E' improvvisamente morto Richard Wright, membro fondatore dei Pink Floyd

di: Giancarlo Passarella

Nato a Londra il 28/7/1943, Richard William Wright fondo' la band insieme a Roger Waters, Nick Mason e Syd Barrett nel 1965. Con molta dignita', la sua famiglia ha annunciato che e' morto stamani dopo una breve battaglia contro un cancro incurabile.

Nato a Londra il 28/7/1943, Richard William Wright fondo' la band insieme a Roger Waters, Nick Mason e Syd Barrett nel 1965. Con molta dignita', la sua famiglia ha annunciato che e' morto stamani dopo una breve battaglia contro un cancro incurabile.

Ho le lacrime agli occhi, perche' ripenso ai mesi passati in tour con lui in giro per l'Europa, quando nel biennio 1988/89 ho avuto di collaborare all'ufficio stampa dei loro tour, Italia compresa!
Era un signore nell'animo ed un grande compositore, come dimostrano brani storici dei Pink Floyd, come Echoes (da Meddle (1971), Shine on You Crazy Diamond (dall'album omonimo - 1975) e The Great Gig in the Sky e Us and Them da The Dark Side of the Moon del 1973.

La storia dice che Wright fu allontanato da Waters nel tour di The Wall (pare anche per seri problemi di cocaina) e da allora pagato come un turnista! Insomma Richard Wright vi e' poi tornato all'interno dei Pink Floyd, dopo la causa vinta da David Gilmour che ha potuto continuare ad usare il nome del gruppo, considerando anche che nel frattempo anche Roger Waters se ne era andato. In questa sua seconda fase con i Pink Floyd, partecipa alle registrazioni di A momentary lapse of reason (1987) ed anche nel successivo, Division Bell.

The family of Richard Wright, founder member of Pink Floyd, announce with great sadness that Richard died today after a short struggle with cancer. The family have asked that their privacy is respected at this difficult time. He did not say what form of cancer the self-taught keyboard player and pianist had...

David Gilmour sul suo sito ufficiale cosi' l'ha salutato...No one can replace Richard Wright. He was my musical partner and my friend.
In the welter of arguments about who or what was Pink Floyd, Rick's enormous input was frequently forgotten. He was gentle, unassuming and private but his soulful voice and playing were vital, magical components of our most recognised Pink Floyd sound.
I have never played with anyone quite like him. The blend of his and my voices and our musical telepathy reached their first major flowering in 1971 on 'Echoes'. In my view all the greatest PF moments are the ones where he is in full flow. After all, without 'Us and Them' and 'The Great Gig In The Sky', both of which he wrote, what would 'The Dark Side Of The Moon' have been? Without his quiet touch the Album 'Wish You Were Here' would not quite have worked.
In our middle years, for many reasons he lost his way for a while, but in the early Nineties, with 'The Division Bell', his vitality, spark and humour returned to him and then the audience reaction to his appearances on my tour in 2006 was hugely uplifting and it's a mark of his modesty that those standing ovations came as a huge surprise to him, (though not to the rest of us).
Like Rick, I don't find it easy to express my feelings in words, but I loved him and will miss him enormously.

David Gilmour
Monday 15th September 2008

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