Pink Floyd are possibly unique amongst bands as having lost it’s central character – not once but twice – and still kept going. This is why I chose the picture of the short-lived 5 man set up (from 1968) when Dave Gilmore was brought in to help with live performances as Syd Barrett’s behaviour and playing became increasingly erratic.

Barrett was the major songwriter and performed on the first album, A Piper at the Gates of Dawn. His eventual replacement by Gilmore saw the creative mantel pass to other members of the band, both together and individually, with Waters eventually emerging as the dominant songwriter.

Their early stuff with Barrett was great psychedelia. And through the 70s they began to re-find their feet with albums like “Atom Heart Mother” (cows and wind instruments) and “Meddle” (“Across the Universe” inspired). Then later on their two mega-selling releases “Dark Side of the Moon” and “Wish You Were Here”.

Maybe I am alone in enjoying the “Pink Floyd The Wall” film and they still had it going on with that double album. But the last Waters-inspired album “The Final Cut” wasn’t too well-received and Waters announced in December 1985 that he was departing Pink Floyd, describing the band as “a spent force”.

But in 1986 Gilmour and Mason began recording a new Pink Floyd album “A Momentary Lapse of Reason” and then with Wright in 1994 , The Division Bell. A bitter legal dispute ensued in the late-eighties with Waters claiming that the name “Pink Floyd” should have been put to rest.

On 2nd July 2005, the band reunited once again for a one-off performance at the London Live 8 concert. There was something very appealing in seeing four old men playing together live for the first time in two decades and for once, not hiding behind light shows and pyrotechnics as they had in the past.