Pink Floyd Founder Richard Wright Dies At 65

Pink Floyd keyboard player and founder member Richard Wright has died aged 65 from cancer.

Wright’s spokesman said in a statement: “The family of Richard Wright, founder member of Pink Floyd, announce with great sadness that Richard died today after a short struggle with cancer.

Wright appeared on the group’s first album, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, in 1967 alongside lead guitarist Syd Barrett, Roger Waters and Nick Mason.

Dave Gilmour joined the band at the start of 1968 while Barrett left the group shortly afterwards.

Wright, a founder member of The Pink Floyd Sound – and other previous incarnations including Sigma 6 – met Waters and Mason at architecture school.

Pink Floyd achieved legendary status with albums including 1973’s The Dark Side Of The Moon, which stayed in the US album chart for more than a decade.

Wright, known as Rick earlier in his career, wrote The Great Gig In The Sky and Us And Them from the album.

Wright, together with Gilmour and Mason, continued to record and tour as Pink Floyd during the remainder of the 1980s and into the 1990s, releasing their last studio album – The Division Bell – in 1994.

In 2005, the full band reunited – for the first time in 24 years – for the Live 8 concert in London’s Hyde Park.