Pink Floyd
1974
Richard
Wright Interview
Melody
Maker November 1974
History
of Rock 1974
(from
the Archives of New Musical Express
and Melody Maker)
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IN THE CURRENT
era, when groups and artists come and go with alarming regularity, the continuing
success of the Pink Floyd is a peculiar state of affairs.
For the Floyd are rock's hermits, and rare in
deed is it for them to emerge from their caves to tour or make records. It's well
over a year since they last played in this country and their only bow to a live
audience during that time was a short French outing in une. They didn't even tour
the States to reap the rewards obviously in the offing following the success of
Dark Side Of The
Moon.
It's a good 18months
since that album was released, and by the way Floydian matters are shaping up, it'll
be another six months before their next record reaches the shops. Throughout this
period of lengthy inactivity no word is heard from the Floyd. There are no solo
albums forthcoming.
They keep their
private lives very much to themselves, and little is even forthcoming about the
musical thoughts of Messrs Waters, Wright, Mason and Gilmour, other than the fact
that they dislike being probed.
Roger Waters'
love of football is well known. He is also pretty fanatical about golf and thoroughly
enjoys a game of squash.
Nick Mason spends
many a happy hour messing about in boats and was recently seen on Top Of The Pops playing his drums behind
Robert Wyatt on "I'm A Believer".
Dave Gilmour likes
riding motorbikes and enjoys a life in the country, very occasionally turning
up to play with a local band when the mood takes him.
But Rick Wright,
the keyboard virtuoso, remains a complete mystery, a face guaranteed to warrant
not a spark of recognition should he choose to board a London bus or creep silently
into the stalls of the Rainbow Theatre in the unlikely event that he wants to catch
an up-and-coming act. His efforts with the Floyd earned him tenth place in the keyboards
section of this year's MM poll
[:Melody Maker poll], a position hardly worthy of the talent he displays on stage
with the group.
According to
the excellent programme available on the current Pink Floyd UK tour, Wright is pictured
as a glamour-seeking playboy, surrounded by Hugh Hefner, Charlton Heston and a bevy
of naked girls. In effect, though, nothing could be further from the truth. Wright
is a happily married man who lives in Cambridge and spends most of his un-Floydian
time pottering about in his home studio.
It was, then,
with some reluctance that he agreed to be interviewed in the Caledonian Hotel in
Glasgow following the opening of the band's tour last week. Settling down with a
packet of Piccadilly tipped cigarettes and strong coffee, he nevertheless proved
a fine spokesman for the Floyd.
We began by talking
about the three new pieces the group are performing on the tour."Raving And Drooling", it turns out,
was written by Waters about two months ago; "Shine
On You Crazy Diamond" was written about the same time and worked
on during rehearsals at Elstree; and "Gotta Be Crazy"
began as a Gilmour riff. Roger Waters wrote all the lyrics, and none of the songs
have been recorded yet.
"We always
like to write numbers, go on the road with them and record them later," said
Rick." We did this with Dark Side Of The Moon and we think it's easily
the best way to go about it. A number changes so much when we do it live over a
long period; 'Shine On' has changed a lot
since we started already.
"I can't
think of any other bands that work this way. Usually bands record songs and then
play them, but we feel that if you do a few tours with a number, then that number
improves immensely.
"We will probably
record them after the tour. There's enough material in the three songs for an album,
but I don't know yet. We may do something else as well which we haven't actually
played yet. There are things I am working on in my studio that I would like to put
on the next album."
A new Floyd album
can be expected in March. The time between Christmas and then will be spent in the
studio and next year the group will embark on two US tours, their first for two
years.
"It'll be
a two-year gap between Dark Side and the next one, and that's too long
in my opinion," said Rick. "We have never been a prolific group in terms
of records. We average about one a year over our whole career. It's not a policy
to work like that-it's just the way it happens.
"We have
a deal with the record company that makes us do about seven albums in five years,
which is one album a year and may be a couple of film scores. It's very easy to
make that deal."
The immense success
of Dark Side
has taken the band by surprise, although they all felt it would do well at the time
it was released.
"It's been
in the English charts ever since it was released, which is quite amazing,"
said Rick. "We all felt it would do at least as well as the other albums, but
not quite as well as it did.
"All our
albums have done well in this country, but Dark Side was Number One in the US and we never
dreamed it would do that. It was probably the easiest album to sell in that it was
the easiest to listen to, but
it's success has obviously put some kind of pressure on
us, and that is what to do next.
"We have
always tried to bring out something different with our next release, and it would
be very easy now to carry on with the same formula as Dark Side, which a lot of people
would do. It's changed me in many ways because it's brought in a lot of money and
one feels very secure when you can sell an album for two years. But it hasn't changed
my attitude to music.
"Even though
it was so successful, it was made in the same way as all our other albums, and the
only criteria we have about releasing music is whether we like it or not. It was
not a deliberate attempt to make a commercial album, it just happened that way.
Lots of people probably thought we all sat down and discussed it like that, but
it wasn't the case at all. We knew it had a lot more melody than previous Floyd
albums, and there was a concept that ran all through it. The music was easier to
absorb, and having girls singing away added a commercial touch that none of our
other records had."
Rick has no idea
how many copies Dark
Side has actually sold, but it's well in to the millions. Around 700,000
copies have been bought in this country, and at least three times that amount have
been sold in the US.
"I never
know about things like sales," said Rick. "I know that it was the first
gold record we had in America and since it's release our other albums have picked
up in sales over there. We have made a lot of new fans as a result, because it was
the first time we ever had an AM airplay in America. 'Money'
was played on AM radio, and for a lot of people it was the first time they'd heard
us.
"I like to
think this hasn't put a pressure on us in terms of what we write next, but for a
whole year we never did anything. We all sat around and got heavily in to our reasons
for being and our group. We got in to a bad period when we didn't do anything at
all creatively. We all still enjoy playing Dark Side and anytime one of us didn't enjoy it,
we wouldn't do it again, ever. The first time we played it at the Rainbow, it was
totally different from today, but it's remained virtually the same since we recorded
it.
"There's
a solo in 'Money' which varies according
to how Dave Gilmour feels, and 'Any Colour You Like' is just improvisations, but
various parts are very arranged and it's almost like a score."
The
accompanying film isn't Rick's territory, but he feels there's still room for improvement
in the visual aspects of their show." It was hard work for Roger Waters, Nick
Mason and Arthur Max, the sound engineer, but it's still not right. I think we are
still at the experimental stage in finding out what visuals work and which don't-even
after all these years.
"It's so
easy to have a film that is distracting, and of course, I've never any idea what
the effect to the film is-I'm always on stage playing. People always expect the
Floyd to come up with something different, new and better when it comes to visuals,
and it's very difficult to keep thinking of new ideas.
"The projector
for the film was incredibly
expensive and we got a new mixing desk too, which was also
expensive. Buying those will probably mean we lose money on this tour, but that
doesn't matter because we'll recoup it on later tours. We can never make money in
England with 25 in the crew.
"We have
got a new guy mixing the sound and he is used to working in a studio. Last night
was the first time he's worked with a live band and that's why the first half of
the concert wasn't right. The second half was easier because he'd got to know us
and the board by then.
"We spent
two weeks rehearsing at Elstree before this tour, but in the end we couldn't spend
one whole day playing because of problems fitting the new system together. Also
it demanded a lot of attention getting the notes for the first half of the show,
which we hadn't played much before this tour. Dave Gilmour had to have the words
of the songs stuck on to the top of his guitar."
I commented that
I thought the three new songs were harsher, heavier numbers than the Floyd usually
played and Rick agreed.
"Yes, it's
the way the numbers have been written and it's the way we played them. We always
play heavier when we don't know songs so well.
When we first
performed Dark
Side it was heavier and harsher than it is now. As we get to know a song
better, we tend to play it quieter.
"Did you
realize that 'Shine On You Crazy Diamond'
is about Syd[Barrett]? We don't see much of him now since he left and we're definitely
a different band since his day. Thank God we're not the same. I know that it's very
fashionable to like Syd these days, but I think we have improved immensely since
he left, especially live. He was a brilliant songwriter and he was fantastic on
Piper,
but he was in the wrong state to play any music.
"I am all
for people trying to keep his name going, but...he hasn't written anything for years.
His two solo albums show the way he was going. The first album was better than the
second, and since then no one has been able to get him in to a studio."
Rick Wright seemed
anxious to change the subject from his former colleague, so I inquired why it was
the Floyd played live so infrequently.
"We all differ
in opinions about how much we should play live. Dave Gilmour and I would like to
do more live work, but Roger Waters and Nick Mason are happy with the way it is.
"It's such
a headache going on the road, and all of us except Dave Gilmour are married with
kids. I believe it's very important that I am a good father and I am around with
my children.
"We limit
ourselves to three-week tours and this has saved us from going mad. I feel that
if we worked for weeks and weeks on the road all the time we wouldn't be producing
such good music.
"Bands who
work live all the time do it purely for the money, I think. No band can really enjoy
playing one-nighters week after week, so it must be a financial rather than a musical
motive.
"Last year,
apart from a French tour, we didn't go out on the Road at all, and we had a Number
One album in the States. We could have gone over then and made a fortune, but we
would have made ourselves mad at the same time. We will probably do twothree-week
tours of the US next year and take a two-month break in-between. But even so, I
don't think we have played enough recently.
You get to the
point where you don't play and then you lose the whole reason for being in a band
in the first place-and that, after all, is to go out and make music for people.
"I would
like to reach a situation where we devote six months in a year to the Floyd and
six months to whatever we like. If for one of us this meant going on the road, then
he could play with another band, and I think we might be reaching that stage now.
"There are
many things I would like to do which would not involve the Floyd, and this attitude
could well save the Floyd in the long run. Everyone of us wants to do other things,
but at the moment we don't have the time.
"I feel this
would be a good idea. Any band is a compromise between four individuals, but a compromise
for a whole year isn't a good thing. It's only time that has prevented us doing
solo projects, and if I had six months away from the group I would certainty make
an album of my own. The others feel the same way.
"I couldn't
visualize going out with my own band on the road, but I would probably do a film
score or may be produce another artist. I know I would like to try playing with
other musicians for a change."
Conversation
switched to the low-key approach the group has towards the media, and Rick
Wright agreed that this was a deliberate policy.
"We are not
trying to sell ourselves, just the music. Right from the start we adopted this policy.
We have never had a publicity agent and we've never found one necessary. We don't
go to all the in parties and we don't go to the 'in' clubs in London.
"People don't
recognize us on the streets, and even if they did it wouldn't be a problem. That
kind of thing has changed since I moved out of London to Cambridge where people
don't know anything about the Floyd.
"Sometimes
I get people tramping through my garden and asking for an autograph because they've
heard I'm in a pop group, but they don't know what the Floyd do. They probably think
we're like Gary Glitter.
"It's a very
nice situation to be in. Rod Stewart has the kind of personality that encourages
all the fan worship, but we don't. We're just not that kind of band. Incidentall,
I think Rod Stewart makes great music too.
"I like all
sorts of music myself. I listen to my old favourites and I listen to records that
people bring to me if I respect their taste. I ignore the way pop is going. I have
completely lost touch with the singles charts. I don't listen to what is being played
on the radio, I don't watch Top Of The
Pops and I don't watch The Old Grey
Whistle Test.
"I don't
even know how the rock business is going, except that I think the bubble will burst
fairly soon. It's already burst in the States, where Joe Public has decided he's
not going to pay such enormous ticket prices any more. I don't agree with these
huge shows in front of tens of thousands of people. Wembley Empire Pool is the biggest
place you can play before you lose the effect."
And how long could
Pink Floyd last as a band?
"It could
last forever," he said. "There's no reason why it shouldn't, but then
we could have a fight tonight and split up tomorrow. If we carry out that idea of
being a group for six months and individuals for the next six months, then there's
no reason why we can't carry on for a long time.
"As a group
we still have much to do and much to do together. We probably do things much better
with each other than we ever could with anyone else.
"We are basically
happy with the situation at this time. Roger Waters is very keen on sports, which
suits his competitive spirit, and Nick Mason is keen on sailing, and that's another
thing that helps us survive.
"We're not
underground any more, despite what people say. At the UFO it was underground, but
you can't be underground when you sell out every concert hall and your album goes
to Number One. No, the Pink Floyd can't claim to be underground any more."
Chris
Charlesworth
Melody Maker, November 16, 1974
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Pink
Floyd 1974
Richard
Wright Interview
Melody Maker November 1974
History of Rock 1974
(from the Archives of New Musical Express and Melody
Maker)
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ΜΟΥΣΙΚΗ
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