Welcome to the Machine
Short bios of past and present band members
Roger Waters
Born September 4th, 1944, in Great Bookham, Cambridge, England.
He was the 
bassist for
Pink Floyd from 1965 to 1983. He took a progressively more
central position in the band, composing all the lyrics and
singing most of the lead vocals on The Wall (1979). In
the mid 80's, he engaged in a long, drawn out legal battle,
arguing that the other members of Pink Floyd could not continue
using the name without him in the band; he lost. Waters released
his second album, Radio K.A.O.S, in 1987. In 1992, he
released this third album, Amused to death.
David Gilmour
David was born
March 6th, 1944, in Cambridge, England.
Pink Floyd asked him to join their band to supplement the
guitar work of the increasingly erratic Syd Barrett. When 
Barrett's mental breakdown made it impossible for him to continue
with the group, Gilmour became a a permanent, contributing member
in time for their second album, A Saucerful of Secrets.
Gilmour has recorded two solo albums during periods of Pink Floyd
inactivity -- 1978's moody David Gilmour, and 1984's
more melodic About Face, the latter after the breakup of
the Roger Waters-led lineup. Beginning in 1987, Gilmour has
assumed leadership of a reconstituted verson of Pink Floyd with
Rick Wright and Nick Mason, as well as lending his guitar to a
number of other artist's records, notably Kate Bush and Bryan
Ferry.
Nick Mason
Nicholas Mason was born on January 27, 1945, in Birmingham, England. Nick is the only member of Pink Floyd that was involved in every album, and he never fought with any of the other members. Nick never really wrote any songs, though without him and his drums, Pink Floyd would not be as great as it is. He, as many other members of Pink Floyd, had solo albums. His first solo album came out in 1981, and was called Fictitious Sports. His second album, out in 1985, was titled Profiles.
Rick Wright
Richard Wright
was born on January 28th, 1943 in London, England. You'll find
that not only has he played the piano and keyboard for Pink
Floyd, but he's also managed to find time to write and sing a 
number
of songs, like The Great Gig in the Sky on The Dark
Side of the Moon. After many years with Pink Floyd, he was
forced out the band during the sessions for The Wall.
Being paid on a wage, he was the only member of Pink Floyd to
actually make money on that tour -- it was so phenomenally
expensive to put on, and they did so few shows that they couldn't
recoup their investment. The rest of the band were
"investors," as it were, but Wright's role was the same
as that of the roadies--he had a fixed dollar amount per night.
He did not appear on The Final Cut. He did, however,
appear as a "session" musician on A Momentary Lapse
of Reason, and also participated in the Delicate Sound
of Thunder tour. With The Division Bell, he's
finally fully back in the band.
Syd Barrett
Roger Kieth (Syd) Barrett was
born on January 6, 1946 in Cambridge, England. He joined Water's
band in 1965. The many names of the band continued until Syd
named it as Pink Floyd, after two of his favorite musicians, Pink
Anderson and Floyd 
Council.
Barrett was responsible for most of their brilliant first album,
1967's The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, but left and/or
was fired from the band in early 1968, after his erratic behavior
had made him too difficult to deal with (he appears on a couple
tracks on their second album, A Saucerful of Secrets).
Such was his stature within the original lineup that few
observers thought the band could survive his departure; in fact,
the original group's management decided to keep Syd on and leave
the rest of the band to their own devices. Pink Floyd never
recaptured the playful humor and mad energy of their work with
Barrett. Syd later made
some solo albums later which were produced by other Pink Floyd
members.
