Pink Floyd — tribute concerts

Pink Floyd ([pɪŋk flɔɪd]) is a British rock band from London. The band started with a debut album of psychedelic music before moving towards progressive rock. Formed in 1965, it is considered a pioneer and major representative of these musical styles. It is known for its ethereal and experimental music, its philosophical and satirical lyrics, its concept albums, and its original and elaborate concert performances. From its beginnings to the present day, the band has sold over 360 million albums worldwide. In the United States alone, Pink Floyd's album sales are counted by the RIAA at 85 million copies.

Initially led by guitarist, singer, and main songwriter Syd Barrett, the band achieved modest success in the mid-1960s, then became one of the most popular London underground bands on the psychedelic scene. However, Barrett's increasingly unstable behaviour — primarily due to his heavy LSD consumption — led the other members to replace him with David Gilmour, a childhood friend of Barrett's. Bassist Roger Waters gradually became the band's leader, writing all the lyrics from 1972 onwards. Pink Floyd achieved global fame the following year with The Dark Side of the Moon (1973), the third best-selling album of all time, behind AC/DC's Back in Black (1980) and Michael Jackson's Thriller (1982).

The band continued its success throughout the 1970s with Wish You Were Here (1975), Animals (1977), and The Wall (1979), the latter leading to a film adaptation. Nevertheless, tensions within the band appeared over time as Waters took more and more control. During the recording of The Wall album, keyboardist Richard Wright was fired from the band but still participated in the tour. Waters left the band in 1985, after the release two years earlier of The Final Cut album, for which he was the sole author. In 1987, David Gilmour and Nick Mason decided to record a new album under the Pink Floyd banner and reinstated Richard Wright for A Momentary Lapse of Reason (1987) and then on The Division Bell (1994), while also resuming live performances. The band put its activities on hold in 1996.

The various members then reunited on a few occasions in the 2000s. Pink Floyd in its best-known line-up (with Gilmour, Mason, Waters, and Wright) gave its last public performance on 2 July 2005 at Live 8 in London. The event sparked numerous rumours of a reunion, denied by Gilmour and rendered moot by Wright's death in 2008. A final album titled The Endless River, consisting mainly of unused recordings from The Division Bell sessions, was released in November 2014.