ," in " Echoes" and in the middle part of " Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun", a likewise at the 2006 Tour David Gilmour on his album On to Iceland in Echoes. Since 1968, he also set a Hammond M 100, from 1973, a Hammond C-3 organ, which was still playing the musician in the 1990s.
Only in 1972 the first synthesizer came with Pink Floyd used. The VCS -3 synthesizer of the English company EMS was then used on the Pink Floyd albums " Obscured by Clouds " and " The Dark Side of the Moon ". A special form of the VCS 3, the Synthi AKS, contained a sequencer. With a sequencer can be repeated endlessly stored sound sequences, an effect which can be heard in the song " On the Run " on the album Dark Side Of The Moon.
In 1974 Wright bought two mini - Moog synthesizer, which took over the solo parts on "Shine On You Crazy Diamond " and on the entire Animals LP. On both albums is also an ARP Solina String Ensemble used a string keyboard, which can be heard on numerous recordings from the 1970s. From the company ARP, the band used in 1972 on " Obscured by Clouds " also probably the ARP 2500th 1978 came to the Prophet 5 from Sequential Circuits and Oberheim Four Voice, the first polyphonic synthesizer in the Pink Floyd sound.
In the 1980s and 1990s, Rick Wright of the analog switched to digital synthesizer technology. With the units of the company Kurzweil he could imitate with growing perfection the sounds of the old keyboards. The advantage lay beside the handling is that the new equipment was less susceptible to interference. In addition, digital devices have better tuning stability.
Discography
Wright released two solo albums and an album as part of the Zee project. A third solo album was in the works.