Radio Interview on Opening Night of 1994 Tour

The Division Bell

Interviewed: David Gilmour - DG

Nick Mason - NM

Rick Wright - RW



Redbeard: I'm your host Redbeard, and recently I spoke with David Gilmour, Nick Mason, and Richard Wright of Pink Floyd about their next sonic painting in a gallery of masterpieces, including "Dark Side of the Moon", "Wish You Were Here" and "The Wall".

I started by asking Pink Floyd's David Gilmour about the title of their newest, "The Division Bell".

DG: It comes from a line in, in a song, High Hopes contains a line about the Division Bell.

RB: What is, eh eh, the division bell?

DG: The division bell is, a bell that rings in, Westminster, in Houses of Parliament. And it also rings in the apartments of many of the members of Parliament. And it is a bell that rings to summon all the members of Parliament to go the houses, ah House of Commons, and to divide into yeas and nays to vote on the issues. Mmm, because often in debates in the house of Parliament, the members of Parliament are not necessarily all there. Some of them have already made up their minds about what they are want to do, or are just going to follow the party line.

And so they may be sitting at home in an apartment, there's a sort of catchment area around the houses of Parliament where...within a certain distance where, if you are a member of Parliament they install this bell in your apartment.

They get to the point where they finish debating, they ring this bell, everyone that's in the area comes down, if you're all the Tories and all the labor people, all come down to vote one way or the other. It's a, a division bell, it divides the yesses from the noes.

RB: Pink Floyd drummer, Nick Mason, notes that even though it's been seven years between Pink Floyd studio albums, the Division Bell has not necessarily been seven years in the making.

NM: It's very hard to get the thing started, because you.... there is an inevitability that it will be a long project...um, and that's, that's a problem, because it's difficult to start work. I'm sure we'd all agree we make records because we want to make records, it's not some contractual obligation, its not something that, uh, at the end of the day, that sort of has to be done, it's something that we want to do. But inevitably you know you're sort of lining up for spending the entire year working on this record. And no matter how... much you would like to be able to do it in two months or three months, you *know* its going to take a long time. So it's real useful to have someone there to help push it along a bit. I, I think the curious thing is that you can all sit around and talk about being radical or changing things, or, or sort of trying to do things in a different way, but of course, the length of time you've been at it means that, that the um, the tunnel narrows in a way, that uh, inevitably what appears radical to you after twenty years is in fact very narrow band compared to how you might have behaved twenty years before. (chuckle) Hindsight is an exact science. I don't think that...I see...I see particular continuity to, to our, to our working life, if you like.

I, I think it's interesting that there are records that sort of come, that you could actually take groups of..of our recording history and say there's more continuity between let us say, um, let's say Dark Side and The Wall, than the albums between.

And I think perhaps with this, the newest record, it goes back to perhaps "Wish You Were Here" or something like that...there, there are jumps, but I mean that's inevitable, from having uh, the same, more or less, the same group of people working, working together for a long time.

RB: Ok, lets talk about that. Umm...is that, is that an accident, that the same group of people *have* worked together, uh, for this length of time? I mean, you've outlived marriages, you've watched kids grow up, you've watched uh, walls being built and then being torn down almost in the lifetime of this band.

NM: Yep, the whole of European history has sort of passed us by while we've been in the recording studio. (laughs) New view of, uh, of world order. Um....the, the general, I would have said the general rule of thumb is that the reason why bands stay together is because the sum is greater than the parts, that as long as the band feel, and *all* the members of the band feel that, they can achieve more together than they can on their own there is a purpose to the band remaining together. And the reason why people leave bands is because they no longer believe that to be the case. Certainly in case, someone like Roger, and he wanted to go and do it on his own. Um..that's the, the more interesting thing, is how, is perhaps, how bands actually get together in the first place. Which does seem to be entirely a matter of luck.

RB: The first peal of the Division Bell came in the form of an intriguing song, with the simple title Keep Talking. Even Pink Floyd's David Gilmour has heard it on the radio.

DG: I heard it today for the first time, I heard the, my, my first thing I've heard from this record, on the radio this morning. And it it's always quite extraordinary when you hear...one of your things that you've been working on for ages, and you know what it means, you know everything about it, what it, you know...um, but the first time you hear it on the radio you...have got the added weight of knowing that there are millions of other people listening to it as well. So you get a completely different perspective on it.

[Keep Talking fades in]

RB: It's also out, for you, its out of context, isn't it?

DG: It's not so much the out of context, its the, its the, that you *know* the other people are listening, and there it is, their *first* listen, and things are, you know, every bit of it, you, you sort of get invested with a different, a different meaning if you like...and it was really, really nice to hear that this morning on the radio. And wonder how people would take to hearing this strange voice talking about "for millions of years" and stuff on the beginning of it. It's really, really...it's, there are some aspects to making records, and making music, that you just never yourself get some of the things that are in the stuff you have done, until you hear it yourself on the radio, with the knowledge that millions of other people, millions or other ears are listening at the same time. It's fascinating.

[Keep Talking]

RB: Who *is* that voice?

DG: Uh, well it's not a real voice. It's the voice of Stephen Hawking, who is the professor who wrote this book called "A Brief History of Time", it's a huge, huge popular book. And he's suffering from moto-neuro disease, and he's in a wheelchair, he can't speak, and this is a voice synthesizer computer thing that has been built for him. I think he can only move one finger, a tiny, tiny little bit, and he works it all with that. And...I saw an advert on the television in England, for a telephone company...and his voice was on this advertisement. And...this advertisement nearly made me weep. I've never had that with a television advertisement before, or with a commercial on the television As I don't suppose *you* have...

RB: No, I...

DG: And I don't think I know *anyone* else who's ever, but this was such, this was the most powerful piece of...television advertising that I've ever seen in my life, and I thought it was fascinating. And I contacted the company that made it and asked if I could borrow the voice track from it, this voice-over track from it, which I did, which is this voice synthesizer thing, and uh..I applied it to one of the pieces of music we already had, and I fiddled around with it for months, changing it and putting (mumbles), until it started...making sense.

RB: Now was this your first uh, awareness of Stephen Hawking?

DG: Oh no, no, I've known, known about him for years. He's an incredibly well known, you know his book "A Brief History of Time" is all about black holes and stuff is, is one of the biggest selling..sort of scientific type books ever. It's, he's a very, very successful person, but he...he can't talk or move or anything.

RB: Now what do you know about him, uh, personally. How, how, I mean he is like preeminent scientist, is he not?

DG: Yeah, mm, he is, yeah. They got him to do this advert for, for a telephone company in England, and um..I don't think he even wrote the words that they used with him. But they *used* him in the advert, I mean he was in it, on his, in his wheelchair. He looks kind of strange. Um..and I just found it so moving that I felt that I had to try and do something with it, or with him or something, in some way. I suppose you could say that, you know, there's a, a theme throughout the album which involves communication. And um, *all*, pretty much, *all* the songs are connected to the theme of communication, in some way or another.

RB: Pink Floyd keyboardist Richard Wright was asked why their new album, The Division Bell, has an instantly recognizable, *seamless* Pink Floyd quality to it.

RW: Partly because I was involved with it alot more. And..and we made certain decisions, for example Momentary Lapse of Reason I was involved with it...virtually near the, sort of, the last quarter of making the album. And just putting in a couple of alb, eh Hammond tracks down or whatever. *This* - Nick, myself, and Dave were involved right from the beginning, in Brittania Row, just playing together. And out of that, the tracks came. And decisions like - Nick will play *all* the drums, *I* will play all the keyboards, and Jon Carin came in as a programmer, and played some of the keyboards, but it was to get the band feeling back. And for that reason, I think uh, as you say, the fans will like it more. I think we were kind of thinking of Wish You Were Here, which was uh, which happens to be my favorite album.

RB: Tell me uh, what, in your opinion, makes that one special. And eh, any parallels you see to The Division Bell.

RW: Now that's a specific question. (chuckle) Um, it's hard to say, it just happens to be the album that, for me, just from the moment it starts till it finishes it flows, the songs flow into each other, and it's just a wonderful feeling in it. The intention of this album was to try and recreate a band feeling. Which hadn't happened on Momentary Lapse of Reason, I wasn't on Final Cut, I was on The Wall, but again, it wasn't *a band*. And we wanted, both Dave, I..and Nick, I can speak for them I think, and myself...really liked the feeling we had on Dark Side of the Moon and Wish You Were Here.

[What Do You Want From Me]

RB: That's called, What Do You Want From Me. A song that bluntly re-examines the performer/audience relationship. From the world premier broadcast of Pink Floyd's The Division Bell. This album will be in your favorite music store, *next Tuesday*. I'm Redbeard, we're live from opening night of Pink Floyd's massive North American tour at Joe Robbie Stadium in Miami. It's the first of 58 stadium concerts between now and July 18. While you were listening to the song Keep Talking a few minutes ago, Pink Floyd was *actually performing it* live, here in Miami. Right now, they're taking a break at intermission. I want to tell you a little bit about this show that's going from coast to coast all over North America. It takes two hundred crew-people, in forty-nine tractor trailer trucks, hauling, drum roll please, one million, four hundred thou...

[Someone taps on the table]

RB: Thank you! (chuckle) One million, four hundred pounds of steel, for the three stages that leap-frog across the country. If you think that's mind boggling, you haven't heard anything yet. Throughout the night we'll give you more details of the Pink Floyd tour, we'll tell you where you can still get tickets for this tour that's selling out everywhere... But coming up next, more from David Gilmour, Rick Wright and Nick Mason. Pink Floyd and the world premier of the new album, The Division Bell, on the album network.

[Bells from High Hopes]

RB: I'm Redbeard. David Gilmour and I discussed the well known acrimony that flared up publicly upon the release of 1987's A Momentary Lapse of Reason album, the first without original member Roger Waters.

RB: Right upon release of Momentary Lapse, Roger had taken his vendetta from the courts to the press. And he was lobbing verbal mortars at you publicly. You were, at *that* point, uh, really kind of under a siege mentality. Because the Momentary Lapse album and the tour, uh hadn't, hadn't, really weren't, they weren't the documented success that we now know them to be. And the press was allowing itself to be manipulated into uh, being the uh, messenger boy. But sixty sold out stadium shows later, and four million Momentary Lapse albums later, or more, when I saw you nine months later, at the conclusion of that tour, you were confident, you were jovial, you were self-satisfied.

DG: Too self-satisfied, maybe. (chuckle)

RB: Well, why..

DG: Maybe too self-satisfied.

RB: Why do you say that? Isn't success the best revenge?

DG: Yes, I mean, I don't know how interested I am in revenge, its... you know it was a long, painful process which was trying to deprive me of my liberty to do what I wanted to do. And um, I don't really react terribly well to that. Lurching into the future, bearing the mantle of Pink Floyd, without Roger in 1987 was a tough one. It's uh, as anyone can imagine. It's, it's a big tough mantle to stick on my poor shoulders and trudge forward into the future with.

RB: I don't know if I've ever heard you verbalize it that way.

DG: Well, it is, it's tough. And, uh you were right to say that I was confident at the end and happy, ah. Anyone would be happy and confident at the end when our moving forward and doing what we did, making the album, doing that tour, was justified. One can consider the merits of everyone's case in these things, but um, I don't think there's many people that wouldn't think, wouldn't have thought at that point, that we had every right to continue doing what we were doing.

[Take it Back]

RB: I continued with Pink Floyd's Nick Mason.

RB: What was the toughest question of conscience, or the, the, the most difficult time uh, for this band? The point at which, uh, you honestly had concerns for everything we know to be Pink Floyd and for it's future?

NM: I suppose for me, probably, the making of the Final Cut was the most difficult. Umm...I think by then there was very much a feeling that we were really hardly a band anymore, that the sum was no longer greater than the parts, that we weren't...achieving anything like what, anything like our potential. But the thing became... think it, it became a sort of ahh, an arena for all the problems of Roger feeling that really he either wanted to leave the band or run it his way. And...and the material because, it, it sort of drifted actually, I think it probably drifted away from one idea and then became a sort of new concept, and, and a new story. And...that happened half way through, and instead of perhaps ditching it, which is perhaps what we should have done, or rethinking it, um, we didn't even really have the, sort of, mechanism set up anymore as a band to, to be able to sit and talk rationally about it. It would have simply been another opportunity for a fight.

RB: Mm hmm. You had stopped talking, rather than keep talking, right?

NM: Yeah.

RB: At that time, eh, in that moment, could you have imagined that in January, 1993, that you and Rick and David would be creatively jamming together?

NM: No, absolutely not. I think, uh, at the time I thought this was, I suppose I saw that album, as the beginning of the end. It's, it's really easy to look back, and really hard to look forward, in terms of um, any sort of understanding uh of, what, what we're up to. I mean, we, we were all *absolutely* brought up to believe that, ah, that rock music was some ephemeral activity that would last for a year, or two years, or a few years and then one would get on and do something else, get a proper job and all that. And, and of course it's not like that. But, you have...*no* idea, there, there is absolutely no guarantee that people will continue to buy the records, or like the records. You can *suddenly* be out of step with, with what people are interested in, what they want to hear. It could happen tomorrow. So, uh, you have no, sort of, real game plan as to how the future will go. But, at that time, certainly I just thought 'I can't really see how we can make the next record, or if we can, it's a long time in the future. And it'll probably be more for just because of feeling of some obligation, that we ought to do it, rather than for an enthusiasm.'

[Coming Back to Life]

RB: From the world premiere of their new album The Division Bell, that's Pink Floyd with "Coming Back to Life", preceded by "Take it Back." I'm Redbeard! We're live from opening night of Pink Floyd's 58 concert North American tour, in Miami. After a brief intermission, Pink Floyd has returned on the gargantuan stage to serenade the 63,000 fans with Shine on You Crazy Diamond. And that saxophonist you hear right now, live from Miami, with Pink Floyd, is the original saxophonist from uh, the Dark Side of the Moon album, Dick Parry. We've even seen stereo pigs so far tonight, at Pink Floyd's opening night.

[Redbeard reads off a list of show venues & ticket sales]

RB: If one of your goals was to create an environment for the listener, listening to the Division Bell, you've uh, succeeded remarkably. It's kind of magic really.

DG: Well, that's what we're trying to create, simply magic. It's as simple as that. Um, try to create magic, try to move people, move their hearts a little bit. I have already had...vast amounts of enjoyment out of this record myself. And um....I sit at home late at night and listen to it through, in all the stages it's been through, just a collection of songs, a collection of tracks with words, with melodies, without melodies, all the way through. And I get home from the studio and I listen through to the progress that we've made. And as soon as we had, you know, a collection of pieces, a few months ago we had a collection of pieces, I had a tape an hour long, over an hour long with basic, pretty much all the tracks on it. And I'd sit at home late at night, after returning from the studio listen to them, and uh I really have got off on it myself, enjoyed it so much. You then just keep honing away at it, working those things to try and make them even...better, make them have more point, make them have more poignancy, if you like, more, more *heart*. And um, you can then only hope when you deliver it out, that uh, the pleasure that you've had will be shared by other people.

*I know*, nothing pleases everyone, but um, there will be people listen, who will listen to this who will derive the same sort of pleasure that I have out of it, and that is something that makes me feel very good about this, this particular record.

[Marooned has already begun to play while David was speaking]

RB: It should.

DG: The, the trouble with making records really, is that you do tend to finish the record, and then go out and do a tour. And you're so busy playing the tour, playing all the songs, and doing stuff, that you never listen to the record again. I mean, from, usually from the date of release of the record that's about the last time I get to listen to the record for G-d knows how long, maybe a year or more. And then it's um, it can be very, very enjoyable. Really good fun to actually not have listened to it for a long period of time and just sit at home, relax with a glass of wine and uh, listen to the record for the first time for a long time, and um, yeah. So, I'm looking forward to that, the end of this year maybe.

RB: Is it ever, uh, disconcerting to let it go from that special place where you've created it, you've lived with it *intimately*, you've been the birthmother for this project...Is there, is there ever a point at which you've got to let it go, kinda like sending your child off to school for the first time?

DG: It is like that, yes. You do have to let it go, and um, you *always* think there was more that you could've and should've done, and you always kind of want a little bit more time, to get the thing finished, to, to the perfection that you imagined. Everyone knows about uh, records in the past, Neil Young I remember once ah, put a record out, actually released it, then recalled it, and then remixed it and reworked it for months and then put it out again. And then recalled it again, I think. I mean, we've all heard about these things. I wouldn't want to take it that far, but you always think there was a little bit more that you could have done.

[Marooned ends]

RB: That's Pink Floyd, from The Division Bell, with the achingly beautiful instrumental, Marooned. With David Gilmour's plaintiff guitar dipping and soaring like a solitary seagull. In talking with drummer Nick Mason, I pointed out that almost everything about Pink Floyd is exaggerated, from their album cover graphics to their legendary stadium concert extravaganzas, from anatomically correct, giant flying pigs to this years psychedelic blimp. Nick Mason recognizes that all of this makes them a huge success *and* a huge target.

NM: You know, there are *always* people who are going to find what we do, er as sort of...I suppose you almost say unnatural and it will never work for them, because it, it ah in some ways goes against the rules of rock and roll. About, about how real rock music should be, which may be. It should be in a, a bar somewhere, or it should be where you, ever, you can see the sweat on everyone, or you have personalities or, or whatever.

RB: But I thought it was about also breaking rules, and that's just it. See, these are self-imposed rules, and the first thing, one of the things that we, we all love about Pink Floyd is that the first thing that goes is the rules, the boundaries that restrict thought and imagination, it's the first thing that you throw out.

NM: Well, eh, yes, but there, I mean, there are all sorts of rules, uh that um, some are spoken, some are unspoken, and some are *complete* nonsense, but that we all, sort of, we allow to, to sort of roll, roll along.

RB: That's a good word, we *allow* it.

NM: Um..there will always be people who feel that Pink Floyd finished when Roger left, just as there are people who feel Pink Floyd ended when Syd Barrett left. And you can't change that, for them that..that is the case, and as much as I would love to be able to, sort of, convince them otherwise, I, I understand, that that's the case. There's also a sort of concept, that bands have to be, um, have, people would like to believe that they are made up of, sort of, groups of lovable mop-tops. Its the sort of, The Beatles as they were in 1967, that's really our, our sort of ideal view of a band. And of course, it's, it's not true. This goes back to the elements that make up a band generally. There's an enormous amount of conflict and tension in a band. It's considered, when it's reported, it's considered to be, uh, ah, scandal almost. But it, it's something that is allowed to drift on as a sort of concept of how rock music should be, but of course it's complete nonsense.

[Poles Apart]

RB: That song was called Poles Apart, it's another complex, thought provoking song from the world premiere of Pink Floyd's The Division Bell. I'm Redbeard, live from Pink Floyd's opening night concert, in Miami's Joe Robbie Stadium.

[David is heard singing Wish You Were Here in the background]

RB: Listen to the crowd singing along with David Gilmour.

RB: Ahh, this is just fantastic. Opening night of Pink Floyd's world tour here, uh, at Joe Robbie Stadium, in Miami. Several of the things that we have seen and experienced so far tonight: *Mind boggling* lighting show, which you would expect from Pink Floyd, but something I don't think has ever been seen in any concert in history, and that is the use of *gold* lasers. Stop and think about it, of all the concerts you've gone to, *gold* lasers, I guess are so intense that they have been outlawed. (Laughs) They have, like, atom-splitting capabilities, so don't get, don't get too near the gold lasers when you see Pink Floyd this year on tour. We've seen that, we've seen the use of *huge* circular video screens, which is a Pink Floyd trademark. But, never before seen videos, being used in the show.

And *later* we expect to see the largest prop ever used in a rock concert anywhere on planet earth - The Pink Floyd Blimp is supposed to make it's appearance. It's now been known, uh commissioned as, The Division Belle. You remember the Memphis Belle plane, well this is the Division Belle. It was first suggested that this huge, psychedelically painted blimp should fly and float over the stage here at Joe Robbie Stadium, during the encore, which will be Run Like Hell. But then someone noticed that the pyrotechnic explosions would shoot flames so high into the air, that they would be blowing up their own blimp. So, they've had a guy on a walkie talkie for an hour now, telling the blimp pilots "Don't fly over the stage"! (laughs)

This is just part of the wild extravaganza, the concert experience that's going on right now at Joe Robbie Stadium, opening night of Pink Floyd's North American tour. There are 57 more concerts that you can catch between now and July 18th. Somehow Pink Floyd has even orchestrated a light rain to fall into Joe Robbie Stadium and it lends a totally electric capability to the lasers. As you hear "Wish You Were Here" in the background, we're going to take this short time out...

RB: I'm Redbeard, let's continue our discussion with Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason.

RB: Comment on uh, specifically about Rick Wright's contribution musically to The Division Bell.

NM: The sound is quite often, it's not necessarily to do with what the solo instruments are. It, it is to do with an overall sound, and Rick's contribution at that level is immeasurable. And you forget it until you hear it. He's an extraordinary character anyway, because alot of what he does is totally natural. I mean, if you ask him to sort of, if you explain what you want he might have some difficulty with it. If you just leave him to do it, it just comes straight out. But there are certainly bits and pieces on the record that were done by simply leaving Rick in the room with a tape recorder running, and just while he was, and he just played, and you could, it was a bit like panning for gold, you know, you could then take this stuff and shake it, and there were the golden nuggets.

RB: David Gilmour notes that keyboardist Rick Wright possesses another talent which has been missing in action for two decades.

DG: Rick's got a very good voice, you know. He's got an, he's, an instantly recognizable voice, you know. You can't miss Rick's voice and, I've always wanted to use it, but you've got to find the right place, the right vehicle for him, and this is substantially his song. Anthony Moore was working with us again on this album, um, and he came up with the idea for that one, and Rick sang it. What can I say, it's, it's very nice, very lovely piece. And it's, and um, everyone who listens to it, you know that I know in listening to it, goes "Oh G-d, it's that voice, it's that voice, that used to be, you know, used to be a part of the Pink Floyd sound, and hasn't been so much lately", and it's, it's kind of a thrill for people.

RB: And finally, Richard Wright, on the subject of Richard Wright!

RB: Because of, of the unique perspective you have on this, because of the way you've done it, is The Division Bell particularly sweet for you personally?

RW: It was fulfilling...because I wrote on it, and I wrote with Dave on it. And I sang on it! For the first time in, since Da, I mean a lead vocal, since Dark Side of the Moon. So that was very fulfilling.

RB: Good. It uh..

RW: Cause you see, I have to say, I've never, ever had any confidence in my voice.

RB: Ok.

RW: And uh, but I wrote this song, Wearing the Inside out, and so, I had to sing it. And it was quite interesting 'cause I hadn't really sung, and uh, went in to, and did a track...of singing it. And, I'd rehearsed it with Anthony Moore, who wrote the lyrics, but I basically hadn't really sung for 20 years. And did one take, and Bob Ezrin said, 'Ok, that's it.' Which I couldn't believe. And went and listened to it, and 'yes, it *is* nearly it.' I mean, we worked on it, a bit, but it's a song that really suits my voice. I don't have uh, a versatile voice, OK? I'm not a Dave. But certain ways of singing I can do, like the choruses of Time, Us and Them. Well the chorus of Time. I have a voice that can do *certain* ways of singing, and Wearing the Inside Out, 'cause I wrote it, would suit my voice. I couldn't sing Money, for example.

RB: (laughs)

[Wearing the Inside Out]

RB: I'm Redbeard. Just as the Division Bell tolls, Rock superstardom exacts a heavy toll on the personal, unseen lives of it's purveyors, Pink Floyd's David Gilmour included.

RB: What kind of person returned home after the *extended* Momentary Lapse world tour, and it's dizzying success.

DG: Well, a sort of a schizophrenic person, I think, is the person that returned from all that. Um, I was...very happy with our success, very happy with what we had achieved professionally, during that time. But I was going through a very, very bad uh, stage in my personal life which um, wound up in divorce and all that sort of stuff that one goes through. So, it was a, like I say, it was very schizophrenic. I was, sort of, very happy professionally, very unhappy personally. And...so I was kind of messed up, I think, at the end of it all.

RB: Hmm. I'm wondering, why are you showing so much of yourself on The Division Bell, and letting us into a place that I don't think you've ever let us into before?

DG: I, I suppose really the first album that I've, I was in charge of, that was having a, you know, that I *could* have done that on, was the Momentary Lapse of Reason album. Um, when I was sort of entering a really difficult personal phase, but didn't want to get into it, and didn't want that to get into the record particularly, I guess. I don't really know. Right now, I'm in a much better personal state than I was at that time, very happy in my life, and uh, not unhappy to sort of, um, let it seep through into, into some of the music. You have to do what you feel is the right thing to do at any one given moment, and you may not have the reasons for it firm up against the front of your mind, but um, these felt like the things that, I wanted to put into the music. And some of them just come about accidentally, you know, and you start off with a little piece of music and something comes to mind, and you think 'yeah', and you start exploring it, and uh, it, it takes its own volition. And the, the only decision you really have to make is, is whether you are are brave enough to, to actually leave it there like that, not change it, not disguise it over much.

RB: There's the risk.

DG: Yeah, but I, I don't feel that there's, I, I don't think there's any great risk in the stuff that we recorded on here. I don't...feel so exposed by it, I mean there are aspects of me that I expose in it, I suppose, that I am very happy to expose. I don't have any great problem with exposing them.

RB: Richard Wright of Pink Floyd continues.

RB: What was the feeling at the conclusion of the Momentary Lapse tour, uh, what was said, what was left unsaid about the future?

RW: I don't think there was any clear idea of the future, except that everyone realized that the band had started happening again. And there was alot of sadness.

RB: Wh, why?

RW: At the end of the tour. That last tour had a wonderful feeling to it, that we hadn't had for *years*. Because, you know, I've done every Pink Floyd tour. And...certainly for me, I had probably the best feeling of the band being together since the beginning, virtually. Um, so I knew it was going to happen again. There was no way, that uh, after the feeling that we had in that tour, that Dave or Nick would say, not again.

RB: Pink Floyd's Nick Mason:

RB: What has changed with you, Rick and David that allows you to create music this way?

NM: It was a moment when, when we did revue how other albums had been done, and what, what we liked in past albums, and what, what we'd like to do again, and, and fine. What I particularly wanted, on this record, was um, for it to be much more a played record, and played by the band, rather than bringing people in to help, to augment it, and help do it, and so on. At least the sort of, basic ideas are all designed and therefore playable by the um, by the principles.

RB: David Gilmour tells us about High Hopes, the epic closing song on Pink Floyd's The Division Bell.

DG: High Hopes was really the last one, it was written after all the other were sort of, in some form or another. I think I wrote it in July or something. It was very, very quick. It's one of those one's that works, quickly, but beautifully, almost immediately and, I uh, came up with a tiny bit of music, just had it on a cassette, just a few bars of piano. And then I went off to get away to a small house somewhere with my girlfriend, Polly, and uh, try and make some progress on the lyric writing. And uh, she gave me a phrase about uh, something about before time wears you down. And uh, I took it from there, and...got stuck into a whole sort of thing about, I suppose, my, it's autobiographical really, I suppose I'd have to say on that one, it's about my life, Cambridge life, and my childhood, I suppose. Um, yeah, we came up with it very, very quickly, we wrote the words to it in, most of the words to it in a day. And then I went back to the studio, with no one else there, the minute I got back, and uh, put a demo down of it. Did everything myself on it, and uh, it was virtually complete in a day.

[High Hopes]

RB: That's the way Pink Floyd's first studio album of the nineties concludes, with the song High Hopes. I'm Redbeard, live from Pink Floyd's opening night of their North American tour, in Miami's Joe Robbie Stadium, where Pink Floyd is mesmerizing 63,000 South Floridians with the song Comfortably Numb. This is from their 1979 album, The Wall.

Listen to this crowd. Oh, and the spectacle, it's just amazing! Right now, 63,000 sold out, is being bathed in spectacular light, from the largest mirror ball, I think, ever produced in the world. The entire stadium is just awash in lighted glitter, it's fantastic. And of course this song is such a signature piece for Pink Floyd.





